Since about 4 1/2 weeks I have been sick with what I eventually found out to be morning sickness and not an imbalance of "gut" bacteria.
Turns out, for me, morning sickness is an all-day-and-night-no-matter-what-you-do sickness. I lost 14 pounds my first trimester. Thankfully I had weight to lose, so my OB wasn't too concerned...I would regain to my normal and put on a few extra for baby eventually. I, along with my OB's nurse (who is an absolute life saver!), had a heck of a time trying to find something to relieve me. None of the usual wives-tale aides were helping. Ginger anything: nope. Lemon: nope. Crackers before sitting up: nope. Crackers in general: nope. Broth: nope. Peanut butter: gigantic nope.
The doctor calls it hyperemesis gravidarum and it affects less than 2% of all recorded pregnancies. Think morning sickness on the scariest crack you can imagine. A lot of vomit. I even had an exorcism moment...absolutely horrendous.
In short, nothing was helping. Finally turned to medicine and neither helped: phenergan was basically a sugar pill and zofran provided a small amount of relief but caused horrendous charlie-horses in places I didn't think possible.
An ER trip later for dehydration and something had to be done STAT.
This is where the nurse really came through. Reglan. It was a saving grace. I was on the max dose (one pill four times a day) until 16 weeks. I was feeling so great, I tried to ween off of it around 14 weeks..that was a mistake. So I continued on full dose until 16 weeks, then dropped down to three, then at 18 weeks I dropped down to just two a day and I've been sitting pretty. I did miss a day about a week ago and felt like crap all day, so I can't come off of it completely.
So Reglan is my life saver. At 20 weeks I still battle nausea and occasional vomiting, but it is nothing compared to what I was dealing with.
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