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.

Dottie
Sounds HG to me. Weight loss, constant nausea, interfering with daily activities. Normal nvp can be horrible but people generally can manage their daily life.
You don't have to be admitted to get a HG diagnosis. In fact if it's managed well people with HG can avoid admission and be managed in the community.

The sooner you start meds the more it can help prevent things escalating. I've taken medication every single day of my pregnancy!!! For most of it some pretty hard meds too. Please do not feel you need to hold out until 12 weeks. There are many safe medicines for HG.

I've also been through the guilt. The whole 'why does everyone else cope with this but I can't?'
Mostly it's because the people who are coping do not have HG.

Hope you get some help and start to feel better soon :-)

I completely agree with all the posts above - sounds so much like hg rather than the nvp in pregnancy that my friends/family have experienced and been able to cope with.

I was really worried about taking any medicines whilst pregnant, but they are safe and will not harm your baby. It's so important to at least keep some fluids down, and if you aren't able to do this, then it sounds to me like you need to see your GP sooner rather than later for some medicine to help you.

dotty glad you made it across here. Please do visit GP straight away. There is no need to suffer unnecessarily to twelve weeks. Sometimes it doesn't go away then either so you'd have gone through all of that for no reason!

okla the work thing is funny isn't it. It's such a psychological shift to think that actually at the moment I'm sick and I can't work. A day or two once a year with a horrid cold is one thing but hg is something else entirely and difficult to equate it to a long-term illness. It took me quite some time and probably not till March for it to sink in that no, I did not have to work.

living I empathise with what you say about being on sick leave with hg and equating it with the fact that you are actually ill and can't work. In my mind, because it is associated with pregnancy, it is not really an 'illness'. Ridiculous, I know. Especially when I have been unable to go to work for the last few months because I've been so unwell, and most likely won't be able to go back to work until the end of my maternity leave next year. I think it is for this reason - not thinking it is a 'real' illness - that I find it particularly frustrating. I feel that I ought to be able to somehow suck it up and get on with things like other pregnant women are able to. But, obviously, I can't because I'm ill. It's just like punkstar says "The whole 'why does everyone else cope with this but I can't?'
Mostly it's because the people who are coping do not have HG."

dottie it does sound very much like you have HG. losing 10lb is a lot.

The best medical recommendation from the governmental body NICE and from researchers is that you get medications early, and take them. Please don't worry about harm to the baby or yourself. Everyone is afraid of that becuase of Thalidomide which was fifty years ago and it would never be licensed now.

The meds available now have been used for at least ten years and often a great deal longer - some have been taken by hundreds of thousands of women. Don't suffer in silence, becasue it's way better for you to be in a good condition.

mrsnec good luck!

punk you're not whinging. Or if you are, then well, havent we all needed to?! You've been incredibly steadfast I reckon!

Thanks everyone, just reading a few posts had really helped in here. 9lbs is 5% of my bodyweight, so to lose that in less than 5 weeks has been awful. I'm loathed to go to my doctor as I can keep water down (mostly) and I've been told they won't care to much unless I couldn't.

Also struggling with work still, feel guilty about not going in.

dotty I don't know how to explain this clearly but I suppose what I want to say is that women's experiences of pregnancy vary a lot and you can't predict or expect to have a specific pregnancy. Aspects of many pregnancies are very much like debilitating, serious illnesses. If you had HG symptoms outside pregnancy I would imagine you would run to a GP for help very quickly. Pregnancy may explain HG but it doesn't excuse it as a set of symptoms, that is it doesn't mean that you can get over it through an act of will or that it isn't a horrific experience, or that you should suffer through it with minimal support and help. Anyway I hope what I am trying to say makes sense, be kind to yourself!

saseh I can't believe your doctors wouldn't care. Some of the ladies here will explain more but malnutrition is just as serious and you need to get checked out. Go armed with a copy of NICE guidelines to your gp and demand it if you must!

Sorry patchy replies today I am not well with a cold, probably with the same one lottie has :) punk we are sooooo close. Yet sooooo far! Whinge away! And thinking of petit

And starry yes so true. We are measuring ourselves against a standard that is impossible for us to meet ie women who don't have hg!

Thanks for the lovely and informative posts from everyone. I really didn't know any of this so it's nice to feel like I'm not being dramatic and that there may actually be a reason for how mi feeling.

I've booked a doctors appointment for Thursday (first available) and I think she will be sympathetic. I'm not very good at explaining how I feel to the GP so I'll have to think what to say, if that makes sense.

How much detail would I go into? I always worry about sounding like I'm moaning when I see the doctor.

Thinking of everyone else who is feeling ill at the minute.

I'm really glad for this thread

dotty I find it helps if I jot down in a list exactly what I want to mention to my GP and go through it with her. Tell her what you have told us - how you are feeling, how sick you are being and how often, how nauseous you are, whether you've been able to keep any food/water down, how long you've been feeling like this, whether you've been able to go to work... all of that. Plus, it is often helpful to print out some of the useful information on the Pregnancy Sickness Support website in terms of medication. Lucinda has pinned a link to this at the top of the page.

Dotty I was lucky with my GP. She took one look at me and said you look terrible lets try you on some meds at which I promptly burst into tears.

Can you take DH or mum or someone to talk for you? I struggled to string a sentence together at my worst (and often still do!).

Yes good suggestion to take someone with you. DH comes to almost all my appointments and has the list ready. Good luck for Thursday

Erm, I know this is going to sound a bit odd, but I had a bit of an achievement today: I managed to dye my hair for the first time since becoming pregnant back in November(!) I managed to cope with the smell of the dye and with standing in the shower long enough to wash it all out of my hair. Hey presto, I have no white hairs!

And be honest and frank with your GP with what you're going through. It will help her understand the severity and then she can advise you accordingly as to what treatment will work best for you. If you hold anything back she may not get the clear picture.

So for example, when I went in floods of tears to my GP I told how many times I was vomiting, if I was able to keep anything down (at the time no), food aversions and also the impact on my mental health that this was having - feeling depressed and making my bipolar worse. I also mentioned the extreme exhaustion and low feeling. I also mentioned that my skin had completely dried out (dehydration) and the cracking headaches I was getting as a result.

I think when you're pregnant no detail is too small. They would much rather we told them too much than too little. And it is nothing they haven't seen before :)

starry :D It's the small things that mean so much isn't it?

And did someone ask on this thread about grey hairs? If so then yes it's terrible how many I have developed! I am treating myself just before labour to a pedicure and cut/colour. So I look fabulous after hehehe.

Go Starry go Starry

Thank you both!! I didn't think anyone outside of this thread would understand and had to tell someone!

living yes, that was me about the white hairs - I have SO many now, just from the last couple of months, whereas I barely had any before. Great idea about getting your hair done before labour!

I have a victory dance every time I manage to brush my teeth without throwing up. It really is the small things.

Oklahoma so, so true! For so long I wasn't able to do my teeth and it felt so gross; when I was finally able to brush my teeth, it felt like a miracle! So, go you!!

Hello everyone.
Condolences to the new names on here, welcome to our little puke club.

I am due my c section this Thursday as little one is still breech. Once I get over the fear of the surgery then the elation of fading nausea (You listening HG? Fade or else...) I'm sure having an actual baby might start to seem real...

This weekend hubby has been nesting. I think he realised I don't have the energy to move furniture round, build the cot, clean everything etc so he's been doing it - unprompted! I swear 9 months of looking after me has made him so much more domesticated.

Having said that I am on day 5 of another good run. Nausea, heartburn, cramps, aches and twinges etc but no vomiting. Just a wonderfully normal late pregnancy.

Living I still plan on getting my hair done, although realising that I now have a 2 day window...

punk did I dream they'd given you a c sec date too? Can't find it.

petitlapin that's great news!! Bring on Thursday!!

petit thursday? Yay! So exciting for you!

Congratulations petit! My shocker of a pregnancy definitely improved DH's domestic skills! (Though he was good to start with, to be fair.)

So nauseous today if I try to move at all. And the beginnings of that nasty taste. But v. grateful for this thread! Hard to explain my v. mixed feelings at this point.

Boo great explanation....no one else would put up with symptoms like this!

Meerka thanks :-)

Living ahhhhhhhh, I know!!! It's so close but in a strange way my brain cannot cope with this. I just can't wait at all!
Hmmm I have a cold too, first one in years. I find it a pleasant distraction from the nausea!!

Yay Petit
I think delivery is hard either way. Surgery or natural. You will be fine. Quick op, baby will be out in five :-) ( unless you're me when it took twenty!) my date is June 2nd :-)

Starry
I feel your joy :-)
I got my hair cut and dyed a couple of weeks ago. Feel a bit more normal...cheated though found a mobile hairdresser who is ace.

Sasseh 5% wt loss is significant. I lost 7% over 10 days and was whacked on steroids. It means they need to take it seriously and get you on some decent treatment. Anything that can at least make your weight plateau. Ondansetron is very good at reducing vomiting and for some nausea as well. Although others find first line treatment helpful :-)
It does mention in NICE guidance about the 5% weight loss and PSS website so you can quote it!!