What Worked, What Didn't: The Post-Pregnancy Evaluation

Reposted from my morning sickness blog!

I'm sorry this entry has taken so long, ladies! I should have written this months and months ago when the information was fresh in my memory. But I need to get on with it before I forget it entirely, so here goes.

You can see the plan and protocol I worked on here.

You know, I haven't really looked at that plan/protocol in almost a year - I'd forgotten a lot of things on it! Some things got done, some didn't. But it helped. Ladies, if you are planning an HG pregnancy, I highly recommend having your own personal plan and protocol. It might help, but for me the main help has been (1) gaining the extra knowledge while researching for it, and (2) feeling prepared - it helps so much mentally and emotionally, even if it doesn't help physically. I really recommend the process as a therapeutic help.

You can read my "what worked, what didn't" for my previous pregnancy here.

As always, sorting out what helped and what didn't is a bit of an exercise in futility, just because of the conglomeration of remedies tried results in confounding variables - throw in normal pregnancy variation, and it's a puzzle. We can only try.

This pregnancy has been my easiest so far. Barring the mysterious beginning, which was hideously sudden and severe, the nausea stayed.... minor, comparatively. It put me out of commission for four months, and it was miserable, but it did not reach HG levels, nor even the levels reached with my last pregnancy. Of course, I was on massive amounts of pharmaceuticals (Zofran and Unisom), and I do think that it would have proceeded into straight HG without that - but otherwise it was my best pregnancy yet. Miserable, but good comparatively.

* Note the caveats mentioned in my last "what worked" entry.

Continuing the format on my last entry, here goes!

*****

I never got around to trying these things, or trying them seriously:

* Acupuncture/Acupressure - I did try to try this, but unsuccessfully. I visited a (very unfriendly) acupuncturist who took my paperwork and then announced, "Your insurance doesn't cover NVP, so I can't see you. Good-bye." I didn't try again. Thankfully I have the name of a great acupuncturist now, so I can try her next time (assuming a next time happens).

* Chiropractic Care - I love my chiropractor, and I did notice minimal improvement with chiropractic care last time. However, I barter cooking for adjustments... not happening while NVP is in full swing! Kind of a Catch-22.

* MorningWell CD - Forgot about it again.

* Primabella Wristbands - Didn't want to go to the trouble to get a prescription, or pay the price... and have heard that they don't work that well for HG. If you want to try it, though, it's worth a go!

* Homeopathy - I have heard great things about homeopathy... but I've never gotten it to work for me. So this time I just didn't bother.

* Herbs - I had absolutely ZERO luck with all of the herbs that I tried last time (and I tried a bunch!). Not to mention that the smell of the herbs made me sick! So this time I just didn't bother, and stuck with ginger alone. (I would have done milk thistle if I'd remembered it - this is one herb with a great track record - but I forgot about it.)


These Were Really Helpful

* Zofran (Ondansetron) - 24 mg per day in 4 mg doses

* Bendectin replica (Unisom {doxylamine succinate} plus B-complex/B6) - A lot of this.

* The Very Low Carbohydrate (VLC) Diet. More on this later (it merits its own entry, coming soon).


Other Things I Did

Remember... this was my easiest pregnancy. Unless it was normal pregnancy variation (very possible), something helped. It could have been any of the below:

* Herbal Detox - This was one of those boxed 10-day herbal detox programs that we did on a complete spur-of-the-moment. Oddly enough, I see that we started it two or three days before getting pregnant - completely unintentionally! That was definitely a God-thing! (What isn't?) Don't know if it helped at all, but it's definitely gone on our yearly to-do list! (We actually bought this year's tonight!) And considering that liver support is one of the things recommended to help HG, I'm definitely going to keep that on my mental list of helps.

* Magnesium - Magnesium is SUCH an important nutrient! Read up! Definitely a keeper.

* Epsom salts in bath - For more magnesium. Didn't do it as much as I should have, but I tried. (Does anyone know where to buy epsom salts in bulk? They go so quickly!)

* Zinc - Read about this in one of the articles mentioned in my protocol. Another keeper.

* B-complex - This is a no-brainer.

* B-complex/folate/magnesium shots - Got this done at the naturopathic college weekly for about six weeks. After the first visit it wasn't too expensive. Would definitely do again!

* Multivitamin - Let's face it, these don't help. Just did it to keep up with nutrients otherwise missing.

* Morning Sickness Magic - A vitamin B and ginger supplement. Recommended by a friend.

*****

Did I miss anything? Let me know your thoughts! I need to work on updating my protocol, so I'll get on that soon. But first, my article on the VLC diet! I will try to get to that in the next week or two. Remind me if I forget!

Have a great weekend, everyone!