I promise not to make this into a mommy blog. However, it is difficult to resist because there are some things I have experienced thus far that I found little to nothing about online. It is also hard to resist because I come from the “write about what you know” school of thought. I’ll always lean toward writing about subjects that motivate me. So while I promise I will still write about sports, social media and coffee, some parenting stuff will undoubtedly sneak in now and then.
With five weeks to go before my son’s due date, I started running into problems. One is a condition called PUPPS, and it impacts a very small amount of pregnant women. (I hit the jackpot!) Without going into detail, it feels like having a very severe case of the chicken pox and looks like you have some skin disease from an apocalyptic movie. (Google it if you want an actual description – I don’t want anyone to recoil away by reading the details here.)
The only cure for PUPPS? Having your child. Given that it is not harmful to the baby, you are left to suffer through it. You can’t sleep, you feel constantly itchy and you have to cover up when you go out, fearing that people will think you have some horribly contagious disease.
Not only did I suffer for a few weeks with my doctors not recognizing what was happening, but they had little to no solutions for me when I was ultimately diagnosed. Most doctors and midwives just shrug and tell you to take some Benedryl. I resorted to searching online for anything that would help. I was nervous about taking Benedryl while pregnant, so I tried to find any means to avoid that.
Important note: Even though doctors seemingly have little to offer when it comes to treating PUPPS, make sure you are checked out by your doctor ASAP anyway. There is a serious pregnancy complication that shares some of the symptoms called Cholestasis of Pregnancy, and it can be deadly. They can test for that with a blood test (I had it done, and it’s just your normal blood draw.) Make sure they test to make sure your chicken pox style itch isn’t that.
Through trial and error, I found a course of mildly-effective treatment that allowed me to sleep for a few hours and let me leave the house without looking awful. I am not saying this will work for everyone and am not a medical professional. This is what worked for me, and hopefully, the below will prove somewhat effective for you following a PUPPS diagnosis.
- Stop using anything with cocoa butter. When I started coming down with PUPPS, a nurse told me that it was just “stretch marks” all over my body and that cocoa butter was the only way to go. I stocked up on a thick cocoa butter lotion for stretch marks and a cocoa butter spray. Guess what? Cocoa butter makes this condition worse. So stop smelling like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory and halt use of that stuff immediately. (But don’t throw out the spray if you have it. I’ll get to that later.)
- Oatmeal is your best friend. Oatmeal baths worked wonders for me. While you can buy Aveeno Oatmeal Bath packets at Amazon and some drugstores, the most useful baths utilized ½ cup of oats powdered in a blender and placed into a sachet made of two layers of paper towels and twine. I dropped the full sachet in cool bath water and it proved much more effective, and cleaner, than the store-bought packets. I also only used oatmeal bar soap whenever I took a shower or washed my hands. The oatmeal soothed the irritation and reduced the itch.
- Pine tar soap is not the end all, be all. When you search PUPPS remedies online, many people swear by using pine tar soap as a treatment. I tried it and it made my skin burn. Plus my husband said it made me smell like David Ortiz’s baseball bat. (But he’s on a retirement season hot streak, so maybe that is a good thing?) Pine tar soap didn’t work for me, and while it seems to have helped enough people to make it worth a shot, it isn’t always effective.
- Ice, ice baby. Ice packs were also one of the only means of relief I could get on my legs and hands. Luckily, my lifelong streak of knee injuries meant that I have a rotation of eight (no lie) ice packs in my freezer at all times.
- Sparingly use the strong stuff. When things got awful, I used 1/2% hydrocortisone anti-itch cream. However, I only used it on selected spots and made sure I didn’t use it on more than one limb at a time. For example, if my right hand was the worst at that moment and I needed to be able to type for work, I would apply the cream there and wait a few hours before using it anywhere else.
- Venture outside. At first, I wanted to remain inside because I looked awful, but my husband recommended getting outside for just a bit (for my psyche more than anything else). Wouldn’t you know – the fresh air and sun (not direct sunlight, but just the warmth) made me feel 100% better.
- Treat the dryness. After four or five days of this regime, my PUPPS calmed down and I stopped looking like patient zero. However, my skin was dry from the condition and all of the treatments. At that point, I moved on to a Soothing Oatmeal Cream (I used Walmart’s oatmeal cream, which is a generic brand of Eucerin’s.) I also reincorporated the Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula Soothing Oil Spray, but not anything else cocoa butter.
PUPPS tries your patience, which is the last thing one needs when they are massively pregnant. (Trust me, not much brings me to tears – this did multiple times). You have to figure out a treatment plan that works for you, and trial and error is the only way to do so.
(Disclosure: The links above are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase from them, I do get credit.)