My HG story: Erin Folland
I just want to start this by saying not all HG stories have a beautiful happy ending. Some have tough endings but I believe all stories should be told no matter the outcome.
I never really thought I would have kids. I never really had that maternal instinct, or at the time the right partner. I wasn’t really around babies/kids growing up as most of my cousins were in a reasonably close age range to my sister and me.
Then I met my now-husband, John, he had always wanted kids. I knew he would be a good dad. So a few months after we got married in 2016, we thought we’d give it a shot! I’ve had plenty of health problems in my past and didn’t know if it would even happen for me.
Well to my surprise about 1 month after trying I found out that I was about 2 weeks pregnant. I was terrified and excited at the same time.
I got to about week 3-4 and I started to feel terrible, thought this was the usual nausea everyone talks about. Tried to eat and drink anything with ginger in it, because everyone told me that will fix it. Once I couldn’t even keep one sip of water down I realised something wasn’t quite right, I had 2 overnight stays in hospital in the one week and then finally got a chance to see my obstetrician. I believe I should have had more hospital stays over the time I had HG, but I was still in the waiting period for pregnancy cover on my health insurance so each stay cost $330. That cost was going to add up very quickly.
My obstetrician told me I was one of the unlucky ones to get HG. I had never heard of it, so many people I told afterwards have never heard of it and that it would probably get worse and he couldn’t tell me when or if it was going to go away. I was even more terrified then I was before.
My husband is a truck driver and he works away 2/3’s of the year, home for a day or two here or there. Without him around I knew I was going to have to face this head-on myself.
I learnt to drive and vomit to get myself to the emergency room to get fluids, which between weeks 5-9 was roughly about every 2-3 days. I remember the first time I went in and got fluids and after a few hours I got a cheese sandwich and orange cordial, I thought I was in heaven. It felt like it was the best thing I had ever tasted. I think I ended up drinking about 2 litres of cordial in an hour or so. It was amazing.
I had to stop working during this time as I just could not function day-to-day. I found it hard to move from the lounge as each time I moved I would be sick. I ended up just not trying to eat and drink as I knew it would just come back up. By this time I was on about 4 types of medications and would get injections when I went to the ED to stop the vomiting. But nothing seemed to work. I was being sick even when I had nothing in my stomach. I felt terrible that I could not provide for my growing baby the way I thought I would be able to when pregnant.
My health was failing more as each week went by, my husband and I made the unfortunate decision to terminate the pregnancy and I had surgery around week 10. It was a very hard decision for us to make and it was one of the hardest things I have ever gone through, the toll it put on my mind and body is life-changing.
Once I got out of the hospital, it still took a few days for the nausea to go away. I found it took me about 12 months to get back to my new normal.
My hair was falling out, I had gingivitis, my thyroid function was all over the shop and I was getting blood tests every 2 weeks, just to name a few issues.
I put on an extra 10kg due to my thyroid not functioning correctly and other hormonal changes from having to go on the pill. I still have not been able to shift the weight I put on once my thyroid function had settled down, and I still have issues with my teeth and gums.
Honestly, I have pushed a lot of what happened out of my memory because it was such a difficult time. My husband has reminded me at different times about a few things he saw that I had totally forgotten about. Like trying to fill in my admission form for surgery at the hospital counter and not being able to complete the form out without vomiting.
HS was that bad for me that I don’t think I will try and have kids again, and I only got to 10 weeks. I know everyone’s experience is different but I have no idea how some mums have done it more than once. They are incredibly strong women!
So yes my story is not one with a positive outcome, but my positive outcome came a few years later.
I was checking my IG page and saw Mel from Barossa Exercise Physiology (@barossa_exercisephysiology) shared a story about a lady named Kaitlyn (@the_rehab_mama) who was training for a triathlon to raise money and awareness for HG. This hit me hard and I knew I had to get onto that bandwagon. As soon as I saw the story I looked into what Tri’s were around and what I thought I could be able to train for in a few months, I was so excited.
Since then I have started training to do an enticer triathlon in South Australia. I have raised some money to go to HG Australia and what’s excited me, even more, is that I speak about HG in my day to day life now. So many people have never heard of this issue and just being able to make people aware makes what I went through worthwhile.
I don’t know if I will be able to even finish the triathlon as I haven’t swum laps since I was at school (and would try and avoid it on sports days too!), haven’t been on a bike since I was a kid and I just really hate running!
When I’m training and I’m really struggling to finish a lap, get to the next km on the bike or to keep running. I think of all the beautiful ladies that have been through and are going through so much more pain then me at that moment and I try to keep pushing.
If it wasn’t for Mel sharing an IG story, Kaitlyn sharing her journey and HG Australia having such an amazing FB group for people experiencing HG, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Thinking about and talking to people suffering each day. So thank you to all these people and everyone else willing to share their story, you are all helping to make a difference.