Living With Hyperemesis

In July of 2004, I found out that I was going to be a mother It
was the most exciting, thrilling, and terrifying day of my life
In the span of a few moments, my life changed from living on the
fly, to living for the sole purpose of the growth and
development of the little being inside me It would still be
another seven and a half months before I realized the gravity of
what being a mother is, but I was given a crash course in the
meanwhile
It was only a few weeks later when the morning sickness started
I still have yet to understand why they term it “morning
sickness” when some women have it at dawn, dusk, and twilight
Unfortunately for me, I was one of those women Before I knew
it, I had gone from eating and drinking whatever I liked,
whenever I liked, to eating and drinking whatever was appetizing
and praying I kept it down
The first time I realized that the morning sickness was more
than a normal and small problem that would clear up on its own,
it was too late I had been ill for several days, barely keeping
down anything I had taken to sipping Gatorade throughout the
day so that I would have something in my stomach when I got sick
The illness was sporadic, at first I would get ill
occasionally, every few hours It steadily increased to once or
twice in the time span of two hours, to every fifteen to twenty
minutes
I finally called my doctor’s office when I wasn’t able to get
out of bed because I was too weak It was at that visit that I
learned my problem had a name: hyperemesis gravidarum Not only
did I learn that it was more than morning sickness, but it was a
condition that could be detrimental to my physical and mental
well being
My doctor used several techniques to try to curb my hyperemesis
without medications I was restricted from taking prenatal
vitamins, and urged to take a short leave from work During that
time, not only did I not get better, but I also got worse After
a second visit to the Infusion Center at the hospital, I was
prescribed Bendectine
Bendectine made me feel tired all of the time I had to take
another leave from work to be able to allow my body to adjust to
the medication When I finally felt able to go back to work, the
medication stopped working and I ended up in the Infusion Center
again
This time, my doctor was more aggressive and tried Zofran, an
expensive anti-nausea medication that is typically used to treat
chemotherapy patients At first, I had to take a tablet every
four hours because otherwise, I would return to the violently
ill state that the medication prevented
All the while, I was still on leave from work I would try to
return, but even sitting for an hour or two would cause severe
nausea The nausea would cause me to become ill again, and I
would have to try to drive home in that state After nearly
eight weeks on medical leave, my position was terminated
My doctor had been hopeful that the hyperemesis would subside
after the first trimester It didn’t I tried, on several
occasions, to wean myself from the Zofran, only to become ill
once again
During my time off, I researched my condition I found that it
was uncommon; less than one percent of pregnancies result in a
hyperemesis diagnosis I read many stories that resulted in
happy endings, with high-weight, healthy babies I also read a
few stories that resulted in the termination of the pregnancy
because the health of the mother was of concern
My own pregnancy was atypical, in that the hyperemesis lasted
into the third trimester I continued to take Zofran, in lower
doses, until week thirty By then, I no longer needed to
suppress the nausea It also caused my son to be low birth
weight He only weighed 5 pounds, 10 ounces, even though he was
considered full term at birth
When it was all said and done, many people have asked me if my
son was worth all of the problems My answer has always been
yes I have also been asked if I want to go through it all over
again with another pregnancy At first, I gave a resounding no
But there is something I have learned since giving birth The
benefits outweigh the risks, the payment received is greater
than anything money can provide, and every pregnancy is
different
My next pregnancy may not result in hyperemesis If it does, my
doctors are aware of my history and will be able to treat it
more easily than before Being aware that a problem may occur is
the first step to treatment The second step is in knowing that
an end is in sight The final step is the birth of your
beautiful child and all of the love it produces It makes it all
worthwhile, in the end

Tags | crash, development, growth, hyperemesis, infusion, minutes, moments, morning, result, twilight, vitamins, women