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.
So many women on this thread have thought they couldn't get through this, but they did.

Hi ladies, I had a bad evening last night but feel much better today!

I took the meds yesterday and thought all was well but was very drowsy and dizzy to the point where I struggled to stand up! So me being stubborn decided to have a shower but ended up passing out and vomiting, it was a bit scary. I managed to drag myself and my half washed hair to my bed and waited for my husband to come home, he made me eat pasta and loads of veg and lucozade and I felt much better.

I stopped the meds and feel better today, not been sick and eaten porridge and toast!

My baby blueberry is putting me through my paces!

howly - very scary! I felt worse on the meds (cyclazine and Maxalon). It was a battle to get Maxalon prescribed alright so I didn't go back to the doc after and ask for so ethi g different. I think ifi hadn't had the support for DS and I from family I would have had to go back, but I decided to go med free and never got so dehydrated I had to go to hospital. I always managed some crackers or a lolly during the day. I wasn't as bad a many on here.

Now I have gone the other way and can't stop eating.

Thanks Meerka. We went to a class this morning and have hair cuts this afternoon so nice day planned. It is probably every other day DH does a late night. He leaves early too. He works in London and it's a new contract were he has had to do a lot of learning on the job so he has been putting in long hours to solve problems. It is a good opportunity for him/us so I don't complain to him. I don't earn either so we are reliant on his success!

Howly How horrible, and dramatic! I was checking back,but I can't find what meds you are on - but if they make you feel that bad, mother hen advises you get them changed asap, if it was the meds,and the GP should prescribe something else. I'm glad OH came to the rescue.
Totes It's good you managed to keep out of hospital. Let's hope these long hours lead to brilliant opportunities for DH.
PunkStar Poor you, I remember thinking that the pattern on the bedroom carpet made me feel worse. Swirls...
SliceofLime And Everyone how are you all? I hope no hospital admissions...
xx

Hello sufferers

I was suffering HG from jan to about aug this year, and am happy to say I am now out the other side with a beautiful baby boy who is absolutely massive and doing very well - no effects of HG visible. I had a terrible pregnancy (HG 5 admissions, gout due to dehydration, SPD causing me to use crutches/wheelchair from about April until now, a stay in high dependency when my heart started to suffer from dehydration strain, gestational diabetes (living off lucozade did not help), polyhydramnios and macrosomia...).

I had to have a c-sec at 37 weeks due to previous birth complications and the gestational diabetes and the baby ended up in NICU but for reasons not related at all to the HG. The muscle loss due to HG has meant getting walking again has been very difficult, but I'm getting there.

I'm not completely over the HG as I still feel slightly nauseous in the mornings and there are some foods I still can't face, but compared to vomiting up to 30 times a day (at its worst) it's brilliant. Won't ever be having a baby again though, wouldn't be fair on the family or my body. My priority now is to get muscle back and build up my health.

So thanks again everyone on the board who helped and sent me to hospital when I needed it but wasn't willing to admit it. I only recognise Tallyra and Lucinda's names, but I really feel for the rest of you who are still going through it. Hopefully it's reassuring to hear someone's come out the other end with a healthy (and large) baby.

Oh my goodness pollaidh what a terrible time you had and with aftereffects :/ That's one of the worst times I've heard of.

So glad you have a lovely little boy now.

howly I hope youré better. If there's two things they say it's that you really need to rest if you have HG, and get early meds. Please don't try to push yourself too hard!

It's a good day here. Not vomitting much at all now though the nausea makes things miserable at times. But considering how very much worse it could be, it's endurable. Specially as husband and mother in law help so very much. We had a scan yesterday and saw the little bugger hiccuping and chewing with his jaw. It was just lovely. 20 + 2 weeks now.

Howly Sorry to hear you're having a rough time. Showers are still a big no for me....even the thought makes me shudder. When I was in the depths of HG I went five days with no washing at all, MIL eventually ran me a bath and brushed out me dreads :-)

Pollaidh I love hearing when someone has escaped HG....your journey sounds particularly traumatic. Hope you are enjoying motherhood. I found a newborn a piece of piss after HG....didn't know what anyone was moaning about. Lack of sleep....yes....but I can eat and enjoy it!

Meerka oooh 20 week scan, very exciting. Can't wait for mine...20th Jan. Am going to find out sex. Am also relieved hospital didn't ring t'other day which they would apparently if the combined test came back high risk, huzzah!

I'm 14+5 today and I have so far not vomited! And have even been downstairs for several hours to help MIL with The Little Boy. Nausea feels more tolerable. Had really been struggling on 30mg pred, was supposed to drop today but have had to maintain, feel positive may get down to 25mg in few days. Consultant really good...have written steroid plan but he's given me his email address if need quick advice!
A far fry from my last pregnancy where I rotted in my bed for three months....

*cry

Hey all, just checking in. I have 5.5 more days of work and can't wait to be off. Unfortunately I have pelvic pain starting, I am feeling distinctly miserable when I walk around.

My friend in Australia who is 1 week behind me failed her gluten tolerance test and has gestational diabetes. I had a blood sugar blood test taken on Monday 2 Dec when I was at the hospital and I haven't been called in for a GTT - so do you think I can assume I am ok in that department?

Nausea still popping in every now and then, but I can eat and so on.

Other major concern is OH's mother - she was round the other night making all these statements about things she would be doing when the baby is born and how when he is at her house she will be ... feeding him his first taste of chocolate, giving him cabbage water in his bottle, letting him play however he likes and not worry about him getting dirty and she hopes I won't be one of those mothers who runs around after the child with baby wipes not letting him get dirty.... also she won't be doing overnights or poopy nappies, only wet ones.

I am distinctly uncomfortable with these declaratory statements about how she intends to call the shots about all sorts of things I haven't even had a chance to work out yet. I have no idea how concerned with baby wipes I will be, but I do want the ability to decide when he gets chocolate and treats - I need to be able to set my own routines but I feel she is undermining me before I even get the chance to set them, by stating that she will willfully do whatever she likes when the baby is with her. The temptation was to say that he wouldn't be with her under those circumstances but I know we will need her when I go back to work so I can't shoot myself in the foot just now.

AAAARGH

Uh oh, just had a call from the hospital, giving me wrong as I didn't attend a bp check :-\
Apparently i have to attend every week for a 4 hour check up! Crazy, as if I'm not there enough already. I'm there like 2-3 times a week. If anything it's making me more poorly as I have to wait around in there for hours while its ridiculously overheated and uncomfortable. Never mind the getting there and finding parking. I asked if I could just see the GP or community midwife and was told no.
They may aswel just keep me in if they are that concerned.

Fed up :-( just want to rest.

Sorry Jen x posted.

That's awful. I have had to set my family straight as they seem to think they'll be doing all sorts too. I will probably have to say more as time goes on and lay down the law. I probably will follow baby around with wipes and will not be allowing to eat chocolate regularly.
But that's just me and hopefully others will respect that.

So pleased your on mat leave soon. That must be such a relief xxx

Pollidah So nice of you to come back on to encourage people, I remember your awful sufferings, one of the worst cases on here, and the SPD and crutches and diabetes. What can you do when the only thing that will stay down is Lucozade, as you say? I am so sorry you still feel sick in the mornings, that is tough, I do so hope to goes off soon, that so unlucky. I am glad baby is so healthy and I do hope you manage to get back into full health soon. Hugs.
Sally Four hours is a dismal long time. How infuriating!
Punk This sounds encouraging.
Jen How annoying of MIL - is she being defensive, or is she rather a controlling person? I can see it's very awkward - you don't want it to become an issue between you and OH particularly.
Meerka Hugs, that is nice about the scan!
Apologies to anyone rudely ignored. I have one of those scrawled messages where I can't read my own writing for someone.
xx

Hrmm yes jen that is worrying :/ I hope you and your husband both feel the same way. That will really help in negotiating what is going to be a tricky situation if she does behave like that :(

Sally, what a PITA but at least they are monitoring you really carefully ... how long to go now?

Still another 5 weeks if not before, I'm hoping its before, but not until I move house. Not asking for much am I :-)

Jen have been mega impressed with how you have survived work....I'm hoping at 20 weeks I'll be able to return. There's no pressure except financial. Did you manage to work throughout or did you have some time off with HG?
Hope the days don't drag for you.
Oh my word re MIL.... the advice and people telling you to do things differently/it was good enough for us, seems to be a national pastime. Is bit of an odd thing to say, bloody chocolate! Cabbage water (wtf?!) complete agreement...you need to have your baby first and find out what works for you and what things are important that other people need to respect (I don't give my 16 month old chocolate to some peoples disapproval but surely my decision? He doesn't know any different yet, will be a different matter when he does though)

Hello Sally sorry I've missed what has happened...I take it you have high BP? Not fair on top of HG. Hope all remains stable for you :-)

I'm having a C Section around 39 weeks...just anything to escape being pregnant. I know this sounds terrible :-(
I had one last time as The Little Boy was breech. I was secretly pleased as I knew I'd have a set date for the torture to end. I even refused an ECV (where they try and turn baby around) An obstetrician studying for a PhD was v excited about this as I was the first person to refuse so I was interviewed for her thesis. She was totally in agreement with my decision when I explained everything ( my Ma was v poorly too and I wanted to make sure she met my baby...which she did )
End of waffle....still no vomit, a near miss but controlled by lying in bed and chucking grapefruit essential oil everywhere.

Keep well fellow HGs xxx

MIL and grannies in general can be tricky :-)

jen she is probably just very excited and blathering a load of shite; obvs she is talking far in the future - after 4 months at LEAST if talking about 1st tastes / chocolate etc.

with my PFB (precious first born) when she was barely 6mths old, at Christmas that year my mum grabbed her and gave her a chocolate profiterole. an effing alcoholic one. I could have throttled her. AND she brought indoor fireworks for xmas dinner! I was having kittens.

you have to keep them sweet if you are intending to lean on them for child care, but there are a lot of areas to thrash out, and meerka is bang on when she says about you and OH being in agreement.

these kind of issues are a very long time ahead though, everything will flow naturally when baby arrives and you find your feet. Any MIL worth their salt will be generous kind and supportive; and understand that she has to respect your views! they think they're experts but child rearing has changed enormously over the last 30-40 years.

he has a narrow slot to arrive in ..... grins.

Ha, I know. I'll start the rasp tea in a fortnights time, the spicy food and nooky is out of the question taking into account HG and bp :-)

Punkstar, I was lucky in a way. I am a teacher, so I conceived mid-May and the sickness kicked in around week 5/6, which was 2 weeks before we broke for the summer holidays. I had 2 horrendous weeks of work then, being sick in school and feeling like hell, but I didn't really understand it was HG or what that was. I was hospitalised shortly after we broke for the holidays.

I was then off school until I was 14 weeks, due to the summer holidays. I had 4 admissions over the holidays, the last one being days before I started back to work. It was really at the 14 week point that the combination of ondansetron and metaclopramide kept me functioning, although I think I did eat very little still the first 2 weeks back.

As the weeks have progressed I have cut down the meds, first stopping the metaclopramide then cutting the ondansetron to once a day instead of twice. I am trying a wee break from the ondansetron at the moment - not going to take one tonight.

As it works out in the school term from staff days at the end of August until now I have missed 2 days due to nausea/vomiting and 3 days due to a severe cold/sore throat. All in all, I think I have done pretty well.

The summer holidays were hell, with frequent vomiting, constant pervasive nausea, unable to leave the house for days, in and out of hospital and a weight loss of approx 15% bodyweight. I really was very ill, and although I am functioning much better now, I will never forget how harrowing this experience has been.

Jen
Wow! Sounds like you've been through it but I also think you must be pretty hardy too! I can understand when you're a teacher the pressure you must feel towards your colleagues and students to get to work and not to feel like you've let anyone down. Getting back at 14 weeks especially after what sounds like a Summer of hell is impressive. It's not like you have a job where you can put your feet up if you feel a bit rough either. Massive kudos to you. You really deserve your mat leave, I hope I can manage half of what you have!! I'm sure a lot of us in your situation wouldn't have managed to survive (myself included)
I'm playing it by ear... I put massive pressure on myself last time to get back to work, do bloody pilates, go to the gym and other such crap and it all failed massively. I felt really disappointed with myself and got myself into a bit of a blue spell.
I managed part time work after 20 weeks but would vomit 5-6 times at work and then sleep as soon as I got home.

This time I realised what was going on which definitely
made it easier to get help (well OH to insist on help!) but I've not stressed myself as much about what I'm not doing.
I do hope in the second half I can manage to function on a reasonable level and have some normality return.
I do know that I will never repeat this experience again. I don't think I can mentally face it nor put my family through it. I really hoped with pre-emptive treatment this time I could prevent it happening but it did nothing. There's also that hope that you'll be a lucky one who doesn't get it again.

Good work on reducing the meds too.,,,ondansetron constipation drove me insane! Will look forward to hearing how you are when work free...I'm sure the extra rest will help. Thanks for sharing xx

Oh jen grandchildren do weird things to grandparents. IME - they all got overexcited sbout "their" grandchild, and kind of forgot she wasn't "theirs" at all. My DM is adamant that she'll be the one to teach DD how to read .... I'd be tempted to smile sweetly and let it gloss over you at the mo. No one knows what it'll be like when the baby arrives (least of all gp's) and you can set your own boundaries then. My parents and PILs all thought I fed DD too much, but none of them BF their children (ie us) so couldn't relate at all.

Hope everyone else is able to soldier on ok.

I hadn't posted for a few days as thought I'd turned a corner and was stupidly feeling all smug that it was easing off at 8 weeks....... I was very very sick (and the other end) all through the night and am now supping on a diorlyte in bed still. Not actually sure if this is morning sickness or a bug. I had a late lunch yesterday and knew it was a mistake letting myself get hungry. Problem now us that I have nothing left inside so am super hungry and can feel the acid building up yet can't face eating so think the acid is going to get worse then when I do eat it won't stay down

CrazyThursday Poor you, if it's coming out both ends it could well be a bug, though it is one of my happy memories of Hyperemesis. Would jelly help with the acid emptiness, I wonder? Hugs.
PunkStar and Jen I so agree, I was astounded at how Jen battled on. Jen Surely you didn't have all those admissions when on this thread? I remember you horrifying mother hen, going back to work at the beginning of the term. It's a shame the pre emptive meds didn't do more. Well, you are a veteran now - I think anyone who's been through this more than once deserves an award.
Chaffinch I had to laugh 'blathering a load of shite'. You have a way of putting things that tickles me wonderfully! You wouldn't come from the Merseyside area, by any chance?
Meerka Hugs and how is everyone. It only seems to have got light round here, now. Darkest day coming up. Sorry to anyone rudely overlooked.
xx

That's a muddled message - the bit about 'pre-emptive meds' is for Punk Star!
xx

Morning all, retched up some stomach acid this morning before breakfast which was nice. Have managed to eat some mini shredded wheat so hoping they stay down. Handed dd over to my mum as soon as she woke up - feeling like a rubbish parent and dd (2y4m) has started worrying about me, asking is mummy ok, offering me a biscuit 'to make me better' she's so sweet I wish I was hiding this from her better, but it's so hard.

jen I'd say for now just smile sweetly at mil, it'll be ages til she gets time alone with LO and by then you won't be sick just totally knackered and able to take a stand with your oh about the things that are important to you. Just because she's going to help out with child are doesn't mean she gets to take decisions for you.

howly what a horrible experience glad you're a bit better now.

Lucinda! am you think I'm some kind of vomiting Cilla Black!

I am from the Black Country in the heart of the industrial west Midlands

my cough/cold is rumbling on can't eat oranges nor take vit c tablets, so wonder how long it'll last. Got a whooping cough shot booked - anyone else having? between wk 28-32 is peak time to have it, apparently

Any tips for sleep? The steroids are horrendous for causing insomnia. I'm talking awake from 2am, finally drop off around 6am then The Little Boy starts chuntering around 7am. I appreciate it is a small price to pay as they have given me some sanity and calories but on very bad sleep nights the nausea is terrible the next day with the voms. I have some cyclizine that I take occasionally at night which does help but if I take it every night it stops having the sedative effect. Any anti-emetics you've found make you groggy...? GP may be amenable if I beg nicely...
Should get better once doseage down a bit but after nearly six weeks of it I'm going a bit loopy.
X