Cholestasis

TBBrooks · May 2012

For those of you who have/had this, what were your symptoms?

I've had extremely itchy hands, feet, and backs of my knees for several weeks.. so much that I often scratch my skin off, and the only thing that provides any relief is rubbing ice cubes over them. I also have pain in my rib cage on my right side. TMI, but my poop has also become really light colored, and today I've had horrible diarrhea all day.

I was looking up the diarrhea to see if there's anything that I can do, and I came across several websites stating the symptoms that I have could be cholestasis. I also see that it's more common when carrying multiples. My doctors know of these symptoms, so I'm not sure why I haven't been tested.

My question is, is it worth mentioning/having blood drawn tomorrow at my appointment? I'm being induced on Monday if they haven't come by then, so I'm not sure if a few days will make a difference. But, since it looks like a pretty serious condition, I thought I would get some opinions. Thanks!

danakatiepfoltzer · May 2012

As long as you have an appointment anyway, can't hurt to mention it!

Jlovelysoul · May 2012

I had this with my previous pregnancy and everything you are describing is indeed signs of the condition. I would call tomorrow and mention it to the Dr. your symptoms. It can be a serious condition if not monitored closely. If I had developed it this pregnancy my Dr. would have induced me @ 37 weeks. Thankfully that has not happened, although the chances are that if you have had cholestatis you will develop it in subsequent pregnancies. Good luck. I'm sure everything will be fine and you will have two beautiful, healthy babies!

Under.the.Rose · May 2012

Sounds like you have cholestasis and also some jaundice (hence the lighter stool). Considering the risks associated with cholestasis, I wouldn't hesitate to bring it up right away. They might want to move up your induction.

I started showing symptoms of cholestasis just after 35 weeks -- I was generally itchy before, but then my hands and feet started too which made it weird enough to bring up to my midwives at 36 weeks.

I ended up moving my repeat c-section to 37 weeks exactly. DH and I refused to wait another day past that. They never even bothered to order my bile acid/salt tests because they would've taken 2 weeks to come back which would've been too late. They also ran bloodwork on my liver enzymes and did a full abdominal u/s to check for gall stones, etc. Thankfully there were no secondary liver issues that showed up in those tests and a few days after delivery I was showing no more cholestasis symptoms. Claire was never affected, thank goodness.

It's a very rare condition, so be prepared for your doc or the residence doc's to not have a lot of experience with it. The first OB I saw said that most OB's could expect to see MAYBE 5 cases in their entire career.

Under.the.Rose · May 2012

FWIW I didn't feel comfortable waiting longer and agreeing to active monitoring (coming in every few days for an u/s, bloodwork, etc.).

Even if you're on meds (ursodiol), bile acid can spike randomly to fatal levels to the baby... there's no warning either... so I didn't feel comfortable just sitting at home and freaking out when baby wasn't moving.

In this instance, active monitoring covers the doctor's ass, but doesn't do much to protect your baby.

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