liver probs in pregnancy.

[misdee]

had extra bloods taken yesterday as i am very itchey atm (28 weeks) and my skin feels like its burning at times. consultant said somethign about liver fnction. gotta get the results today, but what is it they are talking about? am hoping it comes back clear and my skin is just extra senstive.

i think he might mean obstetric cholestasis (sp?). prufrock had it in both her pregnancies so hopefully she will see this & reassure you. hope you feel better soon.

think thats what he said actually.

they lost my bloods!!!

they have no taken mroe blood and i have to go back later on today.

i had a blood test for cholestasis at 35 weeks, they didnt get back to me. make sure you keep ringing them for your results as if its not treated it can be serious. they let me go over till 41 weeks when they should have delivered me at 37 !!!!

am currently in 'disscussions' with the nhs complaints dept over clinical negligence

type obstretic cholestasis (sp?) into goggle and it will bring up loads of info.

If you search the board, there's a previous cholestasis thread. I had it and it nearly drove me insane, but I was fine as soon as I delivered, and so was DS2

misdee - not much time right now, but search OC and my name and you should find lots of info.

You def. need to get more bloods (Liver Function Tests) and if you have raised ALT and AST levels you do have Obstetric Cholestatsis. At 28 weeks this is not serious, but later in your pregnancy it can be - there is a higher risk of stillbirth, which is why most cases of Oc are induced/delivered early. BUt until about 34 weeks there is NO risk to the baby.
For the itching, nothing works except drugs and keeping cool - I've expounded at length about this before. DO NOT TAKE PIRITON. Even if your GP offers it - it cannot help.

Ask any specific questions and I'll come back later - a lot of GP's do not know the latest/best treatments so do not rely on everything they tell you.

just wanted to say ((hugs)) and I hope evrything is okay, whic i am sure it will be. You have enough on your plate atm

well the main blood work isnt back yet. so i have spent an hour at the hospital being monitered, and have to go back on sun, tues and thurs again for monitoring and doppler scan. initial blood results look ok tho. They also possibly want to start on steroid injections as well. they wanted me to go in tomorrow mornign but am off to london to ikea tomorrow to get a bed, leaving at 7am, so i am not missing that!! (need a single bed so i can sleep better)

can i lie down and scream now please

my mums ill, cant get to ikea. least it got me out of injections.

prufrock, is an scaly rash comman with OC? i have very scaly skin appearing all over atm, and its driving me mad!!

bump?

I'm here.

Ok. A rash is not a normal symptom, but I got one. It's not caused by the OC, but because you have been rubbing/scratching the skin where it is itchy. Try aqueous cream to keep the skin moisturised.

Which hospital are you at?

Tbh it is FAR too early to be giving you steroid injections. They aren't a treatment for the OC, but to make the babes lungs mature in case you need to be delivered early. But you don't need to be delivered this early - especially if you haven't even got bloods back yet.
And the CTG monitoring - I'm going to be contradicting your doctors here, but it really isn't necessary, or helpful, even though it is standard treatment . All a CTG trace can do is show that the babies heart is OK at that moment - it has no predictive capability. So it only realy offers reassurance, but if you are feeling lots of movement then your baby is OK anyway.

The Doppler is useful. Research going on at the moment suggests that sluggish blood flow through the cord (which is what the doppler measures) and in the babies heart can be an indicator of problems starting. If you can get a scan of the foetal aortic blood flow done then do, as this is even better as a predictor (my consultant said he's never had a woman have problems within a week fo a decent foetal heart scan (I can't remember the technical name for the bloody thing and it's really annoying me)

Have they done Bile Acids as well as LFT's?

There was 4 different bloods taken. i'm not sure which one they are now waiting on, but its the main one apparentrly which will say yes or no to OC.

I am having fetal cardiac scans done anyway as dh has heart problems, and am due up at Guys on 6th Jan.

They havent started the injections yet, but want me to go in for monitering for now. I think they are being overly caustious tbh, which makes a change for them really.
I am at the QE2 in Welwyn.

aquous cream stings me, so am going mad with Lush Dream cream.

That is good news about the cardiac scans. Do you want the monitoring, because if not it is possible to argue against it. Some people find it reassuring though.

It sounds like the one they are waiting on is the bile acids. Over 13 is OC (although I had a rarer form of teh disease where bile cids were not affected until late, though AST and ALT levels were sky high early on - this means less probs for the baby, but earlier itching) The more normal form produces no change in the LFT's, but high Bile acids.

Once (if) it is confirmed, ask for Urso - it can really help some women with teh itching, and has been shown to be really good at keeping bile acids down.

It gets me an hour away from the kids (having the monitering). gotta call the unit in a bit to arrange a time to go in today. And they have huge comfty reclining chairs there now.

If its OC then anti histimines wont help is that right?

my hands are driving me mad today, i want to rip them off, they are tingly and itchy all over, as well as my legs and feet. Am tempted to go to Gp's and find a anti-histimine thats safe(ish) and see if it helps at all.

i used to get a bottle of pop, do the lid up really tight, and keep trying to do it tighter so the grooves in the lid were rubbing across my palms. sorry if that doesnt make any sense. cant explain it very well. i also found it helps if you take off your jewellery. used to rub my feet with a dry towel too.

i am rubbing my hands (trying not to scratch as my dd's have eczema and they tell me off ). i sat there 2 nights ago rubbing my arms with a dry flannel.

I'm itching in sympathy misdee. Piriton is safe, but you are right, anti-histamines won't help. You are not suffereing an allergic reaction, it's just that your blood is full of toxins and the liver isn't getting rid, so they are secreted through your skin.
Cold helps. (it constricts the capilliaries so the blood doesn't flow as much near teh srface of your skin. Have you got any ice gel packs, or even just bags of ice cubes, or cold wet flannels. Rubbing is actually really bad - the friction warms up the skin so makes it more itchy.

but they dont have the final bloods back, and it couldbe a reaction. which is why i;m wodnering if the piriton would work. am willing to give anything a try.

dont want infected skin on top if the itching so cant scratch (dd's have had infected skin and its not nice)

misdee - poor poor you - and it seems to be taking an age to get some definitive results back. I hope you get something conclusive soon. Sympathies on the itching front - I have eczema so I know what it's like to be driven insane by constant burning, itchy skin.