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.

I think you should get yourself to A&E confused! You can't live like this, what a rubbish uncaring GP. Losing consciousness is not good for you and the bean. I'm sure if you called 111 they'd tell you to go to hospital. It sounds like you need to be on a drip with proper care. Pack a bag in case you need to stay overnight. Hope you feel better very soon x

Yes, I agree with chops, it's too long to wait to see a doctor get to A&E.

Confusedeio I agree with Laura that you need a 2nd opinion, ASAP. Dehydration can be dangerous, and vomiting 20x day sounds like HG. I struggled to get my GP to take me seriously at first. He kept giving me the usual advice about ginger and bland diet! It seems many GPs are not well-informed about HG so it's easy to go undiagnosed until you get so ill you end up in hospital. I recommend going to A&E or EPU where there'll be specialist doctors who can diagnose and treat you. You might need IV rehydration and anti-sickness injections to get on top of it. Please don't suffer alone with this.
There are lots of medications that can help and the staff on EPU or gynae ward will have more experience and knowledge of treating it than your GP.

Overstretched myself today Went into city-centre with DH and our guests. Managed an hour in a museum then a drink in a cafe, started feeling very sick, also in pain with SPD. Walked around outside for a bit then felt worse so found some loos (after a panicky trip up 3 escalators!) and was violently sick... made it into a cubicle but couldn't bend over enough due to SPD so threw up all over back of toilet and floor Told DH I felt too ill to stay out so I got a taxi home while he stayed with guests. They wanted to come back with me (think they were worried I might faint or something) but I insisted they stick to original plan of sightseeing and restaurant, as felt desperate for some quiet time alone! Also didn't want to ruin the evening for everyone. So I'm now home having some quiet time and already feeling much better.
Does anyone else feel they have no energy to socialise? I feel like i've neglected our guests this weekend but i'm so tired it's hard to make conversation for long. They kept encouraging me to join in but I just want to slink off and sit on my own! Even sitting round the table for a meal I start longing to escape, as sitting is painful and it's hard to concentrate. DH told me this morning to make more effort to talk in case they think i'm snubbing them, but after 15mins of chatting I feel so drained. I think they understand but it's hard to explain it to someone who's never had HG.

Hi confusedeio sorry to hear your suffering. I am also 8 weeks but on my 3rd pregnancy. I assume this is your first if the doctor is not taking you seriously. All you can do is keep going back. If you are really bad dizzy, really weak ask to be admitted I know it sounds scary but when I was admitted on my first pregnancy it really helped I felt so much better.
You are certainly not wasting anyone's time. If you feel really bad phone the doctors. Sometimes you just need to be more insistent that you need help you are really bad by the sound of things. I was like that my first pregnancy it's really hard but you will get through it a day at a time.
Big hugs, once you our in the system if you can get admitted people will take you more seriously. X

LilacWine7 sounds like your expecting too much from your self. Don't over do things. How many weeks are you?

confused can you get your partner to go to an all night chemist and get ketostix tonight? Like, in the next few hours?

then pee on them. The darker the colour, the more dehydrated you are and if you get a reading of 3+++ you need medical help. I think from what you say you do need urgent help now. Phenergen (promethezine) is good but you need more.

Also if you eating -that- little, you may actually need some vitamins. You'll be ok for most other things but not all vitamins are able to be stored in the body, so you may not have the reserves to draw on.

The good news is that other than dehydration and the vitamins the baby will be ok as it draws all it needs from you. Bad for you, good for the baby.

Please do try to get those ketostix now. Also, is there a medical line you can ring nowadays in the UK? the fainting does sound worrying.

Hi everyone. Went into hospital yesterday for reduced movement and they asked me to go back today. I went and now they want me back tomorrow and Monday. They checked my urine today and said there's +2 ketones or something. Seen that word on here before, so just wondered what it meant?

I had my keytones tested before when I was in hospital but when I mentioned it to a doctor they didn't know what it was I would be interested in finding out. I think it shows how dehydrated you are and if your body is having to eat muscle to keep going. No ideas on how the scores work.

Penguinandminipenguin The ketones, from what I remember from last time, is regarding the level of ketosis - something about your body going into starvation mode?! When I was admitted to hospital I had +4, the highest level (?), they wouldn't let me out until it went down to 0. I can't really give you any more advice though...

--

Thanks for all the welcomes everyone :) - We're currently living with my parents as we are in the process of moving house (and country!!), so I'm hoping these symptoms don't get fully blown until we set off on holiday (2 weeks time, I'll be nearing 6/7 weeks!). Certainly very tired at the moment, on and off minimal nausea..

mygreeneyedboy on my second and 3rd pregnancy it really kicked in at about 6 weeks. My first was 3. Hoping it will stay off as long as possible for you. You must have lots on if you are moving.

penguins what mygreeneyed said.

"Ketones are the result of the body burning fat for energy or fuel."

(or lack of liquid intake, which shows up much faster than lack of food)

from wiki: "Urine concentrations will be lower with greater hydration"

However, from what it on the wiki, if your body adapts then in fact a different form of ketosis happens and Ketostix no longer measure it accurately (they work off detecting one substance in the pee, but if ketosis continues a different substance is produced).

I get the impression that you have to be dehydrated / starving for some time tho.

In practise it's a good way to check how dehydrated you are generally, but also go by the list of severe symptoms eg dry skin that doesn't go back into place if you pinch it; headaches; low blood pressure + fast heart beat etc.

Glad that they are being so careful with you and minipenguin.

just to hark back ... one of the really odd things with that brush with sepsis was that during it I actually stopped vomitting. When they measured my temperature as 40.3 and started taking it seriously, they said "why didnt you say you were feeling so ill?"

Well the thing was that I was already feeling like hell from the HG. The fever didn't feel any worse at all!

(The pain was a different matter, but I'd rung them and they'd told me it was 'normal' )

As a cure for HG though, I don't recommend it.

I'll stop going on about it now. sorry !

Meerka I didn't know about it. I think if you have gone through something pretty bad your allowed to mention it a few times! I think your right people underestimate how bad you feel with HG i suppose your body could only cope with one thung at a time. Every time you go through something you learn. I certainly feel I know more about pregnancy the 3rd time around, certainly not doing it a fourth time though!

Just dashing on to welcome Confused and say I so agree with others' good advice, I do hope you get to A and E if dehydrated and get some treatment.
I am a dismayed that GP's don't seem to say anything much about watching out for dehydration, its symptoms, etc, to people with Hyperemesis, or suspected Hyperemesis, because it is unfortunately very likely to happen.
Meerka Goodness, a fever like that, and you felt no worse; it shows how bad you must have felt already.
Sympathies to all...

Sorry, truncated message. Penguin That's very stressful. Do feel for you having these concerns as well as Hypperemesis.
Lilac You poor thing, I so agree with others, you shouldn't push yourself too much.

Hello everyone sorry for long silence. I have been checking out some of the new posts- confused you have my sympathy and I'd say get to A&E I put it off but it was the best thing for me!
I'm learning about communicating with doctors lol.. I don't think I got my point across well when I went last week to say I was still throwing up and eating and drinking vv little, Doc pretty much said it will pass and baby will be fine so I went back home and it got a lot worse over last week. Couldn't really check in here or do anything except groan and moan and throw up. We got those ketostix but keytosis didn't seem to show -Meerka it makes sense what you said.. Maybe mine was a different type and didn't show.
Anyway sheer bloody-mindedness got me to the hospital with BF and mum last Friday, had the 13 week scan which thank God showed the baby was fine (and very beautiful if I do say so :-) and then got downstairs to A&E where they said they knew exactly what was wrong, I had 4++ keytones in urine or something and they immediately started me on a drip. They also changed me from cyclazine (which for some reason wasn't working at all) to ondansetron which helped. And medication for my stomach lining. It was so wonderful to be in a place where they understood what was wrong and were treating it (I got transferred to the gynae ward after the first night).
I've now been out a few days and although I'm v sleepy (apparently that will improve with iron supplements) I am better than I was.. I can generally keep food down and just occasionally throw up. I'm still weak and I want to be better quicker and back to my old self, work etc but I am hopeful I might perhaps be getting there. So my feedback is- A&E better than GP if you are not listened to!!!
Hello to everyone else too :-)

daffodil glad you got admitted and given the fluids you so obviously needed. when you are very dehydrated cyclizine does not seem to be very effective ime (although it can work really well to keep symptoms at bay once things are under control). ondansetron is the only drug that seems to work for many of us in breaking the cycle of the worst of hg symptoms but you may find you do suffer with constipation with it. in the end I took a combination of both ondansetron and cyclizine, alternating between. Glad you are feeling a bit better.

confused hope you've been to hospital, am always banging on about it I know but sometimes iv fluids/meds really are the only way in this grim stage of hg.

waves to everyone and welcome to all newbies - gentle pats and sympathy in abundance here from people who understand.

Daffodil I'm glad you are feeling better now, sorry you had to get in such a state to get effective meds. Goodness, 4 + ketones, no wonder you felt dreadful,but they didn't show up on the normal sticks, you say? That is alarming; and I suppose, all the better if people do the checks recommended by Meerka further down, pinching skin, etc. Confused
I hope you are getting some treatment? Ironically, in view of your name, one of the symptoms of dehydration can be just that; an element of confusion so that it is hard to take in how ill you are, as everything becomes vague.
elizabethsmumWaves. I hope nobody else is very ill and dehydrated?

2 MORE SLEEPS

Hello Cheering you on.

go hello! then finally your Passenger will be -here- and all the misery will be over :)

Yep just sleepless nights and recovering from major surgery to deal with then!!! Even with that in mind I cannot wait!