Hi,
I'm now 28 weeks and this is the first time I've posted. I don't know whether I had/have HG as I was never diagnosed but like others on here, doctors dismissed it as 'normal' morning sickness. They said if I was managing to go to work most days and I wasn't losing weight then I was fine.
Well HG or not, I certainly wasn't fine. This whole dividing line between MS and HG really annoys me as although I technically don't fit the doctor's definition, having lived through it (just) I've yet to meet another mother to be who has had 'morning sickness' this bad. I threw up every day, multiple times for around 4 months, anywhere between one and 14 times a day, and since then gradually less so, but even at 28 weeks I'm still feeling sick - if I don't eat every 2 hours I still vomit and movement - be it sitting on a bus or the baby kicking - still put me at risk of emptying my stomach. Ok - so I've never been admitted to hospital - but for weeks I barely weed because I could stomach less than a cup of water a day, some days I'd throw up ice-lollies, I'd not be able to enter the kitchen, I couldn't walk past shops selling hot food as the smell was horrendous. And yes I went into work most days, but I threw up before breakfast, after breakfast and often on the way to work. I'm not someone who takes time off work for nothing but I felt horrific all day everyday and could eat only a limited diet of potato based products and the occassional apple. I didn't visit friends, family, I gave up all hobbies and I spent any day I wasn't working in bed trying to regain some strength. If I hadn't have had a supportive partner who cooked endless meals of mash, washed up, agreed not to bring onion or garlic into the house for months...I really don't know what I would have done. I could not even hug him to thank him most of the time as his smell/heat/movement caused me to feel worse.
I'm at the stage now where I can cope - nauseas but at a level I can deal with. I don't feel in constant danger of vomiting at any moment as long as I'm careful. I can also eat most things again, which is a relief. But the whole experience has left me dreading the thought of ever having more children. I don't know if I could put myself through that again. I'm left wondering whether the doctor did the right thing in leaving me to suffer, whether I should have complained more, whether not prescribing drugs until you're taken to hospital is the right tactic. I'm left wondering whether there is any other illness that you would suffer this badly with without treatment. Certainly not one I've experienced. I know the policy of 'it's just a bit of morning sickness, eat ginger biscuits' is there to protect the baby - I totally appreciate this. But it seems counterproductive to allow someone to get to the stage of severe dehydration before prescribing something that, lets face it, is probably 99% safe despite lack of accredited clinical evidence. Furthermore, at what point does your mental ability to deal with the sickness really need more than a 'have you tried sea bands?'.
I hope everyone on here currently suffering from MS/HG - whatever the definition - starts to feel better soon and that you get the medical support you need, even if it means asking again and again - something, in restrospect, I should have done.