Hyperemesis Gravidarum Pregnancy Four - Five to Six Weeks

Thursday 11th July

Although I still feel worse in the morning, taking the ondansetron last thing before bed seems to have improved that significantly though I'm still unable to eat a decent sized breakfast.  Snacks are necessary through the day to stave off nausea and of course I still need to drink frequently too due to not being able to consume such large quantities at once.  I'm currently writing this after dinner while I have a short rest as despite today not being unusually busy I suddenly feel quite worn out although I'm hoping I will be revived enough to do a few more things later after the children have gone to bed.  Unfortunately today I have also had to start taking antibiotics which make me feel sick even when not pregnant so I am hoping that they not make me feel too sick as the run up to the stage when I am usually at my worst is not really the ideal time.

Monday 15th July
Mornings are still the worst and after improving when I made my evening dose later, they have got worse again but a small amount of nausea in the mornings and being unable to eat large quantities at once is far and away better than being unable to keep anything down which is where I would be heading by now without medication.  I've also found I get tired very easily if I do lots of physical activity so I am having to be careful about pacing myself.  I imagine I must have had this problem previously but the debility caused by nausea and vomiting meant that I wasn't actually trying to do anything other than eat and drink enough I wouldn't have noticed.

Saturday 20th July

Although once it kicks in it is pretty amazing, I'm now finding the effects of the ondansetron are wearing off sooner so I've been feeling more nauseated in the evenings and in the mornings it is a huge struggle to eat a few mouthfuls of breakfast. This morning when I woke at half past four I drank some water because I was thirsty which resulted in so much nausea that I couldn't get back to sleep. Although it clearly is getting worse I am hoping that the additional nausea usually caused by the antibiotics means that it will improve when I stop taking them. This coming week is usually the week when the vomiting kicks in and the first two times got out of control resulting in hospitalisation so I am expecting it to reach the maximum this week which usually lasts for four weeks before a slight improvement and since I finish the antibiotics on Thursday it will hopefully decrease and therefore not be so bad for the following four weeks. But even though eating is a struggle and I am slightly worried about the possibility of vomiting starting (in one pregnancy I was in hospital within four days of onset of vomiting because it gets out of control so quickly) and I do have reduced capability compared to normal I am totally amazed at how much I am capable of and how well I am. I actually feel like it might be possible to have a pregnancy where I am able to live a normal life. Which on the one hand is absolutely amazing and would be a dream come true but on the other hand would mean that I lost twenty months of my life purely down to not being given the right medical treatment. The idea that you should just "put up with it" no matter how bad it is just because it is pregnancy seems ridiculous to me. Firstly just because you might get a baby at the end of it doesn't mean it is reasonable to expect you to endure being so ill unnecessarily. Secondly, it is widely accepted that women should be given all possible pain relief in labour rather than being "made to suffer unnecessarily" even though labour is brief and at most a few days - why is labour different? Surely people should be more grateful and uncomplaining in labour because by that point there is much more certainty of outcome than there is for someone suffering from excessive vomiting in early pregnancy?