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.
It has been suggested that I add some practical tooth cleaning advice: a lot of sufferers find using a child's small toothbrush and strawberry toothpaste far less nauseating.
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.

moonkid I felt exactly the same during pregnancy with DS. I lost count of the number of times I told DH I couldn't do it any longer.

Understand where you are coming from @moonkid. I'm definitely going to be done at 2DC. X

Moon absolutely no judgement here. I felt very similar to you throughout my first trimester. At my worst I was googling for hours a day where I could get an abortion locally to me and what procedures there were. I didn’t feel like I could get through the next minute let alone months. It was utterly awful and dark. If my family hadn’t been as opposed to abortion and if gp had not given me ondansetron I really think there’s a very real chance I would have done it. And this was a very well planned and wanted pg. please don’t feel bad about how you feel, I think it’s natural given how much we have put up with. My mental thinking was would I feel regret if I had an abortion and to take every day at a time, I couldn’t think about the big picture of months, I just had to get to the end of the day and endure it and survive and then get to the next week and be a day or a week closer to being at the end of it. The baby has no way of knowing what you’re thinking and you have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about in that thinking, I’m sure we’ve all felt like that at some point. Not that that makes it good to be in that mental space, but I really understand where you are. Definitely phone the clinic and see what they say.

Moonkid, I hope the antenatal clinic were able to help. If they do turn you away, can you speak to your midwife?

No judgement here, I've had the most awful, low, dark thoughts throughout this pregnancy. I've frequently told my husband that I can't do it anymore (although it turned out he didn't think I was actually serious) and asked my midwife if I could discuss my options with someone. HG is just the absolute worst, no-one understands it and it's incredibly lonely. I really hope you've had some help today but how you are feeling is so, so normal.

I haven't contributed much lately, DD has had a run of illness and now has an ear infection so there's been a lot of sleepless nights.

I was interested to read some of the other experiences of Cyclizine - I've stopped taking it now after having a 5 day headache with los of dizziness/visual migraines etc. Those things are less frequent now which does help with basic things like getting out of bed!

I'm still taking Ondansetron and Stemetil, I think it's probably taking the edge off but I still feel awful, the retching has ramped up. I've started to be sick more often, but it's no worse than the nausea yet.

@eallison88 I've been reading some of your posts about GD with interest. I'm almost certainly going to have it again, but hoping to avoid the GTT for as long as possible. There is simply no way I could adjust my diet right now - I'm about 95% white bread and 5% Orange Juice. You seem to have a good handle on yours though, which gives me hope that it's possible!

moon you are not the first and will not be the last to have such thoughts. I informed a doctor in Novermebr, when I was at my absolute worst, that either they did something to stop the puking or they "Did the thing that we all know will stop this". I doubt I would ever have forgiven myself had I gone down that path, but at that time i was so ill and so desperate that I could have done. I had similar thoughts in my first pregnancy, and my son doesn't seem to hold it against me!!

stroan I refused the GTT, which wasn't as dramatic as I anticipated it might be! They accepted it with no fuss, and instead simply had to monitor my sugars. I have moments of paddying when all I want to do is eat croissants (dairy free!). But actually, Its not been too difficult to make the changes. Lots of lentils and beans like chickpeas/butterbeans etc. Lots of meat! And just obsessive label reading (tho probably slightly less so for you if your body hasn't rejected dairy like mine!). Little and often is key as well. However, there's simple no way I could have adjusted my diet and managed it this way a few months ago when I was at my worst in terms of HG.

@eallison88 that's interesting, I wouldn't have thought to refuse. However, the GTT was the only time in 4 months that my sugars were over target level so I was always a bit dubious about it. I'll have a chat with my lovely consultant about it this time - he is very much about empowering me to make decisions. I actually asked for the testing equipment at booking in but they wouldn't prescribe it - I'd far rather do that than the GTT.

I'm desperate to be able to eat healthily but it just wouldn't be possible right now. If it's not white or beige, it's not going in!

@Reastie I'm so angry that the mh nurse was an arsehole to you but please don't give up trying to get help because she's just one rotten grape in the bunch!

@moonkid just referred to my child as Satan to my mil to get told off cause that's her grandchild. It's Satan to me or parasite because it's made me a useless human. I frequently have thoughts where I could just end the pregnancy and be done with it and we planned this, when I went for my 12 week scan I was secretly hoping that it'd had gone so the hg would be over. You're not alone 💕

I think the cyclizine is starting to give up on me because I've got the awful nausea back and I'm throwing up again 😫 btw beans and toast is not a pleasant thing to come back up, I thought a bean had ended up in my lung at one point!!

Stroan another gtt refuser here. They wanted to do it when I was pg with dd ebcauseof my bmi and I refused and they were quite off about it but it was ok. I had to do bloods for the rest of my pg which I was fine about. Because they treated me as having gd even though I may not have had it meant I had extra medicalisation eg I was induced on due date as they wouldn’t let me go over. This time I have refused again and was told I might have to do a couple of weeks of bloods to see if they are ok but they don’t seem in any urgency or hurry to get me sorted about it.

Thank you everyone for not judging and for understanding.

Ive been admitted and currently on second bag of fluids. Have had a stemetil injection. I've refused cyclizine as it just makes me feel too rotten.

Oh moon it's no wonder you were feeling si emotioanlly awful if you weere dehydrated enough to be in need of fluids. I do hope they make you feel better all round.

I had a very sympathetic GP this afternoon who has prescribed me stemetil 5mg which I can take up to 3 times a day (the dissolvable 3mg was only twice), so I'm happy with that. She also encouraged me to come back if I felt it wasn't working. She was however concerned about how long my diarrhoea has been going on for so I have a kit to send away a sample. Joy!

Oh she did say to try cutting out dairy too which is devastating for me as cereal is one of the few things I can stomach, especially in the morning! I have managed to eat a (carby) dinner tonight too so hope it stays down.

ppwonar Welcome. Sorry you feel so bad. Sorry to about your MC.
I am glad you have got meds. Don't hesitate to ask for something stronger if they don't work within a few days (do as I say, not as I did!)
An anti acid can make all the difference. As you are a veteran, you don't need my spiel about 'have you got kesostix' and 'Do you find flat full sugar coke, ice lollies and the juice of tinned fruit any good?'
Moonkid Sorry you have been admitted. Never blame yourself for dark thoughts. They are only natural in the circs. From your phrasing - did you say 'babies' or was that predictive text? Is this another set of twins?
DeadDoorPost I wonder why they gave you no fluids but anti-emetics? Hope you feel better. I've added your new date.
Reastie Great advice. I do hope you manage to get a counselor or a mh nurse with a better atitude.. I so agree a complaint is warranted.
With about 98.5 per cent of Hyperemesis sufferers, the symptoms do disappear in a minutes or hours or anyway, within a couple of days. A very infuriating professional, by the sound of it.
Norbert Did you manage to get the Cyclizine?
Stroen Sorry about poor DD. I hope things aren't too bad.
eallison I am so glad your father is helping you get an extra hour in bed. I remember the days when 7am was a lie in. Oh dear! But it is worth it when you are not ill, as they are so sweet at that age.

avocadoo Oh dear, I so agree about baked beans. Too small; rice is agreed by many to be horrific as well, and I thought pasta. Some disagree. Waves to Onlyinanemergency, Nighttimenopeand everyone. CalmberComber we haven't heard from you in a few days. How are things?
Apologies to anyone rudely overlooked.
Due Dates
elpreggo27 20 March
silversplodge 4 April
Anya 13 Apriil
Beanhunter 17 April
8DaysAWeek 1st May
tinyradish 1 May
foreverblues 5 May
Plasticgiraffe 10 May
Mamabear13 18 May
bumblebee 20 May
SashaMonsta 31 May
eallison June
Nighttimenope 13 July
evuscha 26 July
emma 4 August
CalmerComber 5 August TWINS
Teddyreddy 9 August
canonlyhope 13 August
Bili 16 August
Hairgician 18 August TWINS!
norbert 26 August
beforei hit30 3 September
stroen 4 September
DeadDoorPost 8 September

So after all 3 of us had sinusitis with my partner having a chest infection and my son having an ear infection, my son has got chicken pox! We thought he’d already had it but no. I went in with reduced movements the other night so that was scary too but the hospital were great and all ok. Everything seems to happen at once. But I am 29 weeks now and the sickness got so much better for me after 20 weeks. Makes me question whether it was HG! I feel so lucky on that front. My midwife is currently uncontactable...she is off on Mat herself soon so think she might have gone off early or on holiday. She didn’t book me in or remind me about 28 week bloods so I had to contact them hospital and need to go in for them when I can 🤦‍♀️

Back to work (for the second time 😂) on Monday before finishing at the end of March.feel like I’ve done nothing in preparation for baby 2, it’s not the pregnancy I expected I’ll put it that way!

How is everybody? Moon kid I hope getting fluids has at least helped a little bit. It’s so hard emotionally xxx

@LucindaE yes I'm having twins, due Oct 1st. This is actually my second set of twins! I have two 3 year olds!

Morning everyone! I’m not doing a very good job of keeping up, sorry.
The cyclezine is working in that i’m Keeping more stuff down, but I’m still feeling quite zombified on it.
Back at the gp next week, so will ask to try something else.

I just wanted to add to the voices saying that we’ve all been there @moonkid. I started being really sick st 3.5 this time and have had many “I can’t do this” moments. I’m glad you’ve had some fluids and hope they help with feeling better. I think the dehydration really affects your ability to think clearly. In my last pregnancy, they wanted me to be admitted, but refused because I was utterly convinced I would catch mrsa if I went in. The gp tried to explain that I was being irrational, probably due to my dehydrated state, but I was having none of it. It’s a bit embarrassing to think back on, but my brain was just so foggy at the time.

My current irrationality is directed at every single soul who told me “it won’t be as bad the second time around.” I could happily kill them all right now!

Is anyone using ketone testing strips? I’m a bit worried that I’m not really being monitored, apart from by a gp, who it’s pretty difficult to get to see. Our midwives don’t I know up until 9 weeks now apparently. I was thinking of getting some to keep an eye on things and as a good gauge of when I might need to see the gp. My sickness was so bad at about 8 weeks last time, so I suppose I’m thinking in advance.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a good day. I don’t usually work Fridays, so will need to collect ds from school at 11 and try to keep him happy all afternoon. No idea how I’ll manage!

Morning lovely ladies. I haven't been keeping up the past week or so, the cyclizine was working and I was just trying to deal with exhaustion. As of yesterday evening the vomiting is back 😫 in work as well, wasn't ideal. Vomiting this morning too so waiting for gp to call me back and try to get an appt today before the weekend.
What should I ask for now? Promethazine or prochlorperazine to try in combo with the cyclizine? Is one preferable over the other?
I'm 7 weeks tomorrow and just absolutely dreading the coming weeks based on last time. I can't hide this from work much longer I don't think.

cattaxi I really wouldn't bother with ketostix. Ketone levels are simply not a reliable indicator of dehydration. Forward thinking hospitals no longer use them diagnostically, and the RCOG guidelines say they shouldn't be used such. You can tell yourself if you're getting dehydrated; urine output vs what you know you are getting into your body, dry mouth, urine colour (the darker it is, the more dehydrated you are), skin pinch test.

elkie I wouldn't hide it from work if I were you; as soon as they know you're pregnant you have all sorts of legal protections . Plus they are then better able to support you!! I don't think there's an argument for one of those meds over another. whichever you try first, if it's not working within in a few days, insist on trying the other.

Today is a morning of many bowel movements and painful (really flipping painful) tummy cramps inbetween. This is a bloody big reason why full time return to work isn't happening any time soon. If for no other reason that there isn't a stool/step in the loo at work!

Elkie poor you :( fwiw I don’t think they would prescribe promethazine alongside cyclizine. From what I understand they are very similar drugs. One works better for some than others but not to take both (I’m not medical though so don’t hold me to that). I think it’s more likely they would introduce something else like prochlorperazine if cyclizine is giving some help to continue that too, if cyclizine isn’t helping at all they may swap to promethazine to see if that works better for you. That’s my guess but these doctors seem to all do different things! Make sure you have something to try over the week end though.

Forever doesn’t sound great with your mw situ. I’m glad things have improved so much from 20 weeks for you though. Things are definitely a lot better for me from about 16 weeks (now 22) but life is still a struggle. I had had some good days and felt more positive then I had a couple of weeks of constant bad days. Yesterday was the first good day I’ve had in ages and it was so lovely. I barely did anything all day (maybe that’s why!) but it was so good not to feel sick all the time. I even managed to do a cross stitch birthday card for dd. I feel mentally happier that I’m going to write down everything that is making me anxious and down and give it to mw at apt next week. It’ll probably be pages! But I’ll feel like I can give it to whoever at my various appointments and it’ll explain better than me where I’m at.

Eal oh no to a day of dashing to the loo. Hope you don’t have to venture out far today.

Another bastard bloody bleed. So sitting in triage waiting for doctor. Who is in surgery. So who knows how long it's gonna be. Heard heartbeat and plenty of movements, so not too worried. Just bored. And bloody frustrated cos seriously, bleeds on top of everything, are you kidding me?!

Hugs to everyone feeling rubbish. I tried to think what would be a good treat thing to reference for this group, like when people say ‘cake for you!’ or something, but all I could think of was ginger biscuits

Forever oh dear, chicken pox! Do you have other children? When DC1 got it he was out of action for two weeks, then just as he was clear DC2 started and was out for two weeks. Apparently that’s really common. Chicken pox is a bit of a headache, they can’t go anywhere and of course get really itchy. Are you being looked after too? I know they say to be watchful of chicken pox when you’re pregnant, I’m not sure what they do but my DH is immunosuppressed and when the DCs got chicken pox they did sent him to Virology to check his immunity, as they can create a sort of personal antiviral (or something like that) to boost the immunity (but I appreciate he wasn’t pregnant!).

Got signed off earlier this week for a further three weeks which is welcome. For some reason I thought maybe I’d be feeling good this week, I’m now 12 weeks and had a good 1-2 days last week (not back to normal but definitely class as good). Wednesday was okay but that’s about it! Ended up dreaming about work last night too, very much a standard ‘anxiety dream’, it has been on my mind more of late so that’ll teach me! I’m basically sort of ok as long as I stay in bed most of the time although I can still be sick, but it’s the most stable for me.

Also GP ‘officially’ said I have hyperemesis, which I know when I first joined here others said it sounded like it, but no doctor actually said it and as I haven’t been vomiting non stop or hospitalised I almost felt like it wasn’t ‘proper’ hyperemesis - I’m not trying to compete and glad it hasn’t been that way! But almost like, I didn’t want to make it out as bigger than what it is? When women are suffering worse than I am, it’s like I don’t want to invade that space when I know it could be worse. So I’ve just been calling it ‘severe sickness and nausea’ (which is basically hyperemesis I guess, lol), but it was a little bit weirdly validating for the doctor to say that. To have recognition that I really am unusually sick and nauseous for a pregnant woman. I hope that makes sense!

I also think this thread and all of the links have helped so much, because I started meds relatively early (at about 5.5 weeks pg) because when my sickness started around 4.5 weeks I posted my own thread and someone linked me to here. I think if I hadn’t read all of this really helpful info, and the Pregnancy Sickness Support stuff and the BMJ podcast (which was great and I so related to the experiences they shared), I would have been hesitant to accept the meds. But because of all of that I read the RCOG guidelines and understood it was all safe. Since then I’ve learned that the earlier you start treatment, the more effective it can be. So a big thank you and to all, especially to Lucinda for the intro to managing HG, I think I would have been so much worse otherwise as I would have avoided meds, or I wouldn’t have ploughed through with the cyclizine (lots of encouragement here helped me keep going with it during my first week of the stuff!), would have tried to return to work...

Just a soppy moment from me

Oh eallison cross post with you, what a lot to be contending with. Glad to hear you’ve had enough observations to be reassured but still no fun to be hanging around the hospital. Hope you get seen quickly.

Back from gp.. He wants to try me on promethazine instead of cyclizine so I guess I'll see how that goes. Only 25mg twice a day (I gather you can take it 4 x although dr didn't say that). At least he was quite nice - young and not yet broken by the nhs! I got him to book me another appt on Monday morning too in case this doesn't work, as it's so difficult to get one. I think I will just tell work now so I can feel less guilty. Hope you all have restful Fridays!

Beforeihit I think ‘a nice lie down for you’ would be as good as a bit of cake usually does. It’s the only thing that helps and I never have a problem doing when pg . Or maybe a bath? But that can be too much something when things are bad. I agree I’ve learnt so much from this thread, if it wasn’t for someone on here mentioning the name of a London nhs consultant that gave my gp and I medication advice over the phone I’m convinced I wouldn’t have been allowed full dose ondansetron or adding in prochlorperazine which is what has helped me survive.

Eal oh how very rubbish for you. Is it just one of those things that you get as an added joy?

Elkie I wondered if they would do that first. I had that (but the other way round) initially with dd. It wasn’t until this pg and I did a lot of research beforehand knowing how bad things were with dd that I knew I coukd have more added and I had to push for that but I’m glad I did. Hopefully it’ll help you. A warning it made me incredibly sleepy initially.