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.

Oklahoma I'm so sorry you're feeling so bad. I've been exactly there and know just how awful it is. It's so frustrating to be so completely stuck because you're feeling dreadful... and it goes on and on and on... I don't know if this will help in any way, but when I hit 28wks (this Tuesday) I finally started having a couple of good days. Yesterday, I sat in the garden for about half an hour and it was blissful. Such a simple thing, but something that meant so much. It was the first time I felt vaguely human since the start of December.

living my fingers and toes are crossed for you that something happens soon!!!

Thanks ladies, hope you are all as ok as you can be today!

Weirdly I didn't feel very sick when I woke up and am a bit crampy so of course I'm worrying now. Just had a cup of tea and now I feel nauseous, or am I imagining it?! I think I might drive myself insane before my scan next Saturday. I just feel like I've imagined myself pregnant at the moment despite numerous positive tests, I think I need to see a scan before I'll believe it's real.

I'm picking up my cyclizine today after failing to get it yet again yesterday after all the bad news, my gp didn't explain much to me about it. Do I take it 3 times everyday or only up to 3 times if I really need it? I'm worried about the effects of the drowsiness, I'm already struggling to stay awake at work and i really can't have any time off (on a contract, no sick pay, need to hide pregnancy as long as physically possible!!)

Hi Sara, I as the same questions as you about cyclizine. Last time round I took it when I reall felt I needed it, in quite a haphazard way. Yesterday the doctor explained to me that it will work better if you take it regularly, i.e. the 3 doses a day. I did this yesterday and it did seen to work a bit (never really got rid of the nausea, but my appetite came back and I stopped being sick). So my plan now is to take it at breakfast time, lunchtime and tea time. I felt at my most well about 2 hours after taking it, so I'm going to try to fit meals around that.

I was really drowsy on it initially, but am not so bad today. I think I remember this from last time too - the drowsiness wears off a bit.

I've also had little panics about symptoms coming and going, although they never go for long! If I even feel vaguely human for 15 minutes I start to worry, but I'm sure it's normal.

sunny thank you! I haven't got any plans for the bank holiday (only lying in bed all day) so I think I'll take it 3 times a day over the weekend and hopefully by the time I have to go to work on tues some of the drowsiness will have eased.

How far along are you? I know exactly what you mean, if I feel better for a short time for any reason I panic. Got weird pains by my belly button today, can't tell if it's womb stuff or bowel stuff. On the jan thread one of the ladies said she wished she had a little window in her abdomen she could just open and check on the baby, I wish that was real!!

I'm 9+1, Sara, still quite early days. I haven't had a scan and don't have one organised, so I think that's stopping it from seeming real. Seeing the midwife a week today so powerfully can get scan sorted after that - did consider buying a Doppler but I know it's unlikely to work yet, and it woud be a huge waste of money as I do actually have one somewhere in our storage unit, which we'll get into in about 3 weeks.

living I got the more-and-more sick thing too towards the end. It was as bad as week 15-18 or so in the, though I was vomitting less and could eat much more, in fact I had to cause an empty tummy made it worse. it was a profound strain w the sleeplessness as well at that point

sunny the cyclizine builds up in the system and the best idea is to give it 3 or so days to see if it actually works.

if you can get some Vitamin B6 over the counter, that would be a very good idea too. For some reason, cyclizine and other comparable old style antihistamines combine vey well with b6 and in the US and in canada the only two drugs officially regarded as fully safe in preg (FDA category s drugs) are the equivilent of cyclizine plus the B6 together.

they are still some of the mildest meds but together they seem more effective than alone

sunny you're about a week ahead of me! I think I'm 8+2, got a private scan booked for 31st may then 12 week scan on 17th June. When I booked in with the midwife she booked my 16 week appointment for 15 July, I was pretty shocked!! I can't even imagine getting to 16 weeks at the moment. It seems like a lifetime away. How far along do you have to be to get a Doppler to work? (Although I imagine having one would cause lots of anxiety!!)

Living I'm having a rotten week too...I'm starving but I don't know what to eat. Food aversions to most things, horrid nausea. Just a once daily vomit....just counting down the days.

Punk I feel you. I'm back to throwing up everything that passes my lips today. And everything smells foul.

I don't want to play anymore. Stomps foot.

Sarah Hugs - of course you're not hijacking a thread to mention what upsets you. It's odd, there have been various bereavements on here- almost as if fate decides to get a few nasty blows in at once. I think most people have symptoms sometimes easing off - probably what most people would call bad ms - for a while and while those good days are the sign of an improvement to come, they do make sufferers worry.
So Everyone not too good a time , but Sunny congratulations on liquids. Not so hot today for sufferers over here. Starry Why did thickhead me never think of soda water and it's being alkaline? Excellent idea.
xx

Thanks all and punk, same, I'm so done. I am back in bed again I just can't stay upright. Randomly ate mozzarella and sundried tomatoes which is so far OK but anything carb is a no no. I have the windows and curtain back so I can enjoy looking at the beautiful blue sky. Still getting period type cramps but it's a bit too erratic and very mild pain so I think I'm out of luck and will have to wait and see.

meerka I wonder why the sickness escalates again? So strange.

its as the hormones dictate, my gyne told me. Bloody little chemicals. I suppose we should be grateful as we couldnt have kids at all if they weren't reasonably okay, but oh god if my hormones were visible, I'd have been punching them.

Hello all. I am feeling a bit better today - so of course having a massive panic that the pregnancy is failing. I'd forgotten that aspect of HG: longing to feel even a tiny bit better and then being terrified as soon as you do! Hope everyone is hanging on.

Kali I am exactly the same. I felt much better today, managed breakfast and lunch and even a trip to the garden centre with my parents. So I worried and worried about why I felt so well (notwithstanding that I am taking cyclizine, and probably feel better because it is working). I felt almost relieved when I had a huge vomiting session this afternoon.

My HG didn't even properly kick in this time until almost 7 weeks (up until then I had a fairly normal level of coming-and-going morning sickness), 2 weeks later than last time, so I was absolutely convinced that it was all going to go wrong at any moment. I think the worry is inevitable, just another pregnancy symptom...

meerka those bloody hormones have me back on McDonald's again and nothing else. It's like I've regressed to week 8 of the pregnancy! Only a cheeseburger and diet coke sorted me out :( come on baby, hurry up, I am so fed up of this food thing!

khali I was the same. When my medication kicked in and I felt better I had a meltdown that I was going to miscarry. In a twisted kind of way the sickness is so reassuring

So my friend has been put onto metoproclomide alongside with cyclizine which she is taking 3x a day. She wondered if that was normal? Her midwife phoned the hospital and that is what they recommended.

Thanks to punk and meerka's excellent research I've sent her the consultants and she's going to try to get a referral to the London one if possible. She's really struggling - better on two medications but feeling very wiped out. Any words of wisdom welcome on the medication front - she's coming up to 8 weeks pregnant.

living That's what my consultant recommended for me, but I was so desperate to ditch the Cyclizine I stopped it, and fortunately just the meto is working for me. So I think both together is fine, tell your friend not to worry (ha! As if anything stops us worrying, but you know what I mean!)

I suggested this combo to my own GP way back when (after speaking to PSS) she said it was outside her comfort zone....PSS suggested it before stepping up to ondansetron.

Ladies I am so fed up, I tried to run two errands today. Both times whilst driving I vomited everywhere. All over myself, hair, clothes and car. Had to strip at the door on both occasions and I can't go in my car anymore :-(
It just stinks.
I'm eating so little at the moment. I've gained enough weight not to worry at this stage but I've just had enough. Ten days and counting....

Thanks so much both, I will let her know. I think it's working better now she takes both it is just the dopey which is proving difficult and she has two small dcs to run around after. How she did this on her second pg with no medication I haven't a clue.

punk hugs that sounds miserable. Are you feeling better today after a bit of sleep? Feet up and rest these last ten days. I just keep saying to myself, this time in a week and a half my baby will be here. It's the only way to cope knowing the end is so near....

Also just having to go back to McDonald's made me cry yesterday, I hate it so much. It was the only thing I could eat and of course it stayed down and made me feel less sick. I'm never having one again after this baby arrives. Dh took me to M&S to see if there was anything there so I have stocked up on crumpets which worked well last time. Fingers crossed.

meerka there is a huge M&S in The Hague now with everything it and a fab food section so if you ever get the energy, and now you can eat real food again, it's great. And maybe a day trip to the beach!

These are the sorts of things I am looking forward to after the baby arrives. Normal stuff. As opposed to lying in bed at 5am trying not to vomit. Sigh.

M&S mini sausage rolls not too bad for breakfast. Who would have thought it?

I decided to cheer myself up for a week or so after the birth I am going to eat EVERYTHING I want (excluding McDonald's, never want to go there again) and then go back to my gluten free plan. Hello pizza and prawn stir fry and cake and sausages!

Morning everyone. Can't say that would be my breakfast of choice, living!! I am meant to be on a wheat free diet (have a diagnosed wheat intolerance / IBS), but it's gone to pot lately. So I'm really enormously bloated and crampy, and I can't tell if it's the wheat or the cyclizine causing it. But I don't intend trying to stick to diet rules at the moment.

I'm full of the cold, I always get this when we return to the UK, but it doesn't matter too much as I'll only be lying on the sofa anyway.

I'd planned to try without pills this morning, but lasted about 20 minutes before I needed them. For anyone who has weaned themselves off medication (cyclizine especially), how do you stop? Do you just stop feeling like you need it? I'm probably ten weeks away from being able to consider this, but like to be prepared.

I ordered some maternity clothes online this morning - far, far too early at only 9+2. But I couldn't resist £14 jeans and a £5 jumper from JoJo, so hopefully I haven't jinxed things. I plan to leave them in their packaging for a while yet!

Desperately missing my little DS1. We've been Skyping every day, but it's not the same. DH is bringing him for a visit on Wednesday (until the next Monday), and I can't wait to see him. Then they are going back home to finish the school year (only until June 13th, so they'll be there for 10 days) before moving back to the UK for good. Hyperemesis is costing us a fortune in all of these extra flights, and we've had to hire an after school nanny for DS1 (fortunately on African wages, but still), I feel as if we're just haemorrhaging cash just now. No idea what I'm going to do for childcare over the summer as we can't stay with my parents forever, and they have holidays planned anyway.

Kali Hugs- probably you'll feel reassuringly sick again in no time. It's an awful aspect of this illness not enjoying the respites.
Sunny I think it's a bit early even to think of weaning yourself off meds- and baby will be fine with them, so you shouldn't put yourself through torture for no purpose, says bossy Mother Hen.
Livingzuid Poor you about McDonalds - hugs too. I hope the crumpets are good.

I'm struck down with one of my nice migraines, throat closing up prepatory to some Spectacular Spewing (good old fashioned word) , so must collopse, but I'll be thinking of you all.
Apologies to anyone overlooked.
xx

Sunny I stopped taking my meds because I had a strop on the basis that I couldn't feel worse without them than I did with them so what was the point. It's a different kind of bad now, I'm sick more but feel less drugged/zombie which is preferable for me. The drugs didn't touch the nausea which is the worst bit anyway.

I didn't stop until about 16 weeks though so I wouldn't stop just yet.