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.

Bumpandgrind what a lovely picture, sorry you went through such a traumatic time though.

I managed the cinema and even a McDonalds yesterday, tasted wonderful! I'm taking my cyclizine like clockwork and doing okay at the moment. Bowel also working well again which is a relief! I think having 5 days of IV fluids has really perked me up, although I said that after my previous admission and it didn't last long!

I'm nearly 23 weeks now and just hope I might be over the worst of it, it went on til 28 weeks in my previous pregnancy but it wasn't as severe or relentless as it's been this time. I'm getting lots of back and rib pain at the moment but I can cope with that as long as I'm not retching or being sick!

I'm feeling quite low in mood though, snappy, tearful and resentful. Worried I'm starting to get depressed. I might speak to midwife about it next week.

Hope everyone starts to feel better soon x

MrsAnneKins No meds? At all for nausea? Oh dear.

I have a different set every four hours, even during the night. I tried to sleep through one set at the weekend and it brought all kinds of hell.

Today hasn't been too bad, sick about 5 times. Tinned fruit seems to be edible in small doses too.

Thing is, I am constantly thinking about food. Have already drawn up a list of all the things I'm going to eat when this nightmare ends. And I'm sat here typing on my phone and my stomach is gurgling away wanting food. But I know that as soon as I eat something at this time of night, I'll be spending a couple of hours puking, and will bring up all the fluids I've been doing well at keeping down too!

Nope, no meds at all. Just rest and lots of it at the mo. As long as i can keep fluids down and manage the odd bit of food, I'm ok. Apparently. I have to go back on 1 Sept to get my sick note for another 2 weeks. If things aren't looking any better them, when I'm just shy of 12 weeks I will defo be asking for meds.

I'm not exactly the slimmest of people, but I've already lost nearly a stone over the last couple of weeks, and have been told how well I'm looking on it....duh, I'm pregnant and LOSING weight, that's not really something to be proud of!

mrsanne ask them for meds early.

The NICE guidelines above are the government's own Best Practice guidelines. The Goals say that the aim of treatment for HG is to carry on life as normal or as close as possible. If necessary, to take meds.

The NICE guidelines also give a good list of meds which are considered safe in pregnancy. They will not harm your baby. I'll link a study or two if you wish.

Also, there's evidence that meds taken early can cushion the worst of the HG for most people. Leaving it til 12 weeks and you've been off work for weeks is not, most defnitely, best practice.

It might help to print out and take the guidelines or to take an advocate with you. It's so hard to speak up for yoruself when you feel like utter hell.

But you -can- get more help than you are atm. If it doesn't work with your doctor, try another, or actually ring the Prgnancy Sickness Support helpline number. They have an excellent retired doctor who specialized in HG and he can give you a list of HG-experienced doctors.

Kalidasa I really appreciate your honesty about how you found things post-hg pregnancy. I think a lot of people assume that there is a sudden change from feeling so ill to instantly feeling a lot better but, like you and meerka, I haven't found that to be the case at all. It took quite a while for the nausea to subside and I was very much taken aback by how ill trying to breastfeed made me feel. In the first week post-pregnancy I was still being sick from all the hormones and trying to breastfeed - so sick that I tore some of my c-section stitches and had to take antibiotics because they got infected. It was horrible, stressful and I was physically and mentally utterly exhausted. I didn't have say things left to cope. If I didn't have my dh and mum, I would have totally crashed. Even having them, I was still very ill and finding it hard to cope.

It has been a couple of weeks since I had my baby and I still haven't ventured out of the house. I'm too tired and too anxious after 8.5months of feeling horrendous when I went anywhere.

I'm not remotely surprised that so many women who have had hg end up with post-natal depression or am anxiety disorder. It puts you through the wringer mentally and physically.

The last couple of days have been awful bcos dd has been sick, and as an emetaphobe I'm finding it really difficult to cope with and it's making me nauseous again :-( Right now sitting in bed panicking bcos dd was sick down my dd was sick down my leg and on the floor an hour ago.

I really hope ppl don't mind my returning to this thread post-pregnancy :-/

Right, I'm phoning my gp this morning and asking for meds....had a crappy night last night after struggling to keep fluids down. Had enough.

Welcome to all new arrivals, so sorry you had to join us. I also found things got a lot better after 24wks, however there are no guarantees with HG. The time does pass though, I promise! I felt desperate in the first trimester but I am nearly there now.

Congratulations bump! What a lovely little girl! Goodness you had a tough time of it though!

Just marking my place again and popping in to say hello, and hi to the newbies.

Starry I wanted to say in particular that it's helping me a lot the advice from the graduates coming back to the thread. It would be lovely if I do feel brand new again afterwards straight away but just in case I don't I already feel armed with some great advice from here from Meerka and Kali in particular.I'm now 34 weeks and find out next Friday if and possibly when I'll need a c-section. You've all helped me decide not to put any pressure on myself re bf.

Especially with regards to bf and the pnd issue. Sorry to hear you're having a rough time.starry, i hope you feel well enough to venture out soon.

Mrs, hope you get a result from the gp.

Have only briefly read what's been happening, I saw the talk about childhood food helping. I couldn't find angel delight here but I made individual trifles that all came out of a packet the other day and they went down a treat!

Booboo how did you manage in the first trimester? Did you manage to work at all?

basgetti how are you today? HG is so relentlessly unpleasant, I reckon eveyrone except saints get grumpy and snappy. That's not even thinking of the preg hormones!

starry I am so sorry to hear things are still so tough. Please, please don't feel bad for not going out. You will when you are ready. HG takes so much out of you.

mrsAnne let us know how it goes with the GP ...

mrsnec at least it's the home straight now. Still feels like forever but every week is a gain for the baby and a week off the calender for you

The doctor now is the latest person to tell me to give up bfing so it looks like the half-bfíng and half-formula will go to full formula. Absolutely everyone is saying it's just too heavy on the recovering system. Got to 16 weeks with it so it looks like this is the point to fully stop (it's just convenient at night!).

kali how are you and ellatorrito and frenetic flowers and okla and everyone? (sorry for anyone missed, as Lucinda says!)

Morning all

Sorry that so many of you are suffering so much.

Starry lovely to hear from you. We love having you on here post baby, it gives us hope we might get through this. Doesn't sound like you're having a very easy time though. As the others say, give yourself a break and take it easy. No need to go anywhere or do anything until you feel ready.

Meerka sounds like switching to FF is the best thing for you and W. He wants a happy, healthy mummy more than BF. I hope the switch brings vast improvements.

Anne you definitely need to ask for meds. Your current situation does not sound sustainable. Good luck!

Bas I have rely struggled with feeling down even on the days I feel semi-human. Your body is in shock and full of raging hormones. It is completely normal to feel like that. Have a good cry on your midwife next time you see her. Or I think it's PSS but Kali will know better you can get a support buddy who has been through HG and will understand.

Hi Boo Mrsnec and others

Hi all, I have a questions about the cyclizine I'm taking, that you might be able to help with?

I've now been prescribed 3 per day to take when required. I assumed I should take it every 8 hours, but It feels like the tablets seem to take hours to work and then only work for a short window.

Do you think it would be ok to take them at say 8am, 1pm, and 5pm? That way I'm covering more of the hours I'm awake. At the moment I take them at 8am, 3pm and 10pm, and can only manage to keep lunch down, the evenings are a wash out. I feel like I need to take them earlier to try and combat the evenings? Is this allowed? What times do other people take them at for them to be most effective?

Thanks!

i'm pretty sure you can take them that way but not a medic. You might be better to speak to a pharmacist or (better) ring the pregnancy sickness support helpline. They'll get back to you if you leave a message.

cyclizine can make you feel sleepy which is why they can be good to take at night but that's not as important as stopping the nausea.

You can also ask for more meds so you can stagger the doses, a lot of people do that. Cyclizine at say 9 am and metoclopramide at 12, cyclizine at 3 and meto at 6 etc.

ToAvoid I am very lucky I have a mild version of HG, all nausea but no vomiting (well at least in the first 5.5 months, now I have very little nausea and quite a few small vomits but I can tolerate more foods). I got a lot of good tips from these threads, the really cold water was a lifesaver as I was hardly managing to drink anything before and ate whatever small amounts of really weird stuff I could stomach each day. The foods I could tolerate changed on a daily basis sometimes I didn't know if something was going to be acceptable or not until I put it in my mouth. Some odd things like brushing my teeth were a disaster and did provoke repeated vomits so I just had to avoid that. I am SAHM so that made things a little bit easier as I didn't have the stress of work added to everything else. I do a bit of work writing academic articles and books but the computer screen made me a lot worse so I had to drop that for the first 5 months. I was in France during the worst of it and my gynea refused any meds. She didn't seem to know much about HG and in fact kept telling me it was normal, or it was heartburn and giving me Gaviscon (did nothing for me). Now I am in Greece and my gynea here is also unwilling to prescribe anything but to be fair I am coping OK without at this late stage.

jen I'm also not a doctor but the way you are suggesting is the way I took my meds. Cyclizine when I was on it and later meto. It never occurred to me to take it every 8 hours, but that's probably because I'm a bit dim rather than medical good practice ifyswim!

Ha, result from gp. He was initially reluctant to prescribe me anything but after discovering that I've lost a stone in weight in 7 days, he relented. I have a prescription for avomine and have to go back on 1 Sept anyway.

I'm doing okay today thanks, slept quite well for a change so in a slightly better mood, felt quite nauseous this morning but meds doing their job at the moment!

Re cyclizine, I just make sure I take 3 within my waking hours, which is never 8 hourly, more 5-6 hourly at most. Even in hospital they gave me my IV cyclizine a bit early a couple of times.

I'm supposed to have a filling at the dentist tomorrow, really worried how I'm going to handle it! I retched enough just having the temp one put in. Will just have to take a sick bowl, warn the dentist and try my best!

Thanks Booboo I've taken this week off sick but hoping to get back to work as soon as. I don't think lying round the house is doing much good for my mood, although I feel my best when lying down.

Jen I've only been on meds for 9 days but have found that I need to take them religiously at exact times to feel like I can function at all. I'm on Stemitil and Cyclizine and have an alarm set on my phone every four hours, even during the night.

MrsAnneKins glad you got meds, really hope they help.

Glad your GP has relented mrsannekins, I hope the tablets work for you and you start to feel better. It's shocking that it took you suffering so badly for him to prescribe you anything though, my GP prescribed me drugs without question at 8 weeks. It's worrying how hit and miss doctors seem to be.

This GP is pretty old school iykwim, so seems to have quite random prescribing standards! He signed me off work without a second thought, but made this a bit more of a battle! Hopefully no more trips to doctor this week, had my fill already!

ToAvoid be careful about going back to work too soon. I was just like you, determined to go back and then made myself even sicker.

I feel like I'm having a good day today but after a few weeks bed rest and lots of meds I think I'm probably kidding myself a bit. I don't want signed off officially because I want to try a phased return type thing where I go in for part of the day. Had to pull out of a few things at work which I'd worked really hard on which was gutting. Okla did you go back full time?