Hey Tex (can I call you that, Mom2hope?) ;-) if not, totally ok...
Congrats on telling your Dad, sis, and grandma-- glad to gear it went well...
So, it has been an absurd week-- or half week, that is.
Thank you both for the long-distance support... it's so good not to feel so isolated in all this.
We are officially out of the woods!!!!!! though it's been a wonky day:
So, I woke up this morning violently puking at 6, and literally haven't stopped yet... It seems finally to be slowing now, 10 hours later. Couldn't keep a thing down, not even water. And (warning-- gross!) nearly all bile.
Today is my birthday. Did I mention that?
So my wife stayed home today (which she was going to do anyway as a birthday surprise, since I'm signed off from work sick through tomorrow when I go back to the doc to get another ultrasound to try and find the embryo.) we cancelled my surprise party, which she had planned with some friends at my favorite Mexican restaurant
The more listless and distraught I got, she got right on the research... Made me food, held my hair, brought me towels and a bucket. i couldn't ask for a sweeter one. We tried mint tea, ginger tea, candied ginger... Anti-nausea suppositories. All right back up (or out, in the case of the suppository...ew.) acupressure helped a bit-- for about 5 minutes. At some point we started thinking... Ok. This has reached the level of "Not normal". Getting dehydrated. I'm feeling ready to pass out, still heaving, and now have body aches from straining with an empty stomach and extreme dizziness, to boot.
My partner called the doctor at 2, who was closed for a lunch break until 3, and then the university emergency clinic who said I should come in. So she packed me a bag (I was practically asleep) and bucket in hand for the ride-- off to the hospital.
Both doc & the nurse assessed me-- to which my wife answered most questions because i couldn't understand the nurses's thick slavic accent in German very well, being so groggy and working in my 2nd language. since it wasn't my normal doc, they even asked a bunch of bizarre questions like if I conceived "in the normal way" (eyeing my partner sideways) to which I got to answer myself, no, home insemination courtesy of a good friend. Not relevant but whatever. As they debated whether or not to admit me (I'm clearly headed towards Hyperemesis Gravidarum, the rarer incapacitating sort of pregnancy nausea, but apparently wasn't yet officially dehydrated), they both got a bit nicer. And when my wife explained that we hadn't yet seen the baby and therefore didn't yet have a "mutterpass" (a German health-history passport that all pregnant women receive), the doc suddenly got really caring, and offered to do another scan. She must have realized that not only am I nasty sick, but also terribly freaked about the lack of visible embryo.
All this to say... drumroll please.... We saw the embryo!!! My sac dates 8-4 and the embryo smaller, only 7-2 by it's size... But the doc insists it's normal -- Nd there's also a heartbeat!! I guess because my sac hasn't grown since last Thursday but the embryo has clearly grown large enough to make an appearance, he/she must have grown a boatload since last Thursday.
We decided not to admit me, but I can come back any time night or day if it continues to be bad, and they'll take me in, give me food/electrolytes/liquids by tube and IV, and watch until things get better. Hopefully I'll get soemthing down later and we can avoid it-- but I'm glad to know the paperwork is already prepped and they have a bed for me if I need that.
I am soooo relieved.
Meanwhile, we're home, and I've kept down a glass of ginger ale for nearly a half-hour-- small victory!
I guess, despite the puking, today is a pretty good birthday after all.
:-D
