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.

MOH's wonderful website is full of useful information on this illness:
sites.google.com/site/pregnancysicknesssos/
Another invaluable website is:
www.pregnancysicknesssupport.org.uk/
If you need help in obtaining medication, this phone number is
brilliant:
024 7638 2020

I would like to thank 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.

Oh mrsb hope you get home and hydrated soon!

I'm lucky I'm on a front line antihistamine based medicine called Emesafene but am in the Netherlands so no idea what the UK equivalent is. Worked first go for me although earlier in the pregnancy I needed a higher dose. On 1 a day now. Not stopping them until the baby arrives, too risky!

kalidisia that sounds like great progress! Glad your gp is so understanding.

And me too blergh at the olives

Normally love olives but at the minute I couldn't look even look at them. But can't wait for the day when I can go to a restaurant, order a mezze and drink a glass of something alcoholic, mmmmm alcohol.....

I can't wait to enjoy my food again punk! I'm only 8+5 and miss brie and bacon sarnies!!

And runny boiled egg and soldiers nom nom

mrsb87 I'm glad you had that bacon sandwich anyway! What meds do they have you on?
xx

Lucinda they have me on something new today which seems to have taken the nausia away for the first time and I actually feel hungry! Not sure what it is but will update you when I know. They did say it wasn't licensed for pregnancy but I'm getting quite desperate now!

on my 35 week email it says rapid period of baby growth = ravenous hunger. Certainly agree.
jut had a 2hr nap, woke up for crusty bread, prawn cocktail crisps - now need some form of pudding.
got consultant apt tomorrow, should be section date ...!

risked everything this morning and had alpen for breakfast, had vommed again, always feel crappy in the morning, and it went down as equally diceily as toast so hooray. do love alpen.

Wow chaffinch sounds like a successful day indeed! Hmmmmm prawn cocktail crisps....

Oh good luck tomorrow on the date, finch!

mrsb nothing is licensed for preg. The companies are terrified of payouts like thalidomide. But if this is really something new, then it's be interesting to hear what it is :) I so envy the bacon. Just can't get good bacon here in the NL. the stuff they have just doesn't cut it.

kalidasa it sounds brilliant foreplanning. So good you have such a good doctor!

living emesafene is an anti-emetic/anti-histamine + B6. its not cyclizine, it's something else, but one of the equivilents. Not sure why it's not available in the UK. I'll join you in a Corona when all this is over .... definitely :)

meerka my excellent GP has actually recently left (though I discussed this with her before she did). I was really nervous about today in case her replacement wouldn't prescribe in advance but actually she was fine about it. I'm not even having my coil out until mid-April but I got pregnant so incredibly fast all three times before (two v. early losses) that I am taking no chances. Of course I'm sure now that we have made such an effort to be super-prepared nothing will happen for months and months . . .

Has anyone else got pregnant very fast? Of my (many!) sisters the other one who was also v. sick also conceived very easily, and so did my mother (who also had HG). One doctor said the two things might be related in some way.

I've just been reading back through the thread and noticed the posts by elizabethsmum. I have this absolute irrational terror that I am going to conceive twins next time! I think I am still traumatised from my very first admission when I was alone, DH was desperately trying to fly back from the States and the consultant sent me for a v. early scan because he was pretty sure there were "two in there". (Not yet-)DH and I had only been together for a year and only living together for a few months!

Is it possible that mental stimulation (going over old uni notes to clear space in the spare room nursery) can be overdoing it? First day in ages i've felt mentally well enough to do anything other than sleep, browse internet or watch TV and it feels like my body's punishing me with unexpected "surprise" vomiting.

Can't see who posted about blood tests but yes, I used to be a 1-stab girl, now it's 3 painful unproductive stabs before they get anything. I have rather a big phobia of hand stabs too (would rather self-discharge than let them near my hands!). I guess it's a combination of dehydration and over-used scarred veins?

Sorry to see you're back in again mrsb. I decided not to test today after 3 glasses of water stayed down overnight.

I want to be hungry too!

Meerka I'm joining a few if you on the ondansetron, 8mg/day to start off with. No wonder I'm feeling spiffy!?

mrsb87 That's good news, I so hope it helps a lot, don't want to cast a downer, but do stock up on those jelly pessary things as it's notorious for locking up bowels!
Looks about anxiously, waves a wing...
Kalidasa For what it's worth, after my own first pregnancy - which ended in an mmc - I conceived the first month. The first time it took me four months, I think, don't know if one one month and one four counts as an easy conceiver or not, but I was over 35 and had imagined it would take ages from the way some books go on about women's supposedly declining fertility after thirty!
xx

petit yes, concentration can definitely drain you too and lead to the joys of hugging the sickbucket. physical effort, mental effort or I suspect if you even get emotional cause you've just had enough, I suspect it all has an effect on you. Don't emotions sometimes have an effect on the hormones? I think that is teh current thinking? so ... given that HG is hormonal, yeah, can see how it's all interlinked.

mrsb glad to hear the ondan is really helping =) that's great news.

kalidasa it took us 5 1/2 years to conceive son 2 ... but then I was 43 and we'd had a fertility doctor's appt but I was so scared of antoher HG preg that I didn't go any further with it. I guess I'm at the other end of the scale to you!

Well I have to say I do also wonder whether my subconscious will put up some resistance this time because I'm scared of the HG and it might be a lot more difficult. We'll see!

My mother also had quite a few early miscarriages, so a very similar profile to me. Worryingly, one of my elder sisters is also thought to have been one of a twin pregnancy originally (my mother miscarried the other twin fairly early on).

We are beginning the process of looking for a nanny now so that we can relax about DS even if I am really ill for months. It's SO expensive but starts to make sense with two anyway, and it will give us a lot more flexibility, and also a nanny would be able to e.g. bring DS to visit me in hospital if I was in for a while. (Hopefully not! But we are trying to be prepared.)

Good news about the ondansetron mrsb but do treat AGGRESSIVELY for constipation before it happens rather than afterwards, especially if you are too sick to rely on any of the dietary remedies. I think I was about as bad as it gets (and I was on a huge dose for ages) but I ended up having enemas in hospital because nothing else worked. You do not want to go there, believe me!!

what do you guys recommended for the constipation?

Ah mrsb you have asked the right person! I tried literally everything.

So, if you can retain anything by mouth, the first line stuff is dietary (prunes, fruit, bran etc). If you can't really eat but can at least drink/keep a bit down, then lactulose (sort of a gel/paste stuff) or movicol (which makes up into a drink) - some people also swear by brown sugar dissolved in warm water (which is essentially what the lactulose is). But all of these are a bit of a challenge if you are very sick. Obviously you should in general drink as much as you can.

Then there are the various pills - so things which either bulk stuff out (like senna pills e.g. senokot) or which stimulate the bowel (e.g. dulcolax). The latter in particular are not recommended in pregnancy though if the constipation is bad enough you will be given them anyway and the GP was fine with me trying them.

If those don't work either or you can't keep pills down then you can tackle it from the 'other end' (sorry!). I think this is a better route for ondansetron constipation as the ondansetron basically stops your bowel working properly. The best bet here is glycerine suppositories - extremely cheap and v. effective and they use them even on tiny babies so v. safe. They seem to work for almost everyone but I have to say they failed on me repeatedly (I was severely impacted by that point apparently). So I had to resort to enemas - these were administered in hospital and then I did them myself at home (Fleet enemas). Again, these are not recommended in pregnancy but if it gets bad enough and nothing else works they will do them in hospital anyway, and it is much nicer to do it yourself in private at home.

Hopefully you will not reach the end of that list!!

I have managed to eat and drink really well today, even had a cheeky kfc! Nom.
So with all that info I will try and avoid it right from the beginning. I have never been very regular anyway so I would have found it hard to know when I should be going or when is too long.

Thanks fot the info kalidasa, I will keep all that info in mind

I can't get over how good I feel this evening, I just hope it lasts!

Meerka you are surely kidding about Scandinavian lack of bacon?? you have Denmark close by hmm? smoked pig capital of the WORLD?

oooh bacon

I typed a great long post and managed to lose it.
Great advice, Kalidasa about getting those bowels moving.
Meerka so glad you conceived and will enjoy two.
Someone mentioned Hyperemesis and hormones, and from the anecdotal evidence of this thread and my own jolly experiences, there seem to be a whole range of things women can be prone to who get Hyperemesis - menstrual problems or menstrual migraine, miscarriages and cystitis, really fun stuff...
Petitlapin I'm glad you were able to drink that liquid.
Everyone is no doubt dreaming of feasting of bacon sandwiches and beer when this is over.

finch the Netherlands are really weird about what you can get and what you can't. Trust me, the bacon here is not worth the name. I miss cheese and that so much.

thank you Lucinda ... we are so glad too :)

Sorry for the bacon cravings everyone. Feeling super guilty!