First, like everyone else, I want to say thank you for turning your attention to the horrible illness. Most people who have never experienced a loved one having this illness, simply can not grasp the scope of it, and all too quickly dismiss it as a mental illness, or a mother who isn't dealing well, or who didn't want her baby, or is just simply blowing things out of proportion.
If any normal person presented to their doctor with uncontrollable vomiting for 5 days, a 10 pound weight loss, and dehydration, their doctor would immediately admit them to the hospital. They would do what was necessary to make that patient immediately better. But a pregnant woman is allowed to continue in such a manner for weeks and even months.
Could you imagine having stomach flu for 7 months?
My husband and I have been blessed with two wonderful daughters, and a son on the way. All of my pregnancies have been affected by hyperemsis. All of my children were wanted, and very much loved.
My first pregnancy 16 years ago, was horrbly mis-managed. The doctor wouldn't give me anything for the vomiting or nausea. I'd return day after day, dehydrated and malnurished, needing more IV fluids. He would order the fluids and then send me home. Several times, I had to stay in the hospital for a week or more because my hyperemesis had so dehydrated me, that my heart rate was irregular, and I was only partially conscious. At one point my weight was down to 89 pounds. I tried everything that everyone suggested, and none of it worked. I desperately wanted to be better and feared that neither I nor my baby would survive. There were times the nurses had the same fears. When the doctor asked me on one visit what I was doing wrong, because he kept fixing me and I kept coming back, I finally stood up as best I could and told him that giving me 2 liters of fluids wasn't fixing me, when he did nothing to address the cause or prevent it from happening again. That day he started actually treating me with continuous medication at home.
My second daughter was much better treated. I was managed from the beginning with medication and fluids. I still had several hospital visits, missed innumerable days of work, and took months to recover the weight loss, malnutrition, and exaustion of the illness.
This pregnancy I searched out a physician who was not only familiar with the latest treatments for Hyperemesis, but willing to treat agressively with preventive medicine and progressive management. Thanks to lots of outpatient fluids, and my indispensible Zofran pump, and a combination of medication that works effectively, my weightloss has been kept to only 8 pounds this pregnancy, and I have never had to stay in the hospital at all this pregnancy. I have missed only a few weeks total of work. All because of the wonderful doctor who was willing to treat Hyperemesis the way it should be.
The HER forums has been my lifeline, even though I've been through this before. No where else could I find women who knew exactly what I was going through. Women who could tell just by the "tone" of my post that I needed to go get fluids, or call to increase my Zofran. Women to help me just get through today's round of vomiting or nausea. It's like having your own person cheering squad. And boy do we need it!
Angie