Knocked Up – Knocked Over

my journey through pregnancy and hyperemesis gravidarum

Monthly Archives: November 2010


by 1 Comment

Thank you UPS man!

Thank you UPS man for delivering so many exciting things this week! 

The first thing that arrived was my PrimaBella wristband.  These are not seabands!  (Don’t even get me started on how much I loathe the seabands.  Seriously.  I hate them.)  This is a prescription wristband that sends a tiny electrical impulse up the arm to supposedly help combat nausea and vomiting.  Just look at how happy those ladies look on their website!  Yeah, I know, it’s likely that at some point I will want to get stabby with those happy, smiling ladies, but for now, I’m hoping that this will help.  This sucker is actually FDA approved, and there’s been a bit of buzz on the HelpHer forums.  With that in mind, I’m hopeful.

I have to say, dealing with the PrimaBella people so far has been nothing but pleasurable.  Within 24 hours of them getting the prescription from my doctor they were calling me to talk insurance.  They tried running it through both prescription insurance (DENIED!) and medical insurance (DENIED!), and when that fell through they offered me a coupon to help offset the cost and gave me free priority overnight shipping.  The whole process took about a week from the point where my doctor faxed in the Rx to me having the wristband in my hot little hands.  They called me every day to update me on the status, which I thought was very nice.  If I was pregnant and sick, having that assurance that they were trying to get me help ASAP would be very comforting.  This seems to be a seriously on the ball company.  Let’s hope the wristband helps.

In other wonderful customer service news, I also got to experience the phenomenal customer service of Tara Ramos, fellow HG survivor and the creator of Morning Chicness Bags.  These are the fun alternative to the plastic grocery sack puke bag.  She’s taken the concept of air-sick bags and made them pretty!  There wasn’t a way to order a variety pack directly on the website, so I emailed her directly.  Within an hour or so, we were communicating.  I got my order placed for 50 bags in a variety of design options, and she got them packaged up and out the door the next morning!

They arrived this past week and they are so pretty!  Whoever thought puke bags could be cute and pretty!  As I told Tara, I can’t say I’m looking forward to using the bags, but I do look forward to the sunshine and cheer they will bring me when I feeling crummy.  They’ve even got an inspirational message on the bottom: “Take one day at a time!”

 And hey!  We’ll probably get to try them out tomorrow!  We’re taking a road trip to visit some of my family for Thanksgiving and Gabi gets carsick.  Joy.  But at least she can harf in style!

At some point, I’m sure I’ll be able to review both the Morning Chicness bags and the and the PrimaBella wristband.  For now, I will just be thankful for an illness-free Thanksgiving and for the good memories we’ll be creating together.

Oh, I almost forgot!  The last thing that came in the mail this week was… My FABULOUS New Boots!  Yeah, I know, not HG related at all, but they’re so pretty!  I love you Nordstrom’s Shoe Department!


by 3 Comments

Another HG Blog – The Depths of HG

I’ve found another HG blogger out there, or rather, she found me: Chelsea over at Building my Baby: http://buildingmybaby.wordpress.com/

She’s suffering right now in the depths of HG hell, and from the sound of it, she’s not getting much medical support.  No home health, no Zofran pump, nothing beyond some pills and telling her to come in 3 times a week to the hospital for fluids.  Let me be honest, this kind of thing doesn’t much help an HGer with a serious case of it.  Instead of constant hydration, she’s getting peaks and valleys.  Instead of healing at home and resting, she’s having to haul herself out of the house constantly.  What a nightmare.

The best part?  Her doctor told her to… wait for it… take some ginger!  Hah!

I’ll be counting down the days with her until she gets to see new doctors on the 30th.  Hopefully she’ll feel well enough to update us on how she’s doing.  You can follow her progress with me.  I’ve added her link over on the right.

Chelsea, you’re on our minds over here.  We’re wishing you comfort, relief, and proper medical care.


by 1 Comment

Preliminary Review: Ginger People Ginger Chews

I’m willing to try all sorts of things to keep the nausea at bay.  Everything from home remedies to medical ones.  Despite it’s potentially fatal flaw of making the vomiting worse, one obvious choice is ginger.  With that in mind, I paid a visit to my local natural food stores to peruse their selection of plant-based and natural remedies. 

I had a hard time finding the ginger section, but imagine my delight when I saw an adorable little ginger man smiling up at me from the shelf!  Check out the guy on the front page of the Ginger People website.  How cute is that?  These folks do ginger.  Just ginger.  They’re all about the ginger.

I went ahead and selected their Original Ginger Chew.  Starting basic seems to make the most sense, and this chew is really basic.  I like the fact that it only has three ingredients:  cane sugar, ginger, tapioca starch.  No HFCS, no dyes, none of that extra junk.  I really appreciate that kind of simplicity in food, and I especially like the idea of eating simple foods when pregnant.

Another thing that I like about this particular ginger candy is that they come individually wrapped.  The environmentalist in me isn’t thrilled with the idea of individually wrapped foodstuffs, but from a practical standpoint, on something like this, it’s a major bonus to me.  It makes it much easier to toss it in my pocket, my purse, or my travel kit.  That’s why these chews went into the travel kit and the crystalized ginger, which was bulk in the bag, did not. 

While I was putting together my HG kit, I flipped over the bag and gave it a read.  It suggested dissolving the chew into a cup of hot water to make a soothing ginger tea.  Bonus!  A tea and a chew in one little package!  I was pretty nervous about trying the ginger candy straight away because of what a strong vomit-trigger ginger ale and ginger snaps were for me during my last bout with HG.  I decided that trying it as a tea when I’m not pregnant might be a little less frightening than trying it full force in the midst of HG.  Start easy.

I dropped the chew into the bottom of a mug and poured in the boiling water.

Then I stirred.  And stirred.  And stirred.  And stirred.  Those suckers do not dissolve easily in hot water. 

It took a good 5 minutes of stirring (I timed it) leaving it to do something else, 5 or so more minutes of stirring, doing something else, then stirring some more to get that sucker to dissolve.  When it finally did dissolve into the water, the resulting tea didn’t have much flavor.  This is potentially a very good thing, but for now I jazzed it up with a spoonful of honey. 

It was delicious, warming, and soothing on my very sore throat (thankyou preschool germs).  If I can tolerate warm liquids, this might be nice to try.

Even if warm liquids aren’t working, I could still ice it and sip carefully.  I really like the flexibility with this.

After drinking the tea and not suffering from crippling nausea, I decided to have a go at just eating the candy alone.  First impression?  This thing is huge!  It feels a whole lot bigger in my mouth than it looked on the plate.  Here’s a shot to give you a size perspective.  That’s a quarter next to it to give perspective.

This is potentially a serious issue.  Big things in the mouth = gagging.  It’s easily solvable, though, by just cutting it in half and saving the rest for later.  Definitely not a deal-breaker for me.

A few munches in, the flavor hit.  It was definitely spicy, but not in a hot pepper, eyeballs on fire kind of way.  It also didn’t have that sharp, up-the-nose spice that cinnamon flavored things can sometimes have.  Instead it was just very warm, smooth, and sweet.  The chew itself did not go away quickly like I expected it to.  It was less like a taffy and more like a cross between a gummy bear and chewing gum in texture.  Maybe it was the tapioca that gave it that staying power.  It was an interesting texture and the smoothness of it meant that even if I did chew it up and swallow pieces, I wouldn’t have to worry about hard candy shards slicing into my mouth or cutting my throat coming back up.  Speaking from experience, avoiding the shards is important.

Though the chew was tasty to my non-pregnant mouth, I can definitely see the potential for pain.  With the heat it created in my mouth, revisiting that chew over the bucket would be a painful experience.  It is certainly something to try for nausea, but something I will avoid if I’m actually vomiting.

Overall, this seems like a good and tasty product.  As a bonus, if the original flavored chew doesn’t appeal to me, there are other interesting options: Spicy Apple, Peanut Ginger, and Hot Coffee Ginger.  I’m not sure how adventurous I’m willing to be with these, but the options are there if my little heart desires it.

Pros:

  • limited ingredients
  • individually wrapped for easy travel
  • multiple ways to use: candy or tea
  • soft, gentle texture
  • yummy, comforting taste
  • multiple flavor options
  • soothing on a sore throat

Cons:

  • individual wrapper may not be the most environmental choice
  • giant-sized chew could cause gagging if not cut in half
  • gentle heat could turn into burning, flaming agony if it does not stay down
  • ginger is a trigger for a lot of HGers and could make things worse

The Preliminary Verdict:  I think it’s worth a shot as a possible preventative to deal with nausea early on.  The ability to drink it as a hot or iced tea is a plus as this seems to be a more gentle option that eating the chew straight.  As far as taking this to halt vomiting that is already happening?  No way.  I would be way too concerned about the potential for the fire-breathing pain while vomiting.  Ultimately, if these don’t work for cutting HG-related nausea, they’re certainly comforting to a sore throat and may be worth keeping around for that purpose alone.

image

Disclaimer: I’m not receiving any compensation for writing this review.  This is just a product I stumbled across at the store.  No part of this is paid for by the company.


by 4 Comments

A word about ginger

I will be giving ginger a shot to help with the nausea this time around, but I wanted to very briefly make my position on ginger clear.

Ginger alone is rarely (if ever) enough to treat HG.  Ginger can be fantastic for helping with morning sickness, motion sickness, and general stomach upset, but it often will not work for HG.  To go one step farther, for many HGers, ginger is a trigger, meaning that instead of helping with the nausea, it can actually cause vomiting. 

Some of the most painful and intense vomiting I experienced during my last pregnancy involved ginger snap cookies and a few swigs of ginger ale.  Any HGer who has experienced this will tell you that ginger burns like fire coming back up.  The flavor and the spice not only burns your throat and mouth, but fills your entire sinus cavity.  And not in the pleasant, hot mustard, sinus clearing way.  In the horrible, oh-my-God-my-eyeballs-are-melting kind of way.   The pain and intensity were so bad that to this day I am not able to drink ginger ale.  I would never, ever recommend that someone suffering in the depths of HG hell ingest anything that contains ginger.

That said, I will try using ginger as a preventative measure.  I included it in my protocol, and when my doctor and I discussed this point, she indicated that it might be helpful, but that I should stop using it as soon as my body no longer tolerates it.  You will see me posting a bit about ginger, but if you have a friend or relative suffering from HG I just ask that you please keep in mind that ginger is very rarely tolerated in HG patients.  If things like ginger worked, we wouldn’t be shelling out the big bucks for the Zofran and the hospital stays.

Hopefully it helps me, but I won’t be surprised if it does not.


by 2 Comments

Mad Props from The Whining Puker

I think I just swooned a little bit!  The Whining Puker, one of the most venerable HG blogs on the net, posted about this blog!

That is so cool.  She was one of my roll models for writing this blog.  Thanks Diana!

To check out The Whining Puker, follow the link over in the blogroll column.


by 9 Comments

Assembling the disaster– I mean, the HG kit

I made it to Target yesterday between swim class and nap time to pick up the last of the items for my HG kit, and last night, while my daughter ate star and heart shaped sandwiches, I put the whole thing together.

This kit contains my Essentials for Surviving the First Weeks contained in one compact, and easily accessible unit.  Fancy!

Here’s what’s in The Kit.

Let me apologize for the picture quality.  It was at night.  It was on my phone.  My camera is in Europe with my husband.

I started with getting together the medicines that will be my first line of defense (refer to the protocol for timing and dosage).

image

From left to right they are:

  • Zofran 8 mg ODT tablets – It’s a starter Rx of 15, I’ve got a prescription on hand for a full months supply that I will fill when I become pregnant
  • Unisom – NOT the sleep melts, plain old Doxcilimine Succinate
  • A pill splitter
  • Generic Pepcid – Last time everything turned to acid in my mouth so I couldn’t eat.  Hopefully this will help with that.
  • Generic Colace – Trust me, if you’re taking Zofran, you will need this stuff.
  • Generic Ketone test strips
  • What’s missing? B6.  I have regular B6 on hand, but I’m ordering the sublingual B6 from the natural food store.  It just hasn’t come in yet.

After I got the Druuugs together, I put together some natural remedies.  We’re going to be hitting this from all sides.

image

(Dang that’s blurry!) From left to right they are:

  • Crystalized Ginger
  • 550 mg Ginger pills
  • Ginger chews
  • Rescue remedy Pastilles – Rescue Remedy came highly recommended by a UK HGer who’s been through this many times and plans to become an HG Doula.  I’m givin’ it a shot!
  • Aromatherapy blend – Aura Cacia Pep Talk: cardamom seed oil, sweet orange oil, lemon oil, peppermint oil
  • Organic hard candy variety bag

Now for the comfort measures.  Things that won’t help with the puking, but may help me feel more comfortable.

image

There’s a lot here.  I’m going to work in a circle, left to right on the back row, then right to left across the front:

  • Cooling gel eye mask
  • Baby washcloths
  • Facial cleansing cloths
  • Generic Lysol disinfecting wipes – These won’t actually go in the kit.  I picked up a 3 pack.  One for each toilet.  Believe me, when you’ve got your head in the bowl for days on end, the last thing you want to look at is toilet grode.
  • (front row) Sensitive, unscented baby wipes
  • Chewing gum
  • Child’s toothbrush – The smaller head may be less gag inducing than a full sized adult brush.
  • Child’s toothpaste – The gentler flavor may be less of a trigger than the strong adult stuff.
  • Chapsticks: Burt’s Bees and Alba – Variety to see which one works best for me.

Because of the upcoming holidays, I need something that will travel easily.  For the medicines and smaller essentials, I purchased a cute travel case.  It’s actually got 2 zippers meaning I can put a luggage lock on it to keep out curious toddlers.

image

This will be my grab and go kit.  This will go with me to San Francisco for Thanksgiving and then Ecuador for Christmas.

image

Into the travel kit went:

  • Everything from the medicine list
  • Everything from the natural remedies – A selection of the candies is in a ziplock bag on top of the case.
  • Gum
  • A Lip gloss

image

It all fit very neatly.  Now I’ve got a grab and go, kit-within-a-kit that is perfect for travel.  It will probably also be good for the office when the HG still allows me to work.

I want to keep this stuff together under my sink, so I picked up a cute storage bin.  It’s cute!  This way, it can live under my sink in readiness and then come out and be part of the regular house without being hideously ugly!

image

Everything fits neatly.  Nice, contained, and compact.

image

And there it goes.  Straight under the sink.  It’s ready for when I need it.

A Note about Food Items:  I received a suggestion here and several suggestions on the HelpHer forums for different food items to include.  Things like Jello, Gatorade, cookies, etc.  I definitely took those suggestions!  I just didn’t put them in this kit because of where I am storing it.  I’m just not super comfortable with keeping food items under the bathroom sink.  I’m building my snack stash separately, in the pantry.


by 2 Comments

What saved your rear-end?

I’m dealing from a case of sudden nerves.  I keep worrying that despite all of my preparation with the protocol, and the green monster will jump out from around a corner and smack me in the face with a stick.

To help myself feel better, I’ve decided to build an HG Kit.  I imagine it to be along the lines of an earthquake kit.  I imagine a kit filled with the basic essentials I will need going into it.  This way everything will all be in one place, and I won’t have to scramble around yelling at everyone while I find all of my stuff.

I’ll post more detail about this at a later time, once I’ve assembled my supplies, but for now, I’m asking for your help.

What saves your butt when you’re worshipping at the shiny white altar?  What gives you comfort when you’re yodeling produce?  What helps keep your bucket singing at bay?  Is it a cold wash cloth?  Lip balm?  Knee-pads?

Let me know!  I’m compiling my shopping list for the weekend, and I’d love to include your suggestions.


by Leave a comment

Hobo Mama talks about HG

I’m a big fan of Hobo Mama.  If you aren’t familiar with her, she blogs about natural parenting: breastfeeding, gentle discipline, attachment parenting, and all of that other stuff that makes me smile and run to go kiss my daughter.  Read her.  Love her.  She’s wonderful.

She recently announced that she’s expecting baby number two, and she asked on Facebook about ideas for coping with morning sickness.  I took the opportunity to mention HG:

“I’ll be on zofran, unisom, b6, plus continuous fluids, and probably several other things. But that’s because I get hyperemesis gravidarum during pregnancy.

I hear good things about the PrimaBella wristband but I’ve not tried it.”

My suggestion actually made it into her post!  Cures for Morning Sickness 

Unfortunately, it looks like I missed the mark a bit in my Facebook comment.  While I did spread some information, I also managed to spread some guilt, which was definitely not my intent.  I apologized to Lauren on her blog, but I would also like to apologize here and state unequivocally that my intent is never to cause anyone to feel guilty. 

I do feel jealousy toward people who suffer morning sickness.  I have to be honest about that.  Some days I will probably feel pretty resentful.  But we all have our crosses to bear.  Lauren, I’m sorry that my Facebook comment made you feel bad.  Nausea and vomiting just sucks.

I’m pretty impressed though.  Despite the tablespoonful of guilt that I served her, she still dedicated a good portion at the end to Hyperemesis Gravidarum with links not only to the front page of the HelpHer website, but to some specific pages on the site.  Man, she really did go in there are do some reading!

Thank you so much, Lauren, for including HG in your post about morning sickness.  It sure does mean a lot to this survivor.


by 6 Comments

My inspiration smells like cookies

HG is awful.  I mean, really awful.  It’s so awful that many women experience it once and then take immediate measures to ensure they’ll never be pregnant again.  I’d like to be really clear before I go any further that I completely and totally respect this.  HG is truly horrible and there is nothing selfish, cowardly, or weak about not wanting to go through it again. 

Let me also say to any mother who might be feeling guilt over this situation:  Despite what some folks may say, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having an only child.  Being an only child won’t “ruin” a kid.  There are lots of wonderful things that come along with being an only child.  Believe me.  I know.  I am one.  Trust yourselves, parents.  If stopping at one is the right choice for you, then own it.  And practice some really good zingers for folks who would tell you otherwise!

I’ll say it again:  HG is awful.  So why is it that there are those of us who, knowing what’s behind that door, want to have more children?  I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but here’s my answer:

 

She is amazing.  She turned 3 years old on Friday.  When I was pregnant with her, I didn’t like her very much.  I was so sick.  I imagined she was hanging from my rib cage and gnawing on my bones.  But when she was born, it was like the world disappeared and it was just us.  Just me and this precious little miracle cuddled in my arms.  That’s when I knew it was worth it.  That’s when I knew that some day I would be ready to do it all over again.

When she was born, I became a better person.  She made me a better person.  Something about her had given me more patience, more kindness, and more love than I ever thought it was possible to have.  That tiny, squirming baby, the one for whom I risked my life to bring into the world, changed me in ways that I can’t even completely understand.

Now that tiny, squirming baby has grown up into a bright, curious child.  She’s smart (boy is she smart!), and funny, and completely silly.

This:

This why I want to do it all over again. 

HG is awful, but the reward at the end makes it all worthwhile.


by 4 Comments

The Importance of Having a Plan

I’ll be the first to admit this.  I am an information collector.  I collect information about certain topics obsessively.  I did this for breastfeeding, childbirth, pond/aquarium keeping, child-rearing, baby-wearing, urban legends, and, of course, HG.  I don’t necessarily have the info memorized, although I do remember a lot of it.  It’s more like I have a card catalogue in the back of my head that I can flip open occasionally to find the website to access what I want to know about.  I am not completely sure this is normal.  I do like sharing this info, though, so I wind up fielding a lot of questions from friends and returning their well-meaning interest with a deluge of information.  I’m trying to learn to give folks the drinking fountain version of things as opposed to the fire-hose version.

I’m also a serious planner.  I tend to worry through a scenario until I’ve come up with all of the potential courses that something might take and work my way through each and every little aspect until I’ve thought about something so hard and so long that there’s just nothing left to think about.  Juan, my husband, calls that being a worry-wart.  I just think it makes me a really good project manager.

All of this means that I’ve obsessively gathered HG-related information and obsessively massaged all of that information into a plan for dealing the HG during the next pregnancy.  I call it The Protocol, and it’s pretty thorough and in-depth.  It’s six pages of Microsoft Excel glory.  My doctor assures me that having something like this does not make me a raving lunatic thankyouverymuch.

This time around, it was really important for me to have some sort of plan.  Part of the despair and hopelessness I felt last time around stemmed, in large part, from not knowing what to do or when to do it.  I spent so much time wondering if what I was feeling was technically bad enough to call the doctor or technically bad enough to take the medicine or technically bad enough….  You get the idea.  I spent more time analyzing everything and feeling guilty about it than I did taking care of myself, and because of that, I waited too long for certain things like medication changes and fluids.

This time around, I felt like I needed to set up project plan of sorts to help give myself direction.  It took a year of writing, researching, re-writing, fiddling, re-writing some more, fiddling a bit more, tweaking here and there, and finally setting it into Excel format for readability and printing purposes. 

Going over The Protocol with my doctor a few weeks ago was an incredibly nerve-wracking experience.  Would she tell me I was nuts?  Would she just give it a quick skim and just smile and nod?  Worse yet, would she wait until after I left to roll her eyes and tell her nurses that I am one of those patients?  I had never met her before.  I had no idea what to expect.  By the way, did I mention earlier that I am an obsessive worrier?

She ended up doing none of those things.  Instead, she read through every single detail with me.  We talked over each line item, and aside from a few tweaks here and there and some additional information (mostly dosages), it was able to withstand her scrutiny.  I’m actually pretty proud of that.  She assured me that not only am I not crazy, but that the kind of early aggressive treatment plan that I laid out can, according to studies, reduce the severity of the HG.

The biggest thing that came out of this was the change in the way I feel about this future pregnancy.  My feelings of anxiety and downright terror were replaced with a sense of hope and empowerment.  I know what to do and when to do it.  I don’t have to sit there and wonder if my ketones are within the necessary range to get fluids or count the number of times I vomited to decide if it’s time to up the meds.  The path is mapped out for me ahead of time.  All I have to do is follow it. 

Why is it important to have a plan put together if you’re an HG patient?  Because when you’re in the thick of things with your brain foggy from the sickness, you shouldn’t have to try to find your way.  Just close your eyes, grab the guide-rope, and follow it to the end.

Without further ado, here is The Protocol in all its six page glory.  Of course, I can’t post the Excel file here, so I had to rewrite it a final time to post here as paragraphs and bulleted lists.  It ain’t pretty, but it does the job.  I’ve added it to the pages at the top of my blog for easy reference.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 429 other followers