xolair + pregnancy

[Guest guest]

For those of you who didn't know, I've been off xolair since February 2010. my

allergist put my xolair on hold because I was pregnant (due October 16th).

Hunter was born on Sunday, October 3, 2010. He's a tiny little peanut

(6 pounds 2 ounces and 19.25 inches) who has stolen our hearts!!

Back to the xolair --- While the FDA says xolair is a " Class B " medication (i.e.

safe), my allergist couldn't find enough doctors with enough experience with

xolair/pregnancy to comfortably keep me on it. Ideally, she wanted some 2nd or

3rd generation data (which will not be available for many many years), but even

if she could find 6 or 7 drs who had patients on xolair while pregnant she would

have allowed me to continue. Sadly, there was only one doctor that I found

through someone here on this board that would give the green light. (My OB

wanted me to continue on xolair, but my allergist would not budge)

I had a difficult time off my xolair. My asthma flared, resulting in the maxium

amount of ICS I could take. My eczema flared, probably the worst I've ever seen

it, resulting in a staph infection that round after round of antibiotics

couldn't clear fully. Since June, I've been on prednisone daily (20 mg). prior

to that, I had been doing long bursts and then tapering down. My dr decided just

to leave me on it, which helped a lot. We will never know if everything

worsening was a result of no xolair or the pregnancy (preg can either make

things better, make them worse or keep them at baseline…and you never know what

you're going to get, and each pregnancy I'm told can be different). Personally,

I think it was a combination of both factors.

It was suggested to me by my OB to not breast-feed so I could resume my xolair.

When we saw hunter's pediatrician last week, he agreed that he would not be

comfortable with me on xolair while breastfeeding, mainly b/c its still new. He

said give it 20 years. We hear all the time about the FDA going back and saying

" oops " . So, hunter's a formula baby, and doing well!!!

My OB has enrolled me in the " xolair expect " study, because I did take xolair

for the first month that I was unknowingly pregnant. If anyone is pregnant and

continuing xolair, I encourage you to enroll

http://www.xolairpregnancyregistry.com/

My allergist is allowing me to resume xolair in next week. She wants to make

sure all my hormones have leveled back out, so we can get a baseline and

continue to monitor without extraneous factors.

Another big issue (in the hospital) was my prednisone. Since I was on it for so

long, they had to give me a " stress dose " while in labor. From Saturday night

until Monday night, I received 50mg through my IV every 12 hours. Then, despite

my questioning, the nurse prationer from OB (hospital OB, not my own OB

practice) put me back on my standard 20 mg by mouth dose for Tuesday. I

questioned her, and she got very annoyed that I had the gaul to question her,

medically. By Tuesday night, I had a terrible headache, was woozy, fuzzy headed

and showing obvious signs of pred-related problems. I called my allergist, who

was pretty irritated that the OB in the hospital decreased my dose so suddenly.

I'm interested to hear if anyone else here has been pregnant or is planning on

becoming pregnant and what their health care providers (pulmo, allergist, OB)

feel about xolair + pregnancy.

heather