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.

hyper I had problems with ongoing nausea and a bit of vomiting after the birth. I only actually threw up a handful of times but if I am brutally honest it took a long time for the nausea to resolve completely - I'd say six months or so. BUT it wasn't anything like even the end of pregnancy - it wasn't constant - I just had difficulties eating and always felt sick after meals. I'm still not sure how much it was psychological (I did have bad PND as well) and how much perhaps hormonal - maybe linked to breastfeeding? I found it very depressing and demoralising as the one thing everyone says is that the sickness disappears immediately - and it WAS a lot better immediately, but this insidious nausea crept back in over the first few days and then took a long time to shift.

Just reading this thread for 18 months or so would suggest that this is very unusual. I was one of those women who was still throwing up (though not as badly) right to the end so perhaps that is a factor.

I think the iron is a tricky one because being anaemic can make you nauseous, but as you say the iron tablets themselves are a disaster. Could you maybe concentrate on a very iron-rich diet (lots of steak etc) plus something gentle like spatone?

My baby has his first birthday next week and over the last few months I do finally feel completely better, and most of my issues with food have also resolved. I had very bad SPD too (in a wheelchair) and that is nearly better finally as well. So it DOES all sort itself out eventually.

Just back from Liverpool, my goodness, it was snowing on the way, round Chirk.
Waved to them, Superlambanana!
StarsTallyra and Jen Hugs about previous losses.
Hope everyone is coping. Jen Sorry about that awful heartburn.
Kalidasa You were very unlucky having nausea for so long for sure. The only people I have ever known on this thread to have it hang about after giving birth were you, me and Slippers who was on the first of these threads, and now Hyper'; there was another women on a US thread I took over temporarily, so out of so many woman, the chances of it happening are low indeed for most. As I say, only ten days or so for me but violent. I am always in a quandry over whether I should mention that there is a very remote chance it may take its time to go!
xx

Well we now know there is a chance it won't but there's not a lot we can do about that except soldier on and hope for the best, right?

I had an ok day in work after all, I think I am just tired and worn out. Plus hitting the bottle of peptac regularly, I think I need to keep it by the bed at night now. I felt pretty sick by the time I got home and when I thought about it I realised I had drunk no water all day - just tea in the morning. Probably dehydrating myself because I am literally so busy I forget. Stupid, stupid..... must do better.

Jen The chances are all in your favour that all of you on here will be part of the huge majority who have healthy appetites again within hours of birth . You must have been working hard!
xx

Evening all

Had another crappy sick day. SPD is so bad. Can't wait for dh to come home, only 3 more days though. Feeling quite nervous about the possibility of going into early labour. My mum and sis both had very early babies and i don't feel prepared at all. Packing my hospital bag tomorrow just incase.

I've now realised that anything sweet sets off the metal mouth so no more sugar for me. Managed to keep down a pork chop and a couple oven chips so at least I've eaten something. Evenings are still the worst and I have to force myself to eat dinner.

Baby is kicking away constantly and movement is really quite painful. Think I'm yet to experience braxton hicks though. Or maybe I'm having them and just not sure what it feels like. I have tightening and pains all the time but not sure if that's baby moving around or bh.

Jen once again I must say your amazing for struggling through work with this!

Xxx

Weird thing is I wasn't one of the worst on here. I wasn't actually sick after week 24 just nausea. Wondering if the ibuprofen I'm taking is causing it? I'm careful to take it with food and never had a prob with it before. I have to say kalidasa it sounds just like me what you describe. It's worse after meals which is not like in pregnancy. It's just there, lurking, especially in the evening. Praying it will settle soon :(

Hi all. Sally sorry to hear how much you are suffering I really hope it improves for you soon.

Can I please ask what people are eating that stays down? I am fed up of noodles, white bread and chicken nuggets and my oranges are the only nice thing I look forward to. Funnily enough pain au chocolate stays down in the morning too haha although it depends where I get it from. If I try the wrong bakery then I regret it! I have a real aversion to vegetables bizarrely. The sight of broccoli makes me feel horrendous. And most meat is icky although if I could find some finely diced chicken that might work.

My tablets do help and I have only vomited once on Monday and dry retched this morning before eating. They completely knock me out though so I am incapable of getting up before 8 and make it into work around 10. I am still getting bad nausea which strikes at any time of the day, and the tablets also make my stomach very acidic.

On the upside, I can now enjoy a nice hot Ribena which I couldn't before. Yummy when things are so cold outside right now brrrr

Any ideas are welcome!

Finally seeing the consultant today, so they'll be reviewing my medication. Which is good. My GP has been great, but she's right that it's best I'm seen by an expert.

The SPD is getting really tough already, not helped by the fact this bump is way bigger than in the last pregnancy. Also she appears to be trying to wedge herself up inside my ribcage, which is so damn uncomfortable!

Yes Ribena is quite good as I remember, though if you do throw up it creates a v. dramatic "loo bowl full of blood" effect!

I remember my best bets were plain bread/toast, croissant with a bit of Nutella (oddly), tiny bits of v. lemony goat's cheese on toast, milk with chocolate Nesquik and peanut M&Ms. Very strange combination of plain carbohydrates, dairy and chocolate. I couldn't do fruit or vegetables at all, and in fact I still couldn't do fruit months after I had the baby, I have only just got that one back. I could also manage a little milky tea and even coffee from about four or five months, though I think I was unusual in that one. Tea and coffee taste almost exactly the same on the return which is an advantage.

hyper I too stopped throwing up at somewhere around 24-26 weeks and had a month where I felt constantly nauseous but didn't actually vomit, then the vomiting started again around 30 weeks, but in a much reduced way, just occasionally. I took cyclizine and ranitidine the entire way through though, it might have been worse without; and the final few weeks I used some of the other drugs again as well as I remember. The nausea never let up apart from two hours after supper the Saturday before the baby was born (on the Wednesday). I remember it SO clearly! I was convinced I must be going into labour, it was so strange not to feel sick! I reckon it was a hormonal shift marking the beginning of pre-labour in some way. It came back though after a couple of hours and in fact I threw up a few times in labour itself.

Hope everyone is surviving! We are beginning the process of gearing up for a possible second pregnancy at some point from next summer onwards. I feel I am already psyching myself up!! Trying to see it as a challenge . . .

Hello, not sure if I have bad ms and just finding it harder with a 2 yo in tow, or whether I have hg. I am 7+6 and have had wall-to-wall nausea most days since 3 days before my missed period (when I got my BFP). Sea bands, ginger etc. do nothing, the only thing that does help is lying down, but with working pt and a toddler this is a luxury I only get for a while some evenings. Up to last week I wasn't sick, but ate a choc cornflake cake from nursery on the way home on Friday and had to run to be sick when I got home - proper thick acidy sick, lovely; and this morning, after a couple of days of feeling ok, I had a small breakfast, went up to get dressed and wham, started heaving and brought it all up again.

Does this sound like hg? Dr has prescribed cyclizine to use as needed, but worried about it making me drowsy at work - just picked them up yesterday, so haven't taken any yet.

I had minute-I-woke-up-to-minute-I went-to-sleep nausea with DS, but it definitely feels worse this time round.

kalidsa thank you that makes me feel better. I wish I could eat peanut m and ms that would be lovely! Nutella on toast works for me too so I have that as a variation in the evenings. Just had a bag of crisps out of desperation and my stomach feels like it's full of battery acid now.

And I am so bloated it's crazy! I feel like a whale :( nothing fits me now apart from 3 dresses I have to keep washing for work. how can this be so when I am hardly eating? Is this common?

mightily welcome and commiserations. I feel your pain. I'm hiding at work waiting for the traffic to go away before I leave when all I want to do is go to sleep.

MightilyOats Welcome,it can be hard to tell the difference between the slippery slope leading to Hyperemesis and bad MS in the early stages, that you felt ill so soon is unfortunately not a good sign from what I've seen, but I do hope you escape it. I'm glad you've got cyclezine. How are liquids staying down,t hat is the main thing, and if you can't face water, don't worry about drinking very unhealthy stuff, flat coke, Lucozade, etc as long as it's liquid. Jelly, or ice lollies...It is possible to have Hyperemesis, I believe, without vomiting, just relentless nausea, and that can lead to dehydration, so do get kesostix form a chemist to watch out for that. I think the drowsy effects of cyclazine are a real pest but tend to wear off for most people after a bit. It even made one woman on here sleepless, oddly.
Kalidasa Croisssants is interesting, and Ribena. Never thought of either of those...Was there actually a time then when you weren[t sick every morning? I am glad to hear of that in that awful endurance test .
Livingzuid It was a diet of crisps and flat coke for me at one time, with chips for variety...And those barley sugar sweets! Plus that strawbery ice cream. So healthy.
MOG and Sally Sorry about this awful SPD.
What someone said about sweetness causing sickness a bit further back is interesting, as it shows how this thing affects different people, as it is most often the very sweet or salty stuff that is comparatively safe...
xx

I have gotten to the stage where I can eat pretty much normally, although I do still have a fair amount of nausea. Also tired, emotional, grumpy, weepy and totally fed up.

Sorry, not feeling at all good tonight.

Jen, I'm right there with you. Grumpy weepy and very tired!
I'm not able to sleep much at all due to the pain and need to wee constantly.
Big black circles round my eyes due to only getting a couple of hours a night.

Thanks Lucinda and Living. Mine seems partly to do with smell - days I'm most nauseous the house just reeks of horribleness (the bin, stale cooking smells, old socks, damp, you name it), whereas days it's eased off the house doesn't smell too bad? Work and everywhere else seems to smell ok though .

Hope you're all getting to the light at the end of the tunnel stage. Mil helpfully said tonight when I said I'd just started being sick recently that I was 'lucky' not to have got it do early this time (was sick a few times in early pg with no1). Soon disabused her of luckiness of feeling like you're going to vom all day, everyday! She's well meaning and I love her to bits but....

Lucinda, that was me that had the opposite reaction to the cyclizine. I was awake all night with it, not just sleepless but anxious, unsettled and generally feeling freaked out. The interesting thing was that one midwife at the hospital said that had happened to her as well but until me she hadn't met anyone else with that reaction. I guess it is a rare response?

Jen Sorry, forgot who it was who had that side effect! Interesting the nurse had it too. Sorry that you and Sally feel so sad, but you have reasons enough. You are somehow battling on at work and she has had an appalling list of complications...
On the rare occasions when I could keep down iron tablets I found that they gave me diahorrea (never can spell that) also unusuaul, I think. Awful coming out from every orifice experience .
Oats Most people on here think the constant nausea is as bad as the vomiting. Staggering about dry retching every five minutes is hell on earth.
I hope Handbags the New People, Meerka Murder of Gothsand Everyone is coping. Tallyra are you getting to be a good size?
xx

Sally I do hope the next few days go quickly for you. DH is like my comfort blanket at the moment- I just feel so much more settled when he is by my side- he's going away for Saturday night though and I am dreading it! So I feel your pain. Gentle pats and good wishes all round.

I had a couple of really good days over the weekend where I was not sick, nausea eased and I actually caught myself smiling. Ds's (and DH) were thrilled to have me back for a while. We baked cakes together and played their favourite games and it was FANTASTIC. Back to earth with a bump this last couple of days though, feeling rotten again but hopeful that there will be more good days ahead.

HG is a funny old thing, it robs you of any teeny little bit of pleasure you might have had a puts a damp grey miserable blanket over all the normal stuff. It's like everything is experienced in black and white, the colour and joy of life is totally absent. It was so wonderful to have some colour creep back in for a while, I miss it.

hiya mightilyoats hope today isnt too bad. Yes to the nose-like-a-greyhound and it being worse on bad-nausea days. Ditto excess saliva, do you get that too?

I feel very lucky so I've been keeping a bit quiet not to rub it in - at 17 weeks the nausea is trailing off. Not gone, nor is the saliva and the fuck-awful taste in the mouth (yuk, yuk) but much better. Just have to be very, very, very careful not to overdo it .. which means Im pretty useless still in the house, having ME really does not help, but at least Im around for son and husband more.

I was asleep at 8.30 last night! Apart from the nocturnal wees I slept through to 7am when the alarm went off. I didn't vomit but felt so so sick. The continual stomach churning is so awful :( I was proud of myself and drank 2 litres of lovely icy cold water yesterday.

Smells mightily oh yes. I normally use body shop ginger shampoo and a korres conditioner which are both pretty fragrance free but I haven't been able to get near a shop recently to buy more. And am having to use DH head and shoulders. I have to scrape my hair back every day as the smell is instant retch!

Work toilets smells are not good either although the office is fine thank god. Driving is very difficult. I have a stash of frozen capri-sun for the journey home which always takes me over an hour. I only want to be sick in my own toilet is that odd?!

I am not having a good day. I feel really sick and exhausted and wish I could go home. Down there is stretching I guess so that makes me feel all scared with the sensations and I seem to have a permanent snotty nose. I read that was normal too! 12+2 today and no sign of this easing off.

sick glad you managed a couple of days. That must have been nice! Hope it eases up for you again.

Hi all Handbags here ....trying to re invent her sad self....
Meerka so glad you been a little better ....you have given me hope....
SicknSpan what an apt description of this awful infliction the blanket and seeing all in black n white....glad you managed some nice bits though.
My Oh also away until Tuesday and I feel so pathetic when he's gone. Everything takes triple effort.
The nausea just will not lift and I am beginning to feel really low. I should now be announcing to family and friends our great news, I can't even bare to....I feel so miserable and sick.
Hope all hanging in there.

Lucinda hello ....hope you enjoyed Liverpool and missed the snow!
Sympathy to all new posters....
Does anyone on here take Pregnanare plus? I can just about manage the tablet now ....but the fishy capsule....havnt managed that for last 6 weeks. High purity Omega 3 apparently....must be so lacking in everything because my diet is beyond awful.

There is hope only honest. it just doesnt seem like it when you're in the middle of it ... everything becomes focussed down to the here-and-now doesnt it? its hard to believe it will ever change. Or that you'll get a break from it, ever.

People seem to find that it eases off anywhere between 12 and 24 weeks though. Except the unfortunate few like Sally who are just unbelievably unlucky and get it the whole way through

Here's a weird question (and who else would I ask apart from you weirdos ), I'm getting pain at the entrance to my vagina, as if I'm bruised there. Aches constantly and really sore to touch. Anyone else getting the same? Could be SPD related, but seems too external for that.

only I'm meant to take all sorts of vitamins etc but can only manage the pills I have to take for the nausea, just cannot cope with taking any more.