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.
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.
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.

Thanks for asking composer. Thank goodness bleeding stopped so didn’t go back to hospital. Got a good nights sleep last night which helped too. This morning I made some soup and lasagne for the freezer (working around what ingredients I can manage to cook with) and it absolutely exhausted me! Just in bed now but have to try to get up in a min to visit relatives visiting local family. Hopefully won’t feel too sick later from doing too much but who knows. Got nurse apt in morning so back to the hospital again tomorrow.

Composed I sympathise with being too scared to eat after you’re sick. Can you manage to drink? Could you try something that will give you some energy like a sugary drink or milkshake or something or does that not work for you? The feeling so weak and needing food but being too scared to try is such a tough cycle.

Dead is that moat park as in near west malling? (I know someone on here is localish to me) if so I think that’s the park with a nice playground? It’s on my list of places to take dd once I’m not pg! (I’ve never been but heard good things). Let me know if you have tips on where to park etc. Glad you managed to get out and see some people. Mentally it makes such a difference but it’s so tough physically to do. Sorry to hear about your nan.

Reastie I am so glad that the bleeding has stopped.
composed You poor thing. The early stage is so hard. Things will get better. Sorry to hear of fear of eating following vomiting. Great advice from Reastie Some find that the famous tinned fruit and its juice is less intimidating to tackle when you feel like that.

Reastie glad to hear the bleeding has stopped, hope you get some time to rest.

I'm a twin, me and my sister had separate rooms but always crept into one bed at night. Hated being separated. Even though the teachers insisted we were.

I've had a couple of good days but the tiredness does get to me. I'm a nurse so know all the signs to watch out for, for dehydration but will get some urinalysis sticks from work through a friend.

reastie Moat Park is in Maidstone. They have on site parking but it is pay and display.

Currently sat waiting for the Health Centre to open so I can go inside for my appt. Only 50 minutes to wait...

Managed to be seen 20 minutes early which is good, so I'll be finished closer to half 10. The drink made me feel sick pretty soon after having it but I'm just feeling tired now more than anything else.

Hi everyone

I've been reading through these threads and am hoping for a bit of advice. It's awful to read about all of your stories of feeling unwell, but I'm also feeling hopeful that there are solutions that do actually work and so many women have gotten through this.

I started feeling nauseous around 4w ("yay! how exciting" I thought, I'm really pregnant - little did I know...). Then, as each day passed, I felt worse and worse. I was hospitalized twice in the past 3 days and given anti-emetics and fluids.

I was in A&E yesterday and their diagnosis is that I do not have HG because I'm not vomiting enough. I have severe nausea (on a scale of 1-10, if 10 is vomiting, I'm at a 9, 24 hours a day), but I can force down broth or lemon water without vomiting.

I've lost 10lbs in the past week and a half, and feel so weak and tired and helpless. I can't sleep at night due to the nausea.

So my question: is this just 'normal pregnancy' like the doctor has told me? I understand that HG sufferers are usually sick 20+ times per day, which is not my case. But I also struggle to understand how losing so much weight and feeling totally incapacitated due to nausea is 'normal' either. I'm 7w as of today and am worried that I'm still early and that the worst is yet to come :-(

I am hesitating posting this here as I know that many people suffer from severe vomiting which I don't have. But hopefully your experiences might help me to understand what is going on. I've had really dark thoughts over the past ten days it has gotten so bad and I am feeling devastated with doctors telling me it's normal and I'm just "a bit unlucky" to have gotten morning sickness a bit worse than the norm.

Veronica I’ve been diagnosed with HG despite having minimal vomiting and just extremely bad nausea. In some ways I think the vomiting can be a little better as on the occasions that I was sick the nausea was a little better for maybe the next 20 minutes which was a relief as it was otherwise 24/7. My nausea was so severe I basically stopped eating and drinking. All I was drinking was 300ml (or less) of water a day and only eating maybe 1 apple and one or two biscuits a day. So in my opinion having constant nausea at a level that leaves you bedridden and not eating and drinking is not normal.

Veronica I’ve actually been diagnosed with hg this time (was fobbed off with being told I was normal last time) but I have the bone crunching nausea and spend my life forcing my body not to be sick. I felt a fraud joining on here because of others being a lot more sick than me but they have been lovely and welcoming and understanding, and I have so many matching symptoms with them (not just nausea) that seem to be over and above normal pg. things like at times not being able to talk or move or watch tv etc because they all trigger nausea. Having to lie in bed or on the sofa for hours because I can’t do anything due to the nausea etc. Fwiw your experience to me sounds beyond the norm. I think so many people are fobbed off and told to go away and it’s normal when they don’t realise it’s really not! I believe there’s no official actual definition of hg but the term Hyperemesis literally translates as excessive sickness in pregnancy, which I count myself to have. It’s surely not normal at 37 weeks to have to enforce myself to rest for most of every day as doing anything triggers nausea. Have you got any medication to comtinue with at home? Do you have a helpful gp you could see and chat about medication options? The sooner you get on medication the better, and there are different options to try. The fact it’s started early and has already landed you in hospital visits surely should alert them that is excessive. It’s not normal for pg women to be in hospital for regular ms!

Dead glad you got seen early. How are you feeling now? I think I was getting a Maidstone and west malling Park confused! Glad you had good weather for the family thing.

Fluffy I imagine being a nurse would be an incredibly difficult job with this, to have to deal with various issues and be physically tired from it.

Had more bleeding again last night, thought I’d have to make another dash trip to hospital but it was only literally a drop and nothing more and no pain or change in movements so phew! Went to nurse this morning for pre op and have lots of reading to do about various things in preparation. Provisional date is next Wednesday, which is scary!

Veronica being admitted into hospital and losing that much weight means you certainly DO have HG. They class anything from 5% body weight loss as a symptom. And I didn't get diagnosed until after I'd given birth last time. This time it was pretty quickly diagnosed.

Feeling much better now I've eaten, thanks for asking reastie. Next Wednesday! You must be excited for this to all be over soon

Thank you DeadDoorpost, Twoshades and Reastie - this is reassuring in that I've been feeling like I'm crazy trying to convince doctors that something isn't right and they keep just saying "you're pregnant - of course you're going to feel sick." Now I have discharge papers from the hospital that say clearly that I don't have HG, which has put me in an awkward position with my job as I've called in sick due to this.

"My nausea was so severe I basically stopped eating and drinking." -- this is exactly me. They're saying it's normal that I'm losing so much weight because I'm not eating, but that's my point I'm trying to get across to them. It's not normal that I feel so nauseous that I can't eat.

They gave me an IV of Cyclizine yesterday in A&E. I had a terrible reaction and thought I was having a stroke (I've since googled it and read that it's common when given via IV vs tablets in a short period of time). Within 30 seconds of the injection, I fainted, couldn't see/blurred vision, dizzy when I came to, hands numb, heart racing and shaking uncontrollably and felt "high".

They've sent me home with Metoclopramide (Maxolon), which I'm taking every 8 hours. So far the only symptoms are that I'm drowsy with blurred vision still, and nausea is down from a 9/10 to a 3/10. I slept for the first time in two weeks last night. So, at least there's that.

Veronica reducion from 9-3/10 sounds like a really good improvement. Medication likely won’t cure completely. Have you tried to eat anything since having medication to see if you can keep it down?

Reastie Yes I am feeling very hopeful thanks to the Metoclopramide - I have only had two doses so far. I had some instant noodles for breakfast (for some reason it's one of the only things that doesn't turn my stomach - I know how bad they are though ). That was this morning though and now the idea of food again makes my stomach churn. I will try again in about an hour. If the medication will allow me to eat more and sleep at night, then I will gladly accept this level of nausea. Anything is better than 24 hours a day feeling like death on a stick.

Lots of activity here. And TWINS! congrats Hermione. The twins list is growing!

Glad things are okay Reastie.

Veronica another one here with HG but not constantly vomiting. I did start off vomiting regularly, but that became much more managed once on medication (eg 1-2 times a week). I’m now 27 weeks and it’s been about 3 weeks or so since I last vomited, so it’s not a common occurrence for me anymore. My issue was always the crushing nausea, lying in bed just wishing time away. At first I was told ‘severe pregnancy sickness’ and eventually my GP named hyperemesis (maybe when I was around 12 weeks or so?), by which point I had already figured I had it even if they didn’t give me the label. I’ve also not been hospitalised, thankfully I got on medication fairly early which seemed to help a lot to avoid that, and I don’t think I lost any weight, I seemed to be gaining at midwife appointments (and I’m definitely gaining now!). I think I basically spent about 3-4 months hunkered down just trying to survive, I know that’s definitely not normal morning sickness. Also don’t worry about work in terms of your discharge papers, can you get a note from a GP instead? One that says ‘pregnancy sickness’ should be sufficient. I’ve been off work all of my pregnancy and it’s likely to stay that way, only one note said ‘hyperemesis of pregnancy’, the rest all just say ‘pregnancy sickness’ - just needs explicit ‘pregnancy’ in it so it’s not treated like normal sickness absence. At my GP they asked me what I wanted on it (in case I didn’t want to inform them of pregnancy yet), so I always just asked for pregnancy sickness so it was obvious that I’m sick and it’s pregnancy related! The note itself automatically says ‘this patient is too sick to work’ etc so didn’t feel like I needed to explain any more than that. Hopefully you can get a note and not have to worry about that too much. I think officially the diagnosis of HG requires lots of specific, and sometimes irrelevant (eg ketones), symptoms. There’s a big push in the medical community to change this, some docs already look beyond the official guidelines.

Went for blood test today, this week seems to be appointment week as I have consultant one day and midwife another also. Got home and felt nauseous, and thought, “Oh dear, why am I so queasy...”. After a minute or two I reminded myself that it was likely just the HG sounds so silly now, I’ve been slowly feeling a little better, the nausea has been much more manageable, so when it was stronger earlier it’s like I had forgotten who I am! It’s not even been better for all that long!

My house is also becoming difficult to navigate due to boxes of baby stuff gradually arriving (and Amazon’s awful approach to excessive packaging). Lots of organising to do... very slowly...

Got home, ate, threw up. Felt better for it but typical.

in hospital on a drip, ended up fainting earlier but refused to go to hospital due to past experience. Still feel horrid and its our eid tomorrow (like xmas for muslims).

Crying my eyes out as I won’t be able to make it special for my dd. Hope everyone else is doing better x

Oh composed that's a real shame. Hopefully your Eid will still be amazing, but you do need to remember to help yourself. Fainting isn't a small thing and you need to have the help.

Welcome to Veronica75018. I am so sorry that they were dismissive in the hospital, when if things were normal, you would not need to be admitted for fluids or have such a dramatic weight loss. It is very possible to have a form of Hyperemesis with minimum vomiting, as others have said. Great advice from DeadDoorPost "TwoShades1* Reastie DeadDoorPost beforeihit30 and others.
I am so glad the Metaclopramide is helping. That sounds as if it is at a far more bearable level. An anti acid can be really helpful with nauusea, too. Take heart, almost nobody feels as bad as in the first tri and most people get a big improvement somewhere between 14 and 20 weeks. Some drinks that might help: flat full sugar coke, ice lollies, ice cubes, the juice of tinned fruit, soda water, lemonade, Robinson's fruit drinks, fizzy water, Elderflower Water, Edlerflower cordial and tonic water - that was eallison's tipple, fizzy orange, orange sqauash, orange juice (if not too acid) tonic water, Lucoazade, Dr Pepper, Iron Bru and sips of chocolate milkshake (maybe soya). Foods of a sort include nibbles of crisps and chips, cheap ice cream, tinned fruit, Scotch pancakes, biscuits, cuppa soup, baked potatoes, slices of melon and mango and jelly.
composed I am sorry to hear about Eid and dd. You wil make it up to her in the future, abd a sibling is a priceless gift. With fainting you are better off in hospital.
Reastie Poor you about more bleeding, if only a little. That does seem very soon - but what a relief for you it wll be.
beforeihit30 It's amazing about all those twins, isn't it? That's particularly good advice to Veronica about the fact that the phrasing doesn't matter, the point that it mentions pregnancy is.
Those rigid guidelnes are frustrating.
fluffyjumper That makes sense, of course, as you shared the uterus.
I am glad you can get hold of the sticks at work.
DeadDoorPost Good that you feel better for eating.
Waves to all...

Hi ladies, can I join as well please? Second pregnancy- very early days but the sickness/nausea has hit me right from the off. I was hospitalised the last time and needed two days of drips. I really want to avoid going down that path if I can this time round but I'm struggling massively. I wanted to know if it was safe to take anti-sickness medication (last time I was on cyclizine and stemitil) while breastfeeding? My lo is currently 9 months old (yup, things happened a lot sooner than we thought they would!) and although weaning, has regular feeds during the day and night. Any help appreciated.

Good morning all. Just checking in. Yesterday was a good-bad day. It started well and I managed to eat some cereal and milk for my breakfast, along with peach, apple and strawberries. Did not feel sick at all (hurrah!), but then on the bus home I started to feel it coming on and I only just managed to get through my front door before throwing everything up. Then from 3:30PM onwards the nausea was horrendous. I could barely lift my head off the sofa and had no energy.

Woke up today feeling.... eh.... not good but not bad. We'll see how today goes!

@oyoyoy more than safe whilst breastfeeding. I was on meds whilst breastfeeding my then 14 month old

Are you sure @DeadDoorpost? I'm scared my 9 month old will get poorly :/ I rang and spoke to my GP yesterday- he said to err on the side of caution and to try natural methods (ginger, etc.) first- I wanted to scream at him to say that's not how HG works. On my way to see another GP this morning to get this pregnancy confirmed and will be picking their brain re: sickness meds too.

Pretty sure. I was on about 5 different ones, all fine, no problems. Only reason I'm not breastfeeding him now is because I wanted a break before the new baby arrived. And he kept biting me harder and harder.

If you have problems, speak to Pregnancy Sickness Support who should be able to advise you

Thinking of all of you going through this. It's pure torture.

We've had a horrendous week, I've been an inpatient for 8 days now. Nothing is touching the sickness . IV cyclizine works for about an hour but that's it. Me and DH had a long discussion with a doctor about termination but we just can't do it. This is all so bloody hard.

Oyoyoy - they're both fine. Until recently I was breastfeeding my toddler on both

@putputput you've been through this before, although don't remember you having it this bad. Have you had a scan yet or are you too early? So sorry you've been in hospital for 8 days so far!