PREGNANCY TALK: MY BATTLE WITH HYPEREMESIS

Morning campers! Everyone always uses the word "journey" for these types of posts. A journey to me is a path you take to get to somewhere better and as much as my little baby boy to be is the best thing since sliced bread in my eyes this issue isn't making me more grateful or more appreciative...it's just making me ill. So I decided to use the word battle...because that's what hyperemesis is to me, a long, bloody, up hill battle. You know in Game of Thrones where Jon Snow is stuck in a pile of people...yeah, that kind of battle.



I've been suffering with severe morning sickness since around 7 weeks. In the beginning I didn't think anything of it as this is my first pregnancy, just your standard baby symptoms reassuring me that my hormones were going batshit crazy. But by week 9 I realised it wasn't getting any better. It was getting worse!

I was off to the loo 6 or 7 times a day - sometimes more, sometimes less - I couldn't stomach anything but McDonalds chips, jacket potato or Salt & Vinegar crisps and even then they rarely stayed down. In the end, I got signed off as unfit for work for 5 weeks as my energy levels were suffering and I was struggling to find the energy to take a shower...let alone work a stressful 8 hours day in front of a computer. I tried to clean the house one day and got so far as one load of washing up before having to go and take a nap.

Nearly 2 months later and the situation had gotten no better. I struggled to enter my kitchen for the first few hours of my day. I tried to return to work but lasted 2 weeks before being off for another week and begging the doctors for drugs, anything that would help me get through this employed.

Fast forward another week, to the day I visited hospital as I was dehydrated. I was 18 weeks pregnant. Almost half way through my pregnancy and I still couldn't walk my dog without swiftly running to the nearest bush and hoping no one saw me doubled over, retching.

So I trotted off to the doctors again, sobbing, who signed me off for another 4 weeks. And here we are. Second week in to my 4 weeks and I've decide these 4 weeks are to get me back on track. My goal for this week was to focus on eating a healthy evening meal. It sounds ridiculous as this really isn't that difficult and my kitchen is still a mess but for me preparing and eating a meal has been the hardest and therefore is the first step I need to conquer!

I'm hoping that these next few weeks will help me get to grips with normality again so I can hopefully make it through the last month at work before maternity leave.

If your suffering with Hyperemesis in your pregnancy I urge you to seek help from everyone ASAP. Some people sometimes won't be as understanding as they haven't been through it themselves or they think that morning sickness just "isn't that bad" but it really is a condition.

The HelpHer website has lots of information for you and your friends/family to help you get the support you need.

www.helpher.org