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:
links.nice.org.uk/nauseavomiting-in-pregnancy#!scenario

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.

My GP has prescribed me Cyclizine and is going to fax the prescription to a chemist near me (I didn't know they did that!). From what I've read, it's the one they start you on, and most people with HG graduate to stronger meds. I'm not expecting miracles, but not really sure what to expect either.

Cyclizine is pretty good. I have it in combination with another med, ondansatron. The others inbeween didn't do much to help although with my first pregnancy, promethezine (similar to cyclizine) worked really well on its own. Hopefully you will find it works but if it doesn't, don't be afraid to go back and ask for something different.

Thank you Sleepymrs. I hope it works for me, but it's good to know that there are alternatives if it doesn't.

Good news rae , hope it's given you a much needed lift
shopaholic good luck with the cyclizine, do beware it can make you drowsy so you may need to sleep/rest. I had bad reaction to it (knocked me out couldn't stand up!) but that must be rare as not heard of anyone else having that. Have you already got other DC? It's normal to worry about leaving house when you've stayed in so much, glad to hear you're getting sick bags, that makes me feel more confident going out. You can get ones with an absorbent core off amazon, I highly recommend!
MOP so sorry to hear about the stitches, sounds painful. Hope it is sorted soon, have you got one of those ring cushions to sit on? (Perhaps not to your taste, and I hope you aren't offended, but reminded me of a greeting card I saw saying 'congratulations on your new baby. My thoughts are with your fanny at this time'. Made me chuckle anyway!!)
Re time off work there's lots of teachers on this thread I think? (Not me). I'm now signed off for rest of preg, so will be about 20 weeks in total, gosh didn't realise was so much.
Am completely and utterly exhausted after preparing to go away for our little holiday. Completely ungrateful but I don't want to go!!! Just want to stay at home and rest. Wish me luck for the flight. DD has been throwing some excellent tantrums this week so I'm hoping she is gentle with us!!

Waves to everyone else xx

mrsmonkey that card sounds brilliant! Made me smile whilst wide awake at 3am anyway!!! Hope you get some rest in preparation for the holiday, I hope your dh/dp realises he needs to do the lions share with dd. Hope flight goes better than expected too! Where are you off to? sorry very nosy!

shopaholic one of several teachers here...I was off for most of spring term! Went off during January as was hospitalised. Tried to go back week before half term but ended up in hospital again despite phased return. I then went back very slowly just before easter about 3 weeks but only doing 2 mornings a week (I only work 3 days). I'm very fortunate in that I'm non class based assistant head so don't feel I'm letting my children down. You just have to focus on you and your baby and know this isn't a choice you are making its your body needing rest to cope with this pregnancy! (Sorry that was an essay!) Hope cyclazine kicks in soon!

sleepy sorry to hear about swollen ankles had friends who have suffered awfully with that - hope the heatwave passing has brought some respite! I know what you mean about constantly dreading something going wrong. I had 9 months fearing the worst last time. I think feeling baby kicking more is helping this time as would feel confident to go and get checked if felt reduced movement where as last time I struggled with that. Don't worry about telling people until you are ready though

rae horray for good scan news. I felt able to cope with hg so much more after each scan glad you have that same experience!

Right so can someone please tell my body after a full day work where I clearly did too much insomnia returning at 3am is really not required!!! 😴

Oh no sorry about insomnia again ickle I am annoyed I'm awake at 5.30 when DD and DH are fast asleep. In my 'wisdom' I had the bloomin whooping cough jab yesterday and my arm is killing me from lying on my side, not ideal when today will be an active day at the airport. What with that and my pelvis I feel like I need a hoist to roll over in bed... We're going to the Canaries, so not too long a flight. I have stocked up on stickers!
The jab really hurt at the time nurse did it (felt the usual 'sharp scratch' and then a couple of seconds later it really hurt), I was panicking she had somehow done it wrong. Wasn't too bad yesterday and now have dead arm, great!
Right will try to get back to sleep (stop snoring DH please!!)
Oh dear I am a right whinger today...

Thanks Sleepy. I'd quite happily wait until 20 weeks too, but I think DH would burst. Plus I should probably explain why I'm a social recluse . Are your feet sore?

Shopaholic I'm glad you've been prescribed something. Like Sleepy I'm on ondansetron and cyclizine. Go back if you need more help!

Thanks mrsmonkey, it has really cheered me up. Good luck for the flight- hope that you have a lovely time. A lot of my friends say the whooping cough jab really hurts. I'm hoping it's not worse than the injections I had into my stomach in hospital because I was shocked by how much they hurt!!

Thanks ickle. I am so happy today. Sorry to hear that the insomnia is back- hope you managed to get s bit more sleep last night.

Thanks for sympathy about stitches. MrsMonkey that card made me chuckle! I keep putting off ordering a doughnut cushion because I keep thinking it will be better soon - but no sign of that yet. Rang GP to ask for painkiller prescription but he said no because of breastfeeding. Argh. Anyway, sorry to grumble, I'm well aware that it's nothing like as bad as the horrors of HG.
MrsMonkey sorry to hear about dead arm after whooping cough vaccine. I've heard this can happen. Good luck with the flight today and hope you have a very well-deserved rest.
Sleepy, sorry to fuss but maybe mention the swelling in legs and feet to midwife? Is think they call it oedema? I'm sure it's just the heat and quite normal but perhaps worth a mention.
Rae, great that scan went well. It really does help to create more of a connection to the pregnancy.
Ickle, sorry about the return of dreaded insomnia, especially when you've been working more and need your rest.
Shopaholic, so glad you have a cyclizine prescription. Let us know how you get on with it. In answer to your question about time off work, I was off for 2 full months in the autumn, during the worst of my HG. I'm not a teacher but there are a lot of teachers on the thread. It's such a demanding job, you really can't just battle on. Take all the time you need.
Waves to Lucinda and everyone else.

Thanks Mother. Really hope that you he's soon!

Just popping on to tell you all about my blood test yesterday. Does anyone else finf that HCPs just don't know what to say to you about HG? I went into the room to have my blood taken, and thought it was only fair to warn the nurse about the potential for me being sick, explained that it was something I'm dealing with a lot at the moment as I have HG, etc. She said that was fine, started to take the blood and then went "still, at least the HG means that you've got a nice story to tell the baby about when you were pregnant!"

... Oh yes, it's been magical

That should be "heal" not "he's"!

Back ...

MoP so so glad to hear that all has gone well and at last you've got tinypearl at last. Huge grats and wishing you a quick recovery now you have antibiotics ... do take it easy, please? (or at least as easy as tinypearl will let you)

squeezed So pleased for you too! it's been a long hard road and it's so lovely to hear that Tiny is here and you are feeling better! Huge gratulations too =) Best wishes to you both. Doesn't food taste amazing now? :D

reebok great to hear that tinybok and you are doing so well.

hallo lovely to hear from you. Yes, I'm a member of the HG - never - again club too! Really nice to hear your little ones are doing so well =)

shopaholic welcome. Honestly please, please, get meds. Especially as MoP says, cyclizine. It's extremely safe and often pretty effective. A lot of docotrs still run very scared of meds after Thalidomine which was fifty years ago and would never have been passed as safe now. But cyclizine has been used by millions of women and well studied and it's an excellent first line med.

An HG Outside The House kit can help sometimes as mrsMonkey says a small bag with a couple easily-reached plastic bags in, some wet wipes and a spare top/skirt.

Hope you have an okay holiday mrsMonkey. Not easy with HG but I hope you can still enjoy it anyway.

nuttypops I felt very cut off too. Remember it well. It's the sheer misery and normal feelings do come back when the worst of it passes.

Rae Glad to hear the scan went so well. Enjoy the good days. It's weird when you're suddenly not sick but it's almost always the hormones having a good / bad day. You can get the odd good day in the middle of the worst of it and .. er ... vice versa once it starts easying off. Which is less welcome. Can't believe the nurse said that you'd have a 'nice story' to tell tinyRae ... good grief. Riiight, because HG is a barrel of laughs ...

twinkle glad to hear you're having some good days now :)

ickle really nice to hear that you've managed to work without it being too much of a drain. Encouraging to have a glimpse of life outside the bed again!

mrsmonkey quite a few people get the sleepies with cyclizine, you certainly aren't alone. That's why they have the warning about driving and heavy machinery on the box. Love that card!

it's actually one of the -old- style antihistamines and works by calming down the body's reaction to the preg hormones, I believe. The new style antihistamines are far less sleepy-making. Actually personally I think sleeping through HG is the best option.

Sorry to everyone I missed and wishing everyone as peaceful as day as possible.

Opps. Meerka/OnceaMeer here.

Rae I'll add you to the list. Happy to hear your good scan news.
shopaholic I'm relieved you got meds; as others say, if they don't work, there are a number of safe options for them to try. I'm glad you've only got one symptom, but the dark urine is not a good sign. Are ice lollies or ice cubes or ice cubes made of flat full sugar coke or the juice of tinned fruit any use for you?
SleepymrsE Sorry you have to be in suspense. Not nice to deal with besides Hyperemesis.
mrsmonkey Lol about birth card! I second what SeaEagleFeather suggests about it's always being worth mentioning swollen legs and feet, though it's normally harmless.
The Canaries sounds really nice, if hot. Best of luck for the flight and sorry to hear of painful arm.
icklekid Much sympathy over insomnia.
Great advice from MotherofPearl SleepymrsE SeaEagleFeather and everyone.
SeaEagleFeather Welcome back. 'A rose by any other name...'Not fair! You've had three names, and I've only had one- and a highly unimaginative one, at that!
Apologies to anyone rudely overlooked.

Due Dates
spandau 5 May
Madrigal elcs 18 May
lemonslemonslemons 12 June
amysmum 9 June
Iam 22 June
mrsmonkey 23 July
racheljayne 10 August
Special Stains 17 August
Icklekid 31 August
SleepyMrsE 8 October
mrs American 10 October
1MoreTime 19 October
rocket 8 November
RaeSkywalker 20 November
shopaholic 10 December

Thanks lucinda and others for advice on swelling. They are huge today! So swollen. I will mention it when I'm at my 20 week scan - otherwise I don't see a midwife until 28 weeks. Hopefully with the holiday next week I might get to put my feet up a bit.

Sorry so short & sweet, must crack on with packing. Really want to get an early night again so I can get my leg elevated.

SeaEagle you're not wrong about sleeping through HG!

Thanks Lucinda, it's nice to be on 'the list' Hope that your computer is sorted!

Good luck with packing Sleepy!

Hoping that those of you who have returned to work can help me. I'm seeing the Dr tomorrow and am thinking of asking for a phased return. However, my DM is worried as I still feel awful when I'm out of the house for more than an hour. I feel I should give it a go so that work know I've tried at the very least. DM is worried that if I go back and end up getting signed off again quickly with the same condition, it might have implications for my employee rights/ pay. Does anyone have any knowledge of this? It's a flipping mine field!!

Thanks rae, I've given up on packing and laid on the bed with my feet up staring at the piles of clothes and listening to DS kick the side of his bed.

Just regarding your going back to work. I did a phased return over 4 weeks. Luckily I can work from home but for the first week I did 2 hours a day at home. The following week I upped it to half days from home, the 3rd week two half days in the office and two at home then the fourth week all four days I work on 6 hours a day. It worked for me and was especially helpful for the first couple of weeks.

Sleepy that was my method of packing even before HG. Leave it long enough and it will pack itself and then panic when we have 30 minutes until we need to leave for the airport

Interesting about your return to work plan- thank you. Maybe I'll suggest that to the Dr. I'm office based but can work from home too so maybe I'll suggest that. I genuinely love my job and miss it so so much, I'm desperate to get back but equally don't want to end up in hospital again. I also think I've got a definite fear of going anywhere alone now which won't help.

Hi everyone! Well we made it to our holiday. Mini monkey was very good on the flight but took a long while to get her to sleep in a strange cot!

Just popping on quickly - sleepy I'd missed the leg swelling thing - is your scan soon?? As I agree you should get that checked sooner rather than later, like go to GP tomorrow! I'm sure nothing to worry about but best to be sure.
rae if anything I'd say your employment rights are better if you try a phased return. What I did was wait until latest sick note ran out then went into work as an experiment the following day (and told work that it was an experiment to see how I coped). as it happens it didn't go well, so then I was able to say - I tried it, but it's not going to work. I don't think you'll know til you try, but I'd also advocate not trying until you are feeling that you've had a bit of an improvement in your symptoms. Do you know your work's sick leave and pay policy? Worth checking the details, so then you'll know if /how long you'll be paid for etc. Good luck.

Waves to everyone else... Must go to sleep! X

Waves at mrsmonkey you are so thoughtful to pop on here from your holiday! Glad your flight went well, have an amazing rest of the holiday. My ds always struggles to settle in travel cot however I think first time in bed on our holiday in July may be even worse!

rae I went back to work (after several sick notes) on phased return and after 5 (nonconsecutive) days was signed off again. I wouldn't try to go back until you feel confident you might cope but I know how frustrating it is not working. I had another 3 weeks off and am now 4 weeks back although still on reduced hours. Better to be there and do something than nothing from my perspective!

sleepy next step shove piles of clothes in bag...job done! Hope you managed to get lots of sleep and a relatively early night!

seaeagle thanks for kind wishes!

Right been awake too long for 4am and brain forgetting what it wanted to type mid scroll so must try and get back to sleep! Hope stitches are healing mop and all newborns are behaving themselves-especially at night! Another day down (another 109 to go for me...!)

In Haste

rae

any sickness that is due to the pregnancy cannot be held against you. It's counted as sexual discrimination under the Equal Opportunities Act.

In practise, is your place of work small or large? (sorry ive forgotten). A good company will help you, but a tiny company might not be as good. Either way though, HG should definitely not count on yoru record. (though you might have to enlighten HR about that, not all departments are au fait with it).

If you go back to work, the bad news is that you're likely to get worse becuase it will drain you and that makes the HG worse. However sometimes people have found that trying to go back actually helps overall because they find out what they can and can't do, and if they have tried and it's not worked out then they know they've done everything they can and get less stressed about being off sick.

I hope that makes sense .... What do -you- yourself want to do? I think you should listen to your own instincts here.

Morning all! Thank you for the advice mrsmonkey, ickle and SeaEagle!

SeaEagle it's medium sized, just over 100 employees. They are very 'by the book' so I think out and out discrimination won't be an issue, and they have been supportive whilst I've been off, but I do get the 'enough is enough, time to come back' vibe now.

I just saw the Dr who I think was a little dubious. I was honest and told him that I'd had a couple of days this week where I was out for 1-2 hours and didn't feel great afterwards. Said that I felt work wanted me back and would support working a few hours and trying to build up. Also said that I miss my job and I wonder if being back would help my mood.

Anyway, he's written me a note for a phased return on the basis that I will go straight back to him if I can't cope, rather than pushing myself.

I've surprised myself and have come home and burst into tears on the phone to DH. I think it's because it's a bit of a leap of faith regarding how my HG will respond, and also that I'm having to put a lot of trust in my employer not to screw me over.

mrsmonkey glad that you made it to your holiday safely!

rae just be reassured that your gp will support you even if it doesn't work out. Going back to work was very good for my mental health even if it made me worse! Take it one day at a time (hour at a time if need be!)

Thanks ickle, I've called in to let them know and they've suggested I go in on Wednesday.

I feel a bit calmer now. I wonder if the tears earlier were more about HG in general than the work issue. I haven't cried at all apart from the first night in hospital when DH left me. And I do feel like I've lost part of 'me' at the moment. Basically I think I was due a blood good cry!!