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Journey into the world of hyperemesis gravidarum...
20Mar 13

Very Inspiring Blogger Award

I never knew such a thing existed as the “Very Inspiring Blogger Award” because to be honest I'm not a big blogger... or at least I didn't think I was, in fact I now have 3 different blogs and another waiting in the wings and I've been asked to do guest blogs on other subject and this blog has been read by nearly 12,000 people! Who'd have though hey! I was terrible at writing in school as I'm dyslexic and from a time when no one had heard of, or believed in, dyslexia. Hopefully a few years from now I'll be saying “I had Hyperemesis Gravidarum back in a time when no one had heard of it, not like now when it's diagnosed and treated without issue or stigma”.
 
I was nominated by Lucinda Elliotwho is a very talented and experienced blogger and novelist but who suffered with HG herself. Thank you so much Lucinda for nominating me, I'm honoured! Here is the image I can put on my blog now:
 
 
So to claim the award I must now tell you all 7 facts about myself (I'm very glad the award is for this blog an not one of my others which I have gone to great lengths to keep anonymous!), here goes:
  1. I'm passionately Atheist.
  2. I enjoy reading about and imagining a post apocalyptic world... in my imaginations though it is always the sort of  "cosy catastrophe" such as in The Earth Abides and obviously Rob and the kids all survive along with me!
  3. I adore learning about science, evolution and space
  4. I can't much be bothered with housework but I do love cooking, especially for friends... as a result my kids are generally well fed and sociable but grubby!
  5. I think being an adult is great and still get a kick out of being able to by sweets and treats as and when I want, which is partly why I eat a lot of sweets! (and ironically my poor children aren't allow any sweets which are “for grown ups... like alcohol!”
  6. I absolutely abhor homophobia, racism, sexism and any sort of discrimination about matters which are not chosen, but I recognise that such attitudes are usually the result of plain ignorance, whether wilful or not.
  7. I love bush craft and am pretty good at whittling spoons from wood and lighting fires with a flint, I like tracking and plant/tree/bird identification... bit of a geek really! We really are so incredibly lucky to live on a farm in an area of such beauty and abundance.
I must also nominate 15 other blogs which I find inspiring or enjoy, this is hard as I don't actually know many other blogs, but I'll do my best:
 
Mr Oz Atheist - an inspiring atheist
 
The Quakometer - Dispelling nonsense about alternative therapies and stuff

 

Yellow Road Convoy Company - a beautiful couple who have packed up to travel the world whilst using their knowledge and expertise to help not-for-profit organisations and community projects
 
Martin S Pribble - an inspiring atheist
 
Homesteading/survivalism - all sorts of bushcraft stuff
 
Black Dog Tribe - Mental health awareness and support
 
The good life in practice - keeping it real and self sufficient
 
The Flockable Lasses - young women striving to become hard core sheep farmers
 
The Family Patch - Amanda Shortman is a colleague and friend whose writing I enjoy and whose energy and enthusiasm I find inspiring.
 
I also would like to nominate PeachesGeldof's blog, firstly because I think she is a very good writer and I enjoy her style; she wrote a newspaper article recently about gay marriage which I thought was beautifully written, poignant and powerful. But secondly (and perhaps more relevant to this blog), she blogged in December about her experience with Hyperemesis Gravidarum and in it she specifically credits our Pregnancy Sickness Supportwebsite for providing the information and support she needed to get a diagnosis and proper treatment. I find this article inspiring... it gives me the drive to carry on working hard to raise awareness about HG and it's treatments, knowing that women out there suffering, whoever they are and from whatever background or up bringing can find our website and get support and strength from it. If I doubt that my work and passion are worth the effort I read this blog and the comments after and know that it is worth it... I am inspired!
 
Hmmm... that's only 10, but surely nominating blogs I don't read and find inspiring defeats the purpose of the award so I think I'll leave it here. These are all blogs I enjoy and feel inspired by, I hope you do too!

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13Mar 13

Thinking of others

I'm so immersed in the HG world that it seems to just surround me almost constantly even though I never intend to suffer it again and bar the odd flashback when one of the kids is sick and overwhelming nausea if I'm woken suddenly in the night, I have been lucky enough to come out relatively unscathed. But my thoughts recently have been occupied by those women I call friends, many of whom I have never met, whose suffering is on going and all consuming.

The infuriating thing is that so much of the suffering by women with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) could be avoided if only they were A) treated pro-actively by doctors with the various safe and effective medications available and B) if the general public and their own friends and family had a better understanding and sympathy towards the immense and intense suffering they are experiencing.

There has been yet more, excellent, research published recently about the safety of medications such as Ondansetron as well as research about the dangers to mum and baby if HG is left without sufficient treatment (including placental abruption, small for date birth weight and so on) and in this day and age there really is no good reason why women are being refused treatment other than outright prejudice and ignorance. Even a busy doctor should have the 5 minutes needed to conduct a quick search for the research to satisfy them about safety and the Pregnancy Sickness Support website has made that even easier with all the references and many full text links! So it is just heartbreaking and frustrating to hear this week of yet another woman whose GP refused medication beyond the first step (on the grounds that they don't know they are safe for the foetus), didn't refer her to a consultant and gave her no option but to seek termination as she was too ill and scared to fight. This woman had taken research to her doctor, this was a wanted baby... when you are so ill that you can barely speak without vomiting it is extraordinarily difficult to advocate for ones self. Since when was termination considered safer for the foetus then giving the mother medication?

Moving on to point B... I know I've said it plenty of times before but peoples well meaning comments about trying ginger or sea bands or (my personal favourite) “thinking positively” may well have the intention of trying to help, but they really really really don't. Comments like these add significantly to sufferers feelings of isolation, misery and ultimately of failure. The implication is that they could be doing more to help themselves; do you really think that a woman requesting termination of a desperately wanted and loved child just needed some “alternative therapies”? Most women will have tried these... I certainly did, I tried ginger (in every way, shape and form including strong capsules), accupressure (I have scars on my wrists from seaband wearing for 27 weeks), homeopathy (sorry, I mean sugar pills), hypnotherapy, reflexology, relaxation CDs, aromatherapy and all the other magic cures people suggested left, right and centre.

The problem is not just with the “helpful” suggestions, at least they are well meant! But the lack of understanding that Hyperemesis Gravidarum is not a normal part of pregnancy but a severe complication is just so rife amongst the general public and healthcare professional. It is not like the “Morning Sickness” that plenty of women get (although rarely in the morning) and comparing it so is wilful ignorance. In the early days of my third pregnancy a friend who had three children said to me “I don't understand, I felt a bit sick in mine but I didn't think I was going to get HG and I didn't so why do you think you'll get it?”. This is like me telling a woman with gestational diabetes that because I didn't have it she ought not to!!! Again, the implication is that it is my own fault and a case of mind over matter.

Anyway, back to the point of this blog... so much of the suffering of women with HG is avoidable but suffering they are and right now my thoughts are with them... all of them. I can't take their suffering away yet but I can fight to reduce it and improve their situation. When I think about the months and months I spend lying still, hanging over the edge of the bed in a dark room with vomit trickling out of my mouth after the 25themetic episode that day, knowing I had weeks if not months of it ahead of me, feeling like my whole body was poisoned and I was dying, wishing I could quench my thirst with just a few drops of water but knowing even sips would induce more vomiting, feeling like an absolute failure as a woman, wife, employee, friend (missing weddings and christenings)... mother! When I think about that stuff and the women who are going through it now and those who are still suffering from complications caused by it and those who will have yet to go through it to fulfil their basic evolutionary function and hearts desire, my heart bleeds... and then it grows stronger!

For it is largely HG that has made me who I am now. It has had significant silver linings in my life, not least the three packages of my genetic material which will go on beyond my meagre lifetime and whom I adore with all my heart and mind, but in so many other ways too. It has made me stronger mentally and emotionally then I thought possible for me (I can't claim physical strength as 27 months of being bed bound has left me pathetically weak, although I am working on that). It has given me endurance and vision for achievement but above all it has given me insight into suffering which is transferable across situations and conditions and insight into how a lack of open-mindedness into conditions can add to suffering in unimaginable ways. The vogue at the moment is to be “open minded” to alternative therapies and the power of the mind and so on, yet these same people who claim to be be open minded are unable to conceive that others may suffer in ways they don't or can't even imagine; everything from mental health conditions to Myalgic Encephalopathy, life after a stroke or suffering migraines, until you have walked a week (let alone months on end) in someone else's shoes you simply can not know their burdens.

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Great post Caitlin!

I came across the way women are treated so appallingly through my years struggling with my periods (and then finally being diagnosed with Endo just because I fought and fought!)

And yet none of that prepared me for the absolute horror of such sickness in pregnancy and how deeply the way healthcare professionals treated me like nothing was wrong would affect me. I mean, I had been pretty darn ill with my Endo but at least I could still function and fight my corner. With the hyperemesis it was different... I couldn't fight and because I never received an official diagnosis I still, to this day, feel like a fraud "oh maybe I didn't have it severely enough". How stupid is that? And all because of the way you're treated in pregnancy as "making a fuss".

Like you, I am so determined to make a difference, so much so it hurts sometimes. I want to change things so that women are treated better, so that they know they aren't alone and where to seek help and support. And I want us to eventually get to a point where women are treated promptly, so that some of the physical and emotional effects are limited and so that one day (possibly very far off, but one day nonetheless) women don't have to make the decision I have of never having another baby. Because, ultimately, there will always be that question "what if..." as in "would I have made the same decision had I been treated better first time round?"

One day we'll get there... one day!
Amanda, 13th March 2013

Reading Spewing Mummy's blog brought a tear to my eye. Not because I have ever suffered from HG but because my lovely girl did......... As your blog shows many HG sufferers do not get the right treatment - even now and so many suffer needlessly.......! My lovely girl suffered from HG 5 years ago now............but it still feels like yesterday. Her experience only ended in the delivery suite when her beautiful daughter was delivered by c-section. Mummy's first words were "get me something to eat" ..........oh how we wished to hear those words in the nine months before!! We had never heard of HG before this and there was not much information available.......although we scoured the internet for anything...... Some friends and family understood - most didn't! Our daughter just became more and more ill but she held on to the belief that it would all be worth it (keep your eyes on the prize)- it was - she now has a beautiful nearly-4-year-old-daughter. But she suffered - not only with HG - but her marriage also failed - her career almost certainly suffered - she lost valued friendships. Sadly - she now has ME - almost certainly a direct result of HG. Thankyou for raising the G profile - it is essential that everyone understands that this is so much more than 'morning sickness' and that a ginger biscuit will really not suffice...............
honeybun, 13th March 2013

I hear you. I had severe HG for the duration of two pregnancies.
Yvonne Beale, 14th March 2013

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About Me

I am mother of three beautiful children and wife to a fantastic and supportive husband. I am a nurse, a farmer and a trustee for Pregnancy Sickness Support. I love working hard and spending time with my kids.

About this blog

Information and support for pregnancy sickness and hyperemesis gravidarum. Views are my own and do not represent those of any other organisation. Information provided here should not be a substitute for medical advice. My aim is to raise awareness and encourage sufferers to know they are not alone.

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