Hyperemesis Support

[LucindaE]

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.

blimey Sal. what do you fancy doing?
both have pros, and cons.

haven't they told you they recommend either way?

Yay Chaff! I'm having a boy too

Congrats Chaffinch :)

Chaffinch it's really complicated, I think they would prefer me to have c section due to having all the appropriate equipment and treatments available if I were to lose alot of blood in the event of complications.
However there is a lower risk of complications in a natural birth.
The problem being I'm am very likely to need an assisted birth due to my poor health and this then increases the risk of complications and bleeding in my case. The same blood salvage i could have in a c section would not be available to me if I was to bleed out in this way.
So technically a planned c section is safer for me but I am likely to take longer to recover than normal and face a long hospital stay.
On the other hand maybe ill be perfectly fine with a natural birth and all this worrying/planning would be for nothing. I just keep thinking a c section is still major surgery and not to be taken lightly.
Lots to think about!

Sally sorry it's so difficult for you. I hope you find a resolution. My mum and several friends had c-section with no problems and said in the end it was much more stress free. Is it possible for you to get a private room? I will have to have a stay of at least two weeks with the baby in a different room looked after by the nurse assuming all is well. on the plus side it's plenty of help when you have just had the baby rather than getting shoved out the door as soon as possible!

Lol Sick it's awful isn't it. It has put me off certain foods for life! My magic pill from the Dr is so far so good . at my 3am wake up I was enjoying not feeling so sick. There's definitely a queasy sensation still but the need to vomit has gone away. Just had some white toast and going to brave the office so will see how I get on. I'm noticing how shockingly tired I feel which I am sure is also due to poor nutrition and vomiting these last few weeks. I am counting the days to second trimester!

Oh and frozen capri-sun orange! Frozen juice is the best! DH is going to put 20 in the freezer for me when he gets home. I still can't go in the kitchen without needing to gag. That hasn't changed haha. I felt with the sickness that at least I was pregnant so now that's been kept at bay I am reassured by the other signs. That next scan is so far away :(

congratulations chaffinch - boys are fab!! (biased). sally you have had the toughest time and what a tricky decision to make. either way though you will soon have your little one and this awful pregnancy will be over! is this your first? sorry i cant remember!

oh and hi living - i too can only drink freezing cold things. anything else comes back up. still traditionsl really lemony lemonade is good for me.

Eggy that sounds lovely. We have a freezer at work so I may pop to the British store and see what they have.

And congrats chaffinch! I was reading that super m/s means more chance of a girl but that seems like a load of rubbish.

Had better get to work and stop procrastination. Sigh.

living maybe also try frozen fruit to eat and ice lollies. frozen grapes, melon berries etc are all good and will give you some fluid as well as some nutrition. freeze smoothie ice lollies maybe?

i have had two boys with awful hyperemesis pregnancies. long long way from finding out what this one is

Doomfinch, gratssss! another one for the boy club =) yay.

livinglizard (sorry, its just such a nice name), nice to meet you though sorry you've got this sickness!

Ye, I fought and managed to get Emesafene and then metaclopramide too. Think I'm considered a PITA here. When I was in hospital there was a woman in the same room with -no- meds whatsoever after 2 full weeks keeping nothing at all down, not even any liquid, and she'd been in hospital 2 days. It's barbaric and extremely neurotic of them. Emesafene is the basic firstline med, it's an antihistamine and vit B6 combined and it does help. I actually swapped to cyclizine and B6 which is about the same, different anti-histamine, becuase the emesafene was suppositories and um, my bum skin was getting extremely sore.

I can see the problems with interactions mind you :/

living, there's a nice site for Dutch people (are you Dutch, or ex-pat? I'm ex-pat english, came over for my man, Eindhoven area).
www.steunpunthg.nl/wordpress/

They are nice folk, I havent had too much contact with them becuase my Dutch is poor but they do have a lady who speaks good english. She was quite helpful. Other than that I've mostly been in contact with Pregnancy Sickness SUpport whom are outstanding.

Hope you're not having too bad a day today :)

Meerka thanks so much for the reply. I am British and my husband is Dutch, came over same story as you-so many ladies here who have moved for the ie men! We live in Rotterdam and I currently work in the Hague. I do really like it here but sometimes it is so foreign I want to howl. Mainly at the drivers. My Dutch sucks but if my contract is not renewed in Jan I am going to go back and learn it properly. I want to move home again at some point but not until after the baby has arrived.

I find the mental health care outstanding and it's one of the reasons I am hesitant to leave although I could of course just keep paying insurance and see my psychiatrist here. Once I got to Erasmus hospital I was impressed with the gynaecological care but it takes a long time to get into the system. These local hospitals I have not found any good and had a terrible experience at my 7 week scan. Still, onwards and upwards.

This tablet is definitely making a difference. It was so good to read what you said about it. Does it make you drowsy? I could not wake up this morning! My sleeping tablets that I can't currently take are also antihistamine based. It took bloody ages to get medication for my thyroid even when my psychiatrist had requested them and was six months of misery. I had no problems getting nausea meds though, it's funny how it all depends on who you seem to end up with.

Right now I am extremely nauseous but no sickness yet, yay. Trying to sip lots of cold water and eat crackers. Popping out soon to the shops - frozen fruit is a genius idea thanks Eggy! Nom nom frozen orange and pineapple. And watermelon. Will direct DH to the store.

Sally I know you have complex health problems, but is your concern about natural delivery largely because of SPD? Apologies if not - in which case the rest of this is irrelevant! I ask because I had severe SPD (was on crutches from about 7 months and a wheelchair for the last month or so and could barely stand up at all in the final weeks - the pain was very bad indeed). Even my upbeat physio was obviously dubious about my chance of a normal delivery, and my 'safe' distance (that I could part my knees) was only about 40cm I think, so right on the margins of being doable. I had to have a "trial of labour" (i.e. give it a go!) because that was the NHS policy but I'm sure in any private system I would have been booked in for a C section months in advance. (Like you I was still throwing up as well.) BUT despite all that I actually had a very straightforward birth experience with only G&A (and not even that for the whole second (pushing) phase as I didn't want it) and of an awful pregnancy and pretty miserable post-natal period the actual birth is, ironically, the only bit I feel positive about.

So basically I don't think even severe SPD necessarily makes a straightforward birth impossible, and in some ways maybe my awful pregnancy was an advantage - I was SO up for it and really didn't care how much it hurt for a day if it was going to be over! I also obviously had lots of experience of pain management (!) by then with the SPD.

My physio had told me that my only real option for delivery with such bad SPD was kneeling up - there was no way I could stand or squat and if you are on your back there is much more chance that someone forgets and pushes your legs too far apart, especially if your 'safe' distance is very small. I actually moved onto all fours and then to a kneeling position completely instinctively as I entered transition and then the pushing phase and although I wasn't thinking at all about what she'd said, I did deliver kneeling up.

The only real problem that the SPD caused me was that the tear I had couldn't be mended in the room (because I couldn't get my legs apart enough) so after a natural birth I had to have a spinal and be stitched in theatre - was two 2nd degree tears so would normally have been done in the room. But maybe that wasn't a disaster - I think it is easier for them to do a good job of stitching anything more than tiny tears in theatre. It was hard having to wait around for theatre and then be separated from DH and DS though.

Kalidasa, thanks for sharing your experience. I do suffer quite badly with the SPD and sciatica but that's not my main concern.
I have moderate me/cfs so labour may cause a significant relapse which could prevent me from looking after my baby when born. Also as in the event of bleeding I need to have alternatives to a blood transfusion available as I would not accept any primary blood components.
I'm high risk as women in my family have had pre clampsia, my sister had a still birth at 36 weeks due to placenta issues and my mum had early c section 4 times for placenta problems too. Blood clots also run in the family. The list of issues are endless for me unfortunately.
This is my first and not a planned pregnancy so it's all quite scary to me.

Kalidasa Thanks so m uch for such an informative post and so encouraging for Sally. I note that all other mammals give birth squatting or crouching, and think lying flat on one's back the most unnatural position when one has violent stomach pains, so it's great you followed your instincts and I was always so delighted you felt good about the birth at least.
Sicknspan was it you or Chaffinch who had the 'tastes the same coming up' thread? I would say jelly or ice cream. Nightmarish to throw up, rice, pasta, tea and cooked cheese, but some disagree about the pasta.
Meerka I'm glad you and Livingzuid must have such nice OH's!
Sally I believe bananas are incredibly nutritious, sure I read that somewhere...
Jen Handbags Totes Champagne Murder of Goths I hope not too bad...
Apologies to anyone rudely ignored.
xx

hello everyone.

on the pgp / spd vein.... saw my consultant's minion today, nice guy, very caring and accepting of ondansatron, and told him about my worsening sciatic bum/hip pain especially on my right side, he asked if I was taking vitamins and was pretty horrified I wasn't taking any... so I reminded him of HG and a difficulty with taking any extra tablets, he said with spd type pain the first step is to take vit d & calcium, so prescribed me some. had to walk about 6 miles to the hosp pharm, and to my horror they are Massive tablets, but will see if they help. He cautioned me to take them throughout, and for the whole time I breast feed.

interesting as I had same shocking pelvic pain with ds2, and was never advised vit d.
20+1

living, some people find the emesafene / cyclizine knocks them out, others don't. I found the metoclopramide worse, which was useful as I could take it late in the evening (on evenings I dindt vomit it up) and then get a few hours' sleep without more'n 5 mins awake each time I had to upchuck.

But for people that find the cyclizine drowsy-making, i think it is quite noticeable. After a few days they seem to adjust, or at least that's the impression I get.

Erasmus is another teachign hospital isnt it? so hopefully a bit better. Our local hospital is a small-town hospital and yeah, it does suffer from the the problems that come with them.

[flowers} to sally

ah Lucinda wasn't me with the 'tastes the same vomming' question
I found ice cream a no-no, tasted like sour cheesy rotten milk on the upward journey.

Am having mad yogurt cravings though, am eating 2 muller corners a day, couldn't bear it for 1st 18 weeks..

worst to throw up #1st place - Apple. Nearly choked self to death. Now have mild apple phobia.

I found tinned peaches not too bad on either direction

Yes Lucinda it was me. Thread is here if anyone would like to see what was recommended!

I remember mashed potato was surprisingly painful, horrible. But generally I think the more bland and liquid the better. Anything milk-based is unpleasant because it tastes curdled on the return. I think the only thing that I vomited regularly in pregnancy that I don't now have big issues with is milky tea (though I did change the type of tea that I use afterwards). I found tea and coffee, if/when you can face them, taste quite similar on the return. I had a very long period - months - towards the end of pregnancy when I vomited breakfast every single day, so I always ate the same thing (coco pops) so that at least it would just be one thing that I would absolutely never be able to eat again!!

Anything fizzy is v. nasty if it comes up again quickly enough not to have lost the bubbles. Hurts your nose.

Cyclizine really knocked me out. The effect did lessen a bit but not completely. To be honest I think it's the main way it works - also because if you're catatonic you can't try to do anything at all, so it enforces the sort of profound rest that is probably more effective than anything else but very hard to bear if you are conscious.

I was on a big dose of metoclopramide for a long time. Found it less sedating than cyclizine (though it was a bit) but over a long period of time I developed quite bad neurological side effects with it so I think I wouldn't use it a second time if I could avoid it.

My plan is also to avoid ondansetron at the beginning because it wasn't a magic bullet for me (didn't stop me throwing up) and I found the side effects pretty intolerable. But I know lots of people find it a real miracle drug.

Interesting about the vit d/calcium. I was told to take both as well as my levels were very low but I didn't manage to do so very consistently because I was still vomiting all the way through and was really keen to try to avoid throwing up if possible. Maybe I should have made more of an effort with it though.

Sorry it's been such a struggle to get what you need :( Yes, I have the dubious distinction of being referred to the biggest hospital in the country haha. It's the country's largest teaching hospital. I will be part of a research project which looks at correlations between ladies who have bipolar, hypothyroidism and are pregnant. The gynaecological stuff is all done at Sofia which is one of the largest specialist mum and child hospitals too. So I guess I am lucky? I would rather be the one that doesn't need all the extras though but at least I am well looked after. Still trying to find a midwife but hope to have that sorted in the next week.

No vomit so far! Been close to it but so far so good. Just have a horrid taste at the back of my mouth like gone off cheese. Am hungry though. I ate a whole pack of pasta and a bag of crisps and am having a sinful diet coke. Capri-sun is on ice waiting for the journey home!

The worst thing to come up was potato. So vile. I felt it stick in my throat for hours after. And orange juice so my orange treats are limited to late at night. It's so bitter and I ran out of mouthwash to try and get rid of the taste. Haven't had potato since.

Interesting that others have had nasty experiences of ice cream reappearing... SicknSpan I see Random is on your thread, I remember she posted once here, and I feel guilty as I rudely got her name mixed up...
Kali That showed a lot of foresight with the coco pops.
Sally Sorry, I didn't realise you had these other health issues,that is so awkward. Glad Everyone retains their sense of humour.
xx

Ice cream was horrible oh gawd never again! Put me right of Ben and Jerry's! Funnily enough McDonald's chocolate sundaes were good.