Thank you, Kate Middleton

Hey! It's Avery here with your Fun Furlong Friday Post!

As I mention in my introduction post, I had a pregnancy condition called Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG).

Dutchess Kate Middleton announced this week that she was expecting her second child, and that she was suffering from HG like she was with her first child. My heart broke for her. I can't seem to imagine her with messy hair, lying in bed and not showering for days, with a constant IV in her arm and a puke bucket next to her. She just seems too graceful for that. But I'm very excited that HG now has a public face. 

Most of the news media is declaring that Kate has "severe morning sickness." Well I'm here to tell you that they are wrong. They are so very wrong.  

I once heard someone say that calling Hyperemesis Gravidarum "just bad morning sickness" is like calling a hurricane "just a little wind." I couldn't have said it better myself. 

With my first son, I kind of knew what to expect. My mom had HG with her pregnancies. (So did five of her sisters.) I can still remember going to the hospital to visit her. Daddy would take us to the hospital gift shop and we would buy a beanie baby and go see mom while she munched her ice chips and then threw them up. 

I remember the home healthcare nurses coming to clean her PICC line. They always let me push her saline flush and watch them start her IV. I remember buckets and bags everywhere. For throwing up.

Then it was my turn. It started out just throwing up in the morning before breakfast. But then it gradually became more and more persistant. I tried eating and snacking every two hours. It never stayed down. I tried ginger (yes, I know the HG sister are cringing at that), I tried crackers, I tried peppermint, I tried those sickness bands, I tried preggo pops.... Nothing was helping. My doctor proscribed zofran. It seemed to lengthen the time between vomiting. Instead of 1-2 times every hour it was 1-2 times every 2-3 hours. I started to throw up stomach acid, or bile, which is the worse taste in the entire world. I remember lying on the bathroom floor and just crying and crying. Then I started to throw up blood too. I threw that up often.

I lost weight. I started my pregnancy at 120 pounds. I dropped about 19 pounds that first trimester.

(This is me in the hospital getting my first IV. I was so thrilled. But I felt a lot better afterwards.) 

Think that was bad? My second baby made this first pregnancy look easy. At 8 weeks I threw up flaky chunks, along with a good amount of blood. The chunks freaked me out because I hadn't been able to eat in over 24 hours or drink in a little over 48 hours. I had tried and unisom and B6, phenegran, zofran, and all the other pregnancy tips. I had a killer headache and hadn't needed to use the restroom in over 24 hours. When I saw those flakes, I called my doctor. Within an hour I was admitted to Davis Hospital for severe dehydration and I learned that those flakes were the inner lining of my esophagus and stomach. I was throwing up my own guts.

They monitored my fluid intake and out put, no food for 24 hours to give my stomach a rest, and I received vitamins and medication through an IV.

My mom brought my 7 month old son to see me. But first, she took him to the gift shop to buy a Beanie Baby. 

I was put on a very bland diet to be reintroduced to food. This all happened the day before my 20th birthday. 

I was finally released and put on home healthcare. I had strict orders to get IV fluids every single night after work. Tyler was In School and working full time. I had to work and care for my son the best I could but it is NOT easy caring for a baby and being hooked up to an IV pole. 

Despite the IV fluids, my weight was still dropping (over 25 pounds) and I was still throwing up and showing signs of dehydration. Finally my doctor ordered for me to get a PICC line. That PICC saved my life. I received IV fluids, medication and TPN through it. I went to work with my little backpack full of TPN and a pump to pump it in me while I worked. 

(Andrew helping me mix my vitamins into the TPN.) 

(My PICC line while I was at work.) 

The TPN helped me get my weight up, so we had my PICC removed. I was 20 weeks and still wearing my pre pregnancy clothes. In fact, between my two kids I've never owned a pair of maternity jeans.  

(20 weeks pregnant with boy #2!) 

I still got IVs weekly until 35 weeks when I went into preterm labor due to dehydration (still severely vomiting) and was put on bedrest until delivery. 

When I told people about my condition, I got several reactions. A lot of moms said, "I had that! It's normal!" Sorry, but there is nothing normal about throwing up blood and hulk-green stomach acid every hour. 

Some thought I was faking it or just being dramatic. (How do you fake needing a PICC line?) but most were just curious because they had never heard of it before. That's the problem. So many women have lost their babies because they had no idea that what others told them was "normal" made them so malnourished that their baby didn't make it. Before modern medicine and IVs, HG was the number one cause of death in early pregnancy. For mom and baby. 

HG has bad after affects too. Don't even ask about my teeth. And we are constantly watching for signs of origin failure, which is common in severe HG cases like my last pregnancy. I hate being pregnant. And it's enough that we are hesitant to have more because of how bad my second pregnancy was. Which breaks my heart because I love babies and have always wanted a big family. 

I love my tougHGuys. They were so worth it, but we don't know how many times I can do it again. Definitely one more though.

So thank you, Kate Middleton, for bringing HG into the public eye, and giving us a chance to raise awareness so that moms can get the proper treatment. Thank you for being our voice. I hope with all of my heart she makes it. It sounds like her palace doctors have her well taken care of though. 

If you have questions, feel free to message me or visit HelpHER.org for more information!