Never Take Feeling OK for Granted

Food Poisoning While Pregnant

I have recently come down with a bout of food poisoning, which hasn't happened since I was 9 or 10 years old and ate my mother's cookie dough with eggs in it. This time, since I was pregnant, I was concerned about the effect it might be having on my baby as I ran to the toilet time after time.

I was throwing up every 15-20 minutes, my stomach hurt and cramped the entire time and vomiting brought no relief from the stomach pain like it usually does when you are sick. My head started hurting like no other, and I started to feel quite funny on top of it all. (Maybe the fact that it started at 3 AM and so I was really needing some sleep had something to do with that)

I looked online myself to see what others had done in their experience. It turned out everyone was saying "You'll be fine, and baby will be fine, don't worry just stick it out" but they also would note, "unless you are getting dehydrated and can't keep any water down at all, this can lead to contraction and premature labor"

Well of course I can't, I have never heard of someone with food poisoning keeping anything down for at least 8-10 hours after it begins.

I also remembered an earlier hospital visit I had in which they had given me an anti nausea to combat the side affects of morphine. As I hugged the toilet, I dreamed about that delicious, non-vomity feeling it gave me.

After 6 hours I had had enough, and feeling awfully funny by this time in addition to the pain which had spread around my back from my stomach, I decided I wasn't toughing it out anymore. I had to arrange for someone to come bring me and take care of my son, as hubby needed to go to work (bills have to be paid as long as no one is dying, around here!) Otherwise I would have went in earlier than 6 hours into it.

Once at the hospital, they whisked me up to the Labor & Delivery area, got me into a bed and asked me a ton of questions. Then they got an IV in me, to get me hydrated, and asked for a pee sample. It took two IV bags before I could do that, and they put me back to bed to get another IV water bag after that. They also gave me a dose of that lovely anti nausea and ta-da! As long as I laid there and did nothing, which was easy, as it also made me extremely drowsy (remember I had had no sleep that night anyways) I didn't feel sick at all and my stomach eased up and stopped hurting.

What a blessing! I started having small contractions which they called uterine irritability from being dehydrated, which eased off after three IV bags of water had been emptied into me. My first 1/4 of a slice of toast started to bring the nausea back and they popped another dose of medicine on my IV, after which it went away and I was reeally tired. Its hard to sleep on your back with monitors on your tummy when pregnant, however, and I was eager to get out of there with my newly hydrated, anti-nauseated self. The headache had eased, and the stomach pain, and I was let to go home. Hubby came home early to take baby, and I slept the rest of the day. 

I just want to say, that after you feel so horrible, you don't take feeling fine for granted after that. I have been finding myself just giving a sigh of relief at feeling OK every once in a while. Even though I'm still sore, its nothing compared to being so sick. When you feel OK and are not in pain or sick, its something to be thankful for and never take for granted.