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.

NoRoom You poor thing - I never know how anybody gets better in hospital, because one gets so little sleep and that's what's needed more than anything. Food sounds awful; don't they have ice cream or jelly or anything soothing?
Hope everyone is OK today?:
xx

Nope, no jelly or ice cream or even tinned fruit. In fact, thinking about it, I haven't even been given a menu so who knows what I'll get for lunch. They seem to be scared to mention food or give it to me but I'd rather try and choose something that I think I can eat because it's not always obvious what you can handle with hyperemesis, is it? The whole full fat coke and mcdonalds thing springs to mind. I just so want to be home now and see the DCs (plus eat something I can handle!).

Any news of being allowed home?

Hi ladies so I was due to come off my pill last week to start ttc baby number 3 but so far I've chickened out. Oh keeps asking wats wrong and don't I want another baby but truth is I'm so scared of the sickness. I suffered terribly with hyperemissus with last pregnancy. I really do want another baby but I'm terrified of being so ill. I feel really confused. Do I force myself through it or do I just move on and deal with not having another baby x

Laura I would get advice from your doctor. Can you be given meds to start immediately? Have you found meds that work for you already?

Hi toavoidconversation when I had it b4 no meds helped at all not even touched the sides. I have spoken to my dr and she is happy to prescribe meds to me early In pregnancy b4 sickness starts but she said as far as she knows it doesn't make much difference and if I'm going to get it I'm going to get it.
It was so horrendous b4 that I actually started wishing I was dead! Awful to say now as I'm not like that at all I have a lovely happy life. It changed me so much. My family think I'm crazy to put myself and the family through it again but i can't help wanting another baby x

Your GP is misinformed. HG experts will tell you that starting meds before sickness makes a big difference. Did they try you with steroids last time?

I did get home, by the way. I'm so glad because I needed the food that I can manage not what they had available or ordered on my behalf(!)

No I didn't have steroids, they tried me on lots of different anti sickness meds that didn't help at all, I ended up on Ondansetron and metoclopramide together but it only worked Iv. As soon as I went home on the tabs they didn't work. X

Evening all. I hope your all not suffering to much.
I saw gp on Friday and came away with meds but I'm a bit worried about taking them. He's increased my folic acid as im struggling to kerp it down. He's advised multi vitamins ontop of a dose folic acid but the vitamins had to have ginger in them. He's also prescribed stemitill. This is the one im most worried about. Has anyone else taken it and if so are there any side effects? The leaflet says do not take in pregnancy which instantly puts me off. Awful dilemma now as nausea is getting worse and worse xx

hopefull the anti-med-in-preg thing comes mainly from the thalidomide scare which was sixty years ago. It would never have been permitted now, testing procedures are much better.

No manufacturers will say their product is safe in pregnancy (except the cyclizine-types in the USA and Canada) because of the thalidomide stay. It's a cover-your-arse thing. But doctors have been prescribing these meds for years - decades.

If you have been given cyclizine (with or without vitamin B6) It's completely safe; the antihistamines in that particular family have been used for decades by millions of women. If you have been given ondansetron (very unlikely this early) there are also studies which have found it to be safe. The other drugs have not been so extensivley studied but have been used for well over a decade now and again, are considered safe (promethazine, prochlorperazine/stemetil, metoclopramide).

Dehydration is a risk. Taking the meds reduces the risk of that dehydration.

Stemetil works on the middle ear to help reduce nausea, it's also very useful if you're seasick. Each drug works in a different way for instance metoclopramide makes food travel quicker thru the stomach.

the ginger in the multi-vits sadly is unlikely to help with HG. kali and osmeone else found that fresh ginger helps a small bit but not dried / extract.

Do take the meds. The nausea drains you and incapacites you and over time it wears away at your stamina and you need all the stamina you've got for an HG pregnancy!

let us know how it goes :)

Hopefull2424 Do take the meds, as they're proven safe in pregnancy or the GP wouldn't have dreamed of prescribing them; some women on here have to take a whole cocktail of meds and they've all passed safety tests.
The danger of being dehydrated must never be underestimated. YUK, about that ginger addition to vitamins. If the meds don't work, don't hesitate to go back and ask for something else, there are a good few options.
Lauracarr55 OH must have seen how ill you were, so he might be a little more empathic with your fear. I so agree with others about how pe-emptive medication does seem to have been proved by studies to help stop things getting out of control in many cases. It might be an idea to ring th4e PSS
helpline on 024 7638 2020 to advise about this -also, the websites I've linked above have a wealth of information; with some unlucky women, nothing seems to stop it but steroids.
NoRoom It's weird they don't have any invalid food n a hospital, for goodness sake. Have they been told not to mention food for you, or what? You'd think they might try out milkshakes or ask what you might be able to face. I hope you get home soon. How is bleeding?
ToAvoid Waves.
I hope everyone is coping.
xx

Meerka Cross posed [winks]
xx

Hi everyone, haven't been here for a while but been keeping up with your posts. Hope everyone gets through today ok.

My sickness has changed which is rather worrying me. I really had none yesterday until dinner time - I didn't even take any tablets until evening. This morning is the same although I am a bit nauseous - it's just normal ms where I can eat through it. Haven't taken a tablet yet today. I'm thinking this may not be good news for what's happening with baby (9w today). It's hard not to worry when I've had 2 mc recently. I'll try and get a scan next week...

Does anyone else's sickness do this? Im sorry I'm talking about feeling better when you are all suffering :(

we're keeping the tradition up!

dotty yes. The hormones go up and down and that = worse and better days. Can't rule out something going wrong, but very often there's a rather better day and then you'll go back to a few days of bad.

If you're one of the lucky ones where the sickness passes off early then it could well be a bit better now and then

hopefull be careful of the multivits if they include iron - extra iron makes a lot of women feel sick even if they don't have morning sickness! If you can get hold of multivits without any extra iron I would try those. Don't worry about the stemetil - it has been used for ages in pregnancy with no ill-effects on the baby. It does sometimes cause problems for the women themselves - let your doctor know if you have odd movements/twitches or anything like that - but these are not common.

Good news here - our repeat scan on Thursday with the v. senior fetal medicine person was very reassuring. Apparently he doesn't know what all the fuss has been about, the baby is the right size, in the right position, with a good placenta also in the perfect position (well away from the cervix) and I have a normal amount of fluid! Who knows whether the hyperactive baby meant all the previous measurements were just wrong, or whether it has self-corrected, but either way it's a big relief. I am still measuring small and I look on the small side for my dates but if the baby is a reasonable size and the fluid is OK too presumably it's just that I haven't put on much weight which I guess is not a huge surprise in the circumstances!

I have to see my consultant again on Monday morning but hopefully at that point they'll let me off the endless trips to the hospital for monitoring - at my last monitoring session on Thursday the baby kicked the microphone extremely accurately for the entire 30 minutes - a very odd noise! Sickness has also been slightly better again the last 24 hours - I've been able to get up for an hour or so at least - so fingers crossed I'm going to have a tiny reprieve again. Being stuck in bed motionless trying not to vomit for the whole of last week was v. depressing at 32 weeks.

Thinking of everyone battling through the first half of pregnancy especially.

That's lovely news kali. Such a relief. Hope that this will be the last trip to the hospital.

I'm not quite convinced that a small baby (not too small ofc) is that bad a thing, considering the transition from womb to world!

Thanks all. Does anyone know if there are side effects for me with stemitill? Do they make you drowsey? Just worried I might not be able to drive. Although not really left the house much anyway. Nausea calmed down a bit today but I have not eat much and now I feel light headed so going to have to eat something x

Dotty As you've had two mc's, no wonder you are nervous, though as Meerka says it's probably just hormones, people often get inexplicable good days quite early on; usually followed by bad days if they overdo it.
Hugs. It's miserable being nervous all the time, I was too after only one mc .
Kali What great news, I'm so pleased. Glad you feel a bit better, too.
NoRoom Are you home yet?
Helpfull2424 I kmow cyclezine makes lots of people very drowsy, but not sure about stemetil.
Waves to Meerka - watch us cross post again - and everyone. Apologies to anyone rudely overlooked.
xx

Yes, stemetil can make you sleepy but it's not one of the more common side-effects. (if you get frequent twitching in the face then you need to stop it and contact your doctor)

It isn't like promethazine (Phenergen) which can have the effect of a half-brick to the back of the head for some people. Though personally I think sleeping through HG is by far the best.

MotherHen I promise that I did say up thread that I got home yesterday. Honest! It's not much fun coping on oral meds now. Also I seem to have suddenly gotten huge! Well, my bump, not the rest of me. I know that despite hyperemesis I've made big babies but I have no idea how!

Torri That's good news , excellent.
NoRoom Sorry, Mother Hen missed that! I'm glad your back home with LO's, OH, ice cream, jelly and tinned fruit...
Waves to all...
xx

Morning ladies, I'm 8 + 2 and was suffering from all day nausea (I was able to cope, no complaining there)

At 5am I woke up and have been hugging the toilet bowl ever since. I slowly ate toast and threw it up same with water, tea and blood pressure tablets.

How do I know if it's sickness or a bug? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! x