Urgent pregnancy quesiton - anyone ever had cholestasis?

[lisalisa]

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I haven't had cholestasis but I do remember feeling knackered at 34 weeks.

Feeling sick/losing your appetite/feeling v tired are symptoms of having something wrong with your liver (they are also symptoms of loads of other things) but taken in conjunction with your itching, I would see the doctor asap.

(ps had a illness when I was younger that affected my liver which is why I remember the sickness/tiredness)

this is quite useful

obstetric cholestasis

Good luck - hope you get to see your GP/midwife tomorrow

Poor you. Where is your itching?

I had it both times with mine.

The itching is worse at night, particularly on the soles of my feet and palms of my hands, although I itched all over. I used to scratch my feet at night till they bled!!!! Tiredness is common, as is loss of appetite. 20% of people with it can have jaundice (yellow whites of eyes, pale stools, dark urine). There is no rash with OC.

There is a definitive blood test, which for some reason they don't do in all cases, called the Serum Bile Acid test. Usually they will just do the Liver Function Test, I suspect this is what you had. Push for more tests, even repeating the test you've already had.

You can contact the cholestasis supportline on [email protected]

Good luck!

lisalisa, sorry to hear this. Prufrock had OC with both her pregnancies. Maybe you could try CATing her as she is not on much these days.
I do hope you get to the bottom of this.
Are you still working btw

any news lisalisa?

lisalisa - you still there?

Do push for the bile acids (though they take 1 week to get back). I felt like crap throughout my pregnancies with OC - in fact it wasn't until I found Mumsnet that I realised it wasn't completely normal to not want to get out of bed for 9 months.
The itching (if it's OC) should be mainly on extremities rather than your bump, and shouldn't be accompanied by a rash (although some people do end up with waht looks like a rash/dry scaly skin because they scratch so much) It is usually also unbearable - keeps you awake, and doesn't go away no matter how much you scratch, and isn't really soothed by creams.
Other symptoms you might have (though none are necessary for, or solely indiciative of a diagnosis) are yellowing eyes/skin dark urine, light coloured poo, and floating poo (because your liver isn't processing fats they get discarded and fat floats!)

HTH

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Yep - lack of a gall bladder could definately contribute. The gall bladder produces bile salts, which help to chelate bile acids and enable the liver to clear them out of your blood. (or something like that - it's been 17 months since I last had to think about this stuff!)

At this stage, you really don't need to worry unduly about your baby - OC doesn't normally become dangerous for the baby until 37 weeks, and by then you should be being monitored (if it is OC)

You will probably be offered Ursodeoxycholic acid, which ususally markedly reduces AST/ALT levels, and bile acids. It can also have an effect on your itching. Make sure they are also monitoring your Vitamin K levels and giving you tablets/injections to top up if necessary. (Vit K is fat soluble, and because liver isn't processing fats you can have a deficiency, which can cause problems with blood not clotting)
You will probably also be recommended lots of CTG monitoring, but, IMHO, this is worthless - it only tells you that your baby is OK whislt you are strapped to the monitor and has no predictive capability. So accept it if you want regular reassurance, but if it's stressful to get to hospital and lie down for and hour 3 times a week then don't feel you have to. Of more use are weekly dopplers - ultrasound scans of the blood flow through the umbilical cord (some consultants believe problems for the baby are caused by sluggish blood flow) and even better a ductous venousis ultrasound scan - this measures the flow of blood through the babies heart.

Which hospital are you at? You're in London aren't you?

For the itching, as you've found coolness is the only thing that helps. I used to go to bed with champagne bottle coolers wrapped around my feet. I also found a fan helped at night (or dh blowing on my feet ), and a minty cream - I used a peppermint leg gel from the body shop, or you can get normal aqueous cream with 5% menthol in it (from chemists but you'll need a prescription) - you stink, but the evaporation of the menthol has a lovely cooling effect.

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I had my gallbladder out between pregnancies. I developed gallstones within a year of having Rebecca (I had been scanned for them during pregnancy and didn't have them then).

How are you now? Have you got your bile acid result yet?