Eagan's Birth Story - Part 1 - Hyperemesis Gravidarum

Pregnancy has never been "easy" for me. I usually know extremely early that I am pregnant due to extreme nausea and vomiting. That was just the case with my pregnancy with Eagan. Either I was pregnant or had the worst stomach flu of my life. 

The test showed the darkest positive of every test I had taken in the past.

In the days following the pregnancy test, I became even sicker. I was in and out of the emergency room because my doctors would send me in for hydration and even vitamin replacement through an IV. At this point, I had now lost over 15% of my body weight. My doctor prescribed a Zofran pump. This pump gave me an anti-emetic called Zofran 24 hours a day. Eagan and I would not have made it through the pregnancy without this pump. I literally could not eat or drink anything without throwing up before the pump.

One of my many IVs

While on the pump, I tested my urine every morning for ketones.  Ketones appear in your urine when your body is using fat reserves as energy. I began to steadily test positive for ketones. At this point my doctor decided IV hydration at home would be the best option. This idea sounded great. Once the fluids started, I already felt more human. The problem was how to get the fluids in me. One liter of fluids would not make it through the IV before the vein in my arm would blow. Generally, I could not get an IV to last 24 hours.

Again, I began to go downhill. After an appointment with the perinatologist, I was admitted to the hospital. I stayed hospitalized for seven days. During my hospital stay, a PICC line was placed. A PICC line or peripherally inserted catheter is a tube placed in a large vein in your arm, and threaded just to the opening of your heart. The PICC line was definitely my saving grace. I was then able to receive IV fluids and run the Zofran pump through the PICC.

My PICC line

Hyperemesis can be very dangerous to mom and baby if not treated. It is also difficult to find doctors experienced with treating this condition. I ended up switching doctors part of the way through my pregnancy almost due to that issue alone. Unfortunately, my hyperemesis lasted all the way to the day of delivery but was much better managed.