Morning Sickness

No, I don't have it.  I'm way past those days, thank goodness. But the world is all atwitter about Kate having hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), and this is something that I am most definitely an expert in.  I previously posted about it here.

First, comparing hyperemesis to morning sickness is like comparing eczema to leprosy. It always drove me crazy when it would come up in conversation and someone would say, "oh yes, I had terrible morning sickness, too. I threw up every day."  Or oh yes, "but I had all day sickness, I would be nauseated in the morning and throw up at 4:00 every afternoon."  Still not the same.  HG is the reason I will never have any more children (on my doctor's advice).

For me, HG meant debilitating nausea and vomiting 24/7, for months.  I was never not nauseated.  I couldn't eat or drink anything without vomiting.  The best (and very expensive) anti-nausea medication on the market couldn't even touch my nausea. So I stopped eating and drinking.  And still, I vomited bile over and over again, all day long.

Working was out of the question. I became so weak that I couldn't even walk to the bathroom or lift my arms over my head long enough to comb my hair.  I spent weeks in the hospital and more weeks receiving IV fluids at home.  I dropped nearly 30 pounds, and I was not overweight to begin with. My hair fell out in clumps.

Second, HG doesn't automatically mean twins.  I had HG during three pregnancies, and only one was twins (I had a miscarriage between PS and the twins.)  In fact, my mother was furious when I got pregnant with the twins, because I had been so very sick with my previous two pregnancies.  However, the HG was about 10 times worse with the twins. In fact, I finally asked my doctors about the possibility of multiples because it was so much worse than with my previous pregnancies.  They kind of blew off this suggestion, but I was given an ultrasound the next day (this was still very early--maybe 8 weeks), and lo and behold, there were two babies in there.

With that pregnancy, I was hospitalized for weeks--no home care this time around. I spent Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's in the hospital. PS was sent to stay with her grandparents for weeks at a time, which was absolute torture for me. Nothing controlled the nausea. My doctors told me that I was starving to death.  That I should consider terminating my pregnancy because it was wrecking my body. Mine was the worst case of HG my doctors had ever encountered, and that period was absolutely the worst period of my entire life.

 I was eventually given a feeding tube, which I vomited up within hours.  And then I was given a central line. Eventually, one of my docs found an experimental treatment involving massive doses of steroids.  It took a few tries, but eventually it worked--by then I was well into my 5th month.

Obviously, the babies and I all survived with no ill effects (and there is no indication that the HG caused my miscarriage). But I always feel some obligation to educate about HG.  Because I've heard so many comments like, "I had morning sickness and I worked every day of my pregnancy." It's just not the same. You can't suck it up and deal with HG because it completely overtakes you.