Guest Post: An intro to Hyperemesis Gravidarum and Depression

 Meet Kristin!  I am happy to pass on information on Hyperemesis Gravidarum and how common it is to suffer from PPS after having such a rough pregnancy!   Enjoy!

My name is Kristin, and I am a Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG), and postpartum depression survivor. In writing this blog post, I am going to make two assumptions. The first assumption is that all of you reading have at least heard of postpartum depression with some of you having suffered from it. The second assumption being that the majority of you have never heard of HG. So, what is HG? According to the Hyperemesis Education and Research (HER) Foundation, “Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) is a severe form of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy. It is generally described as unrelenting, excessive pregnancy- related nausea and/or vomiting that prevents adequate intake of food and fluids.” HG is more than just morning sickness, and it varies tremendously in the complications it can cause to mothers. I would invite all of you to go HER Foundation to learn more about this disease.

My story: After our two miscarriages early on in pregnancy, my husband and I got pregnant a third time in October 2012. We were incredibly excited and hopeful that this pregnancy might actually stick. The results of my blood work showed really good levels of HCG and progesterone, and our ultrasound showed a pregnancy that finally had a heartbeat. For once in pregnancy, we thought that we could relax and enjoy ourselves. That was week 8, and I had no morning sickness symptoms and weighed 180 pounds.

By the end of week 10, what I thought was “morning sickness” had reared its ugly head. After two days of throwing up everything including water, I finally called the doctor. I didn’t want to be known as a crybaby or needy patient. I was prescribed some Zofran to help. It didn’t help me. I spent the next three days throwing up to the point of throwing up blood. My OB wanted to see me at that point. When asked to give a urine sample, I was unable to do so. The nurse asked the last time I had gone to the bathroom, and I had to stand there to think before saying “I don’t remember.” It was right then when the nurse pulled my OB out of another room, and my OB wheeled me to triage for IV hydration (six bags worth). She diagnosed me with the HG and explained it. I had never heard of it.

As the weeks progressed, my symptoms would vary on the day, but my social life had come to a halt. I was no longer able to participate in the majority on things. Taking a shower without passing out was difficult. My friends had no idea what to say to me, and let’s face it; it isn’t fun hanging out with a person who is going to throw up on your shoes. By week 20, I weighed 155 pounds. I had lost 25 pounds or around 15% of my body weight. During this time, I worked full time, and I was blessed by the most lenient sick policy and the most understanding bosses. I used 30 paid sick days during pregnancy and worked from home another 15. The days I did make it to work, I would end up throwing up in my cubicle. It was exhausting, but everyone was nice and understanding. My coworkers picked up my slack.

 After 26 weeks and a horrible stranger accusing me of being bulimic, starving my unborn child, and threatening to call child protective services on me, I realized that there had to be other women who suffered with this. My support network of family and friends just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. I was tired of explaining to every person that cared about me what I was going through. No one I knew could understand or empathize. I was tired of being told to try this or try that and especially being told to eat crackers. (Funny side note: I actually threw up on a lady’s shoes for bringing me crackers. I had warned her not to, but she thought she knew better.) I had gotten to know several members of the police force after being pulled over numerous times under suspicion of drunk driving (who throws up in their car at 6am). By the end, I became a pro at driving and vomiting. My husband was also at the end of his rope. He at this point had found me unconscious and unresponsive on the floor twice from dehydration. He missed a lot of work to take me to the hospital for IV treatments.

 The support board was a lifesaver. It was so good to know that I was not alone in my suffering. I no longer felt isolated and defined by my condition. I had strangers out there on the internet who understood what I was going through, and some of them had it much worse. I appreciated not having a PICC line or being nourished through TPN. I was still able to eat some food, even if it was Spaghettios and milkshakes. My son was born at 37 weeks, and I had managed to gain 4 pounds. I weighed 184. J We had a very easy and quick delivery that was actually sped up by my throwing up the entire time of labor. He was born July 3, 2013 at 12:05 pm, and by 2pm, I had eaten a foot long sub, a bag of flaming hot Cheetos, one dozen snicker doodle cookies, and a personal pan pizza. I thought that my life would come to a new normal with an infant, but at least I could eat.

After being discharged from the hospital, my husband quickly realized that something was wrong with me. I was crying every day for a week for hours at a time. I sang my son to sleep every night with a made up song that ended with “I wish I was a better Mommy for you. You deserve a better Mommy than me.” I am not 100% certain if the HG was why I suffered from PPD, but I know that HG depleted me. I had spent the whole pregnancy just surviving each day sometimes by each hour in that day. I suffered for so long throwing up every day with the good days being only 5 times and the bad days stopping the count at 5 hours without leaving the toilet. HG took the fight out of me. I didn’t have any energy left to fight depression and sleep deprivation. My husband dragged me to the OB after a week at home where she prescribed me some medication. I was on it till 6 months postpartum. Under my OB’s orders, I had weaned myself of it.

Currently, my husband, my son, and I are doing much better. It was an incredibly rough time period to go through, but it was totally worth it. We survived during the pregnancy through the misguided support of friends and family. I have a really great friend Amanda who supported me the entire postpartum depression. She would come over anytime I called and bring me comfort food or take my son so I could take care of myself. All in all, it was worth it the moment my son was born. The women I have met through the support board would say the same thing. In fact, it was so worth it that my husband and I decided to add to our family. We are currently on our second HG pregnancy with baby due in October.