The best thing about hyperemesis...

     I must say that there is not much that is good about hyperemesis. Looking back I am able to appreciate some things about it.  Mainly how the people in my life responded.  I will never forget the love and support of my husband, and I will never forget how my mom left her real life and came to live with us.  Another thing I am hugely greatful for is some amazing people that I have met because of it.  Right after going through it all I was able to read a lot of stories of baby loss, and I was able to read some stories of hyperemesis, but never did I come across someone who could relate to both.  I prayed that there not ever be another woman like me who went through both HG and the loss of their baby, but if there was someone who had to be like me, that I could please meet her.
   In July of 2010 - Tad and I were trying to get prepared to go through it all again (I will go more into that at another time) and I was scared.  I kept wondering how women went through it another time, and I kept wondering how I could go through with it.  One day I was looking at my favorite HG website http://www.hyperemesis.org/  and found a list of volunteers.  They were all women who'd gone through HG.  The site listed their name, where they were from and what meds they'd received (I am now listed as a volunteer myself - so you can find me on there!) So I chose 3 people to write to.  I choose 1 near Milwaukee because she had had multiple pregnancies, I chose one in I think Washington State because she'd tried accu-pressure, something I was thinking about for my next go round, and I chose 1 in Stevens Point WI, because she was the closest person to me that had also had a PICC line, so I figured we'd be fairly similar in how bad it got. To each of the women I wrote about my experience and losing Gabriel, and asked about trying again.  The accu-pressure woman never wrote me back, the Milwaukee woman wrote with all these technical things to talk to my doctor about and all sorts of stuff like that - which answered my question technically, but I was wanting a more emotional response.  I basically wanted to ask these women how did you have the balls to go through it again?  The third response was from Anne, she was in SP - and was writing while she was pregnant with her second child. Her first child was a very healthy little boy! She wrote that so far her 2nd hadn't been as bad, she did have to have a PICC, but at that point she was starting to be able to eat some.  Not long after she wrote my grandma passed away so we went down to Alabama for her funeral.  While we were there, I got another email from Anne, this one said that she now knew why she had started to feel better, she had also lost her baby.   I was so incredibly sad for her.  We wrote back and forth a few times in the coming weeks and then decided to meet.  we both went to Appleton and had lunch - I was nervous about how it would go, as many of you know I was not blessed with the gene that the rest of my family has to be able to make conversation with anyone I meet!  But I couldn't believe how easy it was to talk to her.  We talked about our family history (neither had HG run in the family), our pregnancies and the horrific things we had to go through, how our husbands handled things, the babies that we lost and our futures.  It was so wonderful to meet someone who just knew.  I know that there are many out there that were there for me, but to find someone who also lived it day in and day out has been one of the greatest blessings to me.  After lunch we drove over to the mall and sat in Gloria Jeans for the rest of the afternoon and just talked some more.  After that we continued to keep in touch, we were able to meet for dinner another time,  and a month or so later Tad and I drove over to SP and were able to meet her husband and son also.  Anne has been an incredible source of strength for me.  She is one of the very bravest women that I know and I am so fortunate to have her friendship.  This summer she coined the phrase 'hyperemesister' and I could not be happier to have the most incredible hyperemesister a girl could hope for. Currently she is in the home stretch of being pregnant with her 3rd baby and I am so happy for her.  This one was again a very difficult pregnancy and it has been amazing to see her strength in going through it again. I am so looking forward to February and seeing the incredible miracle that she has made.  She is most definitely the best part of hyperemesis.