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.

Kali I very much hope that you start to feel better soon, can't even begin to imagine how you must feel Hopefully with Punks experience and help there is a distant light at the end of the tunnel.

Lucinda So pleased your DD is ok and the weather down here in Devon is wonderful too. I just thank my lucky stars that it is summer rather than winter as somehow I just think that feeling like this in the winter would be worse somehow!!??

Lottie Congratulations on having a little boy (I can't remember if this is your first DC?) and well done for your great result with the observation. Can't remember if it was you that asked if I was a teacher? No I'm not but I work with children in the Early Years and had been on a work placement in a pre-school for just over a year until the dreaded HG struck. Am hoping to return as soon as I feel up to it.

Baby I know what you mean about food. I tend to veer towards savoury things which are ok at the time of eating but leave such a vile taste in my mouth afterwards.

I haven't actually been physically sick for just over a week now but still feel sick all the time. I'm sure I'm so tired/sleepy too as it is just so draining feeling ill all the time.

I'm also beginning to feel the first twinges of SPD too. Last time I was on crutches so I've been seeing a Chiropractor since I was 6 weeks and hopefully it is helping and I'll be able to stay more mobile.

MamPam Oh no about the twinges. Chiropractors can be really excellent, I had one who used to help a lot with my migraines, but expensive???!! I lived in North Devon for three years as a kid. Sorry about draining nausea. Would you believe I am still indignant on your behalf about that practice nurse mother of your OH's ex and the 'big arms' jibes - so unprofessional!
Kali Dare I ask how things are? Oh dear.
Everyone I hope at least sucking ice lollies in this heat.
xx

Lucinda Yes Chiropractors are very expensive!! DH and I go together (he has far more serious issues that need attending to than I do) and we have a family appointment which is slightly cheaper than if we went separately It's amazing what they can do, I had no idea until I started going. We only go once every 3 weeks.
Yes the practice nurse.....when DH and I went back for our blood tests to check for Slapped Cheek Syndrome, she took DH's blood (luckily I had someone else), he said she was as nice as pie to him must just be me then. The funny thing is that her daughter (DH's ex) is no slim jim herself. The way I look at it is (and I really do not mean to be rude or horrid) the mother (nurse) is really quite an ugly woman and I don't think there is anything in this world that would make her look otherwise, I on the other hand can lose weight and get rid of my 'BIG arms'.

I really don't know what her problem is with me, I have been with DH for nearly 9 years so he and her daughter must have split up over 9 years ago and she is due to be married this year.
I've let it go mainly due to how crap I'm feeling but if she ever dares to be so rude again................

Not feeling great today and I just do not know what to do with myself.

Hope everyone else is as ok as they can be

Hello ladies. This is a me me me post, sorry. I'm new on the thread and very rudely haven't even read back, but wondered if you could offer some advice (and calming words) as I'm starting to get a bit wrorried. I'm 5 + 4 with my 3rd child, mild nausea started 2 days ago, today is notably worse (though still mild). With my second I had horrible nausea which was awful until about 20 weeks, then improved quite a lot but never went until she was born. Because I wasn't sick that much, especially after 20 weeks, I didn't get any medication until 37 weeks (when my usual MW was on holiday and the cover lady marched me into the GPs room and demanded he prescribe me anti emetics - I loved her!). With number 1 nausia started at 7 weeks, 6weeks with number 2, and now it's 5 weeks with this one. I'm worrying that my nausea is getting worse with each pregnancy, it's certainly starting earlier, and I don't see how I will cope with it this time with 2 children and no child care (I'm not at work this time, but was last time so on the truely awful days I was off work but still sending DS to his child minder), especially if it's even worse. I imagine that all I will get if I try to see anyone about it at this stage whilst it is still mild is the usual eating ginger biscuits and resting, and be basically fobbed off. If it is going to be as bad or worse than last time, am I better trying to get medicated before it gets too bad? Will that make medication more effecttive? If so I will give the GP a go now because I am worring. If not, I'll wait it out until (or if!) it gets to a more unmanagable level. I was fobbed off repeatedly last time but I'm determind to be firm and demanding if needs be this time round having got through the whole pregnancy last time and it never clearing up liek I kept being promised it would!

Thanks for reading. I know so many of you will be going through so much and far far worse than I did. 24/7 neausea was horrid, but I was at least fortunate to usually be only sick a couple of times a day even at the worst time, and less later on.

FloweryBoots Welcome, don't worry about moaning -who wouldn't -and these threads are so long it's hard to read back when feeling foul.
It does sound as if in your case it's getting worse each time. I have a boring recommendation - do get some kesostix from a chemists, as it's easy to get dehydrated even when not actually being sick much and you should watch out for that. Sounds daft my advising you when you've been through two very sick pregnancies already, but I don't think this fact is publicised enough for what is dismissed as 'bad ms' which can esculate into full blown Hyperemesis quite quickly. I'm so glad the nurse got you meds last time, that should help your case this, and I'd say, the pre emtpive line is the best, it can be harder to control once it really sets in. It might be an idea to take an advocate a friend or OH or whoever, if you feel too sick to argue much. Do try the 024 7638 2020 number for Pregnancy Sickness Support as a sympathetic doctor can advise you about how to get meds if GP's are reluctant to prescribe (it's surprising how many still are, when there are meds available which have been proven safe for pregnant women for decades). Do you find ice lollies, flat coke, jelly or salty foods like crisps any good?
MamPam I am still dismayed at how rude some medical people can be and that is ridiculous!
Kali Oh dear, anxious you're back in hospital already?
Everyone How are things?
xx

Thanks Lucinda. I guess I'm just looking for someone to say it's OK to wrory about how I'll cope and it's alright to go to the GP before it gets to an unmanagable level. I was fortunate I was able to eat (lots of things I couldn't stomach, and rarely hot foods) and keep food down last time. Drinking was a big issue, but yes, ice lollies were a saviour, I must stock up! I don't think I was ever checked for dehydration last time despite me keep telling poeple I couldn't drink!

Hi all, sorry not read right back, will catch up properly soon. We have been really busy moving back into our own house. I am feeling a lot better - still permanently nauseous and ridiculously tired, but vomiting has dwindled away to once a day or so, and I'm able to eat fairly normally. Huge improvement, that I wasn't expecting quite so early based on last time. Hope it lasts!

Flowery this is also DC3 for me. I honestly, honestly couldn't have coped with 7-12 weeks on my own. Long story, but the short version is that we were living abroad (due to move home around now anyway) and I ended up going back to the UK with my 3 year old, leaving my 5 year old abroad with DH, and staying with my parents for weeks. Some (most) days I literally lay on the sofa trying to keep liquids down while they cared for DS2. I also had to move in with them with DS1 when I was pg with DS2 (DH works long hours). It's only now, at 14+ weeks, that I'm attempting to look after the DCs on my own, and it's a struggle, involving quite a bit of TV. Definitely go to your GP, but also think about whether there is anyone at all who could help out. Or could you stretch to an agency nanny even for a few hours a week?

Will try to read through the thread properly later.

Gosh, doesn't tiredness kill? I had a bad day yesterday after a long, long Saturday (got back home at 2:30am after train delays and breakdowns). Not had a day so awful since before being hospitalised. Shouldn't have bothered with breakfast, or lunch, as both reappeared within minutes, and then a few more vomits inbetween as well. By the time I dragged myself home from my parents (about 4pm) I was feeling horrendous, but just about able to keep water down. Did ketones about 6pm and they were between +4 and whatever's above that, but by 7-8pm they were back down to traces (ie, I drank shitloads of water and tried to eat chips). Thank goodness its over for the weekend, but today is being a slow day at work to get back on my feet.

Hi all,

Just checking in again!

Monsta - sorry to hear you had a rubbish day!! Think that's what I hate the most is when you start to feel a bit better you're hit with an awful day again and your reminded of how bad it has been!! Don't over do it at work...I am constantly tired. I was actually questioning whether it was normal to be so tired but apparently it is with HG.

Flowery - hope you are feeling a bit better today. It sounds like your having an awful time also. I had sickness really bad at 5 weeks and and was sick well over 15 times a day. I found that the tablets didn't help mainly because I couldn't keep them down at all so they couldn't take effect. If you reckon you could keep them down definitely try them because the ones I'm on now really help settle the stomach.

Hope everyone else is doing ok today...

I'm racing towards 18 weeks but still not feeling great. I'm starting to get really frustrated with the whole eating thing. I'm really aware that I am well under my pre birth weight and am now well underweight, but I'm trying so hard to 'want' to eat and getting nowhere. I'm still only having little bits through the day and I'm so annoyed that my brain refuses any more. I wish I could just eat a massive meal at least once a day but i HATE all food at the moment :-( help! I just have no desires to eat and will be sick if I force myself more than a few nibbles a day.

Afternoon ladies

Sorry to have been abit AWOL recently

flowery preemptive meds sounds like a good place to start to me. Hopefully then you can nip it in the bud quickly. I went to my drs on holly my second day of vomiting as I just knew the amount I was being sick was not normal and wanted to get it seen too quick smart.

sunny glad you're feeling abit better

sasseh oh no! Glad it seems to have resolved quickly and hope it stays that way

AFM - I've had 4 really good assays which I am so grateful for. Vomiting down to once a day around 4/5am and I have a lot more energy. Have managed to get out and about every day since Friday and my nausea Is back to sort of background levels. I've provisionally spoken to work about returning in a phased return basis next tues when my certificate runs out provided I continue to feel good, which they agreed sounds sensible but this needs to be agreed by occy health first so they're trying to get me an appointment either the week or Tuesday, so we'll see what they say

Grrr sorry for typos! Predictive text and speedy fingers equals errors!!

Hi all,

BabyButton Is there anything that you fancy eating at all? I find that what I fancy to eat one day I will hate the next but I have to do it day by day, if you see what I mean? It was even as bad as what I drank too. I can now tolerate water but I've had Ribena, fizzy water, apple and mango juice, apple and mango high juice, orange juice, Robinsons orange squash, lemonade, flavoured fizzy water.......you name it I've had it and now I can't bear the thought of any of them.
In my previous pregnancy I survived on pringles and haribo but obviously had to keep changing flavours!!

Sasseh Sorry you've felt so awful over the weekend, hopefully you will be able to get some rest this week.

Fraggle It's good news that you are feeling a little better and are thinking of returning to work.

Feel like poop today, vile taste is worse than ever too. Had a bit of a flap on earlier as I hadn't really felt the baby move for a couple of days but panic over as I've just had a definite bout of baby wriggling phew. Does make me realise though that feeling like this will be worth it to have a happy and healthy baby at the end of it all

Hi flowers

welcome here, though you might not want to be here at all!

lucinda's advice is always worth following. In addition, I'd say go prepared to the doctor. Have a good look at this site [[
cks.nice.org.uk/nauseavomiting-in-pregnancy#!prescribinginfosub
NICE governmental guidelines]] and check out the Goals (which are to make sure you can carry on a normal life with reasonable quality of life) and also the meds you can have.

YOu -are- entitled to take the meds, they are safe in pregnancy for the baby. I can provide you with the links to studies if that will help. Dehydration is a bigger risk if you don't keep sickness under control - even nausea can drain you over weeks and months and weaken your whole system. Also, it's recommended you start the meds early as they stop the HG developing too far for most people except the extremely unlucky ones (hello Kali, Boo and Punk!).

Do take an advocate with you, husband or friend who knows how bad it is, if that will help. And come back here whenever you like =)

sunny congrats on getting back to your own home :) hope you can get some pleasure from being there aghain!

sasseh tiredness really, really does make the HG worse, its bloody horrendous isnt it. Even now I feel HG-sick when I'm too tired! I hope you can take it easy.

baby ... are you having meds? Im sorry I can't remember. Cause it really sounds like you should be on something more, if it's at all possible :(

Thank you so much everyone. Such support, really, thanks. Feeling (psychologically) better just having admitted to being worried about coping. And decided if the nausea continues to worsen over the next couple of days to the GP I will go (better armed for this thread!).

Do feel a bit of a fraud, I think you all assume it must be terrible already because you're all going through such horrors. It really isn't bad yet, it's the yet bit that concerns me though!

Thanks again. x

Flowery Glad it isn't too bad yet. I'm an ex sufferer, now I'm Mother Hen.
SomeSunny Congratulations on moving back.
Sasseh 2.30 before you were home?That's awful and congratulations on getting those ketones down. i don't think I've known anyone get them down from 4+, though I may be wrong - so great work.
BabyButton I can only echo MamPam and others - is there any food, however unhealthy, ie chocolate, chips, crisps, tinned fruit, that appeals at all?
Fraggle Glad about improvement, that's great.
MamPam Sorry you're feeling awful.
MeerkaLovely to hear from you, great advice as ever.
Apologies to anyone rudely overlooked.
xx

Yes am back in hospital. Praying they are going to put me back on the steroids today.

Oh kali .... sympathy and wishing the consultant some sense!

Oh Kali I really feel for you, I hope they have a bit more common sense this time regarding the steroids

kali, hope today is a better day and you do get the steroids soon as.

I've been lurking and came back to say hello to flowery. flowery, please don't feel like a fraud. I have never suffered as badly as the others. I've never taken medication but I was still suffering and I still needed support. It was partly my choice not to take anything but partly because I wasn't given anything by my doctors and am in a position where I can rest and do as little as possible so I didn't need to be signed off work. I probably would have pushed for meds otherwise.

I also needed to know what's normal and what isn't in terms of sickness, I didn't know anything about ketones and I had so many food and drink aversions I needed inspiration at lot of the time. So this thread has been invaluable for that, also I've had other concerns in this pg unrelated to sickness and I got support and helpful advice over that too!

Hope everyone else is ok.

Morning all

Sounds like pretty mixed weekends for people.

I managed to have a semi normal weekend which was nice. Went to a wedding on Sat (had naps between service and drinks and then between drinks and dinner and left straight after dinner) but it was sort of doing something normal!

Am now down in Cornwall with my family. Journey down was horrific but survived and now having a super chilled week while the family kayak/surf/ride etc

Still puking every day but it's often only a morning bile run so I guess I am slowly improving. I just need to not get too excited and try and do things when I have better days!

Sending you all sea air and sunshine.

Kali hope you got my PM?
Hoping they have some common sense and get you back on the steroids with a long term plan!

Thanks everyone :-) I'm taking ondansatron which is apparently the strongest I can have. They do help a bit but even when I was having them intravenously I was still being sick. Doctor tried to lower me to 4mg after a good ish week last week but didn't work so back to 8mg. I'm much worse at night, can manage to keep down some bits in the day. I think I'm similar to mampam. It changes every day but pretty much all food is a real struggle. I can eat plain cheddar cheese and bananas in small doses...I just worry that that's all my body is getting. I forced myself to drink milk yesterday and managed to it down for a little bit...

Hope everyone is having a nice/better morning today :-)

Oklahoma - lovely that you got out this weekend for a bit :-) enjoy your week away. Bet the fresh air is nice and soothing.

Anyone else still off work? Any ideas to keep me busy...I'm so bored now!!! Had all the sewing and crafts out, designed babies room etc...now the only thing is TV and it's mind numbing...need a little project to kill time x

kali, I hope that you get the steroids and that they help.

Okla your weekend sounds great! glad you are managing to do some nice things.

BabyButton I know what you mean about the mind numbing boredom. I now have my children to look after, which mainly addresses that, but up until this week I was really getting very bored indeed. I have tried box sets, crafts, even drawing (and I am no artist!). I struggle with reading when I'm feeling sick. Today I am helping DS with maths, and managed to work out that over 3 pregnancies I have now lost around 3.5% of my life to HG..! I do not recommend maths as amusement though. Will be interested to see if anyone else has any good ideas.

I think I massively jinxed things by posting on here yesterday that I was feeling so much better. About half an hour later the vomiting started, and basically kept up all day. I am back to only being able to eat salt & vinegar crisps, and feel absolutely rubbish today. I sat on the sofa and sobbed this morning because DH had to go to work . He's working quite long hours - he really can't help it, there is lots going on, but 2 nights last week he wasn't home from the office until 11. It's partly my own fault as I know I give out the "I'll be fine" message a lot. I ended up calling my mum this morning and she is going to come over this afternoon. I really wanted her to have a break as she's just looked after us for 5 weeks solid, but it's just still a bit to much for me. I can't decided whether to look for proper childcare (temp nanny / childminder) or just hang in there, because on past form I really shouldn't have more than a few weeks of this left. It's difficult to know what to do.

Kalidasa Really sorry you are back in hospital. I can't beliee they actually take you completely off the steroids?! Gentle pats on offer, all sympathy;I know you are strong enough to get through this, but what torment. Here's some flowers from me too .
Punkstar Thanks so much. Hope baby is being an angel.
Babybutton People seem somehow to do all sorts of creative sewing, crocheting, knitting projects on here - waveswandsmiles even did some art projects - I read 'War and Peace' and 'Vanity Fair' and other such classics, and thinking of the first still gives me that nasty feeling in the throat that goes with nausea! How is the food today? Every day being so different can make this harder to deal with.
mrsnec I am so glad that this thread has been helpful and congratulations on surviving without meds.
Oklahoma Cornwall, how lovely - and you survived the journey from where? I do hope the air proves beneficial. I've been cured of a migraine that had got to the inevitable stage by the sea air before now.
Flowery How are things? Fraggle Mampam and Everyone? I hope Sasseh Is feeling a lot better today.
Apologies to anyone rudely overlooked/cross posted with (not grammatical, never mind).
xx

Kali So sorry to hear your back in hospital again.Really hope things improve soon.

Oklahoma Well done on getting to Cornwall.I really wanted to go down there this summer but don't think I can face the journey down there with not feeling well and a huge bump.Enjoy! We are planning on going for a few days to a nice hotel somewhere localish over summer though which I'm excited about.

Flowery I too have somehow survived without meds(I did try at the beginning but they made me feel worse).At the most I vomited 3 times a day but I had constant horrendous nausea and exhaustion and have been off work the whole pregnancy.Everyone's different and feeling so rough at a time you are ment to be excited is so horrible.

I had to go up to hospital yesterday as been having horrendous cramps in side to the point I was struggling to walk :( Baby seemed fine but I had very high White cells in my urine so the doctor thinks it's a uti and has put me on antibiotics for 5 days(Cefalexin).Has anyone else had UTIs/taken antibiotics whilst pregnant? Ugh it just feels like one thing after another..