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Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG)is a rare pregnancy complication. HG affects only about 2% of pregnant women. HG is a debilitating and potentially life-threatening pregnancy disease. Women suffer from rapid weight loss, malnutrition, and dehydration due to unrelenting nausea and vomiting.

I was diagnosed with HG at a Reno emergency room on August 16, 2006. It began as just severe nausea and vomiting leading to dehydration, which they treated with antiemetics and IV fluids. However, the condition worsened. I went to the ER in Reno twice before resigning from my job and flying home to Southern California. I was so weak I could not care for myself. I didn't want Scotty to have to take care of me although he tried very hard to do so. My Mom said to come home and I did. I had to be in a wheelchair at the airport, and when they brought me down to where my sister was waiting for me, she didn't even recognize me! My niece had said I looked like my father when he was going through chemotherapy.

The day after I got home, I was rushed by ambulance to the hospital. My muscles were cramping up and I was very weak. I was admitted and this time in addition to IV fluids, I also needed potassium.

My potassium was very low, so low that they ordered an EKG to make sure my heart was okay. They also kept me on the floor with heart patients to be monitored over night. I believe I had tried just about every anti-nausea medicine that has been made by the time this story is through. After I was released, I was still unable to keep anything down.

The simplest things we do everyday, things we take for granted, I was unable to do. I could not shower without help, I could not even brush my own hair! I needed help walking to the bathroom! I couldn't drive, I could not keep food or drink down. I was miserable.

This went on for months. I was so very frustrated and depressed and so many days I just cried and cried. I really did not know how much more I could take. I had lost over 20% of my pre-pregnancy body weight in a matter of months, I had been rushed to the emergency room twice by ambulance and once by a Della and my Mom. I was scared not only for my child, but for my own health that was rapidly deteriorating.

The doctors decided that if my child and I were going to survive we needed nutrition. Since I could not keep anything down, it would have to be intravenous. The procedure to install a PICC line was a big to-do, but once it was in and my home care established I could go home!

A catheter was

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