DW is 16w pregnant and very, very sick with hyperemesis. She can't do anything or go anywhere. She throws up absolutely everything, including water, her own saliva and just plain stomach acid. She throws up from the exertion of sitting up, brushing her teeth, even just speaking sometimes. She's not a "weak" person and I have no doubt she's fighting this with every fibre - so please no comments about her needing to make more effort or try harder or that it's "just morning sickness". She can't walk from one room to another, she often crawls or needs my support - and has to stop to be sick. She's really unwell.
She's been admitted to hospital twice (after five trips to A&E getting fluids, anti sickness IV and vitamins/nutrition). On both occasions, she was discharged (in my opinion, before she was ready) by the same doctor. The doctors on the previous shifts weren't even considering sending her home.
The first time she was admitted, he discharged her very suddenly when all previous days doctors had said she'd be in for a while. She wasn't able to keep down food or water at discharge. He discharged her without medication even though she'd been taking medication (ondansetron) for it before going in and still ended up in hospital. She did say at the time she felt like he just didn't listen to what was happening.
The last time she was admitted, her ketones were +3 when he discharged her and he tried to discharge her with no medication, without even speaking to or seeing her. The doctor the day before (and the day before that) had said they intended to put her onto steroids. DW requested to speak to the doctor before being discharged and he told her there's "no point" giving her medication to go away with because morning sickness goes away at this stage of the pregnancy anyway. He also told her she shouldn't come back unless she's completely unable to keep water down because she'll survive on just water until the morning sickness passes. The midwife then got a different doctor (a registrar) to prescribe her medications to go home with (ondansetron on maxed out dosage, prochloperazine and promethazine - ignore bad spelling please). She was also booked in for IV treatments 1-2 times each week. The doctor the day before also wanted her to have an investigation done into severe blood loss and booked that in for the morning but this doctor cancelled it and decided it wasn't necessary.
Today, she went in for an IV treatment but she was only prescribed one bag of fluids and a half dose of ondansetron, which is less than usual. The fluids take two hours. During that time, the doctor came in to see other patients and saw it's the same doctor as above. After that drip was up, and her ketones were still +4 and she was still vomiting, the midwife said she'd need to get more stuff prescribed because she can't go home like this. Six hours later, the midwife still hadn't been able to get hold of the doctor or get him to prescribe anything. She'd been sat with nothing for six hours - the midwife did try to bring her food and water but she can't keep anything down and the midwife can't prescribe anything herself. DW would've had more medication at home (in fact, four times as much ondansetron, plus the others). DW couldn't find out whether she was being admitted or not because the midwife couldn't contact the doctor to find out. There were five women in the room - DW was the first to arrive, three of them were seen by the doctor while DW was on the first drip. The other woman not seen also had hyperemesis. Eventually, DW said she simply couldn't wait any longer (there's a background and other things going on that meant she couldn't wait forever - she needed to either leave or know for sure she's being admitted). The midwife kept encouraging her to stay and wait for the doctor but eventually she said she just had to go. So, she left, more dehydrated and more sick than when she went in. As she was leaving, the doctor turned up, but didn't speak her, just stood in the doorway watching as the midwife removed her cannula - and she left crying. DW feels he wouldn't have admitted her even if she did wait forever for him.
I feel like this doctor simply does not believe in hyperemesis and that every time he touches DW's care, she ends up worse. I don't know if it's even possible to request he not be included in any decisions on her care. All the other doctors we've met have been incredible, and so have all the midwives. In fact, last time DW was admitted, the midwife sat by her side and ranted about this doctor not understanding the situation and not knowing what he's talking about. The midwife said it's a good job they have facemasks now so the doctor doesn't see the faces she's pulling when he makes decisions.