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.

in haste

hellohello Ondansetron is the second most studied of the drugs taken against HG. There was a giant study of all preg women in Denmark and one of the studies that came out of that data was that Ondansetron has -no- adverse birth outcomes. This was with thousands of women. The only slight proviso is that it did not study the effects long term, but any long term effects are highly unlikely. The chance of some possible long term effects that no one has yet reported (ondansetron has been used for about 12 - 15 years now for severely sick preg women) has to be put against the known dangers of dehydration if you can't keep water down.

Previously a much smaller study (about 150 women) showed a possible link with mild oral defects. This was not found in the much much bigger Danish study. This is the link to the summary www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23445092

As someone said, there are definitely risks to the mother and baby if dehydration goes on too long. I'd say definitely take the ondansetron.

right im going back to my docs as i cannot take this constant nausea any more. What do i need to say to convince them to try different meds? Last time i went the GP said as long as i wasn't vomiting they wouldn't do anything. Im not vomiting if i take the cyclzine but i am bed bound by the constant nausea and am really struggling to eat. I literally ache all over and im scared of getting bedsores. The nausea is so bad that i am actually avoiding drinking as i know i'll have to get up to use the toliet. I said all this last time and was dismissed as my blood pressure was normal. Its takes military planning and the car makes me vomit so i really don't want to go just to be told to suffer.

Willow will your doctor do telephone consultation? My doctor has done for me so I don't have to go in as that makes me sick. Good luck though, I asked the doctor about the nausea and she basically indicated I would have to live with it.

I am already panicking about returning to work. It's not until 3rd December! The cyclizine helps but it doesn't fully stop the vomiting, I am convinced its the rest that stops it. Anyway, I plan to try a phased return, because of childcare my shifts are mainly evening shifts and this is what concerns me. I am going to speak to my supervisor on Thursday, just as an informal catch up, anyone do phased return and have any advice?

Well i have taken the plunge and taken the first Ondanestron. I must say I do feel better, I have even managed a bath and half a can of soup but that has exhausted me so now I'm back in bed!

One question I do have is how to take the tablets, am I just meant to swallow them like normal? I read somewhere about letting them dissolve slightly on your tongue and they swallow with water?

Hi Muddy I am returning to work tomorrow on a phased return basis. I recommend asking your doctor for a return to work form and discuss with them what you would need your workplace to provide. My doctor has advised that I work reduced/alternative hours and to only travel at off peak hours due to travel sickness caused by hg. All comments by the doctor on the form have to be adhered to as much as possible by your employer. Talk to your supervisor and HR too to raise any concerns.

I will be working 10-2 the first week and gradually add hours each week (up to 3weeks) until I am ready to work full time again. If I am unable to cope with work my doctor has told me that under no circumstances should I struggle on and that she would happily sign me off again if need be.

I went out today! Went out for breakfast as I was desperate for sausages. Unfortunately I needed to sleep as soon as I took my prochlorperazine and slept til 5pm!
Have also developed an obsession with ice cold britvic apple. It's all I can think about.

Those who've had scans-how did you get on with keeping your bladder full? I can only drink fizzy but scan letter says fizzy distorts the scan image? Worried. .

hello I'm aiming for sterilisation after this pregnancy as it's my third and final!

Newshoes I had an empty bladder for all my scans as I couldn't keep any fluids down. All scans were carried out as normal and were fine, the sonographers didn't say anything about not having a full bladder. Wonder if it is different for each hospital/area?

Yeah I was told to empty my bladder for my internal scans. The external one they said nothing either way.

God I feel rough.

Possibly Durham, I've got a detailed letter which mentions keeping bladder full. I remember it with my other pregnancies too. I guess if I can't keep flat fluid down I'll have to go for an internal scan if they'll offer it.

Newshoes My letter says the same thing, moderately full bladder. No idea how that will work. Found amazing lemonade in Waitrose yesterday, Sicilian lemonade or something. Amaaazing. Will have to go back and get more!
Thanks Durham will speak to work next week. Will probably look to do the same thing. X

willow print out the page from the NICE gudelines (Lucinda linked them in the top post) which gives you the Goals of Treatment. The Goals are to enable you to live a normal life as possible. Yours is extremely far from normal.

If you possibly can, keep a diary of what your day is like, say for 2 days, and take it with you.

Also take an advocate who knows you well - partner would be ideal if he's supportive. he can speak better where you can't when you're so ill.

Ask for better meds. I forget what you're on, but ask for at least promethazine and prochlorperazine, or ask for cyclizine and ondansetron.

If you still get no joy, ring the Preg Sickness Support helpline number above. leave a message and the elderly very experienced doctor will get back to you. They have a list of HG aware and experienced doctors. There could be one in your area.

durham best of luck tomorrow

hello good to hear they helped. Keep on taking it dead easy! I just took the very few I got my hands on normally.

thanks meerka thats really helpful. My GP do not do phone consultations and the earliest my dad can take me (surgery only open when dh is at work) is a week tomorrow. Going to keep a diary in the meantime.

muddy hopefully there'll be an alternative as we have hg!

willow a diary sounds like a good plan. I can't help but feel that you're being quite unsupported by your gp. You need something more effective asap.

That seems a long time to wait Willow. I'm not sure what everyone else thinks as this could be a bit naughty but promethazine is available over the counter as sominex. So maybe during this week you could try switching to that to see if it helps? You shouldn't have to but I remember how long a week can feel!

I'd be considering doing that too emsy. (Didn't know it was available OOC in the UK, DAMN I wish I'd known that this time last year!)

Get someone else to get it for you though, because they won't sell it you if they know you're preg.

BUT are you on any other meds, willow?

Hi ladies, I feel slightly bad for "invading" your thread as I feel like I am nowhere near as bad as some of you. for everyone suffering.

Had a week of nausea and some vomiting in week 6, but it passed and I thought I'd got away lightly. In week 9 it came back with avengence, and I couldn't sneeze/cough/burp without retching or actually being sick (I almost threw up on my dog whilst out on a his early morning walk on one day). The constant nausea and not being able to eat anything/keep anything down last week was awful. Cool water was literally the only thing I wanted to ingest.

Lovely GP prescribed me Stemetil (Prochlorperazine) on Friday which has taken the edge off so I no longer have the constant nausea/retching, but I have had sudden intense waves nausea which have either lead to me actually being sick or just to some quality time staring into the bottom of the toilet bowl.

Anyway, that's how I'm doing. I've had a few odd days off work, back in week 6 and was sent home for Thursday and Friday last week by my boss. Feeling fairly useless at work, and stressed about what isn't getting done because I'm not there and even when I am there I'm exhausted and heading back and forth from the loo.

Pg is sooooo glamorous!

welcome forty. it's a bastard isnt it, that nausea.

Glad to hear you're doing a bit better. Stemetil is quite good for some people. Have you found anything that triggers the nausea, or is it just random? (lovely little things, hormone spikes!) Can you eat just a small bit often, that quite often helps .. maybe you're doing that already?

Don't feel guilty about work. It's hard not to but you and the little bean you're growing are more important. And ignore anyone who doesn't get what severe nausea and vomitting are like !

Just dashing on to welcome FortyWinks.Sorry you are suffering, I'm glad you've got meds, brave of you to keep on working.
Unfortunately, struck down with a migraine, so I have to collapse myself.
I hope everyone is coping today.
xx

So pleased to have found this thread again as a similar thread kept me sane during my last pregnancy. Got signed off today till January which is such a relief! Due 24th June so only 8 weeks but waited till 16 weeks for cyclizine last time and it nearly finished me off. Cyclizine stops me vomiting but still can't think straight I'm so nauseous. Glad I made a plan before I got sick because does anyone else feel they can't trust their own judgement when feeling this sick? Been signed off work becausebI can't think straight rather than the nausea. I'm so preoccupied with how dreadful I feel there's no thinking room left for normal decision making. I feel I'm on autopilot. So pleased I found the pregnancy sickness website too. Makes you feel it's OK to feel this bad when most people seem to sail through with a couple of rough mornings. Best time for me is 11-2. I can eat a decent amount which serves me for the rest of the day as by dinner time I just sit on the sofa and watch my DH & DD having dinner. Can't even be near them while they're eating.

So I'll be telling work tomorrow they won't see me till January. Any tips for how to break it to them gently? My male boss is lovely but I will be leaving my new recruit (3rd week) in a pickle.

Hi freewee and ToriB34 congrats and commiseratoins!

freewee I can't think how to break it gently other than 'you know how i've been ill? well it's due to a severe form of morning sickness and I need meds and a great deal of rest according ot the doc" ... not sure if anyone else can come up with anything better! Can your recruit maybe mail you at home if he/she is really stuck?

freewee and tori both, cyclizine is the firstline med for HG / severe NVP. It's an oldstyle antihistamine, has been used for decades and by million of women. It's actually a sister med to a couple that are the only licensed drugs for preg sickness on the US FDA list and Canadian safe drugs in preg list.

Yes, it can make you drowsy. Some people find that wears off. Not sure therés any particular time of day to take it. It takes about 3 days to build up in your system so if you're not getting any relief by then, go back and ask for somethign else.

By the way it apparently works better if you take it with Vitamin B6.

Cyclizine really is the first and weakest of the anti- NVP drugs. There's others available too - promethazine is a big brother antihistamine and is stronger, but can be even more drowsy-making.

prochlorperazine (stemetil) can be very good too. Metoclopramide for a few weeks is another option. Neither make you drowsy afaik.

Strangely enough, the next- most-studied drug is actually the strongest and best - Ondansetron. It -is- safe in pregnancy.

So if you both find that cyclizine isn't cutting it after 3 days, do go back to your doctors. If you have it bad, nothign really takes the nausea away but the drugs can help to some degree. The other thing that really makes the NVP worse is not resting. So its hard if you're working, but if not - rest, rest, rest

Good luck :)

/ essay over!

lucinda, sorry to hear you've got another :( hope you can rest and it passes soon

Lovely to "see" you ovaltine - I remember you from 2012, I was on this thread pretty much all that year when pregnant with DS1 (born end of November 2012); I'm now 30 weeks with DS2. Unfortunately despite a v. supportive GP and a v. aggressive pre-emptive medication plan - I started on cyclizine at 3 weeks and ondansetron at 4!! - this pregnancy has unbelievably been even worse; I was on steroids from week 7 and in hospital almost continuously weeks 7-14 as even on the steroids they couldn't stabilise me enough to get me out. Pretty much as soon as the vomiting eased a bit my pelvis failed and I'm already in a wheelchair. Still struggling with the sickness but it's a lot better than the first half of pregnancy - to be honest I think being so incredibly disabled actually helps a bit, as I really can't move at all and movement was always a big trigger for me. Anyway, I am surviving and the end is almost in sight now. So pleased to hear that you are having a slightly easier time of it now and that the pre-emptive stuff has really helped for you.

freewee actually I would avoid even using the phrase "morning sickness" which tends to make people immediately dismissive/feel like they know what you mean. I would say "I am suffering from a serious complication of early pregnancy called hyperemesis gravidarum; I am on medication for it but my consultant says that for my own health and that of the baby I need complete rest". I suppose since the Kate-effect more people have actually heard the phrase HG now but all the same I think most people won't know what it means. One good thing is that the 'gravidarum' bit sounds to most people as if it means "very serious"! (Though actually it just means "of heavy [i.e. pregnant] women".)

I had one of my millions of medical appointments today and I am still measuring small - in fact a bit more below than I was, so I have yet another scan next week - it's only about 10 days since the last one! I am not too concerned though as the baby is SO lively and the consultant said she thought possibly he was just in a really weird position this morning which was effecting the measurement. It also took her ages to find the heartbeat but we could both see him going crazy in there as she chased him around trying to find it - apparently it is much harder to locate if they are squirming all over the place. Being in a wheelchair is a bit depressing, and people really do stare (even in a hospital), but it has really reduced the pain for me and given me a little bit more freedom/independence again so that is great. DH and I managed to go to the cinema on Sunday! We haven't been out together like that since I got pregnant I don't think. I am even starting to look forward a bit to having the baby and to next year/the next post-pregnancy phase in our lives! DH and I had only been together a few months when I got pregnant with DS so I have literally spent most of our relationship so far either v. ill and pregnant or still-unwell while recovering from pregnancy.

Courage to everyone in the HG trenches. It does end eventually.

Thanks for the advice Meerka, kalidasa & ToriB34 I will avoid the term 'morning sickness' mainly because it's all day every day sickness so that wouldn't do it justice.

I took cyclizine in my last pregnancy and I don't want to take anything else/stronger because I feel it worked out OK last time for me & I don't want to risk it with another one. Not that the others aren't safe, more that I'd rather give up work than change meds. Also, I've had Stemetil for labrynthitis & it made me seriously depressed. I'd rather not risk something like that when I'm already so miserable.

Didn't know that about Vit B6. I'm on original Pregnacare so will take a look and see what that has in it.