I sent an sms to my OB, Dra. Grace Caras, that i have rashes and that it's not itchy and I have no fever. I also scheduled an appoitment with her the next morning at MegaClinic in Megamall. I tried to google for allergies and rashes but none matched mine. I was just praying that this is not Rubella.
As per babycenter.com:
"Rubella is an acute viral illness, but the symptoms can be pretty nonspecific, which makes it hard to distinguish from other illnesses. In up to half of the cases, the symptoms are either nonexistent or so mild that you might not know you were infected.
If you do have the typical symptoms, they start to show up about 12 to 23 days after you're exposed to the illness. You may have a low-grade fever, malaise, headache, swollen lymph nodes, joint pain and swelling, reddened eyes, and a stuffy or runny nose for one to five days before a rash erupts.
The rash lasts only a few days, usually appearing first on the face and later spreading to other parts of the body. The swollen glands and joint pain can last several weeks. You're contagious one week before the rash first appears and for another week or so after. The most contagious period is when the rash is erupting."
"If you get rubella during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, there's a high chance (up to 85 percent) that your baby will develop CRS. The rate of CRS for a baby whose mother is infected between 13 and 16 weeks is about 54 percent, and the rate continues to go down sharply from there. After 20 weeks there's very little risk that the infection will cause a birth defect."
What if I belong to those half where the symptoms are nonexistent? I prayed and hoped that when I wake up the next morning, the rashes will be gone. Unfortunately, it was worse the next day.
When I went to see my OB, she looked at my rashes and asked if I have any food allergies. I don't have any. She also asked if I had fever or headache the past days. I said none. She asked if I had measles before and I said I can't remember although I remember Mama telling us that we have complete vaccines when we were young. The last question she asked was if we have babies living with us. Yes. And the baby had fever days before.
She did not conclude that I have Rubella since I am perfectly fine except for the rashes. But she asked me to get the Rubella IgM and IgG antibody tests to check the presence of antibodies and to detect for recent infection of Rubella. It cost us a whopping Php 4200! (Well I just hoped we can get the results immediately but were told that it will take 2 days for it to come out. That's sad.)
My OB also referred us to a dermatologist as she admittedly said that she is quite puzzled. The dermatologist available that time was Dra. Tootsie Diaz. She inspected my rashes and I also saw the puzzled look on her face. She is not convinced that it is Rubella but said that the closest to my symptoms is Pityriasis (or sounds like that). She did not give any medication as the rashes are not itchy but asked me to come back on Wednesday after I get the results of my blood tests.
When we got home, I searched for Pityriasis and found Pityriasis Rosea (PR). I thought that reading about it and convincing myself that i had it instead of Rubella will be better. But some articles also suggested that Pityriasis Rosea can also pose serious problems to pregnant women.
I tried to read as much as I could about Rubella and PR but found little information on these two in the Philippines.
I hope all the guessing will end tomorrow and to come back with good news.
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