What a couple of weeks this has been...

2 weeks ago tomorrow (tuesday) I had some terrible belly pains, and just thought that it had to due with my growing tummy. When John got home from work I thought that I might be able to walk the pains off, so I went shopping for some goodys. When I got home, I made dinner and went on with our regular evening family activities but the pains continued to get worse and worse. They weren't like contraction pains it felt like the pains I had when I was pregnant with Michael, but more constant and throbbing.

When I was 32 weeks pregnant with Michael, I had stabbing pains in my upper stomach in the general area of my stomach. It ended up being a gall bladder attack. 2 weeks after that (at 34 weeks) I was diagnosed with ICP (Intrahepetic Cholestasis of Pregnancy) after itching like crazy. The bile ducts get blocked due to increased estrogen (I'm estrogen sensitive) and the bile has no place to go so it is sent into the blood stream. The buildup of bile and bilirubin causes unimaginable itchiness...it feels like you're wearing a suit made of insulation, it's an internal itch so even scratching only helps while you're scratching. It is primarily concentrated to the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, but can be anywhere. It is worse at night. The liver gets damaged from this bile buildup in the blood and the liver enzymes go up. The only way to resolve it is to give birth. The itching can be regulated for some people using Urso, which reduces bile in your body. It takes 2 weeks + for it to start to work and give some relief. It did not work for me. The bile buildup can poison the baby slowly as it passes the brain barrier, and stillbirth is increased to 10%. ICP affects .5% of pregnancies. It normally starts mid third trimester to late third trimester. If you have it once, you will probably have it again and it gets worse each pregnancy (90% chance as it has to do with a sensitivity to estrogen).

So, after getting the boys into bed and watching about 20 minutes of America's Got Talent, I told Johnny I needed to go the ER because somthing was wrong. I couldn't eat, couldn't sit, couldn't sit still it hurt so much. Johnny is so wonderful...I just need to reiterate how much I love him and appreciate him and respect him :) When I got to the ER they sent me up to OB/Mat. The doc. on call ordered bloodwork to see if my liver enzymes were up (indicating the ICP had set in). My #'s were fine so she sent me home, saying I must have eaten somthing bad...though I KNEW I hadn't since I hadn't eaten all day! So I went home, and tried to sleep, but the pain got worse and worse. I even had a bath at 3am trying anything to get the pain to go. I went back to the ER at 4am.

They did all kinds of tests, ultrasounds, and nobody could figure out what was wrong. 2.5 days later after sooooooo much pain (I'd rather be in labour!!), my OB sent for a general surgeon to come and have a look at me. After about 2 minutes he said he thought it was appendicitis. At 9:15 pm that night he had another surgeon come and look at me, and they both said yes, it appears to be the appendix, and had me in surgery by 10 pm that night. My appendix was so far gone it had already partially ruptured and started to go necrotic (where it rots and falls apart)...gross I know LOL I was very very lucky that they caught it. Apparantly pregnancy can mask the symptoms until it's almost too late, so if you have anypain in your upper belly GO TO THE ER, because a ruptured appendix can kill you.

So it has been one week 4 days and I feel great! the incision is looking well, and I feel almost back to normal.