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.

If it's a bug, it will stop sooner than if it's HG. It's also more likely that you'll get diarrhoea with a bug but some women with HG suffer this too. Have you been in contact with vomiting bugs?

No nothing, but I did go swimming yesterday?

Morning ladies in back off to the gp this morning. Not only do I have all day nausea and exhaustion Ive now got pins and needles! Supposed to be at work today .... Does anyone else feel bad taking time off work?

yes hopefull I do - this is my 3rd week off and they are being so nice about it too but I know that I couldn't be professional at work at the moment. I'd be sitting there staring at my screen. Also I find that if I am at work, people just assume that you are over it all and things/ workload is quickly shifted back to normal levels. I hope your gp is helpful today?

number3 - Hi - are you expecting no 3 like me? As noroom said, you may just have to ride it out for 24 hours and see if it gets better. HG will just continue on I'm afraid. Hope you do feel better soon x

Tori - I have had the same experience as you with cyclizine and phenergan. Phenergan really does seem to work for me although it doesn't stop my sickness just the nausea and yawn, am a bit dozy all the time! Good luck with the dissertation.

thanks lucinda meerka - it really is very odd, I seem to be fine for a number of hours in the morning now but then get worse as the day goes on. I'm not used to having a breather! I am having a private scan this afternoon though - I just would like to reassure myself that everything's ok.

Number3 my HG was all day severe nausea until about 8 weeks when it flipped to can't-keep-anything-down-vomiting so HG is possible. There are so many vomiting bugs around though that it's impossible to know yet. Either way I'm sure that you feel terrible. If it's not lifting then you'll need some medical help. I normally try at home with oral meds first because I'm stubborn. If you have a rubbish GP then just go to A&E and you'll get help there.

Thanks dotty. I had two weeks off before I found out I was pregnant. And now today is the first day actually off sick but they have been so good with me this year through my other illness that I don't want them to think I'm taking advantage but I find sitting at my desk and computers make me worse. I only have 5 working days before a two week Xmas holiday so hoping to go back Wednesday and make it through. I feel like such a pain and like people think I'm dramatic but I do feel so awful!
Sorry for the rant and moan. I never felt this bad with my ds and dd. X

I'm quite disheartened today. I feel so rubbish. I really didn't expect to be this bad at this stage. I'm almost wishing that I were back in hospital having IM injections (ow, ow, ow!!!!) because the tablets aren't as good.

I feel for you noroom - I remember that coming home from hospital feeling when I was pregnant with DD2. You feel so protected against feeling ill in hospital and then coming home where you are bound to be doing more for yourself + managing meds on your own is a bit of a shock to the system.

I hope you can completely rest until the tablets begin to take effect x

Thanks ladies, I've asked the GP to call me back as I cannot keep my meds down.
Thus is number 3, I didn't get much sickness with the other two although my last was 8 years ago.

number3 you might just have a bug but in HG the 'flip' from nausea to excessive vomiting can be quite sudden - so you can go straight from not vomiting at all to vomiting uncontrollably, rather than having a more 'normal' MS phase in the middle of vomiting perhaps just in the morning or whatever. I have always ended up in hospital with a few days of the first vomit, once it starts I lose it completely. The good news from your point of view is that there is some evidence that the worst cases of HG - the ones that last longest and are hardest to treat - are generally in women who begin vomiting before 6 weeks. That doesn't mean you don't feel truly awful now, and it's no guarantee, but it increases your chances that you'll improve significantly at the end of the first trimester/early in the second.

Forgot to say - if you weren't that sick with your previous pregnancies, they may want to do an early scan to check you've only got one in there!

hopefull this is my 4th week off and goodness knows how I'd drag myself in. As dotty says if you're in people think you're 'back to normal' and provide work accordingly. I couldn't concentrate on my work (lots of forward planning) so I had to go off sick or I'd be a liability as people would expect me to make the same quality of decisions they're used to from me, and I'd not be functioning properly. You'll know on Wednesday if you go back in whether you can function sufficiently to carry on that week. I can't even plan for Christmas I'm that sick - and I'm used to planning up to three years ahead!! You'll know your capabilities and know if you are able or not.

kalid thank you for the reassurance. I have scan booked for Friday but am worrying myself silly. I have been sick all day even with water so called the doc and he has prescribed some tablets which OH will pick up on his way home from work. Not sure how they will stay down!
Twins? None in my immediate family but I am over 30

OMG

number if you take a pill and throw up very quickly - within a few minutes - and you can see/taste the pill you have just taken in what you have thrown up (sorry!) you have not absorbed it so you can just take another one. This is what the nurses do in hospital.

To try and get the timing right, it can be worth waiting until you have just been sick and then taking a pill immediately afterwards for the best chance of retaining it. Take with the smallest amount of water you need to swallow it to try to avoid triggering vomiting. Good luck! If you go on being unable to keep water down you will dehydrate very quickly so need to see a doctor very soon - tomorrow if you keep no fluid down overnight.

Number3 Welcome, sorry you feel so foul. Whichever it is, and I hope it's a bug as there are so many going round - I so agree with others - it's a medical emergency if a pregnant woman can't keep liquids down for a day and I'm so glad dr is phoning back as dehydration can happen very quickly and isn't good for either of you. Great advice from Kali NoRoom and everyone.
Dotty Hopeful2424 and FreeWee You can't help being this ill, and growing a baby is the most important job you'll ever do, says Mother Hen, so don't torment yourselves with guilt; put yourselves first for once...
Kali Still so glad about your good news, and NewShoes too.
NoRoom How are you now? I hope lying down...
xx

Feel very fraudulent posting here but I've read through the whole thread today for advice!

I'm 9+6 with no2 and had had regular ms and nausea up until Saturday. I haven't kept anything (including water) down since Saturday evening and have spent the day battling the epu and GP, neither of whom seemed to grasp how dehydrated I am I only registered 1+ on the ketones this morning so they tried oral rehydration, all of which I have vomited. I now have an anti emetic which they've given me until 8pm to work before I have to ring OOH and start the debate all over again

I have no large intestine so dehydrate really quickly even when I'm not pregnant. The GP did say in our most recent conversation that I am the exception to the protocol but that doesn't seem to be helping me now.

TallGiraffes Welcome, oh dear,that does sound worrying with no large iintestine. Tell them you can't keep sips of water down and haven't been able to all day. Say you can hardly produce urine and have a headache. and blurry vision - signs of severe dehydration,and they'll have to listen. I also recommend the pss number, 024 7638 2020 will give good advice but you do have to wait for them to phone back; if you stress your particular situation, I'm sure they'll do it as soon as they possibly can.
xx

Hi All,
It is so great to read all your stories. I hit a real low point this morning and did some google searches, so i have just joined mumsnet. I am 9 +1 today. My 24 hour a day nausea started at 4+5 and it has been down hill since then! I started actually vomiting at every bed time last week. All fluids make me feel worse, so i live on ice lollys for fluids, i really struggle to get my fluids in each day. I have lost 1/2 a stone but that seems to be stablising since i realised i could keep down cheerios in the morning (weird huh!) i know I am not as bad as some and i am grateful for that.

The worst thing is the excess saliva and the funky taste in my mouth, everything tastes bad. I cannot get rid of it even by brushing my teeth. Add to that the smell thing, i can't stand soap, so i can't wear clothes because of the smell of the powder. I even swapped to a baby low scent powder but i can still smell it. So i am not going out unless i can't avoid it and i can't have visitors. Showers are torture, but i still force myself to do it each day with a "scentless" soap.

I spend all day on the sofa with a sarong wrapped round me (it was washed so long ago i can't smell any soap). This is so depressing! I know it will end but some days it is really hard to remember.

My husband tries to understand, I fortunately dont seem to be having the emotional swings a lot of women have so I am pretty rational, but he thinks it a bit strange when i refuse to let him in the room with me after showers, or get annoyed if he leaves the bathroom door open!!

The other weird thing that makes me retch is if i think about the baby( i really can't wait to be a mum) so i find it disturbing that if i read anything to do with the baby's development i rush to the toilet.... I was so excited to be pregnant and it kinda takes the shine off.

My phone and my computer screen both make me ill. I use them only for short periods a couple of times a day. Today i had to because i just needed to hear other peoples stories and advice.

Anyone got any advice on how to deal with the funky taste thing? That seems to be the worst. I keep hoping it will all get better by 14 wks but looking at some of these posts i don't want to get my hopes up! I can deal with the vomiting in the evening as the nausea abates for about half an hour after. But the taste thing is making me nuts.

Oh my word! I've read through this thread and have come to the conclusion I must have hypermedia! Was nauseous but able to cope til week 10. Then vomiting +++ unable to keep anything down (water included), have restless legs which got worse then leg cramped. Was awful.

Finally went to gp, (after trying to go to work and sent self home) broke down crying in the waiting area and was given cyclizine . Which is working thankfully. (Just! Has reduced the sickness back to all day nausea. Which I will take) I also thankfully got a sick line.

The next day I had a my 1st scan, where I told midwife my poorly story and she was hardly interested. I still think I needed fluids. She scanned my bladder - twas empty! And I was hurling in the toilet before my scan. But no no just sent home with not one jot of sympathy or indeed empathy (midwife was preggers too.)

Oh this is a bit long winded. But reading how others are also suffering is making me feel less alone(as well as making me realise it could be MUCH worse) so thank you ladies.

This bubba better be one healthy wee yin Wi all this sickness it's causing me is all I can say!!

Thanks again. And sorry for me butting in x

comeagain it's hard to imagine you don't have more severe sickness than 'normal' given your description but please don't wait for a healthcare professional to offer sympathy or empathy! In my experience they think everyone feels the same level of 'poorliness' & you just need to live with it.
I totally disagree

jmojo Ask for help but know what help you need. A previous poster gave the number for the Pregnancy Sickness Support doctor. He will be so much more understanding than your midwife. I never got offered any help in my first pregnancy it was Mumsnet that showed me what I should be asking for. I finally got medication at 16 weeks and the wait nearly finished me off mentally and physically. If your midwife has had a less nauseating pregnancy she's unlikely to be empathetic.

Confusing jmojo & comeagain's stories but hope you can forgive me and find something vaguely useful in my post!

Thanks freewee. I hope I'm thru the worst of it now (even though I feel sick at the moment despite taking my cyclizine)

Tbh I was so surprised at my treatment. I'm a nurse and I pride myself on listening to patients concerns etc. And not being dismissive. I obviously live in my own bubble and expect every nurse/hcp to be like me! Ha ha ha.

I should also take my own advice as if anyone I know told that story I would have packed them off to a&e!! Ya live and learn.

Hindsight is just wonderful isn't it?!!

Finally going to bed. I can't believe how bad I'm still feeling. After getting down to one ondansetron tablet a day and now struggling taking the max three. It's so disheartening. Two of the DCs have come out with tonsillitis this evening and our youngest is struggling with teething. I really need some rest. I could quite happily spend all day, every day in bed. If only...

Thank you for your earlier encouragement. I fought and am now on the ward awaiting fluids. Apparently my ketones were off the scale and I'm tachycardic. I knew I was getting bad, just couldn't persuade them to listen earlier!

Jmojo your post rang many bells with me - hand soaps, short gels, shampoo and deodorant were disgusting (and I'm still struggling with it although medicated now so much better). I couldn't stand my normal smell either. You have my sympathies.

The rank taste/lump in my throat left at 18 weeks and was a real turning point when I felt much more like me. I woke up one day and it was gone.