My HG story: Angela Barclay
My husband and I always joked that we would have at least 5 children…enough to fill a netball team! For as long as I can remember I had been looking forward to being pregnant, getting that glow everyone talked about and growing a little one from scratch A lot of people had told me being pregnant was tough but I was ready…ha!
My first pregnancy I started vomiting almost instantly and by the end of week three, I thought I must have caught something more severe than just being pregnant…I was constantly throwing up and feeling dizzy, at the time I didn’t know of the term ‘Hyperemesis Gravidarum’. My GP prescribed me some anti-nausea medication but within a week I was back as I hadn’t kept anything down, food or fluids. I was put on a bland diet – mash potato, plain crackers and ginger…anything and everything ginger…freshly grated ginger, ginger biscuits, ginger ale…. still to this day I can’t go anywhere near ginger and just hearing the word makes me shudder…f*%king ginger!
Week five and I had lost a lot of weight and my family started to worry. I was taken to ED & kept thinking “I shouldn’t be here, there are so many people worse off than me and I feel like I am being a sook”. The medical staff were of the same opinion and told me I had morning sickness and actually the sicker you are – the better. That didn’t help me mentally.
After a few bags of fluids, I felt like I could function again… I could even muster up the energy to have a shower and wash my hair!
Repeat this process for a couple of months with great quantities of Zofran, Motilium, Hydrolytes, IV drips, Restavit blah blah blah. All the way thinking that magical 3-month mark was my light at the end of the tunnel and I just had to make it to this and I would start to feel better. At 14 weeks I was so out of it I had a car accident; rear-ended some poor bloke on his way to work, and totalled my car. I don’t remember a lot of it, I must have blacked out or zoned out but just remember the very last second where I realised I was going to hit the car in front of me and just braced for the impact. Thankfully everyone was OK, that was the moment where I thought – this is just not normal morning sickness.
When I found out I was pregnant with my second, I cried. And cried and cried.
For about a week I was not happy in the slightest. Even though we wanted another baby and had planned for it, there was no turning back now and the only way forward was through hell. My second pregnancy was the same, just swap the car accident for collapsing at the outdoor cinemas. The vomiting was a bit more intense but I feel we were better equipped the handle it since we had done it before - my family knew what to do and when the HG was at its worst and hubby was away, I moved in with family.
We had a longer discussion about trying for a third, the thought of doing it all again with not one but two toddlers to look after was daunting. When we told people we were expecting again (because with HG you can’t hide it!), I was surprised at some of the comments…when I was sick it was “well you did want another one…” Like somehow, I chose to be this sick and I had what was coming to me because I desired another baby…or that I shouldn’t be afforded sympathy because I had made a choice to do it again.
All of this goes through your head for 9 months and then the moment you meet that tiny human…Us 1 - Hyperemesis Gravidarum 0!
When I was at the start of my pregnancy journey I wish I had of known people who had gone through HG. To know what I was going through was an actual thing and not just in my head (which is what most people tell you). My advice to anyone going through HG is – you are stronger than you think! Take the help, take the meds, take the fluids and fight like hell to be heard.
You got this!