So Your Misses Got Hyperemesis (Gravidarum)

For several weeks, my wife continued trying to drink at home, and I kept searching for more drinks and foods for her. Every 3-4 days, we went to the clinic so she could receive an IV.

This routine was neither pleasant nor effective. Drinking was extremely difficult for my wife. She would arrive at the clinic dehydrated, weak, and stressed, which made inserting the cannula very hard for her. Several times, the nurses at the clinic, who were very skilled at inserting cannulas, couldn’t find a vein and sent us to the emergency room at the hospital so another team could attempt to insert the needle—and also so my wife could be monitored by doctors.

We lived in this routine for about a month. One day, during the 13th week of pregnancy, we arrived at the clinic too late, when my wife was in advanced dehydration. The nurses couldn’t find a vein, and we were sent to the hospital. The doctors, who already knew us and my wife’s severe hyperemesis, recommended she stay hospitalized to regain her strength and to stabilize her. The previous hospitalization had allowed her to rest from the harsh routine of battling with drinking, constant nausea, and vomiting—so we gladly accepted their offer.

We arrived at the second hospitalization much more focused. Hyperemesis had been controlling our lives for almost two months. We wanted to change the situation. We didn’t have all the answers yet, but we came with the right questions.

So, we took advantage of the 7 days my wife was hospitalized to learn, understand, and plan. We spoke with doctors and nurses, asked them a lot of questions, and weren’t shy to ask the same questions to several different people to get different perspectives. We paid attention to the types of medications my wife received and started working on getting them at home. We became more alert to the medical procedures she was going through and also began to request from the medical staff the things we knew worked for her.

In the end, we developed a structured plan for the routine that would follow the hospitalization. Some might say it’s an extreme plan, but since we understood that my wife’s hyperemesis was extreme and the doctors couldn’t offer us a structured treatment protocol outside the hospital—this was our only option.

What did the plan and routine we created for ourselves include? We’ll talk about that in the next chapter