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

Lastly, the NICE guidelines on treatment are useful:
cks.nice.org.uk/nauseavomiting-in-pregnancy#!prescribinginfosub

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.

Punkstar[grins]. How are you now?
Livingzuid Sorry you're feeling so sick. It's dreadful the way these processes take ages. I knew an obnoxious woman whose beast of a little boy used to pee on the floorboards (for some reason) and it leaked down to the neighbours below and she was actually self righteous about it.
Lottie TLC is the thing.
elizabethsmum Waves.
Meekra Thinking of poor you. How awful that presumably Easter holidays prevent anything happening till Tuesday!
How are PetitelapinOkla and *Everyone?? I hope no admissions this Easter.
xx

I wanted to sympathise with everyone who can't enjoy themselves on this festival celebrated partly by eating- Next Easter will be completely different, and you might even allow the baby a tiny bit of chocolate - but maybe not...
xx

Hi all,

Glad you are feeling a little more relaxed about the blood thing Mrsb.

boo, hope you get the test done soon. I'm still undecided but taking everything on board.

Living that sounds terrible.

Lottie I agree with Lucinda.

Still feeling nauseous here but managed to keep my food down for a while. I agree about this time of year. My neighbour just gave me some flounes shed baked. Like an almost savoury hot cross bun but stuffed with cheese and covered in sesame seeds. Ate one to be sociable but stomach doesn't know what to make of it. It's funny making observations like that about having a baby next easter. We were spring cleaning the lounge yesterday and dh dressed the fire just to make it look nice and then realised we'd have a baby by the next time we'd need to light it!

Happy easter everyone! Sorry if I missed anything.

Although not a public holiday here all the shops are closing early but in wonderful Dutch style they don't tell you till you try to go for a haircut and they look at you in disgust for even suggesting that they should be open or work till 5.30. A simple sign would suffice!

Having a pedicure at the moment though which is lovely :) a rare treat although the nail varnish smells are a bit blergh.

Went today to consultant as I had to get a fit to fly letter for BA. EasyJet don't need it but they do for some reason. Hope they don't ask me! The baby is very big apparently and he cheerfully said to expect her to be late! Marvellous. We did the birth plan and on the ward I am going to they don't offer gas and air but you can have the iv thing to click when you need pain relief. I hate needles and have said no epidural unless absolutely necessary - with the caveat that I won't care about my phobia by the time I want an epidural!

Still, I am looking forward to my London mini jaunt next week, just hope I am awake enough to enjoy it properly. So glad I am staying in a hotel I would have felt too self conscious staying with a friend.

My bouts of nausea are early morning now. My sleep is so fragmented I notice I am very sick feeling around 4-6ish. A glass of milk seems to help and then I drop off again.

mrsnec the food thing is so strange. I go through cycles of what I can and can't have. Big heavy buns I can't imagine sit on the stomach easily!

lucinda that is really quite disgusting and surely a health hazard?

meerka thinking of you. Hope the baby has decided to arrive.

Oh mrsnec I hadn't thought of that! Everyone must be plying you with food all the time! Force feeding guests is a national sport for the greeks, but pregnant women are a bull's eye target for it!

Well the cheesey bun didn't sit well and triggered a massive chundering session! Neighbours are now in the garden hacking up a goat. I shall be hiding for the rest of the weekend to avoid more any of their delicacies! I know they mean well though and we could do a lot worse as neighbours go! And yes you're right there Boo and its going to get worse when I'm showing more.

I think I forgot to mention some of the others earlier, Meerka I hope you're ok and that the baby does arrive before Tuesday.

Meant to say too living that's great news about your birth plan. I've no idea about the fit to fly letters it baffles me how the airlines all have different rules but you've reminded me to check mine. Enjoy your break. I wouldn't want to stay with friends at the moment either.

trying to keep going here. husband and in laws doing eveyrthing in house, bless them. Back in bed again by 18:00 or earlier usually with the nausea and occasional vomitting.

Im really missing hte sleeping injections from the hospital. My family background is very fractured and I keep getting nightmares about it all. Could really do with a break ... wish I could unstrap the Bump, feel normal, go out for a day and come back and strap the Bump on again. Just to get a break.

We're staying with friends here but luckily they're at work all day so have missed the majority of my vomiting. I would much rather be in a hotel but they would think it rude so I'm just being passive aggressive to DH about it.

Meerka that sounds like an amazing plan. I do think that if I could just have 1 day of feeling ok I would regain a lot of my sanity. It's just relentless.

Aw I've wished all along that OH could be me for a day or so throughout pregnancy. Just so I could have a holiday from myself :-)
He admits he doesn't think he can hack it!

Survived work again today, phew...not many left to do!

Lucinda I may brave some chocolate with a glass of milk once have put The Little Boy to bed :-) admittedly will be much more enjoyable next year.

Meerka so close but it must be dragging.....glad you've got some little helpers!

Gah MrsNec normally I would love love love to be offered all that yummy food but with HG have no idea how you cope.

Good grief, have now watched Toy Story 3 for the nth time. Can't face another outing though....will be good, interactive, arty crafty type parental when this farce is over.

mrsnec your story of your neighbours brought back memories of when I was on holiday in Thailand when pg with dd1 (in full flung hg mode but couldn't cancel as no refund and don't think dh would have forgiven me!) we'll meaning offerings included a coconut with a straw so I could drink the milk- how I managed to drink it and not immediately chunder I will never know! I would keep a low profile for a few days if I were you! ;))

*well

Out of interest I have also noticed that several ladies on the thread are not in the uk- was just wondering if we had some sort of comparison going of how hg is treated in the various countries we are in- similarities in treatment regimes, how seriously it is taken, how sympathetic doctors/midwives etc have been??
I'll start- am in the uk and as you will prob know have had two hg pregnancies- (not pg - I am definitely done!!!- but here to offer pearls of wisdom and moral support!!)
1st preg- dd born at 36+3 due to severe pre-eclampsia- I had variable hg throughout the pg, two admissions, (weeks 19 and 22) treated with cyclizine, metochlopromide and buccastem
2nd preg- twins (born at 35+4 but good weights for gestation and on aspirin so no Pe)- severe hg until 15 weeks 5 admissions, cyclizine, meta, buccastem, ondansetron and from week 12 onwards injectable cyclizine at home as Dh a nurse (so no admissions after 11 weeks). Second preg had much more 'sympathetic' treatment especially from gp- ? As had hg before and also twin preg.

I'm also in the Uk, first pregnancy, so far a range of GPs, two midwives, an a &e doctor, a gynacologist and two other consultants (maybe one registrar?) have been pretty sympathetic. I think I've been lucky though!

Nausea and heartburn both up there at 9/10 tonight. Dizziness also made a reappearance earlier. . 19 weeks today, feels like this will never end. The good moments I had yesterday seem like a wishful dream.

I'm in the Netherlands but in the Randstad region so Amsterdam / the Hague/Rotterdam, a different part of the country to meerka albeit only an hour and a half away! Second pg, first ended in mc last year. Our experiences have been very different I think. I have bipolar, pregnancy related hypertension and hypothyroidism and aside from one major traumatic experience at a shite local hospital my care has been amazing. I have a consultant obstetrician specialising in psychiatric illness, a perinatal psychiatrist and a thyroid specialist.

Developed hg from 8 weeks and have been on medication since nine weeks through my gp which the hospital were happy to continue with. I was given medication immediately. I get a monthly prescription I order online from the surgery and collect it at the pharmacy. Was given it straight away, called Emesafene which is a mix of B6, anti histamines and anti enemic. When I went to collect my medicine earlier it made me smile to realise I only have to have one more prescription after this one :)

It has worked really well for me and I take one a day at night. I feel very fortunate compared to some of the ladies here. In the first tri I was taking two a day. I have tried to stop it several times but ended up very sick again.

A complication has been that the hg is much worse when they increased my lithium dosage. I was sick as a dog every time whilst my body tried to adapt.

The sickness has returned in the third trimester which my consultant said was very common. It is nausea, at its worst in the morning now and sometimes appears again late evening.

Hg or medication does not appear to have affected the baby in terms of growth. She is a big 'un!

I'm in the UK too. 1st pg, started vomiting at wk 5 and was prescribed cyclizine. After that had no effect I was admitted for my first IV. Subsequently prescribed prochlorperazine (2 kinds), avomine, metaclopramide, domperidone and after none of those had much of an effect I was given ondansatron. That was on my 3rd admission in as many weeks. Started to see improvements around wk 14. I tried to get my dosage down but seem to end up being very sick again (much to the disgust of my gp!). I was given very good care I feel but as soon as I hit 12wks I got the feeling my gp thought I should be back to normal and not needing my meds. I'm back at work, eating relatively well but still having a morning bile run!

I'm in France but gave birth in Greece last time and this time I am flying over at 24 weeks.

I have a milder version of HG than many people on this thread, just 24/7 nausea, very rarely vomit, many food aversions, worse in the first and last trimester, worse this pregnancy than the last one.

Last time my gynea said it was normal, that it was heartburn and gave me Gaviscon which did not help at all. I only realised it may have been HG in retrospect when I read about the Dutchess of Cambridge. This time my gynea just looks at me when I tell her how bad it is and it seems easier to live with the HG at the moment than to challenge the extremely inflexible and paternalistic medical system in France. Will see what the Greek gynea has to say later on.

First HG preg, sick 24/7, lost about 12% body weight. No treatment except one weekend on emesafene, which is an anti-histamine + B6 living outlined above. In retrospect, I think I was probably in a very bad way. Birth fine, but I was v weak for about 3 years after to the point where a health visitor intervened and applied for some practical help from social services! (wouldn't happen in the uk!)

Second HG preg, this one, lost about 10 kilos in all I think (from 64.4 kilos down to around 55 or 54). Emesafene and metoclopramide, which was impossible to get hold of until I was lucky enough to get this gyne. Ketones maxxed out at about 4-5. Complicated by a heavy uterine infections following a CVS test which went into sepsis. Once the hospital took it seriously at all, they were excellent - on a drip with broad spectrum antibiotics within an hour, there a week. There was another lady in the hospital on a drip for not drinking anything for 4 days and they -still- discharged her without meds

This thread and the Preg Sickness support hotline number were my lifesavers, plus one person from here who, ahem, sent me her spare Ondansetron in the days before I could get anything at all. Thank you, lady.

The dutch system is notorious for not wanting to prescribe meds in preg, but the ordinary doctors take it too far. They'd rather you went for a termination than took meds except for a very few advanced doctors, one of whom I was lucky enough to find. I say that seriously as I was looking into termination at one point, discussed it with the hosptial doctor and their view was 'well its your choice but we're not giving meds'.

Yes, if you have a pre existing condition like I do they go overboard to support you in the Netherlands. Otherwise it's zilch medication unless you're missing a limb.

The medication thing is really interesting as well because the NHS says no lithium in pregnancy and it's not recommended to take. Here I was told the risk of something bad happening was far higher if I came off it rather than continued so they kept me on it.

The system is a bit odd here. They have local hospitals where most people will go and then about 5 or 6 big teaching and research hospitals in Rotterdam (where I go), Leiden, Amsterdam, Groningen, Nijmegen and do you have one in eindhoven meerka? You get referred on although I think you can also choose - I know you can if you have cancer as a friend went to Leiden rather than be treated at the local hospital in the Hague. There are also specialist expat units as well in hubs such as Amsterdam and the Hague.

Mine is the largest and the best according to all the reviews so I feel very lucky. All my doctors and nurses know about hypermesis and have been asking me about it at every appointment. To the point where I am considering keeping up my health insurance so if I ever have the courage to try for another one I can come back if I can make the blood tests work between here and the UK.

boo I'm really interested to see you are going from France to Greece from 24 weeks. Is that because you prefer the care there and want to give birth in Greece?

No, no teaching hospital in Eindhoven. We had to go to the teachign hospital in maastrict for the CVS test. Amazing 3-d scanner tho.

you've just put your finger on it havent you living? if you have a pre-existing condition you're really well supported. If not - you're in trouble. But if you do get the support, it's excellent.

and oh, the hospitals are really nice and the staff not overworked in the way that many UK hospitals are, so they're nowhere near as stressed. that's really impressive.

living yes I prefer the care in Greece and left last minute with my first pregnancy to give birth there (left at 37wks gave birth a week later!). Why it is better is complicated but: in France public health care is extremely well funded but exceptionally paternalistic, with no patient choice or information and in some respects behind the times. I am used to making my own informed decisions and went through three hospitals to discover that not only would not one let me have an ELCS but they wouldn't even discuss it with me and did not appear to know why they would not offer it other than it was generally too risky and you can't get it in France.

Then they also refused to collect stem cells, even though I found a company that would take them and even a doctor who had done it before (he would not allow me to make an appointment with him or come to the phone to me).

Now add to this that I had no ties to France, I consider anywhere in the world practically to be open to me and could afford to pay for private care in Greece, so it got to the point where DP and I said sod this and left! I appreciate that not everyone has this option though.

Hi everyone, I'm glad to hear those with other conditions are getting great treatment by the sounds of it and for the Hg too. I haven't actually been diagnosed with it but I have constant nausea and ridiculous food aversions and my sickness varies a great deal. Am slightly dehydrated with it but haven't been admitted thankfully. I'm not taking anything but I do think whilst it wouldn't be easy id be able to get something prescribed if I needed it.

I have the choice of 2 local private clinics, one is old and ropey and the other is in Ayia Napa and has only 2 members of staff! Or the 2 local government hospitalsThe local general (ammochostos) is small but clean and modern there is another slightly larger one in Larnaca but it has longer waiting times and less English speaking staff. Both transfer to Nicosia for neo natal care.

My problem is dealing with bad administration and nasty misogynistic consultant. I saw my friend this morning and shes done a bit of digging with local mum's for me. Apparently they're all like that here and id get the same treatment wherever.

I heard a few horror stories about uk hospitals from friends I just keep thinking I doubt it'd be perfect no matter where I was and sometimes I think my limited choices here are a good thing because it seems a lot of births don't go according to plan anyway. How many times have I read on here about new mums in that situation.

boo, if I do decide to do this again maybe I'll go to Athens too!

On another note I couldn't have coped with long haul travel or any far eastern food! I. Have escaped any more local delicacies today!

I've had a mixed experience. Seen 2 midwives and about 5 GPs. Tried to see a consultant but was told 2 week wait so gave up. I've been given Cyclizine (which did nothing) Avomine (which helped a bit but mostly cause it just made me sleep 24/7), Metoclopramide (which didn't agree with me at all and prochlorperazine (probably the most effective).

Everyone I have seen (bar one d*ckhead GP) has been very supportive but all refused point blank to give me Ondansetron.

I'm now 13 weeks and am down to throwing up a couple of times a day and nausea when I'm tired, hungry, try to do too much etc. Bad, bad times were weeks 6-10. It's currently unpleasant but just about manageable. I'm hoping to go back to work part time in a few weeks.

I'm also guessing that I'm over the 12 week hump (hence vaguely being able to function) but that it isn't going to get any better than it currently is.