Hyperemesis Support

[LucindaE]

We need a new thread.

I hope everyone suffering from the Horrors of Hyperemesis will find this thread useful as a source of support and information.

There's no TMI on here - can't be by definition - and nobody should feel ashamed of moaning as much as they feel the need to.

I used to include extracts from MOH's wonderful website
sites.google.com/site/pregnancysicknesssos/
but I think that makes this link less visible so am merely putting the link. The information on this site is invaluable for sufferers, with information about medications, coping strategies, hospital admissions, useful links, advice for family members, and much more.

I would like to thank MOH and Everyone who has given such invaluable support and advice on this and on previous threads.

Remember when you are at your worst, 'This Too Shall Pass'. It really will.

Becca- can you get signed off if it doesn't ease? I can't imagine trying to teach feeling like this!

The nausea is just so pervasive isnt it? I find it worse when I have to sit or stand up. I managed some lemonade this morning but its come back up. Think I might have to try some fanta. Going to have to get some of those ketones things. And I thought I might escape! Fool!

Also, my friends keep texting and inviting me to play dates. I don't want to tell people but I can't say I have a stomach bug for weeks on end. It's so awkward. What excuses do others use?

I hope everyone is having better days.

Becca, I am with you - I have to go in for staff days starting on Tuesday and I am dreading it! I'll be 15 weeks by then and I just pray I can make it through or else it will be a trip to the GP to plead for a sick line. I have found that the more active I am, the sicker I am. If I spend my time being very still and quiet, I am less sick. I can't, however, spend the next 6 months in bed. Can I?

Totes, I told one friend I was having a 'food intolerance thing' which was why I wasn't eating much. She bought it even though it was the flimsiest excuse ever. You get ketostix at the chemists or from Amazon.

Anyway I am home again after another litre of fluid on the day ward today. My notes are so thick, you'd think I was further on!

I'm going to try the first couple of days and see what happens Jen!

I agree about being still. I have to psych my self up to go to the loo.

In terms of excuses, I was quite "lucky" in that I have an ongoing issue with gastritis (probablyaking the HG worse) and so just tell everyone I'm having an ongoing flair up. The summer hols have helped too, as I can pretend I am busy.

Really looking forward to scan next week, as I'll be 13 weeks and I can finally tell everyone why I've been so ill, but apparently unconcerned about the lack of improvement/diagnosis!

I'm dreading being back at work too. I'm back a week on Monday. I'm lucky that I only work afternoons and have a toilet in my room! But not sure how I'll get through the day without sleeping.

My headteacher told loads of people I was pregnant when I was only a few weeks. Wish I hadn't told her now until I had to. I show early, so it would have been hilarious to be walking around with a big bump and not saying anything.

Hi ladies,
I've been a bit hesitant about posting here as feel a bit of a fraud for not actually puking...but feeling very sorry for myself today and need to vent. How am I supposed to function when I feel so nauseous all the time?! There's no let up and I don't know if I can take another few weeks of this - it's only been nearly one week and I'm nearly broken :(

Got cyclizine and took it yesterday at 7am and sickness abated by about 1pm which lasted all evening! I doubted it was down to the tablet as no idea how long acting it is, so I thought I'd see how I go today and not take one. Big mistake. Felt like shite and took tablet at 12 so then spent few hours feeling spaced and sick!

I feel bad because you ladies have it MUCH worse, but how the hell are we supposed to cope with this?! Sorry if I'm not making much sense - my head is all over the place.

Quick question with cyclizine - does taking it before bed help with the side effects? And is it long acting enough to last to the next day? I feel bad taking it when I'm not vomiting, but I can't function like this :(

I have to take cyclizine at the same time every day for it to work at all - I take it at 12 midday, 8pm and 4am after I get up to be sick. Which sounds contradictory, but I'm not sick as often on it and can keep fluids down generally.

Sorry you're feeling so rubbish.

Misty- I wasn't actually puking in the beginning. But the nausea was nothing I have ever experienced before. I felt as though I was dying. The dizziness was so extreme I couldn't sit up. I was literally lying down until week 13-14 unless I had an appointment. Even then, appointments were rare as I was so bad doc had to send the nurse out instead of going into the surgery. I take my cyclizine at 12 and 6. Only as I take my ondansetron at 9am and 3pm. They suggest lying down in a darkened room for an hour or so after taking for the side effects.
Anyway, the puking eventually started and now when it's gona happen, it will. It was horrendous but now it's mainly in the evenings that I do actually be sick. Nausea is there most of the day.

Just had a chat with DH as I still haven't got out of bed but when I did earlier I nearly hurled on the carpet before reaching the loo!

Anyway, we decided to see how the next few days go before making decisions regarding medicines.

He doesn't want me to take any but he also said that he has no idea what it must be like to feel so sick all day and night. I was like...think Norovirus!

So far today I have managed a packet of crisps and some lemonade. Ok, it's not great nutrition, but its something and i am not anywhere near as bad as some of you poor ladies, having to be hospitalised, so should I just HTFU and get on without meds?

With DS I coped without because I moved into my parents, spent all day by the loo or in bed and sipped liquids, so even though I puked at least five times a day, I managed to rest and just about stay hydrated. Ruined my teeth though!

My parents have offered to take us in again this time and look after DS and I until I am better.

I am just so torn about it all. Sorry for spilling out my boring mental ramblings.

Do the meds take the nausea away or just the vomiting?

I think it has to be only your decision about meds. It's your body.

another here who agrees you need to take the meds like clock work for them to be most effective. i take ondandsatron at 7am, 1pm and 7pm and cyclizine at 8am, 2pm and 8pm. i never miss taking them by more than a couple mins max. i think the drugs are there most effective after 2-3 weeks of routine with them

Totes I wonder if OH might be less nervous of medications for you if he saw the statistics on MOH's website (link on the introduction to this thread), as there are NO extra recorded cases of abnormalities on the drugs than would happen in a normal sample. Cyclazine has been used for decades because it's safe. Nobody likes taking drugs, and many of the women on here have had to be on a whole cocktail, but becoming very dehydrated is far more dangerous for the baby if it goes on too long. Good idea to get the kesostix just in case and I do hope it doesn't esculate into the full blown thing. Being bed bound all morning is pretty bad!
Misty I think most people agree that the nausea is just as debilitating as the vomiting, so there is no way you are a fraud.
LittleMachine Loo in the room sounds handy - but I'm dismayed that you and Jen and Becca and Others have to go back yet. Any chances of extended sick notes (I know a lot of you are teachers, and conscientious, but this is like being hit by a truck; how RNJ kept going I will never know.). I'm glad that Jen's hospital is so nice, it's odd how the standard of care and sensitivity varies so much. That cannula must be a nuisance, I know waves found hers awkward.
Sally Glad about productive day, sad about vomiting episode. Glad it isn't as bad as it was.
Choc Sorry about awful Public Puking Embarrassments - my speciality was bins (which at that time in Ealing were open topped)!
RNJ Thanks for lovely post. You must be a great teacher, to be able to keep order and be sick out of a window! I wouldn't be able to keep order without for sure.
Tallyra Hugs. So glad you feel a bit better.
Slinky Hope you still feel not too bad?
Feekerry How are things today?
BeccaDid you get those ketones down?
I hope I haven't rudely overlooked anyone.
Lucinda
xx

Spoke to doc who wasn't keen on giving me meds as I was managing a bit of lemonade. In the end I said I didn't want to take them but I wanted the script in case it all got too much so on that basis I got an agreement. They aren't keen on prescribing though!

Totes - there is some great info for GP on the PSS website ( www.pregnancysicknesssupport.org.uk/help/treatments/ )

The unwillingness to prescribe is based on out dated views. Once I showed that to my GP they changed their mind and took a copy to post around to all the other GPs. Proud moment for me!!

I am sure that same GP would sign me off if I asked.

I did keep my ketones down. Managed quite a lot of water yesterday/today, thanks to the ondastrone!

I know Lucinda...I worked through last time except when I was in hospital, I don't even know how, I wasn't in my right mind.

At the moment, school is difficult. Almost all of our jobs are on the line, I know pregnancy related things can't be held against you, but she'd manage to make it about something else. I need to be careful.

Ah Becca that's great you changed your GPs views. Well done you!

thanks for this thread Lucinda and everyone.

I echo that Choc! I wouldn't have even known about the different meds without this thread or the website links.

I wish I'd been on here when I was pregnant with DS. I was genuinely scared I was going to die.

Same here Little - if only I had found you lot when I was carrying DD.

Lucinda I only kept going thanks to ondansetron and cyclizine! Ad I did have a lot of time off and admissions to the antenatal ward.

Totes - the nausea is the worst, if you need them, take the meds. Seriously. I have taken a myriad of meds in both pregnancies, and have a very happy and healthy 4 yo, and a healthy week old bubba.

One thing that helped me was only trying to sip things that were near-frozen levels of cold, sucking on frozen juice cubes, frozen slices of apple, really cold melon. It is grim. Hang on in there ladies. This thread is sanity saving.

you know you have hyperem when the biggest riskiest most daring thing you do all week is.....eat a Satsuma

very very very slowly

That reallyade me laugh... (Slowly and carefully obviously so as not to jiggle my tum too much!)

I totally agree with everyone else that this thread is a sanity-saviour. It is so reassuring to know that we are not alone.

I went food shopping tonight - completely exhausted me and I felt horrendous when I got home. I mostly bought ready-meals for OH so that he doesn't end up surviving on takeaways. I haven't cooked a proper meal since this started and I don't see it happening any time soon.

I made him a m&s chicken pie with mashed potato on top and I had a tiny spoonful of it, so hopefully that will be enough to keep me alive.

I am so tired but I can't go to bed until I take my next ondansetron, then have to set an alarm for the metaclopramide.

Becca - ikwym about the jiggling - you have to be really careful!

Choc. You are wild !

Satsuma!!! Very brave

Bear in mind that all the alarm setting and waking up for meds is good practise for the 2 hourly feeds with newborns....

Lucinda I think wondered why I got a PICC line, basically my veins ended up in a dreadful state from being cannulated so much and I was having to have IV fluids every day for months so in the end the consultant arranged the PICC line for guaranteed access til the baby arrived. Was amazing to have it removed right after he was born! So not a health insurance issue, but more a practicality. I was also on The meds intravenously for a long time as the oral ones wouldn't stay down.

If anyone else has problems not tolerating the meds then ask if you can have a different type eg sub lingual or even suppository form which can be taken at home or they can be given as injections or IV in hospital.

One of my darkest days was being discharged with a prescription only to find that particular drug in that form was no longer manufactured, so going back to get a new script, and then those drugs having to be special ordered, so having to wait 2 days, and then the pharmacy misordering so only 2 tablets coming instead of the full amount. I spent days in bed getting my hopes up and each time something went wrong.

For those wondering about fitness to work, I did try but each time I went in I overdid it somewhat and I ended up signed off for most of the pregnancy. Bed is, however, genuinely the best place to be.

This thread totally saved my sanity too, wish I'd discovered it earlier in my pregnancy as I was 14 weeks by then, and found it after being "blue lighted" to hospital by ambulance from the GP surgery when I turned up there so ill I actually collapsed. If I'd found it sooner I'd never have got so ill. Lucinda speaks so wisely, she is worth listening too.

Just spotted this on active threads! Had horrific hyperemesis with DD (now 11 months), hospitalisations throwing up blood so on, but it also meant my stomach was close to flat the day after giving birth and then completely back to normal within a couple of weeks!

Oh and the first proper meal without feeling sick is amazing - lots of other women were moaning about the hospital food but it tasted great

Thought I'd throw in some positives haha, good luck everyone!!!