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.

While I think about it, I forgot to tell you ladies about the nurse who chose to not bother giving me my IV ondansetron and ranitidine when she was on her drugs round. I waited for two hours and then got desperate so asked for the ondansetron. Her response? "Oh FFS!" I think she was having a bad shift...

jesus, she forgot??

room hope they're a good bunch =) standards do have to drop during HG and it weighs on you ...

I am glad NoRoom has contacted a cleaning company. DurhamRed It's so maddening that they are at that level - I don't understand how they are - do you have blurred vision or headache, symptoms they probably would take seriously so that you could be checked over and your meds reviewed, as obviously they aren't working. Might be worth getting GP to phone you back and explainining about losing one stone so far, and three pounds in the last week...
Glitter I'ts awful that people still know so little about this.
Really feel for you all.
xx

Hi all.

glitter you know the obvious answer to your mum's worries about dh's job and pay is that she could maybe help out! Sounds like maybe you/ your dh could try directly asking for help. I don't mean to insult her but really....

And your dh cannot be penalised by his work for taking dependants leave. He is protected by law. I'll see if I can find the exact bit of the employment rights act for you. Is his employer sympathetic? Might be worth seeing if poss to work from home.

noroom has your dh thought how dangerous it is for you to drive anywhere right now and with kids in the car?

kitten I understand the concern about pay I only have stat sick pay too. Spell it out to your gp, they are so well off/ have proper sick pay that they have no idea about how the other half live.

You are entitled to ask for adjustments to your hours/ duties to help you manage to continue to work. Do be careful about reducing hours because it can affect your mat pay. There is a specific time frame in your pregnancy that this is used to calculate your mat pay. I think it's week 17 to 25.

And it might get better. With my first I came out the other side at 20 weeks with a return but much diminished at about 35 weeks. This time I felt better around the 28 week mark and managed my first full day at work today (34 weeks...I think, I'm losing track!)

Hope this helps

glitterbug and muddyfox and noRoom how are you now? and everyone? everyone's having such a tough time atm.

noroom if you are well enough ... interested by what you said about JG being the leading cause of maternal death. I've been reading up some stuff on HG and could I ask where you read it, I'd like read up a bit more!

Hi all, I've just had to do the morning school run for the first time this term. I survived though despite lots of retching!

I'm also interested in reading more about HG, I recently read that it was what caused Charlotte Bronte's death.

Muddy I hope you can get some decent care soon, I can't believe they prescribed you gaviscon. It's incompetent and just appalling really.

Hope everyone else is doing better today x

Thanks all. I had the luxury of a complete day of bed rest yesterday and only vomited a handful of times, keeping some food and water down. I measured my ketones and they were +1.5 I think, low anyway. Today has started much the same as every other day in that nothing is staying down. I try to eat a biscuit in bed and sip water before I move but this always results in projectile vomiting so is definitely not working for me.
I have called the support line this morning and have left a message. When I have spoken to them I will tackle the doctor. Gaviscon does not work. It is foul coming back up as well. The only way it helped was last night when I laid down I had an acidy feeling in my throat, Gaviscon eased that enough for me to finally sleep.
I am happy that rest helps but it's not practical, I can rest until Saturday but then I am on my own so to speak. I am scared of going back to not being able to keep anything down. I want a life back now, my daughter is suffering, my house is too and I have to work, I get good sick pay but can't be off for months at a time. Plus it's doing nothing for my mental health being cooped up.

I'm managing to keep a bit more down today so feel a bit better than I did. My stomach is cramping and the nausea is overwhelming though.

I really wish that I could find the quote again about HG deaths but right now I'm not sure where I saw it. I can think of a few more places to check though... I can remember it quoting a recent research paper showing that ginger was utterly useless as an anti-emetic as well.

It wasn't this but this is equally interesting:

misc.medscape.com/pi/iphone/medscapeapp/html/A254751-business.html#aw2aab6b2b4aa

I have to call the doctor at 1400. I won't get a call back until later I shouldn't think but I have no idea what to ask for, the pss haven't called back yet. I don't want to be fobbed off again. X

Muddy normal order of drugs is:

1. Cyclizine (basic antihistamine)
2. Promethazine (stronger antihistamine)
3. Metoclopramide (works by making your empty stomach more quickly)
4. Prochlorperazine
5. Ondansetron (GPs aren't very happy prescribing this in my experience so you may need to get it from a consultant)

Different things work for different people so there isn't a 'best' drug to try first really. Ondansetron is the most effective but isn't considered a first line treatment so they will probably give you one of 1-4 first.

All of these are very safe to take in pregnancy.

Having had HG in Southampton, Nottingham and Cumbria, I have to say that there is huge local variation in treatment protocols. There is a bit of consistency amongst the hospitals but if you aren't that severe, there is much more variation amongst GPs.

Best of luck to MuddyLettuce for that talk with the doctor. Glad NoRoom is a teeny bit better, cramps sound awful.
Thanks for that order of meds, Meerka. It's ironical that in the UK, anyway, you can actually get cyclazine over the counter if your not pregnant. A bit ridiculous when it's been used safely for about four decades for Hyperemesis.
I vaguely remember that the Hyperemesis lowered poor Charlotte Bronte's immunity from the family scourge her sister's had recently died of, TB, so it must have killed off more women as a secondary cause, too. Horrible. I do know that they prescribed fresh mint tea as an anti pregnancy sickness drink in the eighteenth century, and oddly, I did find that soothing, but that's no use even to anyone who grows it, unless they've got it dried, at this time of year. Mint tea I found variable.
Hope Everyone is coping today. I wonder how things went/are going on with Georgesbythesea.
xx

Thank you meerka and elle. I'm so up and down it's difficult but I'm hoping there's a way around it, I'm not even getting stat sick pay which is a concern I'm raising with boss today, I don't understand why I'm not getting anything at all.

it was okla did that very good summary actually :D

I'm wondering about george too!

good luck kitten, you don't need this kind of hassle when you're feeling this sick!

Just wanted to say thank you for suggesting I call the support number, just spoken to a lovely doctor who spent about half an hour on the phone going through my symptoms and history and who has told me to ask for cyclizine and pyridoxine and a sick note. I have yet to speak to my doctor but it's such a relief to finally be understood and taken seriously. He was so lovely I cried! X

Afternoon everyone. Unfortunately I was admitted to hospital again today as my ketones had risen to 3+ and I'm still not tolerating food/fluids. Hopefully I won't be admitted for too long this time.

Hope everyone else is feeling ok.

Muddy that is excellent news. I really hope they help.

Durham at least the iv will make you feel better...

Oh, Durham, I feel for you. I hope you have an ensuite side room for privacy and peace.

This time the more sensible doctor called. She is less ancient and more thorough. She has prescribed the cyclizine but not the pyridoxine as she has never heard it being used before! She won't prescribe the unknown to me which I understand but slightly frustrating the knowledge from experts isn't passed down to gps. So successful in one respect. My partner is collecting it tomorrow morning (can't go sooner as baby's dinner and bedtime routine is starting and I can't face cooking). I feel about 10 times better already just with the knowledge it might improve.
So sorry Durham is in hospital, hopefully not for too long but at least you're in the right place. X

Go Muddy hopefully the Cyclizine will help. You must go back and ask for more/different if it doesn't though!

sigh pyridoxine is vitamin B6 and it's what they use in the best frontline treatment, diclectin, which you can only get in Canada unfortunately. Diclectin is made up of B6 and the equivilent of cyclizine and it's one of the only two drugs officially considered absolutely harm free in preg, after the thalidomide problems.

muddy, ask your husband to pick some up at the pharmacy, dont tell them you're preg, it's reallly easy to get over the counter. Take it at the same time you take the cyclizine. Its what I did, due to an equally backwards outlook on meds in preg where I live. It really is safe.

That's almost as good as a nurse telling me that the thiamine tablet was a multivitamin tablet

Ooops, sorry Oklahoma , thank you for that great piece of advice on order of treatments, and Meerka thank you for other great advice and the corn seed . great advice from Elletorrito too and happy to hear from Emysmarie. Oh dear, DurhamRed I am so glad you are getting IV, though, and I hope they improve the meds. Muddlylettuce So happy to hear that the PSS doctor was as brilliant again as everyone says, and . Kittenmama I hope your boss is helpful about sick pay, that does seem weird,and Elletorrito's advice is really helpful on that. I hope GetTheRedOut is OK,we haven't heard from her for a couple of days, and others, too. I also hope Kalidasa has improved a bit, too.
Apologies to anyone rudely overlooked.
xx

NoRoom Oh no, that doesn't exactly boost confidence in their knowledge, does it?
xx