Hello. Brand new to the forum, just discovered it today. I was looking for advice and forums for HG... need it.
Our story so far:
We learned we were expecting around the second week of December. She was showing signs... fatigue and light nausea, and she was late. When we did the home test, we were very very surprised. In any event, her nausea was coming and going, but wasn't inordinately bad.
Until one week later (about the six week mark), when I had to take her to her Primary Care physician the day before we did the "doctor's trip" after the home test. We were sent to an OB, who fit us in between appointments. She was vomiting there in the office bathroom, it was getting so bad. He basically prescribed Zofran, and said her urine results looked ok.
The Zofran worked for a couple days, still had vomitting in the morning though. Then it became less effective. She visited the OB a week later as she had developed burst blood vessels on her eyeballs, and it looked alarming. The doctors were worried about her protein levels. When they tested her urine, they said they were worried about ketones, but just said to watch her weight and keep on with the Zofran.
We had an early OB appt. later, and did the first sonogram where we heard the heartbeat (it was becoming real to us at this point). Fast forward two miserable weeks of vomiting and fatigue and frustration... we drove down to visit relatives for the New Years weekend. She got very very ill while visiting. Thankfully, we had her mother there (the first time I had some help trying to take care of her). She helped a little, but I guess I was hoping for some kind of Super-Mommy-Magic to help with her feelings of dispondency.
During this visit, and one especially bad night, she said that the Zofran was making her so constipated, that she felt it was doing more harm than good. So, she stopped taking it. The next day, she had the first day ever without vomiting. I thought maybe we were onto something.
Wrong. We drove back home, and the first full day back, she almost didn't make it to work, much less through it. She went to the OB, who sent her across the street to the hospital. We endured a 2-1/2 hour waiting room, and 2 more hours until she got her IV.
They put 5 liters into her!!! She was very very dehydrated, though neither the OB nor the attending physician seemed to feel concerned over the baby. They gave her more Zofran, and prescribed her some Reglan. After a total of 10-1/2 hours in the ER, we went home finally. The doctor told her to stay on clear liquids with some simple carbohydrates, and gave us tips on how she can hopefully drink and keep down liquids.
This was two days ago. Unfortunately, she isn't drinking much, and she still isn't taking her full dose of the Zofran. This morning she's hit a new emotional low with work-related stress, and being sick in the car.
So that's where we are. The hardest parts for me have all been said in other threads... when she's being sick, I feel like I'm dying a little inside. I feel like I'm totally useless. Whenever I try to hold her hand or touch her reassuringly, I get batted away for causing more nausea, or she sits like a zombie. She isn't responding to what I say much anymore, she doesn't laugh or even smile anymore.
I'm feeling very emotionally drained right now, and trying to do EVERYTHING at home, plus fighting a losing battle keeping her sanity in check is murder.
And the real stressor is that she just got her job in October after a nearly year-long job search. She's technically still on her probationary three month period. Before the HG really got bad at the end of the year, we moved her to her office's insurance policy off of mine, to try to bring in more money in our paychecks. And though her office put her on their insurance, they technically haven't offered her a permanent employment offer, and she's been missing so much work from doctor's visits and just having to stay home. We're worried that her boss is going to decide that she's too much trouble, and won't hire her. And then she'll be without insurance, and I won't be able to bring her back onto mine until well after the baby's born. All of that is very very scary. Plus... if she loses her job, we won't be able to afford to have a child.
All of this has weighed on us both, but her especially (obviously). What scares me is how numb she has become emotionally. She's just continually telling me she can't do this, and how she is losing it. At this point, my encouragement sounds so hollow, and she just outrightly rebuffs any encouragement I can give her.
Sorry for all the emotional dumping, but there's not many people I can actually talk to. To all those other husbands out there, I definitely feel what you're going through. Let's all hope this passes quickly, and that our loved ones come through ok.