I'm just after some experiences.
I had my second in September, I was brought in for induction at 36+6 because of my physical health and concerns that there was a very real possibility that I would be too ill for a vaginal delivery but that recovery from a caesarean wouldn't be ideal given my health.
At 32 weeks I was diagnosed with icp/oc. My bile acids were in the moderate range and I was prepped for induction at 38 weeks.
My bile acids peaked at 70 but were mostly stable at ~30
My ALTs and some of my other liver markers continued to increase. I think my ALT peaked at 7-800. I had a liver ultrasound which ruled out gallstones and something systemically wrong with my liver.
I developed severe fatigue where I couldn't stay awake. I was waking up for an hour or so which was enough for me to quickly eat something and not much else. I was sleeping for about 20 hours a day. I was admitted to the maternity ward through triage to investigate this.
I had a raised DDimer in one blood tests and as I have a strong family history of blood clots in my immediate family we have had 1 stroke in 20s (6 weeks postpartum) 1 heart attack in 40s and 1 TIA in 50s they investigated this. I was getting breathless moving around but they thought this was mostly because my body was so low on resources that even small amounts of movement was exerting. They did a chest X ray and another scan that showed no clots.
My iron levels were low but not super low. No other typical things showed up as cause of the fatigue.
They were running blood tests every 2-7 days to monitor the icp/of. The tests at 36+2 showed + hemolysis, low platelets and ALTs at 700 and my bile acids had gone up to 50. The OB put to consider HELLP on the notes of this set of blood results. She got me in for more blood tests 2 days later and I don't know the full details of these results but the bile acids had shot up to 90 and she decided enough was enough and brought me in to arrange induction the following afternoon.
I have a high pulse and low BP normally and when I was in hospital my pulse was routinely 110+ a couple of times ~140. I was bed bound at this point. Usual for me is 90-105. My blood pressure is usually 110/80 and it was some times showing up high but when they retested 30 minutes later it was dropped to normal. Combined with the blood results I suspect that I possibly was starting to develop HELLP. They continued to monitor my platelets through labour and inserted a cannula in case I had hemorrhaged after/during labour.
Since having my son my bile acids returned to normal within a couple of weeks but my ALTs have remained elevated but stable, urates and calcium are also raised but stable
My iron levels are low and have dropped further despite starting an iron supplement in October. My thyroid level is low and I'm on medication that can impact the thyroid but it's still above the minimum threshold.
My red blood cells are abnormally large and one of the blood tests came back as potential kidney damage.
I'm having blood tests every 2 months at the moment but I'm not getting much back from the GP. It doesn't help that they don't really have any information about what happened in pregnancy as discharge notes were incorrect and most of the test results were only captured in my green notes which i now don't have. GP isn't that helpful stating some times they don't know the cause of fatigue and to just carry on as normal and hope it improves. I'm under the perinatal mh team and my consultant saw how unwell I was in pregnancy and spoke to the OB a lot trying to manage my physical and mental health. When I was initially admitted one of the Dr decided it was all because of a mental health crisis but the psychiatrist and OB sorted that out but this contributed to my discharge notes being incorrect. I have developed pnd and there is a depressive element but also that the fatigue is having an impact on my mood.
This week I'm really feeling the fatigue. Yesterday I slept 11.30 pm until 6, fed baby, slept until 10.30. got up and had breakfast went back to bed and slept until 1.30 got up for lunch so I had a decent amount of sleep but feeling like I have had much less. I'm struggling with word recall and my brain is significantly slowed which is hard for me.
I've got my next set of blood tests on Monday with a review with the GP the week after. I'd really like to move closer to finding out what is going on and what I can do as it's now 7 months of feeling like crap.
If anyone has any ideas about what is going or some experience it would be welcome so that I can maybe bring something different to my next gp appointment