Sunday, July 6, 2008

Is there a doctor in the house?

Saturday night was probably one of my worst nights of sleeping since being 9 months pregnant or having an infant in the house. Why? Because my feet and hands were itching so bad!! The last couple of nights, when I get in bed, my feet and hands itch horribly. The previous nights I've been able to at least go to sleep, but last night I couldn't amidst the itching and burning. My hands also feel tight and swollen. The weird thing? I don't have any bumps, rashes, spots, or anything on my hands and feet. Nothing.


So about 3am I went downstairs as to not disturb my snoring husband. I decided to search the handy Internet in hopes that somebody could give me a remedy, but the only thing I learned was that I may have liver disease, kidney disease, or a plethora of other diseases that I can't pronounce. Uh, yeah, don't recommend searching the Internet for a diagnosis at 3am when you are already on edge from the itching and lack of sleep. I did find two things that sounded reasonable, dehydration and blood pressure. Since I had high blood pressure with both of the my pregnancies I decided to check that, but it was perfectly fine. I did drink extra water all day yesterday to see if that would help. I also took a couple Benedryl, ibuprofen, and was putting lotion and hydrocortizone cream on my extremities like there was no tomorrow. Anyways, around 4am I decided to try soaking my feet and then put more hydrocortizone cream. After a few itches I was able to at least get a couple hours sleep before the itching returned. The funny thing is throughout the day it is not really that bad. But, it kicks in full force by evening.

After the long night on Saturday night I was scared to try to go to bed last night, but what do you know? I was able to sleep quite peacefully. Hubby did buy me some Claritin thinking it may be some kind of allergy and I did take one of them so it could have been the trick. Or it could have been the ibuprofen and hydrocortizone that I used before bed. I'm not complaining whatever it was because I was thoroughly exhausted and just wanted some sleep.

Now this morning my feet aren't actually too bad, but my hands are still very itchy and feel tight Still no rash or anything.

So for all you doctors out there...what is wrong with me? Do you think I should give it another day or two or call the doctor today? Any advice on how to maybe stop the itch? Oh, but when you do leave me your diagnosis please make sure I can pronounce it and I'd really rather not be told that I'm going to die soon. Thank you!

8 comments:

  1. This will probably be of no help but about 9 years ago, for about 2 weeks in the summer, I itched at night too. Nobody could figure out why and then it just went away never to return. I hope you don't itch that long!

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  2. My husband says I'm banned from medical websites b/c they make me fear the worst and plus I think I have everything I read about.
    I have no idea what it could be but I'm personally all about getting enough sleep. And so if it's keeping you up like that I think you should get it checked sooner rather than later.

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  3. I'm no help with a diagnosis, but I hope you stop itching. I hate that feeling!!

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  4. The first thing I thought of, don't kill me, is allergy to shellfish. You can develop one later in life- my mom did. I don't know if that's the case here though because your feet itch, too.

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  5. I hear you can develop an allergy to anything at anytime! Did you look into Restless Leg Symdrome?? I sure hope it goes away! I have carpal and my hands would fall asleep and wake me up!

    Thanks for visiting (and commenting on) my blog!

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  6. Hmmmm...I'm a "better safe than sorry" kind of gal, so I say call your doc.
    I don't have any ideas, though. Sorry! Hope you feel better.

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  7. My guess would be Cholestasis. I had it when I was pregnant with Keeghan and it was HORRIBLE! I've never itched so badly in my life! Fortunately, mine was just a pregnancy thing so it went away when he was born, but my liver enzymes were through the ROOF and they had to put me on medication right away. I would definitely call your doc.

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  8. I hope you are feeling better and are getting some good sleep!

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Go ahead...tell me like it is!

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