Has Someone Ever Died From Morning Sickness?
“Can I die from morning sickness?”
“Is morning sickness dangerous?”
These and more are what filled my Google search activity back in October and November of 2018. And by the looks of it, you would guess by now that Mac and I are expecting a baby!
Yes, you read that right. I am currently pregnant and I cannot wait to squeeze the cuddly ball of cuteness who’ll join us in a few months. However, nobody told me how difficult this journey can be. Truth be told, in the last quarter of last year, I have had the hardest time of my life that I sometimes thought I’d die!
Exaggerated as it may be, I honestly never thought I’d survived the bouts of morning sickness I experienced in the first trimester of my pregnancy. Eating a favourite dish from a restaurant would mean throwing up seconds after finishing off the meal. Quenching my thirst with a glassful of water would always end up with me gagging until all of my internal organs reach my throat!
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When is too much really too much?
Although I haven’t been diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum, which is basically extreme morning sickness in layman’s term, I really felt like I was punished–on a daily basis–by the universe for all the sins I’ve committed, those from my previous life included. But what is extreme really? Is it vomiting more than five times a day or even twenty? Is it throwing up every other hour straight for twelve hours that you’d become too weak and nauseous you couldn’t function at work anymore? Is it one suddenly waking up at 2AM with a nauseous feeling and halfway through the bathroom, you’d vomit? If it isn’t, then tell me where my experience would fall.
If I was hungry, I vomited. If my stomach was full, I still vomited. Nothing seemed to settle in my tummy, not even a bite of the good ‘ol Skyflakes crackers. I would be up until the wee hours in the morning, feeling so miserable all the time. Sometimes, I’d cry myself to sleep because I was just so exhausted. And whenever I’d successfully doze off, the alarm would wake me up again telling me to go to work.
Morning sickness and law school don’t go together well
And here is where it gets worse. You’ve eaten a small meal to get you through a two-hour class and you’ve bought a piece of siopao to control the hunger pangs, in case it attacks you (because really you’ll never know when you’ll get hungry again). And yet your body decided to betray you, you unexpectedly felt the urge to throw up that you had to calmly get up from your seat and upon reaching the door, run like a madman to reach the loo only to find all the cubicles occupied you hurriedly climb the steps to the third floor (from the ground floor) and then release all the kraken like there’s no tomorrow.
But wait, there’s more.
One time, I had to take a final exam on a warm October Friday night. The lawyer’s instructions were clear, “All of you who want to go to the CR, do it now because once the exam starts, I will not allow you to stand up or go somewhere else.”
While I was confident that I wouldn’t feel nauseated because I ate before I went to school and I had a Jollibee burger on the side, I suddenly felt sick and let out a small retch. And I was only on the first question of the 10-item essay exam. I couldn’t concentrate anymore, I answered all the questions in haste all while controlling the gagging motion on my throat. After about 30 minutes, I was out of the door.
Haaaay, the struggles of pregnancy.
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But no suffering lasts forever.
My pregnancy might be difficult but I know that all these discomforts will all be over soon. I can’t wait to meet this little human being who’s now busy kicking all my insides for fun.
See you soon, little one. ?
