A friend of mine is pregnant with her first child and is suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG). Hyperemesis Gravidarum is a severe form of morning sickness. It is not your typical morning sickness by any means. It occurrs in about 2% of all births. It typically causes the mother to be unable to work, as in the case of my friend. She started getting sick right away, and by her 4th week she was sick everyday and it was becoming unbearable. She is now almost in her 10th week and has been home for a few weeks, unable to work. She has an IV at home with a PICC line in her arm. She has to change her IV bag every 10 hours or so, and her medication leading to her PICC line has to be changed every 6 hours. This causes her to not get much sleep, and obviously not much rest. She was able to eat a bit of food last Thursday, some more on Friday, and a little over th weekend. Today, when I called to check on her she had eaten a whole Breakfast Jack! I was so happy for her.
For those of you who have never experienced this, or known someone who has experienced this, you really have no idea how hard it is. Not only does it cause you to miss work, occassionally have to visit the hospital and have to be plugged into an IV, the stress and the lack of rest causes mental anguish. These patients require LOVE and SUPPORT from family and friends. They are literally unable to do very much at all. That in itself is frustrating and causes more mental anguish. These patients need your physical help, as well as your emotional and mental support. They do not need a constant reminder that this is causing them to miss work, or that this "can't be good for you or the baby". Leave the medical suggestions to the physicians and just offer your friend/family member the much needed support.
If any of you have had experience with HG, or know someone who has, I would love to hear your comments.
Here are a couple of websites I found tonight on the subject. This one explains what Hyperemesis Gravidarum is. This one is dedicted to Research and Awareness. This one allows you to post your HG story and read others HuGStories for support.