Shawna & Jade

Shawna has been itching a lot for the last 3 weeks all over her body. At first she thought her skin was just overly dry, but lotion and creams didn't work. She was talking to Laura about it and she said it sounded like something Jason's sister had during her pregnancy. She mentioned it to her doctor and they discovered she has Intra-Hepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy. It is where there is hormones in the placenta that prevents her liver from filtering bile salts, so the come out through her skin...which causes severe itching. She has a hard time sleeping due to the inching never going away and scratches so much that she is starting to scar. She said she has even taken a hard bristle comb to scrach the bottom of her feet as hard as she can. I can only imagine. They gave her a steroid, but it isn't helping.

She has to go into the hospital twice a week until Jade is born so that they can do a non-stress test to make sure that she is doing great. They also have to check the enzyme levels in her liver to make sure that she is okay. They are still rising. It could cause permanent liver damage to her, so mom and baby are being monitored. She was at the hospital Monday for 8 1/2 hours while they did ever test they could think of to rule everything else out. Jade is due March 10th, so it's still earlier than they'd like to deliver, but will if they need to.