Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Its Time I'm Out With It.

My name is alyson and I have hyperemisis gravidarum. This is my third time. The first time I lost ~20lbs and was sick for about 6months, the second time I was sick for 7 months and lost ~15lbs. It has been 7 weeks now and I don't know how much I have lost because I don't have a scale. I tell you this because on all of the chat boards I have yet to find someone who has this condition and knows what it is like. At times I feel guilty because of the feelings I have, feelings that make sense to only those who have gone through it.

I am hoping to connect with someone out there who feels my pain and understands. Truly understands! Not Pitty! I hate that I have become a moaning lump and I don't like to complain but if there is someone out there who knows what this is like I hope we can connect.

8 comments:

Kris said...

OH ALYSON...that is crappy. And I mean that in the nicest way!

SO, first off congratulations(!) and secondly, I believe my girlfriend in Innisfail had this for both of her pregnancies but was never diagnosed correctly (the first time her GP said it was "beaver fever" but most of her specialists told her that was a load of crap). I only know how bad it was because she spent a lot of time at my house, bucket in tow for months on end. She ended up in the hospital numerous times. I wish there was something I could do, or say. "Feel better" just seems stupid. HUGZ.

K.

Proud Mum said...

I was starting to wonder if you were pregnant, but I didn't feel right saying anything.

I have a friend up your way (further, actually, Edmonton) who takes dilectin throughout the whole pregnancy. It's actually very similar to what they gave me (phenergan) in the ER to stop me from vomiting. No one know how they work exactly, because they are anti-histamines, but somehow they work as anti-nauseals and are still safe for the baby.

I've read that cigarette smoking and being older than 30 years old are both effective at avoiding your problem. But I hardly thing that relaxing with a ciggy would be a doctor-recommended approach. ;-)

Hugs. And Congratulations, although I know when I was feeling like that it was hard to feel worth congratulating.

Proud Mum said...

ps: if you haven't already (although you probably have), check out the HER Foundation website,(http://www.hyperemesis.org/) maybe you can at least connect with support and resources. Good luck.

Alyson said...

i am on diclectin, but i still throw up at least 5 times a day sometimes more. Because of that, when i was pregers with D I though it wasn't working so I let it laps until I got to my appointment three days later. The sad thing is it was working it was just keeping me out of the hospital.

I only had to go once with E, three times with D. I'm hoping there is a noticible downward trend. The thing i have noticed this time is that i don't sleep much and sleep is not and excape. I still wake up to empty my stomach

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Alyson... I hope that things get better for you.

Anonymous said...

Jen the Mom sent me your way. I have had horrible Hyperemesis with all three of my kids. My first, now 5 years old - I had no idea what it was. My midwife and doctor didn't seem to care that I was throwing up multiple times a day and losing weight. The baby's healthy, you'll get over it. But I didn't. I threw up the entire nine months and threw up every half hour through my 20+ hour labor. Someone recommended Red Raspberry leaf tea and it seemed to help, I threw up less, but I still threw up every day - about 5 times?

By the time I was pregnant for a second time (he's now 3) somehow I found out the excessive vomiting had a name. Just knowing I wasn't alone and crazy helped so much. But the red raspberry leaf didn't help. This time I went to see a Homeopathic doctor who put me on Nux Vomica. It reduced the vomiting, but I still threw up every day the entire pregnancy.

My third (she's now 1) neither the Homeopathics or the red raspberry leaf worked. I tried all of the typical "morning sickness" remedies just like I had before (sea bands, eating crackers blah blah blah), it was awful. I had horrible antenatal depression with this one - it's just so hard and you're right, hardly anybody understands. I'd try to explain my situation and people would pity me (but not really understand).

I took some vitamins (Standard Process) along with Unisom at night and while the whole Unisom thing hadn't ever worked before, it helped this time. I was throwing up 18 times a day with my third, and the vits and unisom seemed to take it down to around 2 - 8 times a day.

I hid in my house, I didn't want to go anywhere. I was afraid I'd throw up (and likely would have) while talking to someone. I threw up once in the grocery store and passed out trying to do sealings at the temple (thinking sealings would be quicker than a whole session). I took a green bowl with me everywhere. I threw up in the car, at work, on the street, in parking lots. I also had excessive saliva. I had to take a bunch of rags with me whereever I went so I could spit into them.

It was disgusting and humiliating and depressing.

If one more person asked if I'd tried eating saltines in the morning I was going to punch them solidly in the face.

I just wanted to let you know I totally understand. And it more than sucks. Feel free to email me anytime jessica at kerflop dot com

Anonymous said...

Alyson, Diclectin didn't work for me and I ending up in ER 8 times with this last baby. I need to go and search my pill bottles for the name of the drug that WORKED really well. We have a pretty good drug plan and it's an expensive drug and I think we still had to pay about $90 per week for it. It's driving me that I can't think of the name - I will let you know when I find the bottle...

Anonymous said...

I remember... It's Maxaran. It's just a stronger dose of Diclectin. It's the version they give you in the hospital. Good luck!