Hyperemesis Gravidarum

Hyperemesis Gravidarum

Hyperemesis is an illness that I think is often forgotten, ignored and misunderstood... It's funny how quickly women forget how awful they felt once our beautiful babies are born and we get on with life and taking care of them.   They know their babies are worth every moment of the misery they experienced.

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Hyperemesis gravidarum is a very misunderstood sickness and it is hard to explain  and therefore can be a very lonely, scary, frustrating illness to have.  I never even understood it myself until reading about it lately.  I just thought that I got really really sick when I was pregnant.    So I thought I would write so that looking back my family will understand and looking ahead, in case any of my daughters experience it.  It will be known for what it is.

  When I was am about 5 weeks pregnant, I started throwing up and feeling extremely nauseated.  Morning sickness, right?   I was so nauseated that I couldn't eat or drink anything.   It does not come in spurts, or waves or at different time, it is ever present.  I couldn't put food in my mouth, look at food, smell food, even water-I could be gagging it up before it went down my throat.  I quickly grew weaker and weaker, and lost weight quickly.   I believe with Brycen I lost about 20 to 25 pounds.  I was similar with Kaitlyn.  Each of my pregnancies seemed to get more difficult.  I remember when I was pregnant with Tyler and we were living with Chris' parents in their basement, I could barely crawl up the stairs.

My sense of smell is also so  intensified.  Picture every smell exaggerated 10 times over.  The ward was so good to me to bring dinners for a month, but I still cannot smell Papa-Murphy's pizza without the memory of gagging.  (The kind, unkowing and  helpful neighbors didn't know that since I had to smell it cooking it would be unbearable).  I could even smell people intensely.  When the kids would get close to me and I could smell their "normal" breath it was too much.  Everything was exaggerated like that.

I had home-health care.  A nurse came into the home and put an IV pick into my arm and I carried the IV pole around with me all day long.    I also remember just lying on the bed wishing in a way I could die.  It was so debilitating.  The ironic thing with Kaitlyn's pregnancy is that I was going to be going with Chris to New York and so I would look at brochures and at night I would dream of things I wanted to eat while we were there, but I could not eat anything at all.  I remember dreaming a lot about food, without being able to eat any.  I also made up for all of the weight loss once I felt better.  I gained a ton of weight once I was able to eat again :)

For medication I had Zofran with Kaitlyn.  With the older kids, I never realized I had the problem and so I didn't have medication.  Each pregnancy got progressively worse.   I remember throwing up all the way home from disneyland with Kaitlyn.  With Brycen, even the Zofran did not work.  Thankfully, they gave me a chemo drug called "Methyprednisolone" and it kept me out of the hospital.  

This post is very similar to how I experienced everything: 

Here is what 9 months of hyperemesis is like

Finally around 5 months the intensity began to fade-I was still sick but the weight loss and extreme nausea began to fade slowly.  

Here is a chart  that  helps explain the difference between morning sickness and hyperemesis.

I am so thankful for all of the help and support my family, neighbors and ward members gave me.  I never would have made it without them.