Setting out to fight the HG war, an anonymous guest blog post
Today in the midst of World HG Awareness Day, a friend posted this analogy on her Facebook wall. All day today us HGers have shared our stories, shared facts, and thanked our loved ones and doctors for walking this HG journey with us. But, we have also struggled for words to help those outside understand. Then she posted this analogy and I thought . . . yes . . . exactly.In a way, by setting out today to raise awareness, we have declared another type of war against HG – a war against misinformation and poor care.
I hope the analogy doesn’t offend anyone – and it might if you’ve never lived through it yourself – but I’ve long thought HG pregnancies are like deployments.
You get your orders (pregnancy test), you know it’s going to suck, but you have a mission to fulfill.
You have to say goodbye to your loved ones, are unable to participate in life for many months, and you live with the full knowledge that …yes, you might die, your baby might die, and that many others have given their lives in the fight.
And even after the pregnancy ends, whether successfully or not, memories and flashbacks will haunt you.
But… it’s worth it. And it changes you in a way that from that point forward, the people who “get you” the best are very often the other “HG vets” – it creates a lifelong bond. Anyone else who went through the same thing is considered a sister to you. All the women who go through HG are heroes in my eyes.
Thank you all for joining us today and allowing us to share our stories. Thank you all for being willing to learn about something new. Thank you all for joining our fight against HG. You can continue to share the information by directing others to all the HG links under the World HG Awareness Day link or by visiting the Hyperemesis Education and Research Foundation (HER Foundation) at www.helpher.org.
Filed under: HG, Hyperemesis Gravidarum
About Karen Jensen, MLS
Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).
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I sufferd hg in pregnancy and ever since atleast one a year i suffer severe sickness..i can only explain this as hg… I cant eat drink and vomit violently for days on end which often leads to me having a seizure.. how common is it after pregnancy