Birthday time

I am being induced tomorrow morning. (To keep a long story short, we can't wait for him thanks to my pemphigoid gestational.) Still crossing my fingers he comes on his own tonight!

At this time tomorrow I will (hopefully) be holding my little man in my arms. I seriously still can't believe I am having a baby.

Holy shit.

Healthy, yummy "ice cream"

I LOVE ice cream. I mean, obsessed, more than a little kid, when it comes to getting my ice cream. (preferably chocolate, with more chocolate added, on a too-often regular basis.) Since I decided to try anything to help my diagnosis, and going dairy free falls into that, I have had to give up my other true love. Here is a way I have managed to not go insane, and it is SO tasty. I can even sit in the same room as my husband eats his real ice cream.
Yes, I totally used to make him go in the other room when he ate real ice cream.

Frozen banana (or 2)
Chocolate almond milk
Throw in blender, mix up. Easy as that!
The other night I added some natural peanut butter. SOO good.
 
You seriously need to try this. Now.

More natural remedies.

I am still trying a natural approach to my pemphigoid gestational, aka itchy rash, not that there are many other options. My latest attempts? Applying a cayenne pepper paste or coconut oil on my rash & going gluten, dairy, soy free. I know someone who has a "holistic guru" due to her autoimmune disease. We do not have the same problem, but he gave her some tips to help me out.

I mix together cayenne pepper, water & a little flour to make a paste. I put that directly on my rash. Yes, it sometimes burns, but the burn feels a million times better than the itch. It also keeps the itch away for quite some time. However, I can't do it very often, as I don't want to burn my skin. I can't remember if I mentioned that I have tried putting olive oil on the rash. He recommended I use coconut oil. Not only directly on my rash, but also when cooking. All of this is super easy. The diet? Not soo much.

I have heard of others going gluten free, but it was never something I looked into. Wow, it's pretty tough. Throw in dairy free as well, and I can't have a lot of my favorite foods. It is easier since it is summertime, and we have lots of fresh veggies. I also have a couple yummy recipes I got from a friend that I will post. Substitute for ice cream? You KNOW I have that!

Scratch that diagnosis.

Both literally & figuratively. It's not PUPPS. I knew it was something uncommon when my OB went to get another OB to take a look, and I heard her comment that she had never seen this condition, only read about it before.

I have an autoimmune disease, gestational pemphigoid. Only about 1 in 50,000 women get this. Awesome odds, huh?

I will have this until delivery, at least. Sometimes it sticks around for months after. The only thing they can do is treat the symptoms. So, I'll keep testing out my natural remedies.

The scariest part is that I have to have weekly ultrasounds to monitor little man. I'm worried, no surprise there.