Well, at 22 weeks, I defied statistics. It was back. I was extremely distraught at the thought of facing the rash for last 18 weeks of the pregnancy. I barely survived the 4 weeks at the end of the last pregnancy! There were many tears.
Interestly, the rash appeared in the EXACT same spot that it had started in the first place, on my upper torso. It slowly spread in a very similar manner until it covered my entire body except my face, palms, and soles of feet. I was taken over by red itchy bumps.
This time around, we had moved, and I had a new midwife, whom I LOVED! She spent so much time with us, listened so well, and became a friend. She had ideas on PUPPPs that my previous midwife didn't even mention! From her research and experience, PUPPPs seemed to be related to liver function. She recommended I start dandelion root tincture, milk thistle tincture, and yellowdock tincture. She was comfortable with those herbs in pregnancy and said I needed to start cleaning my liver. She also recommended putting a little lemon in my drinking water, another gentle liver cleanse.
I started immediately.
The rash continued to my least favorite stage. The Can't-Sleep-at-Night Stage. I can cope pretty well until it gets to that stage. Once it's keeping me up at night, I begin to loose it.
That's when I pulled out all the stops. Out came the bizarre remedies. There were many trips to a couple different acupuncturists. No luck. I got muscle tested by a practitioner that then recommended a bunch of supplements that had unknown safety in pregnancy. I didn't take them since I was unsure. Again, another dead end. I tried charcoal poultices. What a mess. That deserves it's own post. I tried pine tar soap. I tried sulfur soap. I tried Sarna cream. There were even banana peels in there somewhere. I tried sunbathing. (It was February!!) I tried it all.
I was using my cooler of ice packs at night (see here for more info on ice packs) to get a little more rest than I would otherwise be getting. Nothing seemed to be helping.
Then, a couple weeks after the rash had reached the keeping me up at night stage, it faded.
I wish I could say I knew which thing helped. My best guess is that the liver tinctures slowly took effect.
The rash continued until delivery. Sometimes it was worse, but mostly, it was tolerable. After the initial miserable month or so, things settled down. I was sleeping at night again. I stayed on the tinctures through the whole pregnancy, just in case.
I was so thankful for my support system through that pregnancy. My midwife was very patient to listen to my rash saga at every visit. She continued to research it for me and suggest new things to try. She wouldn't have looked down on me if I had decided to go the mainstream route and do steroids. But with her help, and my husband's support, we made it through another pregnancy with PUPPPs and had another beautiful girl.
By this point, I realized I might be facing the rash again when we got pregnant again. I dreaded it, but was excited for more children. Little did I know, next time it would start at 15 weeks!
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