Topic : 04/12 Twin Tug of War

Cathryne,

Hello! Thank you for posting your comments. I do agree. It appears to me Alison was obese in the photograph that was displayed before she was pregnant,  I feel if she would have been a smaller size 6 , adopted a healthier lifestyle eating natural foods containing no chemicals,  and been in top physical shape before she got pregnant , the symptoms would not have been as extreme.

My physician "female" told me in her office (She's in Columbia , SC and has a large practice. She's the VP of the School of medicine at usc also) the growing trend today is woman having babies over 40.  As a noticeable pattern she See's and has contact with on a day to day basis, the woman who are in top shape physically, smaller size 6 and have chosen to adapted a healthier life styles by eating natural foods before they get pregnant and maintain that pattern during it are the woman 9 .5 times out of 10 who don't have or have a small amount of problems or complications during their pregnancy. 

Patrice
 

Thank you so much Dr Phil for putting this show together.  My mother-in-law called me to let me know that it was on.  Of course I already had it on TiVo.  I had HG from 5 weeks until 20 weeks.  It was the hardest thing that I have ever had to deal with.  I had never heard of the diease.  I was too sick to do any research.  I was in the ER 6 times, dehydrated, before I was admitted and had a PICC line put in.  I arrived my 6th visit with bleeding.  I was sure that I was having a miscarriage.  The doctors said that I may have been carring twins or it could have been a blood clot.  The good news was that I still had one baby with a heartbeat.   I'm still a little bitter about the fact that I think that the doctors could have done more faster.  I often wonder if I would have had earlier treatment if I would have two babies instead of one.  I said the whole time that I was pregnant that I would never ever do this again.  Now that I am a mother I'm having a really hard time saying that I will not birth another child.  After the PICC line and Zophan and steroilds and a lot of other medications I was still vomiting 20 plus times a day.  After 6 weeks with the PICC line in it was infected and infected my blood.  I had the line pulled out very quickly in the doctors office.  The doctors called over to the OR to let them know that I was on the way to have another line put in my other arm.  After a few quick prayers in the office with my husband I asked if I could try to go without another line.  I was still very sick but I was able to keep enough down to keep from being dehydrated.  I started with high blood pressure at 30 weeks.  My son was also breech.  They took him by c-section at 37 weeks.  Praise God he was 7lbs 3oz and healthy.  I try not to tell other women all of the details of my crazy pregency.  I first of all scare them and then I get the look of disbelief.  My own sister thought that I was being very  extreme when she heard about how sick I was.  She later learned with her second pregency that it was no joke.  She ened up with a mild case of HG. 

Does anyone have any advice on deciding if I should have baby number two?  My current thoughts are that my son will need to be old enough to go to the bathroom on his own and get himself something to eat.  I had to have 24 hour care.  I can't imagine asking my family to take care of me and my son.  I have a very loving and supportive husband but we have our own business and he has to be there to run it.  Is it selfish to want another baby knowing what my son and family will have to go through?  My son is 18 months old so I still have time to decide.  If I go down this road again I will certaintly interview a few different doctors to find out how they would treat my HG.  I would love to hear your thoughts.

HG is not a mental illness. This disease can lead to post traumatic stress disorder but this illness does not mean that she is or was "crazy" . I highly doubt that she is mentally unstable. She obviously needed help and didn't know what else to do since the only "assistance" she received was pressure to sign over her children.

Dr. Phil said that no one representing the adoptive parents agreed to appear.  I applaud him for doing the show anyway.  He stated repeated times that only one side of the story was represented. 

  think the point that you don't seem to understand and that many people on this board have tried to point out to you is that Allison was extremely sick.  Whether it was pressure from her friend, the Needham's lawyer, or the Needhams, or all of the above, someone pressured her into this adoption. Someone knew that she did not have a healthy state of mind and decided to take advantage of that to take these children.

She has tried from the VERY beginning to reverse it.  The Needhams have had the children this long ONLY because they did not do the right thing in the beginning. 

If you remember something at age 3 it is because you have been shown pictures or have been told stories about it.  There have been many studies to prove that.

Again, I have a lot of sympathy for you and anyone who can not bear their own children.  However, this situation is the chance for those of us who have had Hyperemesis to tell more people about it so that when it happens to others in the future they will have more support than we did. We have never had this opportunity before.  There are plenty of support groups and outlets for "adoptees" and "adopters".It is also a chance for us to help this woman who was CLEARLY taken advantage of. 

Hi-

I have the severest form of HG from week 5 throughout my pregnancies.  I know this information is available on most HG websites now but I wanted to mention a drug that helped me (did not cure me) but in my experience was more beneficial than the TPN therapy.  I took prednisone with two cases of severe HG under the direction of a gastro dr.  I had to beg them for this again this last time as I was in a different state under the care of a different doctor.  Most doctors say they haven't heard of this and are hesitant to prescribe.  My doctor did some research and came back and said we could try it so there is documentation out there if you need it or want to look into it.

I have had pic lines, central lines, IV therapy, multiple hospitalizations, and TPN therapy with all three of my pregnancies.  Zofran is the only drug that works for me in the slightest (which causes other problems...as most of you probably know who have taken it) along with the prednisone mentioned above.

I have two beautiful, healthy daughters age 7 and 8 mos.  There is a difference in age because it took me 6 years to get the courage to get pregnant again and based on my age time was running out.  I wanted to wait until my older daughter was old enough to understand what was happening.  For 30 weeks, I basically couldn't parent her.

Another aspect of this condition that was not discussed is the serious financial impact it has on a family.  I work for a large company with a good health plan and we still had approx. $20,000 out of pocket costs due to my HG. (My husband and I just got this paid off last month and now we have a joke that the baby can't be repossessed) The cost of the medication Zofran does not help the situation, even with my co-pay we were spending approx. $300 a month on drugs alone.  My disability claim was terminated at around 25 weeks, because my doctor said I showed some signs of improvement, I had gained weight (after losing approx. 25 pounds) and they removed my PIC line.  They removed the PIC line because it had given out and was clogging every day putting me and the baby at risk for a blod clot.  I continued to struggle with adequate hydration throughout.  Even upon appeal, they wouldn't reverse the decision.  When you are laying there that sick and so much money is going out the door it is very, very scary.

Even the medical community does not have a clear understanding of what HG is.  I was so glad that Dr. Phil said it is NOT morning sickness.  I had multiple nurses tell me that they had the condition and/or they took Zofran for a few weeks too.  One nurse thought that I just had a habitual "spit cup" habit (if you have HG you know what I'm talking about.  She suggested that I had something like OCD that required me to obsessively spit.  One told me she threw up every night on her week vacation.  I had a physician tell me that sea-bands worked for his wife.  I had a home health nurse who was supposed to be an expert in the condition suggest I chew some spearmint gum to cure heartburn.  When you are laying in a hospital bed with this condition and everyone is claiming to have had it too...it is humiliating.  It's as if you can't handle something that everyone else handled fine.  Like you are exagerating a common condition. 

During my bouts with HG there were times that I truly wanted to die and wished to die.  There were also times, as embarassing as this is to admit, that I did not want to continue the pregnancy one more day.  This is not a mental state in which someone could make an informed decision about any major life decision.