Aubrey Rose Part 1

It started with an itch.

Three weeks before my due date I started itching. Not just your typical scratch it and its gone, no; the kind of itch that starts at your neck and travels down to your pinkie toe. I am not joking, and the itching and scratching would last for at least 15 minutes if not more towards an hour. And it would happen a couple of times a day.

Fast forward to Monday, November 28th, it was my 38/39 weeks appointment and the nurse did the normal pee in a cup, weight, blood pressure gig and asked me how I was feeling. I mentioned this itching that would last an hour at least a couple of times a day and her eyes got really wide…she leaves the room and Karen walks in and asks about my itching. She sends me down to get blood work done saying that we will have a better idea about what’s going on by Wednesday at the latest. So off we go to the blood work place.

And we wait…

Tuesday we didn’t hear anything. Roy comes home and asks if I heard anything from the doctor and I hadn’t so I told him I didn’t think we needed to worry.

Wednesday morning rolls around and I am basically staring at the phone waiting for it to ring. Fortunately for my sanity, my girlfriend, Casse calls and says that I should not spend the day at home waiting for something to happen so I pack myself up and head over to her house. She has two sweet little girls under two so my mind was happily occupied for the whole day.

The doctor’s office never called so again I told Roy that everything must be fine.

Now, I have yet to mention that I had Googled my symptoms. In this day and age how can you not Google things? “Excessive itching” brought up a few different explanations: hormones, stretching skin and Cholestasis.

Cholestasis is a liver problem. Basically it means that the liver isn’t or is having a hard time processing bile.

Anyway…

Thursday: no phone call.

Friday morning I was getting ready to get my nails done with a friend when I miss a call from the doctor’s office. I listen to the voicemail that basically says that they have scheduled an appointment for me with a specialist at 2 p.m. and to call them back to confirm and get the address to the place.

I call them back…get the address and an explanation from the nurse that the doctor doesn’t have much experience with this situation…

I go to get my nails done, trying not to panic.

I go to the doctor’s appointment alone because it was so last minute that no one could come with me. Lo and behold it’s an ultrasound place. My fear’s are eased a little bit as they complete the exam – they asked me if I knew the sex and I asked them to please tell me that she is still a girl because I had gone all out on her nursery. She was still a girl and they guessed her to be about 6 pounds and 14 ounces. They told me everything looked good so I thought I was clear. Then they led me to a little room and said the doctor would be in shortly. Meanwhile I am texting my friends who keep asking me if she had arrived yet, telling them it would probably be another week.