First Trimester

OMG! I’m Pregnant..

Arriving back to London still buzzing after the most amazing and indescribable trip to South Africa I knew that I needed to take a pregnancy test.

I can’t put into words how I felt, but whatever it was, was more than jet lag! Being sick sporadically in Cape Town for no reason at all and being in, all I can describe as a ‘weird’ mood. I just couldn’t put my finger on it but I knew my body was trying to tell me that something was changing.

The cab journey back from Gatwick seemed like it was never going to end and the tiredness creeping over me wasn’t normal. I was exhausted, physically and mentally. I was trying to kid myself into believing that I was just tired from all the activities in Cape Town, but deep down I knew I was pregnant.

As soon as I got home, I threw my bags into my bedroom and ran up the stairs. I sat on the toilet shaking whilst waiting for the test to come back with a result.

After what felt like hours the test came back ‘pregnant 2-3 weeks’. So that means this little tadpole of mine was growing inside me when I climbed Lions Head Mountain and when I reached the top of Table Top Mountain (do you know how amazing that is)!

I’m just in ore that my little creation started their little life inside of me on the best trip in my life time so far.

Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG)

The side of pregnancy they don’t tell you about! Finding out your pregnant is an experience that if I am honest I don’t think you are ever prepared for whether the pregnancy was planned or not!

It should be one of the most happiest and exciting moments of your life especially for a woman.

However the feelings of excitement and joy can be buried when you are suffering with Hyperemesis Gravidarum, which is unfortunately what I was suffering for the first 15 weeks of my pregnancy.

HG only affects 1% of the population and it is severe sickness. Now I am not just talking feeling sick and being sick a couple of times a day. I am talking about uncontrollable vomiting, HG crippled me! I was being sick more than 20 times a day, I was unable to keep food and water down for 15 weeks and was hospitalised twice.

The day I got discharged from hospital after losing one stone in a week

If I wasn’t hospitalised I would be sitting in the adult majors section of A&E with two bags of fluid drips attached to me due to my severe dehydration.

Now if you have been hospitalised with HG you will know that you will only be hospitalised if you have ketones present in your urine. Ketones are mainly visible in urine during starvation or type 1 diabetes.

In layman’s terms ketones are your bodies back up source of energy. When your body no longer has any reserves left from your food and fluid intake your body will look for alternative ways to energise you. In my case this is why I lost a stone in a week as my body began to break down my fat and use it as an energy supply.

The following treatments are proposed by medical teams:

•Temporary suspension of oral intake, followed by gradual resumption
•Fluids, thiamine, multivitamins, and electrolytes as needed
•Antiemetic’s if needed
•Sea-Bands

However I tried four different types of antiemetic’s in 15 weeks and none of them seemed to work. The worst one being Cyclizine IV; this caused me to hallucinate and become extremely disorientated.

If I am completely honest with you my sickness became so bad I found it physically hard to walk, I had to take two months off of work (unpaid) which caused me to move out of my rented apartment and live with a family member. I forgot what it felt like to eat and drink and there were some nights I prayed to God to not wake me up as I couldn’t take feeling so bad for another day!

You will find that the people around you will try to understand how you feel but how can they? They aren’t the ones going through it. People will make comments like ‘oh it’s just morning sickness, get over it’.

HG inevitable makes you extremely lonely it stops your daily routine and communication with friends and loved ones. I began to live in fear and I felt helpless.

I cried every day and I honestly felt like I would never be ‘normal’ again. Its only until I started to vomit bile and blood at the same time did I realise how traumatic this condition was and was petrified I was causing harm to my unborn.

Thankfully two emergency scans showed my babies heartbeat was beating.

I honestly don’t know why or how HG came to an end completely in my 16th week of pregnancy but oh am I glad it did as I was then able to enjoy my body adapting to motherhood.

Support

If you are suffering with HG or know someone who is I would recommend you contact Pregnancy
Sickness Support they are a charity run by women who have had the also suffered with HG and they
are extremely understanding and supportive and helped me in ways I didn’t think was possible.

I am not an expert in HG I am just someone who knows what it is like to suffer with it. If you would
like support or advice from me then don’t hesitate to contact me.