Kiddipedia
hʌɪpəˈrɛməsɪs/
noun MEDICINE
1. severe or prolonged vomiting. “The clinical practicability is limited by a higher degree of side effects, especially hyperemesis.”
• persistent severe vomiting leading to weight loss and dehydration, as a condition occurring during pregnancy.
noun: hyperemesis gravidarum
“hyperemesis gravidarum occurs in approximately 0.5 to 2 per cent of pregnancies”
HG, as it’s called to save time (because when the mere act of speaking has you hovering over the toilet seat, you learn to be clear and succinct with your wording), is NOT morning sickness.
It’s not even close to morning sickness.
It’s the male peacock of the morning sickness world – The over achiever.
It’s like morning sickness and the Grim Reaper went out for a quiet dinner that somehow got out of control and they found themselves waking up at 6am with a vague memory of switching to tequila around midnight.
It is nasty, and it is exhausting.
I suffered HG throughout the entirety of all my pregnancies.
I was the person who was told it would clear up by 12 weeks, by 16weeks, by 20weeks…until finally the doctors were forced to accept it wasn’t going away any time soon.
I tried it all: Ginger, B6, crackers, dry toast and eventually all the drugs under the sun but NOTHING worked.
Side note: don’t ever suggest that an HG sufferer try ginger and crackers unless you want to be slapped with an IV bag or to go home with vomit in your handbag. It’s not welcomed. At all.
My last pregnancy was my worst though. I thought I could never feel sicker than I had while pregnant with my first child – that was, until my subsequent pregnancies.
I spent the duration of my last pregnancy alternating between admission in hospital attached to an IV and home hospital care where nurses would come to monitor my disgustingly low blood pressure and administer an injection of anti-emetics.
Eventually that too wouldn’t work well enough and I would have to train to self-administer the injection in my thigh…
I mean, my darling husband offered to do the injection for me but as his shaking hand came towards my hip with a needle the size of Sydney, I opted to do it myself instead.
My Welsh blood also means I bruise like a peach. I was black and blue from my legs to my butt so badly that I could barely sit down which was fine because I could usually be found bent over the loo anyway.
I threw up everywhere all the time, the zoo, the grocery store, on the highway during traffic (there was that time a lovely private school boy came over to ask if I needed help and I threw up on his shoes) and all over the house. I threw up in the kitchen sink when I couldn’t make it to the bathroom and then on the kitchen floor when I had to clean the sink.
I couldn’t keep a thing down; my obstetrician developed a rule that if I hadn’t been able to keep water down in 24 hours then I needed to be admitted to hospital for fluids. On good days, the injections would afford me a three-hour window of *only* severe nausea but no vomiting which would allow me to take the cortisone for my throat and get a small amount of fluids and toast down.
On bad days, I couldn’t move.
I also lost twelve kilograms in the first few weeks of my pregnancy and as a reasonably small person to begin with I probably should have been putting on that amount instead!
I developed phobias about all sorts of things that made me nauseous during that pregnancy that still cause me anxiety three years on. To this day, I still gag at least once a week while brushing my teeth simply because of the number of times the mere thought made me vomit.
And then throughout it all, I had a one-year old child to care for at home.
There were days and days where I had to make peace with the fact that if he had a clean nappy on and snacks to eat, then remaining in his pyjama’s all day would just have to do. He was a great help though, standing next to me patting my back while I heaved…
But I digress.
Its been three years now since that pregnancy and every birthday still reminds me of the suffering I endured to safely bring my son in to the world. There were many who did not and could not understand just how dark and difficult that time was, not comprehending that I wasn’t simply dealing with morning sickness. I am sure people still think HG sufferers are just being melodramatic which is just a clear result of a lack of awareness surrounding the subject.
HG: it’s not morning sickness.
It is completely debilitating and literally takes all you’ve got.
You are terrified the entire pregnancy that your baby might not be thriving.
You are guilt ridden at relying on medication to keep even the tiniest amount of hydration to keep you out of hospital for another day.
You feel judged for choosing to have another child even knowing what it takes to do so.
You second guess your decision knowing the burden it places on your family, friends and older children.
It can be soul destroying stuff and I am suffering the after effects even now over three years later and likely will be for the rest of my life.
My babies are worth it though – Every single second and I would do it all again for them in a heartbeat.
Hyperemesis Gravidarum is not morning sickness and more people need to know that.
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