What was Quercetin Doing for Me?

I have joyful news.  I am currently pregnant and expecting our fourth child.  As with my first child, many of my major symptoms of MCAD were greatly diminished once my severe nausea began.  I did not improve with my second or third child so this is a very unexpected blessing.  I have been able to stop taking all of the Claritin, Ranitidine and Benadryl that I had started in the last few months as my MCAD entered "body freak out mode."

At first I stayed on the 2400 mg of quercetin that I started six plus months ago  However, since the effects of quercetin on a developing baby are unknown, I stopped taking the quercetin after breakfast on November 16th between the eleventh and twelfth week of pregnancy.  My midwife could not find a lot of information on pregnancy and quercetin so I made the decision to stop.  So what happened?  I tracked above current baseline symptoms for a few days to see what impact this would have on my body.  Previously when I had stopped quercetin for 24+ hours, I had increased problems with word recall while speaking, increased spelling issues and had a hard time remembering people's names.  During those times, however, I was not pregnant so I may not have those symptoms reappear at this time.

November 16

8:30 am: took 800 mg quercetin

12:30 pm: did not take quercetin with lunch

6:00 pm: Itchiness (eyebrows and legs).  Did not take quercetin with dinner

9:00 pm: Restless.

November 17

9 am: Inexplicably tired.  I slept the normal amount of time last night and do not have any sort of communicable illness.

12:30 pm: Restless and itchy still.

1:30 pm: Took a nap and am still very tired.

9:30 pm: Some word stumbles.  Had to concentrate on the words.

November 18

Itchy.

Back pain.  I do have an old back injury but why is it flaring now?

Short term memory decreasing.

Just felt sick.

Worsening rash on face.

November 19

Sense of smell significantly diminished, perhaps by 50%.

Itchy with some hives at the end of the day.

Rash still there on face.

November 20

Awful headache (could be due to less sleep than normal)

Still itchy.

Sense of smell still significantly reduced.  No signs of a virus, etc. 

Digestive track distress

Bad day.

November 21

Still reduced smell

Digestive track distress

November 22

Fatigue.

Still reduced smell.

Bad headache (could just be the weather change)

Rash on face so bad I put steroids on it (not supposed to do this!)

November 23

Fatigue

Still Reduced Smell

Rash on face still present

Now it is January 4th, 2015.  I am now over 18 weeks pregnant.  The severe headaches, and decreased smells have continued.  My baseline continuous headache is now always at least a four and often a six.  I have increased my medicated sinus wash to twice a day which has not yet seemed to help.  The bleeding in my sinuses which started several weeks ago, though, is responding to the increased steroid.

The memory and word recall issues have continued.  This is not surprising since I noticed that the brain related stuff were the first symptoms which improved.  The rash on my face greatly improved with the steroid cream and now I can keep it relatively controlled by putting coconut oil on it at least twice a day.  My hands are definitively more reactive now so I have to put lotion on them every time I wash my hands.

I think it is safe to say that Quercetin was doing quite a bit for me.  I plan to take it again as soon as possible, but it is not recommended to take while breastfeeding.  I do plan to breastfeed my fourth child so will have to at least wait until my little one is mostly on solids before starting this again.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Holiday season and wish you all a Happy New Year!