Worth the itch

The story of Megan

My husband and I both dreamed of having 3 kids. We had 2 beautiful girls and wanted just one more. My pregnancies were pretty rough but my clock was ticking. It only took 1 try and I was pregant again!

We found out we were finally having a boy at 16 weeks. I decided to hold off on making the announcement to anyone other than people we were super close to. 

At the 20 week anatomy ultrasound, we had a genetic scare and I was rushed to get bloodwork to check for trisomy 18. 

Then we waited.  The longest week of my life.  The tests came back negative! I thought this was the end of the scares.

At 25 weeks I started itching all over. Literally head to toe. It was more prominent at night. It kept me awake all night, screatching myself raw. It felt like fire ants crawling under my skin. 

After about a week of this constantly I was at the  end of my rope physically and mentally. I called my OBGYN.  She said it was probably from my skin  stretching, but she was checking me for intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy.  After a week my results came back negative.  I thought everythig was ok.

3 weeks later at my checkup, i mentioned worsening of symptoms.  They  re ran my bile acids.  5 days later, I got the call that i did indeed have choleastis. I hopped online to see what was going on. I was horrified reading that my rare liver disease was essentially poisoning my son.

I was put on urso and would have more monitoring at MFM. 

He tried to come twice on his own before being delivered via cesarean at exactly 37 weeks to reduce the risk of stillbirth. 

Nathan Bryce made it through a scary pregnancy, complicated delivery and a NICU stint. Today he has a clean bill of health. 

I had never heard of ICP until it happened to me. Since then, I have done my part to spread awareness about this rare condition.