Amy's Story

The HER foundation contributed letters from our forums members for a show that featured Hyperemesis as a topic. The show aired in April of 2007.

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Amy's Story

Postby *my3sons* » Feb 27, 2007 5:27 pm

Dear Dr. Phil & gracious staff,

I must first thank you, before beginning my story. This disease has struck me three times during what should have been the most blessed time of my life. I have carried much buried shame since my first Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) pregnancy. You have helped me to regain my pride and belief in myself as a woman.

My husband and I married at the ripe old ages of 19 and 22. It was not a shotgun wedding. We were young and in love and our own parents' marriages were still together. We believed we could do it. And, we have. We have been married for almost 19 years.

We were wise enough not to begin growing our family until financially ready and maturing a little. We tried and were blessed with our first pregnancy when I was 22. The entire family was ecstatic. Shortly after receiving a positive pregnancy test, approximately one week, I took my prenatal vitamin and vomited in the kitchen sink. I thought, oh boy, here comes the morning sickness. But, I wasn't worried. My mother had morning sickness and like hers, I thought mine would soon pass. It didn't. It became days on end of intense nausea and vomiting.

Struggling to keep my job in low level management within the government, I brought Gatorade to work and managed to keep a couple of sips of that down throughout the workday. I was able to drag myself in a couple of days a week. Because my husband worked there as well, he did the driving. I managed people who waited on customers at a front counter. When help was not there, it was my duty to cover the front counter. I was instructed by my immediate supervisor to take my trash can to the front counter to vomit in. One day, I was sitting there barely holding my head up and our chief supervisor walked through the door. He took one look at me and said, "Amy, do NOT come to work tomorrow. You need to go see your doctor. Something is not right." His deputy, the woman who told me to take my trash can to the counter, walked in behind him and said sharply, "No, she is to bring her ginger ale and crackers and BE HERE." Guess what, that was my last day in that job ever.

The next morning I was too sick to get up from bed and I laid like that for 3 days with no food or liquids. I called the doctor's office and was told to lay on my left side as that might ease my nausea. I rarely went to the bathroom in those days as there was such little fluid in my body. I had no idea what this was doing to me. On about the 4th day of laying there I noticed a small pain in my lower left pelvic region. I called the doctor and reported this. There was no concern so I stayed as I was. That weekend my husband took me to the ER. I reported the pain in my left side to them. They did an ultrasound to rule out tubal pregnancy. The baby was in the uterus. Then they became impatient, telling me that I was probably just constipated. I was given an enema with instructions to purchase another and use as needed. I remember hearing many comments between themselves about this being my first pregnancy.

Dr. Phil, I have always been very compliant. My husband purchased that enema and I tried again to alleviate my pain with it. The pain became worse. I laid in bed for another week too weak and sick to get up. The pain grew steadily worse and was radiating down my thigh. The next weekend came and so did another trip to the ER. This time I was given IV fluids for re-hydration. I remember feeling like a flower sucking up much needed water in a vase. However, the pain in my leg was horrific. I was not examined for the leg pain at all, even though that was the reason for my visit. I went through another week of being in bed, sick, and in pain. Sometime during that next week as the pain increased to become unbearable, my nausea began to decrease. I was able to eat some food and take in some fluid. However, I could not walk at this point as my leg felt like it was being literally pulled from my body. My husband was having to carry me to the bathroom as I cried in pain. My leg pain was now to my knee. I could sense that I was dying. I searched our medical books and determined that the closest match to what I was feeling was Deep Venous Thrombosis, a blood clot. My husband called my mother, who drove to my house and called my OB for me. I was put on the phone with her and explained my situation and the fact that my grandmother had died of a blood clot so my mother was extremely concerned. My OB told me to get to the ER immediately and she would meet me there to oversee the testing.

When I arrived and was wheeled in it became apparent, after they looked at my condition, that it was grave. They performed a venogram after much difficulty in finding a vein that would support the IV due to my dehydration. That is a whole other story. The venogram showed complete occlusion of the left popliteal, left superficial femoral, and the left tibial veins. I had developed a blood clot in three large veins in my left leg that began in the pelvic region and extended to below the knee. Most medical people do not believe that is possible when I tell them but it certainly happened to me and I have the venogram ex-rays and discharge summary to prove it. It is a miracle that I survived it with the non-care that I received from our local ER. This is what happens when a young, first-time pregnant, woman is not listened to. I was admitted to the labor and delivery ward of the hospital and given massive amounts of blood thinner. I was also re-hydrated. I was offered Demerol for the pain as it was now "real." I refused the Demerol as I was afraid of harming the baby with more medication. I had already flooded my body with Tylenol. Although my body fought the blood thinner, and increased platelet production, it eventually gave in. My platelets lowered and the clot began to shrink. As soon as this process began, my pain began to diminish. However, as the pain began to diminish, my nausea returned. It was as if the intense pain had turned off the nausea center of my brain. I do not recommend this for treating HG. :wink:

When I was weighed at the hospital we discovered that I only weighed 98 pounds. I am 5'7" tall. Obviously, that is not an ideal weight for a pregnant woman. I should have been, at the very least, 130 pounds. Still, my HG was not aggressively treated. I was simply given Phenergan suppositories to use. This barely took the edge off the nausea but also completely knocked me out. I must be honest here and state that although I refused the Demerol for pain, I gladly accepted the Phenergan for nausea. Any escape from the sickness was welcome, even if it was a blurry haze.

After 10 days in the hospital, I was sent home with instructions for injecting a triple dose of Heparin every 8 hours for the remainder of my pregnancy. I was about 13 weeks along at that time. My nausea and vomiting returned full force and I spent many days in bed, sick, vomiting bile and excessive saliva, and crying. I could not have lights on, I could not stand to smell my husband, I could not read, I could not swallow my excessive saliva without vomiting. Finally, my mother came to see me and called the OB. She yelled at them that when they heard my name, red flags better go up all over that office. I was sent to the ER for re-hydration and sent back home with more Phenergan suppositories.

Somehow I survived in that manner until about 24 weeks gestation and things started to improve. I gradually got better but by the end of my pregnancy I had barely gotten back up to 120 pounds. Upon my discharge from the hospital after the birth I weighed 107 pounds. I will be honest and say that I only weighed 120 pounds at the beginning of my pregnancy. I was always a thin child and remained that way into adulthood due to a very active metabolism. I never struggled with an eating disorder and enjoyed food very fully, never having to worry about weight gain.

About four weeks before my due date my OB decided that since my baby was still in a breech position, she would turn him. After that was done, the placenta was closely inspected by sonogram to be sure no tearing had taken place during the procedure. No tears, but it was discovered that the placenta was at that time depleted and it was suspected of not being able to provide further nourishment to the baby. I was sent back home with instructions to return for non-stress tests twice weekly and further sonograms once a week. After two weeks of this went by, it was decided that the baby had to come out immediately. There had been no growth since the previous month. I was induced and my body easily slipped into labor as I had already been having contractions during the previous month and was admitted at 4 centimeters dilation.

Surprisingly and blessedly, our baby was born at 5 lbs 15 ozs. My doctor was shocked at our good fortune. She told me that she had been hoping for at least 4 lbs. God is good! Our little boy appeared very healthy despite the struggle we had been through. He did have a few issues such as not having any sucking reflex which made breast feeding too difficult. I was pumping milk, as well, and due to damage from the pump began bleeding into the breast milk. At this time our family doctor helped me decide to switch to formula feeding as I was now on Coumadin and the baby was getting the blood thinner due to my bleeding into the breast milk. It was the best decision I ever made, as my weakened body had been battling Mastitis infections constantly. I will be forever grateful for his understanding.

Other mothers have not afforded me the same understanding, explaining to me that I just did not try hard enough.

Dr. Phil, you see that my story heavily centers around my blood clot. I believe that I would not have developed that clot had my HG been addressed early and aggressively. My loving husband almost lost a beloved young wife and a greatly desired little baby boy. My husband was my hope and my security and I weep when I think of the enormous fear, desperation, and loneliness he must have felt at that time.

I have felt much shame over my inability to do the most basic of female activities without it becoming a freak show. People recommended I abort my baby telling me that obviously I was not intended, by God, to become a parent. I was belittled and called lazy for not getting out of bed. I was told that I had no tolerance for pain. I was shunned for not breast feeding. I had my dignity and pride ripped away from me by this disease and some of the people closest to me. People do not understand this disease.

It may surprise you, but I do not harbor ill will towards my OB. She had undergone her own surgery and was being covered for during the beginning stages of my blood clot. Once the clot was found (she had just returned to work), that became the focus of my treatment. And, there was simply not accurate information at that time on the causes and treatments for HG.

It may surprise you even more to know that I went on to do this two more times! My husband and I are very much in love and our dreams were of a large family to share that love with us. I suffered HG again during the second pregnancy. Thankfully, it was not as severe but it was also treated even less aggressively than it was the first time. My third pregnancy brought another severe case of HG but the Phenergan was given to me more freely this time, and again I dealt with it, losing much weight and then regaining in the last couple of months before baby's arrival.

My fourth and last pregnancy became my lost angel. This recounting of my story is dedicated to Benjamin, the child of my sorrows. It is very hard to end childbearing with a loss. You see, I am 37. I had my babies years apart in order to regain my strength each time. However, I am now old in child-bearing terms, especially when you consider the HG that will most certainly ravage my body again. My husband does not believe I will survive another one of these pregnancies and so we have decided that we must mournfully relinquish that dream of many blessed children.

We have been blessed with three of the most beautiful and loving boys you would ever want to meet. They are 14, 11, and 7. We home school and are a family highly invested in each other, anyone who knows us will tell you the same. Oh, and my tiny firstborn, who just turned 14, stands at a very tall, but slender, 6'2".

My family is my hard fought, well earned prize. And you, Dr. Phil, have given me back my own personal pride. Thank you for listening to my story in a way that no one ever has before.

With many thanks,
Amy L. Dove
Maryland
my3sons
3X HG Survivor
loved and lost 2005
*my3sons*
HG Expert
 
Posts: 1734
Joined: Feb 03, 2007 1:24 am

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