Messages By: pinkcarnations

My name is Jennifer and I am 25yrs old.  I have one daughter, who is 4yrs old, and I suffered from severe when pregnant with her.  I was lucky enough to have a great and caring team of Drs.  The HG started at exactly 6wks, and really continued throughout the entire 9 months. (I was able to control it with medication, but if I missed just one dose, I was again hugging the toilet!!)  At first the Drs were really stumped at first as to what was going on, but they didnt let that stop them.  They first ruled out a muiltiple pregnancy- which it wasn't, and from there it was just trial and error with different medications.  They tried the usual Reglan and Phenergan and both made me vomit within 5 minutes of taking it.    I was in and out of the ER many times for dehydration and was finally admitted to the hospital at 12 weeks because I could not keep even a sip of water down- in fact, I had stopped eating and drinking and was STILL contnuing to vomit 4-6 times a day, somtimes more!  When they admitted me to the hospital, I had already lost a total of 25lbs!  I was eventually given and PICC line (which the Dr putting it in made me feel so confident in him when he said "Oh, I have never given a pregnant woman a PICC line!!!  and the nurses on the Labor and Delivery floor would come in and tell me "Oh, I haven't seen a PICC line since nursing school 10yrs ago!!- gee thanks!0  Anyhow, after two weeks in the hosptial, a PICC line and being hooked to a TPN for 12 hours  anight, I was able to go home.  I then had home health coming in for a total of 6 weeks- to help with the PICC line and TPN.  I was finally able to go off the TPN and PICC line at about 20/21 weeks and from there on out- I only made it through with my miracle drug- ZOFRAN!!!  Zofran was still a rather new drug at the time, and I will never forget the first time I had to get it filled in the pharmacy.  I dropped off my script and we decided to wait for it.  A little while later, the pharmacist calls me over and says "Are you sure you are supposed to be taking this when you are pregnant?  This is usually only prescribed for cancer patients!!"  I smiled, and said YES- now fill it PLEASE!!!  Little did he ror I know how much a of a lifeline it would become.

At the time no one around me understood what was going on.  Both my sisters in law thought I was just overexaggeraing- telling me "If you cant handle a little bit of morning sickness, how do you expect to be a mother?!"  I tried to tell them it was NOT just ms, but it was HG instead- but they just didn't get it. 

Like another poster said, there are still certain smells that cause me to want to vomit.  Since being pregnant 5 yrs ago, I have not eaten applesauce, pears, beef stew or drank lemonade!  It just all brings back horrible horrible memories! :(

I am looking forward to this show, and hopefully it will help raise the awareness of HG!!