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.

The answer to the nausea is to go straight back on holiday trixy

glad you managed to have a good holiday trixy. I suppose understandable in a way that symptoms have returned this week as you are straight back into full time work after a break, hope things settle a little bit soon and you are managing an extra rest this weekend with the bank holiday- plus another one in three weeks so that's two 4 day weeks i guess in the countdown to Mat leave! yay for lemonade ice lollies!

hope everyone is surviving - waves to all xxx

don't know if its just pregnancy related, but i've been waking up really early, even today - all i wanted was a lie in and my body has ping'd into action at 7am. More holiday would be great Meerka, not that i'm counting but 47 work days till mat leave.!!!

Trixy It was a clever idea to contact them about the problems. One woman on this thread even managed a camping holiday, I'll never know how...
I hope everyone is coping today. Waves to all.

10 working days left til maternity leave for me

I'm struggling. I don't even think I can be classified as hg this time. But I feel so bad I can barely get to the toilet. 9+1 today. I've a 2 yr old and a 7th old. They are killing me. But I will get through this. And it's the last time. I fantasise about the best contraception.

7mth old.

Droflove - I define HG as constant nausea, with vomiting that leads to weight loss and dehydration. With normal MS you can vomit, feel better and it doesn't affect your day to day life much. So if you're feeling so miserable, it's likely that you have HG. Do you have medication you can take? And options about childcare?
I'm pregnant with my first, and only, because if I had to endure this again, I would need an army to help with caring for me and my child. You're amazing to be going through this with 2 little ones.
I have also been brainstorming contraceptives for after this pregnancy. My husband says we managed not to get pregnant for so many years prior to this so we should be able to last a year after the birth before discussing sterilization, but I'm still terrified of getting sick again.

Trixy - I wish I could make it to 7am! I toss and turn from 2am and I'm wide awake between 4am and 5am. I'm typically a morning person, but the sickness has changed my body clock. I've learnt to embrace it, go to bed when I get tired, and have good articles to read when I wake up so early. Fortunately all the news websites start updating at 5am.

droflove get to your doctors as soon as possible and see if they can help. I've been on so many different meds but i narrowly avoided hospital. I have a 3 year old and feel useless at the moment, i can barely get out of bed - i cant imagine how difficult it must be with 2 little ones. Do you have any help with childcare? Rest is making a huge difference for me and im slowly learning to not feel so guilty. I hope it passes quickly for you.

I have an excellent childcare set up. I work from home full time so got a nanny. As soon as found out I was pregnant I asked her and she kindly increased hours. She is very good to me and has picked up the slack in the house as well as the kids. But my god do I hate the weekends when she's not here. Even an hour with the kids on my own is pure misery. My mum is coming next weekend as dh is away a lot for his hobby so that will get me to 10wks. When does this 'supposedly' peak? I've forgotten. I know I puked till about 18 wks with ds and 15wks with dd. But doesn't it peak at 10 wks or something?

I think i started to feel better around 20weeks last time and i think weeks 10-12 were the worst. I'm 13 weeks now and still feeling awful! I had meds last time but only took them when i was really bad, this time i've had 5 different types and have eventually found one that helps! Every morning i wake up hoping that will be the day it lifts and i can eat!!

dro it peaks at 8 - 12 weeks but you can still be very very ill for a while after. Real improvement varies but can be from 14 - 22 weeks ... im sorry it's not better news.

Please do get some meds. seriously, they really make a difference. If your doctor won't help ask your husband to find another or take him as an advocate. the meds are safe.

dro it peaked for me both times at around 8 weeks but I've been much worse this time around, being sick until 30 weeks this time, was 20 something last time BUT it got a lot more manageable from about 24 weeks if I remember rightly

I'm holidaying in France at 21 weeks. Desperately want to be better by then. The mess really do scare me. I know a lot of you are taking them but how do we really know they are safe until they have been used for years and years. Most of them are new drugs.

My OH was really reluctant for me to take meds when I was suffering. Until he realised that the lack of food and the dehydration was a much bigger risk to the baby than the small chance of any effects of the meds.

There have been studies on it, I'm sure someone else can post the links for you.

droflove Meerka is the expert on drug safety studies, but I'm just dashing on to say - please don't feel you have to stagger on without meds - most of them have been proven safe in extensive studies, because of the horrrors surronding thamidolide (spelling?) in the nineteen sixties, there's tremendous care taken these days. Cylazine, for instance, has been used for about four decades. Anything doctors prescribe will be pefectly safe for the baby, but dehydration isn't, as dillys OH realised. On the links at the top of this thread you'll find sites where the safety of the drugs is gone into - Pregnancy Sickness SOS and the others.
Hello What a relief when you can go on ML. However have you managed?
Waves to all.

droflo cyclizine and B6 -have- been used for decades. The PSS site says they have been used my millions of women. The US Federal Drug Agency gives cyclizine's sister-med a Category A rating, which means Safe In Pregnancy ... and it is nearly impossible to get that after the Thalidomide scare.

Cyclizine + B6 is unquivically safe.

btw Thalidomide btw woudl never be licensed for use now, the testing procedure is far far better. it's also more than 50 years ago now!

Metoclopramide and the other meds are less extensively tested because of the obvious problems of med testing on preg women. however, there have been a lot of records of outcomes and they are considered safe in use and to have no adverse birth outcomes. What is not 100% know is the very long term effects, but 1) they have been used a long time now - decades in some cases - and they are considered to be safe and 2) dehydration is generally much more reliably considered risky.

Ondansetron, the strongest and most effective, seems to be generally considered safe but there is a small doubt about how some of the study was conducted with some women. Even so again, the risks seem to be drastically less than the dangers of dehydration and sickness.

Metoclopramide is considered safe for the baby but for a few women it can have serious side effects. these don't affect the baby though, as I say. If you look it up on Wikipedia the info is really quite reassuring.

Also, the better state YOU are in, the better for the baby.

I don't get dehydrated as although I vomit 3-4 times a day, the most I bring up is bile. Usually just a pile of saliva I've swallowed from the nausea. I always think it's amazing how my body vomits violently but keeps the food in. I have a Dr appointment on Friday so will have a serious conversation about meds. I do lose about 10-14 weeks to horrific, can't peel myself off the floor, sickness each pregnancy. It's so depressing as I know you all know well. I would love to function better, not least for my other 2 babies. Thanks for the support and advice. X

droflo welcome to the thread and Sorry that you are sufferering so badly. did you not take any meds at all with your other pregnancies? excellent advice as always from everyone which I can't improve on. make sure you have a good chat with gp about meds as others have already said - I felt the benefits of meds eventually bringing my hg under control (and allowing me to not only keep down some food in the end but also aspirin which had been prescribed to combat serious complications in first pregnancy), was far more beneficial to mine and babies well being than continuing to be severely dehydrated and also risking further complications with my second high risk pregnancy. I tried multiple medications and in both pregnancies and in second (twins), was on cyclizine- tablets and injections, metachloprominde, stemetil, ondansetron - iv and tablets. also needed to keep down aspirin, prolonged dose of folic acid, iron tablets and also thiamin which is some sort of vitamin that they seem to prescribe if you have hg. as a result of this all bringing by under control second time round by 15-16 weeks (as opposed to never in first pg which was not as highly medicated and suffered more complications), I gave birth to very healthy twins at 35+ weeks.
obviously I only have my own experiences to go on but I personally feel that when you are very ill with hg, seeking prompt medical attention is vitally important.

ps- sorry not meaning to sound like some sort of lecture just a total ramble of my mixed experiences of two by pregnancies!
hate to think of people suffering if they are worried about meds that's all! x

droflo I hope you can have a good chat with your doc. HG is the miserable pits

ahem, hope I wasn't lecturing too much either .

Hi everyone, can I join you? Been following this thread for a while now (thanks Meerka for recommending it)

I'm 21weeks, was diagnosed with hg at 6weeks. Come a long way since then but still struggling. Not vomiting every day now (sometimes 1 or 2 vomiting sessions morn and eve) but severe nausea most days...and complete exhaustion. Oh and low bp, headaches and that horrible vertigo/seasickness feeling that makes everything feel unsteady. Evenings and mid-mornings are my worst time. Im taking Phenergan, Cyclizine and Stemetil as didn't get on with Ondansetron (severe migraine-type headaches).

Feeling very isolated at mo as I've been off work so long. Tried to go back on reduced hours at 18weeks but hg flared up again. GP has just signed me off for another 3 weeks. He said to rest lots but i'm so bored of resting!!

Just had results from a urine test, GP had sent it off to lab for cultures (having crampy pain in kidney area and needing to wee 10x night though dip-test was clear).. lab test came back as raised white cells... GP said this is because kidneys can become 'leaky' in pregnancy but its normal, doesn't indicate infection, he wants to repeat the cultures test in 2weeks? Anyone else experienced this or know anything about it?

How do you guys cope with being stuck indoors so much? Apart from doctors I haven't been out for 2weeks as I get panicky feeling sick in public. I keep sick-bags with me but hate using them. My DH keeps nagging me to get out and about, he thinks the baby won't get enough Vit D and he's worried i'll become agoraphobic! I think maybe I have become a bit agoraphobic already :-(

Hi lilac welcome to the thread. poor you it is so miserable having hg. fear of leaving the house is a pretty common one ime- i was very worried about public disgrace! panicked about getting through any appointments etc etc so sounds pretty normal to me- just carry several carrier bags/bottle of water/mouthwash /facial wipes etc.

Sorry you are still suffering - glad sickness has stabilised a bit. although I never really found anything to combat crippling nausea, I found stemetil took the edge off and never went anywhere without fizzy cola bottle hairdos and sometimes marmite sandwiches also did it!

Hi lilac, welcome! Sorry to hear you are still suffering at 21 weeks, i hope it eases for you soon. I've only been off work for a week and i'm already bored, although I have become slightly addicted to doing jigsaws on my ipad!! I completely sympathise with not wanting to go out, supposed to be going to edinburgh for a couple of nights next weekend - just told hubby to cancel. Im ok during the day but awful at night, the thought of sitting in a restaurant fills me with dread! Its so difficult to describe how you feel to others who have no experience, i feel like my mind plays tricks on me at times and i over think about things that i know are going to make me throw up! I hope you find this thread as supportive as i have, its good to know that others understand.