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HG Stories
HG
Here you'll find stories from different moms about their journey and Trauma with hyperemesis gravidarum.
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CARISSA'S HG STORY
Carissa
"In The Aftermath Of HG, I Suffer From, Depression, Anxiety, Mood Disorder, PTSD and Ongoing Chronic Pain Issues From Neuropathy. This Is The Aftermath Of HG For Me! "
-Carissa
In August 30th I met with Obgyn Dr. Jenny Stireman of St Luke’s Wood River, where I had my first blood panel and ultrasound. This would be the day I saw my precious miracle’s heart beat for the first time. A very eventful first week took place when I found out I was pregnant. August ended with my 6th week that brought many up’s and down’s. The father of my child left on Friday, August 31st and never returned, later I would come to find out why. I went to stay with my mom that night an hour away. Little did she know this would be the day she would take on becoming the other person I would need so dearly in my life. September 1st Michele and I attended the IMPRA rodeo finals in Hailey, we weren’t there 10 minutes and the vomiting started severely. After a half hour we left as I was too sick to be in public. I worked with Dr. Stireman over the phone to address the nausea in which she prescribed Zofran. On September 4th, 7 weeks pregnant, I went to St Luke’s Magic Valley emergency room for dehydration and vomiting. I was given IV fluids, IV Zofran, a blood/prenatal panel, and then sent home. On September 11th went to Stireman for a checkup and to discuss Hyperemesis Gravidarum. September 28th, 11 weeks pregnant, I was taken to Magic Valley ER for problems associated to Hyperemesis Gravidarum and Dyspepsia. Dyspepsia is similar to having nerve damage in your upper stomach many times mistaken for Acid Reflux but rather causes pain when exacerbated. I was given IV fluids, IV Zofran/Phenergan, pain meds, a GI cocktail, a blood panel, and then sent home. On September 29th returned back to Magic Valley ER where the same exact treatment was given, then sent home. My 7th-10th week of pregnancy was definitely one of the most miserable things I could ever encounter; there is no way to even begin to describe the misery. After $150,000 in medical bills, Sage has $50,000 from the NICU, plus not working my entire pregnancy; my miracle did not come cheap. Hyperemesis Gravidarum is not only a life threatening disease but will change you financially. It has taken both of us over 5 months to recover physically from the pregnancy and we still struggle to this day from the long term effects. Sage and I have both been hospitalized several times since her birth. In July 2013 Sage experienced a 3 day hospital stay at UCLA. I have no indication of HG being a genetic factor in my family and would like to find answers to why it started with me. I would like to advocate to all the women suffering with HG, daughters that will face this disease, and the long term physically effects that HG has on lives of mothers and children’s after the pregnancy called the aftermath. I love you with all my heart Miss Sage Kathanna Benko. Keep growing my beautiful miracle! After $150,000 in medical bills, Sage has $50,000 from the NICU, plus not working my entire pregnancy; my miracle did not come cheap. Hyperemesis Gravidarum is not only a life threatening disease but will change you financially. It has taken both of us over 5 months to recover physically from the pregnancy and we still struggle to this day from the long term effects. Sage and I have both been hospitalized several times since her birth. In July 2013 Sage experienced a 3 day hospital stay at UCLA. I have no indication of HG being a genetic factor in my family and would like to find answers to why it started with me. I would like to advocate to all the women suffering with HG, daughters that will face this disease, and the long term physically effects that HG has on lives of mothers and children’s after the pregnancy called the aftermath. I love you with all my heart Miss Sage Kathanna Benko. Keep growing my beautiful miracle! Mommy loves you so much . To this day I have Depression, Anxiety, Mood Disorder, PTSD and ongoing chronic pain issues from neuropathy. It took me well over a 1 ½ years before I finally got the right help for my mental issues that stemmed from such a horrific pregnancy. At one point I questioned my ability to be a single mother. Then I realized that I couldn’t let HG win. I had a tubal ligation,which ended up being a huge regret today. I was planning on tubal reversal to try for another child, but we may try for IVF. After saying I would never go through HG again, I met the love of my life and got married and I am preparing for IVF. We met with a leading Maternal Fetal Medicine Doctor who gave us hope that this pregnancy could be managed with J-tubes at the very start. They will place between 8-11 weeks to prevent any further harm to the baby if they wait. For the first 20 months and my whole pregnancy, I suffered in silence all alone. I had no partner or family that cared to deal with me as I was a miserable person. Today, I’m proud to say that our family is doing well. I was fortunate enough to have met a man that doesn’t run when it gets hard. Now, she has a loving dad that has become an important figure in her life. Even with all the medical issues we both had, it was one rough journey, but we are Survivors of Hyperemesis Gravidarum! I will keep you updated on this journey. Good medical care from the start is key, I am hoping this pregnancy with a HG plan in place I can beat HG and have a healthy baby. I plan to video diary this HG pregnancy to show other HG moms my journey so stay tuned. I look forward to share more of my story and how my daughter Sage who has been affected long team as myself do to HG. HG changes you forever, my husband I hope with a good HG plan in place and team we can beat HG this time. You will be able to read my full story in Hyperemesis Gravidarum. Before, during, and the aftermath, the rare side of pregnancy you haven't seen coming late 2016 BY Starr Andrews Strong.
AMY'S HG STORY
Amy
"Cannabis Needs To Be An Option For HG Moms Worldwide. When Other Treatment Doesn't Work Such As Zofran. All HG Mothers Deserves To Eat And Have Quality Of Life. The subject needs to not be so taboo."
- Amy G
Hello my name is Amy and this is my short story on Hyperemesis Gravidarum. My full story will be shared in the book Hyperemesis Gravidarum before during and the aftermath. I never thought I would have a child, so when I found out the excitement didn't last long as it turn to severe nausea and vomiting. I was scared this is something no mother should go through ever. I remember being in a country medical clinic so hungry and dehydrated with cracked lips that they had an IV drip in my arm. I'd found out days earlier I was pregnant. All the excitement taken away and replaced by relentless nausea I was terrified It was the start of the snow season here in Australia and cold.
When the doctor came in she smiled at me saying "you poor thing" She sat next to me and said "This is not normal you no doubt have Hyperemesis Gravidarum. The doctor said to me , I know because I was like you with all my babies right till the end with each one . It may last a little while or like me you could go till the end like this" She gave me an information sheet with a list of things to try from crackers to Zorfran and explained if I got really bad I'd end up needing to be fed via a peg feeding tube and IV fluids. I'd spent days and nights on our toilet tiled floor with a blanket and pillow afraid to leave because my fiancé was working crazy hours grooming ski runs, I was alone literally so isolated on a ski resort. It was cold, dark, with storms coming in and I was very afraid of what was happening to me. I felt like I was dying slowly starving to death and so dehydrated my kidneys hurt I couldn't clean the mess of vomit , I was to weak too. If I would miss a bucket so the tiny toilet floor became a bed, my home and my hell. This was not healthy and not good hygienic for a pregnancy. The smell of anything clean or cleaned or not made it worse. Lights and sound made me hurl so much it hurt. It's really hard to explain but it made my nausea and vomiting worse. For most HG mothers it does. I had my phone plugged in thank god it reached me or I'd been truly alone my new friend Google became my only distraction by searching anything I could find on my condition when I could focus on it and not the shape of the toilet bowel. I spent every minute I could trying to find some magical cure or treatment guess what no one even knows what causes it so a cure doesn't exist I was chewing more wafers than directed wondering if I was doing damage to me or killing my child I was so desperate Ive never been so desperate in my life for anything I was sick of being sick and wanted help to ease from the vomiting and the nausea was so bad, I know if I didn't find some type of treatment we wouldn't be here much longer. HG is not a joke, it life threatening and can kill you!
I was in real danger of losing this child we were never meant to have. To know that and face that every minute of every hour of every day is torture. Then add in the relentless nausea it's hell I use the word hell because I imagine hell would be just like this. Your burning from the inside out. My fiance was told he would never have kids so it was a miracle to conceive and now I had HG. It's not fair, I remembered someone given me a cannabis joint once when I had some gastric issues a few years before and I remember how great that worked for the nausea and vomiting. People use it during chemotherapy for nausea and vomiting, I sware it works better than any other man made options out there, I was so thankful. I google cannabis Hyperemesis Gravidarum and found for many mums it worked and made severe HG bearable. I smoked cannabis before so was not afraid to a point to try it to help my HG. I knew reefer madness was a joke, just look at the ad campaign on you tube anything for relief and to save us from hell or death I did not want to die I wanted to meet my baby. Then began the search of what damage using it would do, the best way use it and what trouble I could get in after the baby was born. It's illegal, these Zofran wafers were making things worse with side effects that were horrible I wondered if I'd vomit my stool soon because it was not coming out the other end. Zofran makes you so constipated,I hated taking pills but the Zofran wafers were not helping I was still very sick and the lack of food I know made things worse . When my husband came home one night we argued about aborting and going to the the emergency because I needed an IV bad, I was very dehydrated. He loves me so much and even talking about it now he is mortified by what he saw me go through. It was torture for him almost as much as me watching a loved one carrying your child must be horrific when you can't do a thing about it. Cannabis saved my life. I cant tell you how it was the one thing that made me feel human again. I use to be afraid to speak about how cannabis helped me and my child make it though HG I am now not. I want to share with other Hg mums out there that cannabis can help HG and save your life without all the side effects you get from taking pills.You can read my full story in Hyperemesis Gravidarum before during and the aftermath.
STARR ANDREWS STRONG HG STORY
Starr Andrews Strong HGactivist
**HG Is Not Morning Sickness. Please Stop Calling It That.**
— Starr Andrews Strong
Hi, my name is Starr Andrews Strong, and this is my short story of having Hyperemesis Gravidarum — before, during, and the aftermath.
On July 19th, 2010, I started getting really nauseated. I had never experienced this kind of nausea before — it was different than the nausea I got from chronic pain. Then the vomiting started. Nonstop. When I say nonstop, I mean from morning… until the next day. And the next. Sometimes I would vomit 50 to 100 times a day.
I had intense stomach pain. I couldn’t keep any medications down. My throat was raw from vomiting so much I started vomiting blood. I couldn’t even swallow my own saliva without throwing up. It was that bad.
Any time my husband or mother-in-law cooked food, I had to shut the door, stuff a towel in the crack, bury myself under blankets, and cover my face with another towel — because the smell alone would make me heave. I used to love the smell of food cooking. But now? It made me violently ill. My sense of smell was heightened beyond reason. It was unbearable.
Finally, my husband took me to the ER. I was vomiting daily without a break. They gave me morphine and Dilaudid just to stop the pain. I had tried everything at home: Pedialyte, Jell-O water, sucking on ice cubes. I couldn’t hold down anything — not even ginger ale, crackers, or 7-Up. We tried motion sickness bands, acupressure, anything we could think of. Nothing worked.
My husband bought every pregnancy test he could get his hands on — each one came back negative. I was confused and scared. Why was I this sick? Was I dying? What the hell was happening to me?
I knew this wasn’t my CVS — Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome. I had suffered from that before. When I was 21, I was hit by a drunk driver. It changed my entire life. I broke my back, crushed both legs, was paralyzed, and spent over eight months in a coma. I had to learn how to walk, talk, read, write — everything — all over again.
I was also living with fibromyalgia, a disease that causes widespread, chronic pain with no cure. But by the time Robert and I got together, I was walking most days. I still used a wheelchair on bad flare-up days, but I was mostly mobile. Still, I was told I would never have children. I was on too many medications, and I hadn’t had a period in ten years. They said I had PCOS, and without regular periods, pregnancy was almost impossible.
In my early 20s, I didn’t care — I wasn’t ready for kids. But now I was almost 31, and I wanted a family. I wanted that chapter of my life, and I feared it had been stolen from me.
Robert never pressured me. He had a beautiful 8-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. He used to tease me gently, “You’re going to give me a baby.” I’d laugh and brush it off, but deep down I thought — he’s crazy. It’ll never happen.
Then one day, after nearly 15 tests, Robert went to the 99 Cent Store and spent his last five dollars on a cheap test. I took it. And for the first time… two pink lines.
I was in shock. I didn’t believe it. The next morning, I took the rest of the tests — just to be sure it wasn’t a dream.
“You’re pregnant,” Robert said proudly. “I knew it all along.”
I smiled. “You were right, honey. But let’s see what the doctor says.”
We still thought this was just regular morning sickness. That it would go away after the first trimester. I messaged my OBGYN and requested a blood test. I checked the results on my HMO’s portal. My HCG level was at 500. She didn’t reply right away. I sat there staring at the number wondering — what does this mean? Am I really pregnant?
I emailed her again. She finally responded:
“Make an appointment to come see me.”
The full story is in my book.
The Unseen Battle: Sick, Silent, Forgotten — The Hidden Battle of Hyperemesis Gravidarum
Available now on Amazon.
