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, phone them on:
024 7638 2020
Lastly, the NICE guidelines on treatment are useful:
cks.nice.org.uk/nauseavomiting-in-pregnancy
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.
On my image of a pink castle: that is an image I use because when I was little, my family had a Snakes and Ladders board with an image on the last square of a pink castle in the clouds. As Hyperemesis is so like a grotesque version of Snakes and Ladders - eat a meal, go up a ladder, first thing in the morning bile run, down a snake - I have used the image of that pink castle on the last square of that Snakes and Ladders board as a metaphor for the happy end of Hyperemesis.

Was fully prepared to go in all guns blazing but then it as nice Dr. Bp very low (88/55) and ketones at 2+. Told to contact them again if get worse. Made it to work for 9.05. 10ish, ketones are at 3+, so now appointment made with different, female, Dr at 12.20. Work sent me.home.

Preparing myself for hospital admission tbh. Buying crisps and lemonade

And you got the meds? Remind me, what are you taking currently, at what doses?

Yes I got the meds! 4mg ondansetron twice a day. I know it can be upped but he wasn't happy to today. This is all because I tried to space out my meds this week to see if I could start weaning.... nope nope and nope.

While I was in Tesco, the diabetes nurse called me. Told me.I had an appointment for the 13th for diabetes clinic. Told her I was busy that day but she pointed out I've done it before so just need to pop in and collect a monitor and have a brief recap rather than do 40mins dietician appointment. Phew.

It's knocked me a.bit and I spent 10mins crying down the phone to my poor dad. I was expecting just a repeat bloods at consultant meeting on the 14th so this is a bit of a shock.

If i do go into hospital, diabetes nurse have requested that they also do a HB1Ac or whatever its called, if they take bloods today, to save her doing it later!! Cheeky but why not.

Ketones are back down to 2, but need to lay down and DD isn't letting me (DH has migraine)

You poor thing Sasseh. Good luck for your appt.

Sass sorry about diabetes but glad you got the meds, have they helped yet?

Signed myself up to Netflix for first time ever toncheer myself up with things to watch whilst I’m sofa bound. Running out of foods I can manage and stuck for ideas on what I can manage . I’m so over this, I worked out I’ve not had a single day where I haven’t felt sick in nearly 60 days. That’s a long time to be chained to the house feeling so sick!

Got an apt with pg mh person next month at hospital.

Right, I'm off to the drs in an hour, taking dh with me to fight for an increase in ondansetron, the 4mg 2x daily is not enough! Also going to ask for a sick note to last until the new year and for something to help my indigestion /heart burn. Got a feeling she might tell me to go to the ward to get a drip as I haven't managed to eat /drink since Tuesday. Feeling really low today and useless x

Well dr sent me to hospital so in A&E now waiting to be hopefully put on a drip. Done a wee sample and through triage so just now waiting for somewhere to sit and have some bloods done no doubt.

Just dashing on to say SassehMonsta Sorry you've been admitted, and that's such a nuisance about diabetes possibility. MauisLeftNipple Sorry to hear that only one laxative does much.

Stayed overnight. Ketones a steady 2+. Consultant says I'm weeing enough and can go home as ketones is lack of food too (as I said to last night's HCA who said the fluids should wash them out.... knew I was right!). Hopefully going home this morning. Collecting my blood monitor from diabetes nurse at 9am.

It took 4 attempts to cannulate me in a&e. Had 3 bags of fluids. Managed a handful of crisps and a chocolate soya milk this morning.

Oh and upping meds to 3x a day.

sassah getting the fluids all on their own will help a bit. If you're dehydrated, the electrolyte balance goes haywire and that'll make you feel sick all on its own. Refluiding does help.

I'm glad to hear meds being upped sasseh. If it's still not enough, ask again!

New joyous side effects of steroids; puffy swollen face plus hairy chin. And night sweats. I'm literally dripping wet through the night. So I smell. But showering/washing is exhausting. So it's balancing the need not to smell with the effort of washing. Saw my chiropractor yesterday. She was confident that she can manage it and stop it getting worse, and probably ease the paain as well. So that was positive.

jamjar how did doc apt go? I picked up my latest sick note yesterday and was pleasantly surprised to find it's for 4bweeks (all been 2 weeks so far). This takes me to the Christmas holidays without worrying about it. Then over the break I can work out what I can do from January. I'm hoping for 2 hours a day (I only work Mon, weds and thurs). Just need to work out childcare. We've planned for the last 2 years that from Jan 2019 we wpukdbuse the 30 funded hours for our son and stopusibg family (He's always done 2 days with MIL and one with BIL, then obv me on days off). I'm hoping that MIL will continue to do one day a week, then we can use the 30 hours over 4 days, paying for am extra hour a day. This will work until I return full time to work, as I then can't get to him earlier enough. So we'll probably have to pay another hour each day. It's stressing me out, but hubby keeps saying we don't need to s0rt anything yet and won't let me speak to my MIL about the Tuesday we're gonna need.

Thank you everyone I'm slowly on the mend. Able to move about now just slowly. Think I will be out of pain by Sunday so thankfully must have been a warning pain. I will be extra careful with bending for next few weeks/months.
Obviously DH is delighted that I have another reason to not support around the house 🙄.

@LucindaE I have long term back issues. Chances were always high it was going to go at some point because of the Relaxin hormone. Not ideal during HG but I maybe/am in hope I am coming out of the HG fog slowly. 🤞

@Reastie recommend watching Grace and Frankie on Netflix it's fab!!

Glad to hear you're able to eat and drink some thing Sasseh. I hope things keep improving.

How are we supposed to know when to wean off meds? Just that I was feeling fairly well Wed morning so didn't take any cyclizine all day (still took ondansetron). Felt a little nauseous in the evening but able to eat ok. Yesterday felt ok too, so no cyclizine. By evening feeling v ill. Ate dinner, felt sicker. Decided to take some cyclizine and 5 seconds later brought that and my dinner up in the kitchen sink - first vomit in 2 weeks! Am definitely taking cyclizine today! It could have been exacerbated by my horrendous constipation I suppose (I've been onto GP this morning and giving movicol another go btw).

Mauis with dd I didn’t start wearing off until 20 weeks as I still felt dire until then and I did it by cutting up my pills so taking half instead of one for a couple of weeks to see how it went. I never managed to wean off them thupiugh and ended out taking until the day dd was born. Not sure how common that is. For me I can have a few not so bad days then a god awful day so I’m not even thinking of reducing for the next couple of months unless I’m forced into it by a doctor. I usually worsen every time I’m the hour or so before I’m due medicine so I presume it means it’s making a difference.

Dh said to me last night ‘are all those drugs doing anything as you don’t seem to be any better than last time?’ (When I only had cyclizine). I replied it’s not a magic cure unfortunately. They make the difference between being broken by the nausea and not (atm).

I’m running out of things I can eat and getting twitchy about it. Before I’ve always found something else before I went off everything but atm I can’t find anything else I haven’t tried.

Sass how are you now?

Eal glad you’ve got a decent length off. Last time mine was every week or two I had to go back for another’s but so far I’ve only needed 2 notes for two months

I was on ondansetron throughout my entire pregnancy last time, it's not uncommon.

It's tricky when people don't understand. I'm struggling at the moment with how 'good' I feel onj the steroids, and how much I'm able to eat/drink. As in, worried that im doing so 'well'. Intellectually and rationally I know it's ridiculous. I know that steroids are incredible drugs that make the body work at its best, so it makes sense that I am doing ok. But I worry that people are going to look at how I'm eatinv/drinking, see me putting weight on and think I'm milking it. Rationally, I know I'm not well. I am very weak. My legs/knees have no strength at all, cos of the lack of mobility over the last few months. If I do something like go to the doctors, it is followed by more exjaustuon and nausea cos of the efffort involved. But I feel like I'm doing too well, that I should be a little bit more ill, like maybe I should dial back to just ondansetron so that I'm not putting myself at risk of all the side effects, and just deal with the sickness like last time. But then I remember that before I started the steroids I wasn't eating or drinking, I was getting seriously ill. My mind is a minefield of guilt and confusion and mummy stress.

Ellison, poor you with those side effects! As if you haven't got enough to contend with. My husbands been washing my hair for me cos it just seems like too much effort.
My Dr is useless, wouldn't up meds, only gave me a 2 week sick note and wouldn't give me anything for indigestion /heart burn. So my sick note runs out the day before Christmas eve and I'm meant to be at work on Christmas eve - so helpful x

Oh Reastie I so sorry you had and are having such a tough time.

I wandered the aisles at Waitrose yesterday and discovered I quite fancied some nuts (esp the really salty ones). Also kiwifruit. I can drink hot chocolate and juice made from concentrate with sickly sweet artificial sweeteners added. Lots of things are still off limits though. We are going for an Italian meal on the weekend and I am dreading it. Garlic, bleurgh.

Thank you for the tip on cutting down on the meds. If I still generally feel ok in the mornings after this weekend, and have unblocked my bowels, I will try halving the cyclizine for starters. I am 11 weeks today and in my2nd and 3rd pregnancies my sickness was over by week 13 so I live in hope (1st was nauseous up to 17 weeks but I was unmedicated as it was manageable).

Mauis see I’ve been having salty nuts and I’m worried about my dehydration. I’m barely managing to drink anything atm as it makes me feel worse but I am grateful that the drugs mean I can generally eat (even though I can barely eat any variety) but the only things I can eat are salty, I’m getting through a lot of soy sauce that I’m having atm with noodles and also marmite and salts nuts. Allmthat salty food and barely any drinking.....can that cause ketosis or is it likelyI’ll be ok so long as I can eat?

Eal so much of what you said resonates with me, it’s so lovely to find people who actually understand how I feel and don’t try to tell me I just have to push past it to get better. Last pg I got to the point after about 20 weeks where with drugs and rest I could almost feel normal some of the time but if I did anything to tire myself the nausea would jump straight back. So if I wasn’t working I wasn’t too bad at home so long as I didn’t do much but when I tried to work it just set it all back off again, iso I felt a fraud not working knowing at that moment whilst I was resting at home I didn’t feel too bad. But equally knowing that if I was working I wouldn’t be feeling how I was then. Also because I couldn’t do anything before getting worse again it meant I could barely walk long before getting totally exhausted so I barely moved my entire pg. I told myself I wouldn’t do that again this time and I would force myself to be more active and healthy but it’s easy to say that when you’re not in this situ!

Reastie ketosis is when you are burning body fat for fuel instead of glucose. If you are managing to eat some form of glucose (carbs) you should be ok. Are you weeing much? At the height of my dehydration I reckon I was weeing less than 250ml per day across my two wees and it was almost brown. Your kidneys normally produce 1ml/min of urine (under ideal physiological conditions).

No no salt is good for lost electrolytes - eat all the nuts!!

I am home, finally. I was discharged eventually at 1pm, after a meds fiasco, and then had to get then to change my.prescription so it read "Dr to continue prescribing". When I finally got home, my ketones were 4+ (I'd been out in town between 9:30 & 11:30 while they sorted paperwork and drugs, and then sat on a chair in the ward from 11.30 - 1). I managed some mushroom soup and a kiwi, but thought I was going to throw up the kiwi so won't do that again in hurry.

I also have my blood sugar monitor now for GD, but today I have been purposefully drinking full fat, flat, lemonade. I have chosen my dehydration over my diabetes as that's sore direct risk right now. Luckily, 45mins post lunch I was already down to 7.3. I just need to restructure our shopping to remove white bread, potatoes, carbs - I cried reading my book on gd in town!!

Ketones now down to trace levels after lemonade, sandwich, soup, kiwi and a bath. Phew. DD wants to go to a disco at softplay that I mentioned earlier when I wasn't so sick. It's only 10 mins drive and I can sit with some other home ed mum's.

They really messed up my arms in A&E with the cannula. Very sore.

I’ve only had two smallish dark wees today and usually pre preg I need a wee all the time, I would’ve been at least 7 times by now usually! Have ordered some juice and squash for tomorrow in the hope it’ll help.