Pregnancy: A Little Like Tuberculosis?

So let's play mystery diagnosis:

26 year old white female, presents with night sweats, irrational behavior, food cravings, sensitivity to smell, and increasing abdominal girth. Exam non-contributory except for distressed affect (she yells a lot when I mess with her) and some bruising about the knuckles where she has beaten her husband for not cooking dinner quickly enough. Labs and images: not available (this is a townhouse and a cheap blog- you get what you pay for). Differential diagnosis includes:

(Here's a hint)

Could be: (Isn't this fun?)

tuberculosis

syphillis (unlikely)

Sarcoid with neurologic involvement

Atypical seizures

or PREGNANCY!

Osler once called tuberculosis the great pretender, because it could mimic any symptom. I'm starting to think pregnancy could do the same thing. Weird things happen during pregnancy, and I can't even begin to explain some of them. My stock answer is "hormones". This becomes increasingly difficult to use as the pregnancy progresses. Such as: It is difficult to answer hormones when Kristin says, "Why am I so hungry that even the cat is looking appetizing?"

It's kind of fun being on the medical side of this pregnancy, but sometimes I wish I didn't know as much. I kind of wish I got to be the dad who was like "Is that normal? Shouldn't there be two feet instead of three?". It's kind of no fun knowing exactly what should be going on. I'm sure it's just going to get worse as we get farther and farther. That baby is going to get listened to with a stethoscope more before it gets born than after. I half-jokingly looked up portable ultrasound machines for sale today.

I never realized how nerve-racking this could be. I'm sure it's worse on Kristin than on me, since she feels every twinge and pang. I guess the point of this whole post (and you thought it didn't have one) is to ask you guys to continue to pray for us, and just pray for peace throughout the whole pregnancy. I'm so antsy, and we've barely gotten started. I just want to see a happy, healthy baby. Oh well, six more months. Oh yeah, for the curious:

Tuberculosis

Pregnancy

~Jon

P.S. Kristin would like to direct everyone's attention to the disclaimer under the "welcome" section of the blog. :-)