The words that stole joy from my pregnancy; hyperemesis gravidarum
I couldn't tell you exactly how soon my morning sickness started... But I
remember it started early...
I remember we found out we were going to be parents on April 14 and by Drew's birthday on April 27,2015 I'd gotten him surprise tickets about two weeks after the opening of the Duck Dynasty Musical to go for his birthday... (He suffers through musicals for me... I suffer through Duck Dynasty for him) and... I was so sick... I slept through the whole thing and we had to stay home.
This is before confirming pregnancy with a doctor, and the vomiting had already begun, but all of my pregnancy books, even the comedic ones said "this was normal"
I babysat for a family religiously years before our marriage that I was still fairly close to, the mother during both of her pregnancies had an illness so hard to pronounce I wrote a paper about it one day... It was called "hyperemesis gravidarum." The definition is : persistent severe vomiting leading to weight loss and dehydration, as a condition occurring during pregnancy.
And though at the time of maybe 5-6 weeks along I had no clue I would’ve been diagnosed with HG I remember how prayerful we were that I would get better... That my quality of life would return.... That who I was would go back to who I used to be sometime within the next 8 months...
Here I am... 1/2 way through my pregnancy, still getting sick, but now it has a name... Hyperemesis.
When the mom I babysat for found out I had HG like she did with her two littles, she rushed over immediately with a care package to cheer me up... and it was filled with things that helped her, and in turn are helping me...
inside this package are;
[x] A fit pregnancy magazine to keep me occupied while I was at home in bed
[x] Smart water because the caps make drinking water easily, you only take sips... it's exhausting finishing a bottle of water
[x] a box of macaroni and cheese by kraft... because it was a pregnancy craving of hers and her husband once purchased the wrong box, so this was to save Drew's back... just in case
[x] Vaseline - because your lips get REALLY dry and cracked from vomiting so often
[x] Lorna Doone Shortbreads - because I'm sorry crackers are salty and SUCK when you can't keep anything down... they especially hurt coming back up
[x] Black unsweetened tea and Green tea - ice cold... sips of these two saved my life.
[x] Tylenol... because your whole body aches, like you got hit by a car... and normal pregnancy, headaches and of course, normal pregnancy problems...
[x] Motion sickness relief bands - these... I will say, didn't stop the nausea but DID stop the vomiting, I never vomited with them on... so, it won't come up... but I still felt INCREDIBLY sick!
[x] Lastly, two awesome onesies because we don't know the gender and she said, it's a gentle reminder to keep my head up and remember why I'm doing this
My girlfriend Stephanie in addition to bringing tortilla soup from el pollo loco and everything else I ever asked her for, brought me these preggie pops
I can tell you...
In the beginning of my pregnancy, I was prescribed Diclegis... it was a miracle drug that stopped the nausea for at least the first 4 months of my pregnancy... and after that, it didn't help with ANYTHING
at 4.5 months I was prescribed Ondansetron the generic form of Zofran - what they also used to prescribe to cancer patients I had to take them all the time, I believe one pill lasted for 6 hours, so every 6 hours for 5 months straight I took one of these, and if I didn't wake up before the 6th hour, I'd wake up vomiting.
I was taking so many of them, our amazing insurance who pays for everything... told me, I had to slow down because I had exceeded the maximum amount they were able to cover within a 30 day period.
I needed Zofran like lungs needed air, so I took them because they kept me alive, and I didn't care what the commercials said about side affects... Which was good because a lot of articles will tell you that taking Zofran within the first semester will give your child;
Side affects don't seem so bad now do they?
I remember we found out we were going to be parents on April 14 and by Drew's birthday on April 27,2015 I'd gotten him surprise tickets about two weeks after the opening of the Duck Dynasty Musical to go for his birthday... (He suffers through musicals for me... I suffer through Duck Dynasty for him) and... I was so sick... I slept through the whole thing and we had to stay home.
This is before confirming pregnancy with a doctor, and the vomiting had already begun, but all of my pregnancy books, even the comedic ones said "this was normal"
I babysat for a family religiously years before our marriage that I was still fairly close to, the mother during both of her pregnancies had an illness so hard to pronounce I wrote a paper about it one day... It was called "hyperemesis gravidarum." The definition is : persistent severe vomiting leading to weight loss and dehydration, as a condition occurring during pregnancy.
And though at the time of maybe 5-6 weeks along I had no clue I would’ve been diagnosed with HG I remember how prayerful we were that I would get better... That my quality of life would return.... That who I was would go back to who I used to be sometime within the next 8 months...
Here I am... 1/2 way through my pregnancy, still getting sick, but now it has a name... Hyperemesis.
When the mom I babysat for found out I had HG like she did with her two littles, she rushed over immediately with a care package to cheer me up... and it was filled with things that helped her, and in turn are helping me...
inside this package are;
[x] A fit pregnancy magazine to keep me occupied while I was at home in bed
[x] Smart water because the caps make drinking water easily, you only take sips... it's exhausting finishing a bottle of water
[x] a box of macaroni and cheese by kraft... because it was a pregnancy craving of hers and her husband once purchased the wrong box, so this was to save Drew's back... just in case
[x] Vaseline - because your lips get REALLY dry and cracked from vomiting so often
[x] Lorna Doone Shortbreads - because I'm sorry crackers are salty and SUCK when you can't keep anything down... they especially hurt coming back up
[x] Black unsweetened tea and Green tea - ice cold... sips of these two saved my life.
[x] Tylenol... because your whole body aches, like you got hit by a car... and normal pregnancy, headaches and of course, normal pregnancy problems...
[x] Motion sickness relief bands - these... I will say, didn't stop the nausea but DID stop the vomiting, I never vomited with them on... so, it won't come up... but I still felt INCREDIBLY sick!
[x] Lastly, two awesome onesies because we don't know the gender and she said, it's a gentle reminder to keep my head up and remember why I'm doing this
My girlfriend Stephanie in addition to bringing tortilla soup from el pollo loco and everything else I ever asked her for, brought me these preggie pops
- Peppermint - Amazon
- Spearmint- Great flavor
- Lavender- made me vomit
- Ginger- made me vomit
- Sour lemon- burned, but stopped nausea
- Sour tangerine- didn't even eat this one
- Sour raspberry - my absolute favorite
In the beginning of my pregnancy, I was prescribed Diclegis... it was a miracle drug that stopped the nausea for at least the first 4 months of my pregnancy... and after that, it didn't help with ANYTHING
I needed Zofran like lungs needed air, so I took them because they kept me alive, and I didn't care what the commercials said about side affects... Which was good because a lot of articles will tell you that taking Zofran within the first semester will give your child;
- Cleft Palate.
- Cleft Lip.
- Atrial Septal Defects.
- Ventricular Septal Defects.
- Other Heart Malformations
- Hyperemesis Gravidarum: List of Support Groups, Charities, Blogs and Resources (amandaclairedesigns.typepad.com)
- Kate Middleton’s Pregnancy Sheds Light On Rare Condition Hyperemesis Gravidarum (huffingtonpost.com)
- Hyperemesis Gravidarum: The Importance of Awareness and Accurate Reporting (amandaclairedesigns.typepad.com)
- Hyperemesis gravidarum: no ordinary morning sickness – Capital FM Kenya (capitalfm.co.ke)
- Kate Middleton’s Hyperemesis Gravidarum, Explained (nymag.com)
- Hyperemesis 101: What it is and how you can help (twolittlegrasshoppers.com)
- The truth about Kate’s rare form of morning sickness: Hyperemesis Gravidarum (express.co.uk)
- Letters: Help for hyperemesis sufferers (guardian.co.uk)
Side affects don't seem so bad now do they?
Comments
Post a Comment