Mamas Worldwide

I’m currently in my 16th week of my second pregnancy.  With my first child, I was nauseous during the first trimester, but hadn’t thrown up at all.  I wasn’t surprised to find a few weeks in that I was getting nauseous this time around.  I wasn’t even surprised the first few times I threw up, about 8 weeks along.  I figured every pregnancy is different and this time my morning sickness was a little worse (not to mention it was usually dinner I was throwing up, so I liked to refer to it as “evening” sickness).

By week 10, I was throwing up pretty much every lunch and had stopped eating dinner.  I was trying all the home remedies against nausea I could find.  I made a super strong ginger syrup for making homemade ginger ale.  I tried meditation, blackberry juice, yoga, cumin seeds, peppermint tea, chamomile tea, pressure point therapy, apple cider vinegar, rice water.  Nothing helped.

Within a few days, I was throwing everything up.  Previously, I could at least count on keeping breakfast down, but that time was over.  I was even throwing up black tea and mineral water.  I was getting weaker and weaker, and soon I couldn’t leave the house except to visit the doctor and split my time between the bed and sofa.  I relied on the television to babysit my two year old.  I just didn’t have the energy to care for him.  He got microwave lunches and lots of educational videos.

My husband would take off half or full days whenever he could, and the neighbors would take my son Oliver whenever they could, but it was tough being an expat and living so far from family.  It was lonely being stuck in the house, not having contact with friends, and I struggled with depression and homesickness.

My doctor suggested I check into the hospital for a few days, but I hate hospitals and couldn’t bring myself to consider it yet.  She prescribed dimenhydrinate suppositories (the active ingredient in Dramamine), they helped me keep down food better, but I had problems with the side effects.  The doctor switched me to Nausema, a high dose tablet of vitamins B6, B1 and B12.  It didn’t have any side effects, but was also hardly effective.

Things got worse and worse.  I was losing about 3 pounds a week.  A pound is 3,500 calories, so if you think about it, I was undereating by over 10,000 calories a week.  I was looking towards the end of the first trimester as an endpoint, things would get better then, and I had planned a trip to go home to my family in the states at week 13 of my pregnancy.  I thought that things had to improve soon.

Then I discovered the H.E.R. Foundation website (Hyperemesis Education & Research).  It confirmed what I suspected, that common nausea remedies don’t generally work for HG (Hyperemesis Gravidarum - excessive nausea in pregnancy).  It also said that HG usually doesn’t stop at the end of the first trimester, it usually lasts into week 20 and can last the entire pregnancy.  I decided to check into the hospital.  Before going in, at week 12, I was 18 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight.

This was the first time I’d been in the hospital that it felt good to be there.  I’ve lost my hatred of being hospitalized.  I was on an IV drip with dimenhydrinate and electrolytes.  I still felt lousy the first 2 days in, but by he third day I was feeling a little better, although I still threw up several times during my stay.  I was in for 4 days, until the day before flying to the US.  The doctors at the hospital didn’t really want to let me out, I think the doctors would have kept me there for weeks if I didn’t insist.  I lost 2 more pound while I was in hospital.

I requested dimenhydrinate capsules for the trip, the only side effect of the capsules was that I’d get tired, avoiding the problems I had with the suppositories (you don’t want to know about those, but if you use your imagination, I’m sure you could figure out what might have been the problem).  I was prescribed the equivalent of 8 Dramamine a day.  If anyone has taken 1 or even 2 Dramamine for motion sickness, you know how even that small a dosage can knock you out.

The trip to the US was torturous.  I was in tears by the time we made it to the gate of our second plane in Amsterdam.  I threw up during the transatlantic flight, despite massive doses of anti-nausea medicine.  But things have been improving in the US.  I’m surrounded by family, who help with my son and let me get all the rest that I need.  I’ve managed to gain back 8 pounds in the half month I’ve been home, although the calories haven’t been the most healthy.  I find myself mostly craving comfort foods, like hamburgers, ribs, Reese’s cereal, and Baskin Robbins ice cream.  I’m not worrying too much about eating right anymore.  I’m still nauseous, although I’m throwing up much less frequently.  I just eat whatever I have desire to eat.  Some days I’ll look at an apple and think “Yum!” sometimes I think “NO!!!”  I don’t force the issue.  Whatever looks appetizing goes.

Because of the dosage of medication, I spend most of my time sleeping, or zoning out on the couch.  I’ve managed to leave the house twice since arriving.  I went to the supermarket on Christmas Eve, and that was fine, although it took me 3 days to recover.  Yesterday I went to Target to try on some maternity clothes (I got a really cute dress), but it was too much and I ended up making two rushed, extremely uncomfortable trips to the restroom, which was full of moms and kids, and was just not a place I would ever want to be sick in again.

I’m waiting desperately for the nausea to ease up.  I try avoiding doses when I can, just because I feel more with it when I’m not on the medicine, but I also know I need to keep eating and I need to break the nausea cycle.

I have a few good days in between the bad.  The first few days after a good day are the worst.  The good day makes you think things are getting better, then it all comes crashing back.  The day or two after a good day, I often find myself in tears at the slightest provocation.

My husband and I canceled our vacation next week in New York.  My husband goes back to Germany on the 7th and my brother goes back to work after New Years.  I’m a little nervous about how the month of January here is going to go.  I wasn’t expecting to still be ill.  If I’m not better, I don’t know how I can manage the flight back alone with my 2 year old at the end of January.  I just hope I’m one of the women who feels better by week 20.

For more information on HG, I recommend the HER Foundation website.  If you have a friend or family member suffering from HG, there is a great section on what you can do to help them.

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