Sick

Disclaimer: The following post should in no way be construed as a complaint. It is merely a factual account of what's going on in my life lately, plain and simple. And what's been going on in my life is that I'm SICK. No one should assume that I'm disappointed or upset by this new development. I am just, simply, sick.



At the beginning of the week (a work week for me) I was eeking out a good four billable hours - from home. By this morning I couldn't get out of bed. I've been vomiting about 4x per day and feeling debilitated in-between. I haven't been able to finish the new dog run so I haven't been able to test it out. And I have all kinds of company planned for this weekend. Which will require lifting my head off the pillow. It will also require cleaning my disgusting, post-christmas mess of a house...but, baby steps, y'know? And if I can't manage all that, I will have to cancel and disappoint the masses. That would be a disappointment for me too since it's the last time I'll have a chance to see my sister until June.

It's a struggle to keep food and water down. It's hard to eat in the first place, NOTHING sounds palatable. DH keeps telling me to rest and forbids me to go to work. I keep telling him ok I will rest, but that rest will not really help unless my life somehow permits me to do nothing but sleep for the next six weeks straight. If I'm lucky. Maybe more. One does not 'recover' from m/s after a good night's sleep.

One thing this really drives home for me is the inequity between men and women in the workplace. How on earth can the world expect women to work like this? It is beyond reason to think it's acceptable to have an employee hanging her head over a toilet and puking out their guts until they're dehydrated and shaking and have tears coming out of their eyes and the next minute, literally, back at their desks finishing up that memo. You have got to be kidding me. What man would do this? When V was pregnant she had to take a week off due to m/s. She had to take vacation time. I'm basically looking at the same option. That seems wrong. As happy as I am to see m/s, this is no vacation. Not in the sense that Bill or Sam are taking their wives to some exotic location for scuba and sailing for two weeks. Where is the 'morning sickness' billing code?



The thing that does make me worry is - and there's always something, 'cause that's what I do - I felt sick last time too. Not this early, but it came. Week 8-the end. I was sick. But I still could make it to work. Not so now. I can barely make it out of bed to my computer at the dining room table. Last time I still craved certain kinds of food. Right now I can't get anything past my lips except the occasional plain dry cheer!o and those liquid yogurt drinks. So it's different, but my point is that I have been through enough to know that morning sickness does not equal a healthy pregnancy. I can't even have that.

Anyway, I think I've tried just about everything. Dry, bland food, mineral water, I stopped taking my prenatal, I put on some Se@ bands and was vomiting within 15 minutes of putting them on. Nothing is working. So I called my OBG explaining what's going on and asking if there's anything she can prescribe or recommend. The message back from her nurse was - go on our website and read our recommendations for m/s. Then watch the Utube video. A Utube video?? My OBG happens to have written a paper or something on m/s. Somehow this makes her not only the authority on the subject but also the authority on whether or not I need a script - without even having spoken to me. Amazing, this woman!



I told the nurse, as politely as possible, the things I've been doing. I told her nothing is working and that I wouldn't have called - wouldn't be asking for category B prescription medication - unless it was serious.


She suggested eating small meals throughout the day and clear liquids. I told her, again, that's what I've been doing. Finally she asked which pharmacy I use. This is the third time I've had to explain that this week. Yes, now I'm complaining. That office is a clustereff.

I then watched the Utube video while I waited for a call saying my script had been called in. It suggests (no prizes for guessing) eating dry foods, avoiding odors and using se@ bands, among other obvious things. If only it was that easy. Somehow I knew a video wasn't going to fix this. I don't blame her for making sure I've tried other methods before writing the script. But she should have trusted me when I asked for it. She should have known that I would have thought of these things already - given that this is my second pregnancy. My second round of m/s. Given how 'well-read' (her words) I am. I was reminded of a ye!p review of this particular obg which warns that the obg accused the reviewer once that the pain from a procedure the reviewer was receiving was "all in [the patient's] head." That sounds about right. Accusatory, doesn't listen, defensive. I hate this woman. I'm thinking of finally making the switch to a new obg following the first u/s. I know, you'll believe it when you see it.

Anyway, this brings me to this morning. The morning I couldn't get out of bed until noon when I crawled down the hall to get my phone. Still no call about the script. Now I have a renewed blinding hate for my obg. Doesn't she understand that this is becoming an emergency? I feel like a dried out piece of leather, my urine is cloudy. I could miscarry if I'm this dehydrated. Is she only going to take me seriously if I check myself in to the emergency room for an IV? Would that be worth it given that the emergency room is basically a hotbed of germs, infections, and flu viruses? Pretty soon I won't have a choice.

Then it occurred to me that she would have to be an absolute inhuman cretin not to have taken any action for the last 24 hours so I called the pharmacy to see if the script had been called in. It had. Thanks for letting me know h-b obg. Now the question became - how would I ever manage to (a) take a shower and (b) drive to the pharmacy?

Solution: I used the last 8mg tablet of zofr@n that I had gotten last January for a stomach bug. I had been saving it for an important day on the chance that I somehow would not be able to get a script. I only took half and it barely touched my symptoms. I got the script (12mg/day for 30 days, no refills) and got back and now I'm able to sit upright and read and I'm drinking yogurt. This is progress. I took the other half just now and am praying for a miracle.

Am I willing to lie in bed or hooked up to an IV for six weeks (or more) for my baby? Yes. Am I willing to lose my job over this? Absolutely. But if it's unnecessary, why take things to that extreme? And there's still a lingering doubt in my head - a fear that this will all have been for naught. We'll find out soon enough.