Beside myself :( gastroenteritis + fast fetal heartbeat

[ClaraCat1]

Hi all,

I'm 13+4 and beside myself as I've had gastroenteritis over the weekend with blood in diarrhoea and agonising (not exaggerating) stomach cramps. I spent the whole of Friday night on the bathroom floor rocking due to the pain. No vomiting. Ended up in urgent care at 5 am sat morning after calling 111. He told me to take paracetamol and fluids. Husband then came down with bug altho seemed to be less painful for him.

I saw gp this morning and she managed to find the fetal heartbeat on the Doppler "in the background behind the placenta" it was 190 :( at nuchal scan last Monday it was 164. Gp referred me to epu who I rang. They said they can't see me today and they've not even received referral letter yet. Bloody gps surgery. Epu closes at 12.30.

I'm beside myself with worry that the baby is in distress. Has anyone been through this? I just need someone to talk to. Thank you for reading.

I'm not sure where you are op(I'm in Ireland) over here if you present yourself at an epu they have to see you, they can't turn you away

Thanks Lorelai. I'm in south London. My epu have said no provision for scans today. Most epus near me are referral only. There is a larger one that's walk in but I called and she said no more scan appointments it's first come first serve. They all seem to close at 12.30 ish too. It's ridiculous. I'm trying to be calm as presumably being stressed won't help baby.

Could try to present, maybat least get someone to listen in. How are you doing though? Need paracetamol to keep on top of your temperature, lots of fluids, and some proper rehydration stuff if you think you are dry... rehydrating yourself will most likely sort things out.

I think dehydration can cause this. Drink plenty of water and rest.

Get well soon

That's crazy, your gp should have given you a letter while you were there, you poor thing, is there anywhere you could go for a private scan? Or maybe just show up in the maternity unit of your local hospital, I really don't think they would turn you away, hope you're feeling better soon

The epu at King's college in Denmark Hill and the one in St Thomas's near Waterloo are both walk in. St Thomas is open til 6.30 tonight

You need to drink lots and (easier said than done) try not to get too panicked by what they heard on a Doppler. They aren't always 100% accurate at 13 weeks, most places won't even use one till 16-20 weeks.
Did the epu suggest when you may be able to get an appointment? If not ring back now (they'll be someone there, even if they close at 12.30) and ask what to do now.

Thank you everyone. I really appreciate your replies.

I don't have a temperature and haven't the whole time I've been sick as I've been monitoring it and they checked it at urgent care too. I have been drinking lots and having lucozade sport and diarolyte although the last episode of diarrhoea was Sunday. I'm still having some pain though :(

Thanks for the suggestion of st Thomas. I rang them and they said they were packed and that id only he triaged by nurse and not necessarily scanned. Also we're not that close to Waterloo and they stop scanning at 4.30 so we wouldn't have made it in that time by that point.

Epu called me yesterday afternoon with a scan time for today midday. They said the consultant who looked at my referral is not worried by a FHR of 190. But they'll scan me because of the pain. Just praying that all is ok and that baby's heart rate has gone back to normal. Am so worried.

I'm worried that my body's not being that efficient at getting rid of the bug as one of my biggest symptoms has been constipation. In fact about an hour before the terrible pain started on Friday I had some prune juice which normally works for me and I thought it was just my body clearing me out after being constipated. Then my husband got it too so it was obvious it wasnt that.

I don't know how I caught it :( I'm so hygienic! Always wash my hands after using public transport/before earth and obv after using the loo. I guess it was airborne or something :(

Thanks all again x

Before eating*

Good luck, hope all is ok.

I'd ditch the sports drinks - aren't they full of caffeine?

Clara - sorry you're going through this.

I know this will sound harsh but I think there's nothing that would be done at this early stage anyway so having a scan urgently isn't the priority.

You'd be best off resting and ensuring you drink lots of water to rehydrate. I wouldn't drink much Lucozade. I wouldn't be surprised if that could speed up heart rate.

I understand the worry. I had V&D at 15 weeks (vomited 30 times in 12 hours) and ended up in hospital being treated for dehydration as I was vomiting up any water I drank and hadn't urinated for hours on end. At the end of two days in hospital they did a scan to reassure me but they hadn't scanned me on arrival as the priority was getting me rehydrated as there is nothing they could do for baby at 15 weeks anyway.

Hope you feel a lot better soon. If you are very dehydrated (very dry mouth, not urinating) you should go to hospital for IV rehydration.

Your immune system is weakened during pregnancy. I'm usually quite fit and healthy, very rarely come down with a bug, but during this pregnancy I've caught everything my kids have had. It's almost knocked me for 6 every time. They've bounced back and my symptoms have dragged on for days.
I agree with ditching the lucozade sport, stick to water and squash and you'll be fine. I'm glad you're getting seen today. I'm sure everything is ok, baby is well protected in there xx

Thanks guys. I understand what you're saying Ineed. I'm assuming all was ok in the end after your d&v?

It's lucozade sport not lucozade, so is safe for pregnancy (according to their website) and my doctor told me I could drink it. It doesn't contain caffeine. It does have a lot of sugar though.

I'm pretty sure I can't be that dehydrated as I've been able to drink lots of water all the way through (No vomiting) and my urine isn't super dark.

Thanks for good wishes.

And you need to calm down too.
Sit or lay and visualise a calm landscape.
Communicate to your baby that everything is ok, cuddle it and reassure it in your visualisation.
Deep conscious breaths.

This will pass.
Baton down the hatches, go to a quiet calm place inside while it does.

Clara - everything was fine after I got over the bug. I'm 27 weeks now and subsequent scans have been absolutely fine.

I was very concerned at the time because I couldn't see how the baby could not be affected by the very violent wretching and me being so ill (my temperature was very high at one point and I was tachycardic) but they're amazingly resilient little things!

Any reserves you do have go to baby first, which is why we are left feeling so bloody wretched!