31 weeks - diarrhea & vomiting - hospital today, doctor tomorrow or nothing at all?

[cocolacocotte]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping for some advice as I'm a bit lost for what to do now.

I'm 31 weeks pregnant with my first and have monthly appointments with the midwives at my local hospital (in France, if that makes a difference). They have always said that if I have any doubts or don't feel well, I should go to the OBGYN emergency department at the hospital but until now I haven't needed to do that. I have seen my GP a couple of times when I've had minor niggles that didn't seem worth bothering the emergency department.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a brief bout of sickness & diarrhea that lasted for one night and cleared up the next day so I didn't go to see anyone at all. I'm realising now that my stools have remained loose since then, despite taking iron tablets, which everyone warned me would probably cause constipation.
This morning, I felt fine when I got up and had breakfast but in the middle of the morning, I started to feel sick and slightly dizzy. Just before lunchtime, I started having an achy stomach. I was sick and had some diarrhea before lunch and when I went to lunch with my colleagues, I didn't feel like eating so I just had a few forkfulls of rice. I started feeling achy, sweaty and nauseated during the lunch break and have been sick twice since then with one bout of diarrhea (sorry, for the TMI). If I weren't pregnant, I'd say I have food poisoning and take myself off to bed with a large bottle of water and some over the counter medication.

The thing is that I'm currently out of town for work and won't get back to my city until around 8pm tonight. By that time, it will be too late to see my GP as he closes at 7.30 pm so I'm wondering if I should:

• call in at the hospital emergency dept on the way home
• stick it out for one more night and see my GP in the morning (he does appointment-free consultations from 9 am to 12 so all I have to do is turn up and wait my turn), or
• not bother seeing anyone at all.

Thankfully, I can feel the baby moving regularly so I don't think there's a problem with him but I really don't know if this is something I should get checked out.

Thanks in advance for any advice

Had similar at 25 weeks with twins, felt terrible for 48hrs so know how rubbish it is. Phoned midwives at hospital for advice and they said as long as babies moving normally, no contractions and able to keep fluids down and still weeing ok to stay at home. Drank loads of fluid as paranoid about getting dehydrated and bringing on preterm labour but didn't eat much for couple of days and everything was fine. If anything babies moved more, which they said was normal due to guts playing up which stimulates them. Hope that helps, if worried I would ring up though. Get well soon.

Hi Lendi, thanks for answering.

I ended up coming to the hospital because I started feeling worse after my first message and spent the 3h30 train journey home alternating between drinking a mouthful of water and then throwing it back up again. I remembered your reply saying that you were told to stay at home provided you could keep fluids down and thought I'd better get checked out.

I'm certainly glad I did as they found protein in my urine and blood tests showed signs of enzymes on the liver so they are keeping me in under observation until at least tomorrow to rule out pre-eclampsia. The same symptoms could also be caused by digestive problems but my blood pressure is up so we're going with 'better safe than sorry'

Oh glad you are getting help, sounds like may be a bit more than a simple tummy bug. Good luck, I'm sure you're in good hands.