What is Hyperemesis Gravidarum???

Because people need to know.

http://www.hyperemesis.org/downloads/HG_overview_media.pdf

The following *exerpts are taken from the above webpage.

*Did you know that roughly 25% of women who suffer from HG will terminate the pregnancy?

*The best analogy is to imagine having food poisoning or a stomach flu for six months or so. Add
to that pain and sensory sensitivities experienced with migraines. It is very miserable and women often fear they will die or never recover.

*Watching TV or reading often worsens the nausea and vomiting, so mothers may have to remain in a dark room void of stimulation.

*Over time, they can develop many complications including muscle and bone loss from
malnutrition and bed rest, anemia, liver and gall bladder disorders, hernias, thyroid dysfunction,
severe acid reflux, stomach ulcers, sleep disorders, extreme fatigue, impairment of their mental
functioning, and emotional trauma.

*They also have to deal with the side-effects of the multiple medications required to treat HG,
which often includes anxiety, headaches, nausea, insomnia, and severe bowel dysfunction.



If you ever have the chance to know a woman with HG, please, be a support to her. Follow through with your offers of help. Don't down play her experience. Don't pull away because you feel helpless. Be her friend regardless of how "whiney" you perceive her.

I am learning who my friends are. I have had friends and family that have come out of the woodwork that have taken my kids, that have let them play at their house and do fun summer activities that I could otherwise not do with them. I have sweet and understanding friends that will call me for no reason other than to ask how I am doing and how my husband and children are doing. I have had family come over and sit with me so that my husband could have a much needed break so that I wouldn't have to be alone. You see, he witnesses constant suffering as do my kids. It isn't fair to them and they need breaks from it. People have done that for me and asked for nothing in return. Some day I will pay them back!!! I have had people call me and just let me go on and on listen without judgement or guile. Friends have asked my husband and children over to their homes for dinner or they have brought over nutritious and non-smelly food for my family. One of my biggest fears during this is the feeding of my family. I normally LOVE to cook and normally my family has a healthy, homemade meal from scratch. It has become quiet the adjustment for them to live on sandwiches, cold cereal, cut up fruit or whatever my husband can microwave in the basement because the smell makes me sick. So these small acts of kindness are actually enormous!!!

Complete strangers have now become my friends. I have received books, cards, hypnosis cd's and random e-mails of women who care and who make me feel so loved. I have a stack of cards sitting on my nightstand next to my countless bottles of pills atop a book that completely validates the HG experience. I look at it and I can feel the love for me. It makes me weep when I see it.

Cyber friends, who I consider REAL FRIENDS have made me feel like I am worth so much. It is priceless. Thanks to all of you....you know who you are!!!! Your good mail means the world to me.

Then I have had friends that have pulled away. That think I am being whiney and a big baby. Ones who wonder why I can't suck it up and be strong. Ones who think that if I am having a good day, a good hour or a good ten minutes and I take my kids out of the house then I must be playing this whole thing up because I am an attention seeking baby. They don't understand that the effectiveness of my Zofran only lasts for about 30 minutes now and that as a mother you have this desire to make your kids your priority in the off-chance that you do feel good. Ones who take every opportunity to let others know how you don't really have it "that bad" and that I should take one look at their lives to know how bad life can be.

So please, be in the first three groups of people. You will never know the difference you have made in a woman who is enduring constant suffering's life. You could be her small miracle for the day.


I know this blog has become a "Stephanie vents about her terrible rotten pregnancy" blog, but it is my journal of this section of my life. I type it here because I need to. I need other women to see this for what it is. A real condition, a disease, a circumstance that is REAL and terrible! It is currently all consuming and it is what my life is right now. Someday I will be up to writing about the "better" things in my life. So thank you to all of you who are helping me endure one of the "worse" times. I love and appreciate all of you.