These weeks are a little blurry for me. I was very sick and Neil's parents helped tremendously by watching Hadley a lot for us. At some point, Neil took me to Urgent Care to have IV fluids. We also called Dr. P to tell her that the Phenegrin was not working, and she prescribed us Diclegis. That medicine worked great for a couple days, then stopped working altogether. At this point our friend Mandi (who happens to be a doctor), was checking in on us frequently. At her urging, we went in to see Dr. P. I was operating under the assumption of my last pregnancy experience. No one officially said to me that I had HG. The general attitude of the staff was, "just drink more water" or "make sure you are eating more than you are throwing up" or "everyone feels nauseous during pregnancy, there's nothing your Dr can do for you". No one was exactly mean to me, they just gave off a "suck it up" kind of attitude, like I was just being a baby.
Mandi convinced us that this was not normal (not being able to keep anything down, throwing up all day, not being able to get out of bed except to just go to the bathroom, not being able to do normal tasks like shower or take care of my child) and Dr. P would want to know about it. So we went in to see her and I asked for a wheelchair (her office is on the 3rd floor of the hospital). I wore my sunglasses into the office because it was just too bright. Dr. P and her staff immediately jumped to action. She said I had severe Hyperemesis Gravidarum and sent me home with a combination of nausea medication, including Zofran! She said she no longer gives Zofran to just anyone, and tries not to do it as a first resort, but in severe cases like mine, she had no problem prescribing it. The risk of dehydration and malnutrition to both me and the baby were more concerning than the possible risk of birth defects caused by the medication.
If you aren't familiar with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) it is a severe form or morning sickness. I love this chart, because anytime I start to wonder if I'm just "being a baby" or not as tough as other mothers who have wonderful normal pregnancies, I can look at this chart and check off the list and know I'm not crazy! They all apply to me, minus the vomiting blood - thank goodness!
I saw Dr. P on Friday July 17th. I don't know if I was just getting the Zofran too late in the game to help or what, but the nausea and vomiting continued. I also began coughing, quite a bit, which I remembered doing in my previous pregnancy. My last doctor said it fairly normal during pregnancy due to increased mucus production. Neil and I privately felt it was a side effect I had from the Zofran, since it started as soon as I started taking the medication in both pregnancies, but I couldn't find anything online about coughing being a side effect of Zofran.
Anyway, I was coughing the whole weekend and here's what I made of the situation. The severity of the coughing caused (or so I thought) some weird things to happen. I pulled a muscle on the right side of my back, which caused a stabbing pain when I took a breath. Also, I don't know if you've noticed, but when you cough, your tongue thrusts forward. All the coughing and thrusting must have pulled my tongue muscle because it hurt, but only the right side, as if a line were drawn down the middle. My right jaw hurt as well as the bones in the right side of my face, and my right hip.
Are you picking up on a pattern here? Well luckily my incredible, attentive husband did. Right side, Right side, Right side. He called Mandi (remember, she's a doctor) and Mandi quickly noticed several symptoms pointing to a blood clot. She said we needed to go to the ER right away!
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