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.

Had another big bleed t 1.30am this morning. Contractions built til to a regular 5 mins inbetween (And they blood hurt and were lasting 1-2minutes). Then from 6am they slowed and had my last one at 7.30. I'm all of the physical and emotional tired, and just want to start the induction process. We've (hubby and I) decided that initially at least we will refuse the drip and see how things pan out. Want the gel and whatever waters are left breaking. Im currenrly waiting for the doctor on duty to get back to me having discussed whether we can induce today.

Good luck eal! Hopefully, your baby will be here soon. Do make sure you get talked through all the options though if possible. At the end of the day, if baby is safe that's all that matters. And your safety as well obviously. Fingers crossed for you!!

eallison Good luck. I do think they should have provided more reassurance. That sounded very painful. Wishing you all luck. I am confident all will be fine.

Good luck @eallison88! It sounds like your body is gearing up for labour, which should help the induction process along.

Hi Calmer and 1potato nice to see you again (in a manner of speaking!), sorry to hear you’re not feeling great, hope things settle a bit soon.

DeadDoor you poor thing, wishing you lots of respite from the sickness. Was your DH different last time around? Do you think he’s struggling with change in what he can do? By the way, I’m on your side of course, you’re the one suffering here! But I’ve seen a few people have difficulty getting support from their partners, it makes me wonder if they (the partners) are trying to withdraw from how hard it is - because they can, in a way, they shouldn’t, but they can say, “Oh, I have work/I promised this to so-and-so/I’m going to church and obviously that’s important” and so on, to try and convince themselves and others that they have no choice. I might be wrong, but I can’t understand why else a partner would leave their incredibly sick loved one and even leave them to do things like looking after a child/ren.

eallison sounds like a lot is happening for you now, wishing you the best with it at least some time or some day soon you will be with baby and also on the road to recovery.

After my relatively good stretch, the vomiting returned. Thankfully not constant though. I was having breakfast, some cornflakes, DH asked me if I wanted to invite my family over. I said, “I’m not feeling much up to it, I’m a bit nauseous... actually a lot nauseous... actually I feel terrible...” and promptly ran to the bathroom bringing up all of my breakfast it was very sudden, and I feel a bit bleurgh now, but at least I’m not still feeling hugely nauseous, so that’s something. I have retreated to the bedroom for some peace and quiet and rest. 22 weeks today. Just 17 weeks (well, approximately) until induction. I’m doing the countdown!

Eal I really think given how much your body is preparing itself for labour by itself that the induction should work for you. This time tomorrow you might be well on your way to this all being over! Just think!

Before that’s rubbish. I hope you are ok now and it doesn’t last.

Dead I don’t think my dh truly believes how bad it’s been for me. I think he thinks I’m being weak and other people would just somehow carry on and cope better than me. He genuinely doesn’t seem realise how intense the nausea often is. I hope yours gets more understanding. The only good thing for me is dh knows how much it broke me last time and how much I reall never ever wanted to do this again so I think appreciates that I’m going through it. Today he’s continued his productivity and help by cleaning the bathroom. Thank goodness. It was desperate! I clean the sink when I can and stick loo cleaner in the loo but the dust etc it was gettigmgrim in there and I just haven’t been able to do it.

Hello all. I’m feeling like a bit of a twat about this, but I am so miserable right now. I’m 13w on tues and have not had a single day since before I tested positive when I’ve felt any relief from nausea.

I’m only vomiting a couple of times a week. But this has turned my life upside down and feel like I’m at the end of options!

I’m nauseous all hours of the day. I wake up nauseous (it usually wakes me), and I battle to get to sleep due the nausea as well.

I’ve tried every ginger commodity available, someone suggested actimel which made it worse.... I feel like my diet consists almost solely on watermelon, toast and porridge.

I’m going to book an appt with the doc, but I’m keen to avoid cyclizine because it’s so badly researched. Can anyone give me any suggestions for anything else I might not have tried or medications that are medically proven to be low risk in pregnancy???

Sessy where is your info on cyclizine being so badly researched? It’s been used during pg for many years and is widely considered on of the safest medication options. Fwiw I believe there is one drug that was actually licensed for pg sickness last year but I forget the name of it as I’m not familiar with it, maybe someone here knows. It has vitamin b6 in it as well as another drug.

Sessy I believe it’s Xoneva that’s officially licensed for pg sickness.

The NHS references only one study that specifically looked at the link between antihistamines and foetal abnormalities taken in the first trimester, based on 111 mothers. It’s purely choice, and I don’t begrudge anyone theirs, but that’s not a broad enough study for me. It’s not used in the US for anything less than extreme cases of HG, nor in Aus.

I didn’t realise about cyclizine not being used in usa unless extreme. Which is weird because they use ondansetron a lot more willingly and easily there than here where it is in the next grade up in terms of risk and not prescribed nearly so routinely and willingly whereas cyclizine is usually the go to first line drug offered and has been used in pg women in the uk for many years.

@sessy I think it’s hard.
For me once I was onto multiple hospital admissions and being permanently dehydrated with ketones I figured that that was far more damaging to my baby than the medications. From 6 weeks I took cyclizine. Added ondansetron at week 8 and stemetil and steroids at week 12. Took steroids until week 20 and the remainder of meds until delivery.

There was a Danish study that included 2000 expectant mothers who took ondansetron conducted in 2013, with a total of over 600,000 patients studied. I would consider that a much stronger case study, so whilst the drug could be more potent, it has a stronger clinical study backing its use.

@beanhunter, you’re absolutely right. It’s such a responsibility isn’t it, weighing up the dehydration and weight loss vs the drugs. That’s what i want to see the doc for I think.

Do any of you here have any magic solutions that I might not have tried yet???

Sessy19 Welcome. I am sorry you are suffering such awful nausea.
As Reastie and others say, tht is odd about Cyclizine being only used in severe cases in the US, when it is the opposite here. It has been used here since the 1980's and while by definition it is difficult to do studies on large numbers of pregnant woman, it is considered very safe. Part of the reason that Ondansetron is not used so much here is in fact that it is much more expensive than Cyclzine, and an NHS doctor has to watch his expenditure. A good anti acid like Omprazole or Ranitidine can really help the nausea. If you are in the US, I am not sure what they are called there! It is possible to have a form of Hyperemesis without much vomtiting, and unfortunately, also get dehydrated by not being able to swallow enough liquids. Congratulations on the water melon: many find those wonderful.
Some other drinks and food that might help: Lucozade, flat full sugar coke, ice lollies, ice cubes, the juiice of tinned fruit, fizzy orange, lemonade, Dr Pepper, orange squash, orange juice (if not too acid), Elderflower water, Elderflower cordial and tonic water (eallsion's tipple), tonic water, soda water, fizzy water, Iron Bru, and sips of chocolate milkshake (maybe soya). - The names of some of those must be different, too. For foods of a sort, I think you mentioned toast and porridge: nibbles of crisps or chips, Scotch pancakes, baked potatoes, tinned fruit, biscuits, cheap ice cream and slices of - as you say - melon and also mango. A truly dreadful diet!
eallison Thinking of you. As Baby was due to be induced on the 29th, that timing on baby's part was amazing!

DeadDoorPost I know it is hard for OH's to empathise with this, but I do think that is selfish of him. To my way of thinking, an act of loving kindness towards you in missing church to look after LO for you when feeling bad would be the more Christian thing to do.
beforeihit30 Oh dear, poor you, I hope you feel better soon. I had to laugh at your witty description of mild nausea to a dash to the loo in the space of a few sentances.
Waves to all. I hope eallison is doing OK.

Here is the new DueDates list.

Due Dates
8DaysAWeek 1st May
tinyradish 1 May
foreverblues 5 May
Plasticgiraffe 10 May
Mamabear13 18 May
bumblebee 20 May
SashaMonsta 31 May
Nighttimenope 13 July
evuscha 26 July
emma 4 August
CalmerComber 5 August TWINS
Teddyreddy 9 August
advocadoo 11 August
canonlyhope 13 August
Bili 16 August
Hairgician 16 August TWINS!
norbert 26 August
beforei hit30 3 September
stroen 4 September
DeadDoorPost 8 September
1Potato 8 September
MoonKid 1 October TWINS!
Elkiemacjibe 12 October
cattaxi 19 October

After a 3 hour nap I felt much better, and now I've got food in front of me I'm feeling sick. I can't win.
Even went to book a GP appt and earliest available one is Thursday 9th may! Going to phone them up tomorrow and see if I can talk to someone over the phone. I really have started to get worse. I've lost the weight I'd started putting back on, and the nausea is really the worst thing. I may have to get someone to watch DS tomorrow if I can't get meds soon. My nan may be able to help. We shall see. I'm feeling really rough.

Sorry it's a moaning thread from me today. I've not felt this bad since last pregnancy.

Hi Sessy I understand your concerns, and was also initially nervous about taking cyclizine. My understanding is that its safety has been established not through medical trials/studies, which are much harder to do with pregnant women, but through meta studies/systematic reviews, looking at outcomes where women have used cyclizine in pregnancy whether or not it was prescribed for nausea and vomiting. I got this from RCOG initially, I can’t actually find the link I read before (just because I’m tired probably!) but here is a link to some of the RCOG guidelines, p10 is where the below excerpt is from and through that you will be able to check the citations.

“A Cochrane review and other systematic reviews and meta-analyses and birth registry data have reported on the safety and efficacy of many antiemetics for use in NVP and HG, with no increased risk of teratogenesis or other adverse pregnancy outcomes. These drugs include: antihistamines (histamine H1 receptor antagonists) such as promethazine, cyclizine, cinnarizine, doxylamine and dimenhydrinate; phenothiazines including prochlorperazine, chlorpromazine and perphenazine; and dopamine antagonists including and including metoclopramide and domperidone.”

To be clear I’m not trying to sell you on cyclizine, just sharing the information I found and that was shared by my doctor and other online resources, in case you hadn’t seen these (apologies if you have already).

Apart from Xoneva as Reastie mentioned there aren’t any specifically licensed drugs for pregnancy sickness and nausea, due to the difficulty in the development and testing of them to be able to make that claim. A lot of medication we take in pregnancy is based on these reviews of outcomes following years or decades of use to manage various conditions rather than being licensed (ps I’m not trying to sound patronising, I recognise you’re probably plenty familiar with all of these things!). I’m also on medication to reduce the risk of blood clotting and a type of hormone replacement due to my autoimmune condition. Neither of these are expressly licensed for use in pregnancy, as such, but have been used for decades so there is a lot of evidence around birth outcomes (and in those specific cases, outcomes are improved by continuing medication due to the impact of non treatment on the baby).

I just wanted to share that as I’ve been in the nervous camp around medication several times now (third pregnancy and seem to need more meds each time ), of course do whatever feels right for you and your baby

Thanks Reastie seems to be calming down, slightly terrified of eating again but I’ve had a bit of potato and so far so good!

Took me far too long to post that waves to Lucinda!

Oh DeadDoor go ahead and moan, it sounds rough. Hopefully you can get a break soon and time with a doctor ASAP.

They won't induce me today. I've had my cry and my strop and now I'm over it. It means i can talk to my consultant in the morning and get a clearer plan in place. They won't let me leave the labour ward (but wnot help me get into labour...!) tho. Which i have mixed feelings about. Id rather be in my room with all the midwives I know and have a relationship with. But I feel like I'm likely to get an earlier induction tomorrow if I'm on their board and in their room when they have their "who shall we assign this available midwife to" conversation. So we're now having a star wars marathon (after hubby got over his trauma of what order we would watch them in). I'm being calm and relaxed and preparing myself for a nice smooth labour tomorrow. I'm hoping that my body is as ready as it seems to accept the induction so I don't even need to have a conversation about the drip.

@Sessy19 they can't test on pregnant women but if it's any reassurance I've been on cyclizine since week 6-24 and he looks like he's healthy enough and I've switched to prochloperzine last week for migraines and sickness.
Was also on stetmil at one point.
I'm intending to brave coming of the drugs by week 27 as I've read the side effects kick in there with the baby coming out shaky and stuff but if I need to i will take stuff.
It's so difficult because you obviously don't want to put something harmful in but at the same time you need to be able to survive.
I don't know if it'll be any help but lucozade sport kept me going at week 13 and the doctor said at least it was some form of calories.

@eallison88 that's frustrating but at least you get to see the consultant before it happens, curious question did you go chronological order of the story line or start 4,5,6? 😂 I love a bit of Star Wars.

@DeadDoorpost Sorry you're not getting much sympathy from dh, I really don't think anyone understands what it's like unless you've been through it.
Although poor dh has his shower interrupted often by me storming through and being sick , almost gutted I haven't projectiled into the bathtub when he's been using it 😂

Had a good day today went mini golfing and for a walk only was sick into the bath as I peed this morning and I have felt a lot more normal since the mat triage doctor sorted me, only problem is I have work tomorrow after annual leave and I'm dreading it but the end is in sight, 4 weeks until mat leave!

@eallison88 you poor thing. The waiting is the worst. I think you’ve made the right choices so far - esp waiting for wireless monitoring to be available.

apologies in advance for the complete self pity post
This evening I feel like I've hit a brick wall and can't stop crying. I'm only 6+2 and the finish line is so overwhelmingly far away.
I've never had it start as early as it did this time around, I have 3 other children that I'm struggling to look after. Sunday evening means husband buggers off to work again tomorrow and I've another week of school runs. Wahh I don't like to wish time away but I really am wishing the next few months away. I know it's going to get a lot worse before it starts to get better and I just don't know how I'm going to survive this journey for a 3rd time
Sorry I know this is completely self centred, I need to vent and other than dh there is nobody else I can offload to.

PickledEgg89 Much sympathy. It must b e so hard with 3 other LO's.
I remember that you are on Ondansetron and Cyclizine and laxatives(a very considerate doctor, to add the latter; so many forget!) Might an anti acid help? Can they add another medication? I have heard that one of the B vitamins - I think B6 - can make a surprising difference and some GP's prescribe this as well. Is there anyone on hand who could help out a bit? I wonder if there might be help available via your local health centre with a student nursery worker who might help out wiht the other LO's, if you feel very desperate?
Sorry, this is all question marks.
eallison Gentle cyber pats on offer. Keep calm. You have handled it all brilliantly so far; I am sure that everyone else,like me, is quite in awe of you over it. As others say, I hope you get the right room and we are all cheering you on.
DeadDoorPost I hopethis is a temorary glitch for you, and your Grandmother can help.
beanhunter Missed you, sorry. Lovely to hear from you. How is baby?
Waves to everyone....

More heavy bleeding. Waiting to.see a doctor cos naturally I timed it for shift handover

sessy I can only echo what others have said, and then offer my personal experience. Many of these drugs have been used by an awful lot of women over a great many years. The RCOG guidelines are not going to recommend drugs that have been shown to be unsafe. In my first pregnancy we quickly worked out what meds worked - ondansetron. I started it at 7weeks and took then full dose (8mg x3daily) pretty much throughout til the day I gave birth at 41 weeks (I had a few weeks in the 30s weeks that I didn't need the full dose, but still needed something). This pregnancy has been completely different. I started cyclizine as soon as I peed on the stick (in consultation with my GP) and added ondansetron about a week later. About 10 days later I was first admitted for hydration as the meds were not working. Over the next 5 week's we tried various combos to various degrees of success, but nothing controlled it. Things got worse and I ended upon high dose steroids at 10 weeks. This still didn't really work, and a week later I was offered a termination as my next option. I was so ill and unable to keep food/drink down. When we made clear that this wasn't a option they upped my steroids again. There were a number of risks, but the vast majority were for me rather than baby (restricted growth being main risk for baby, after 7weeks when there is an increased risk of something thatbi can't remember - but increased from very low to slightly less low). The balance was simple: my preganncy could not have continued the way that it was. I needed the risky high dose steroids. I'm now 34 weeks and still on a high dose, tho have managed to wean down a little. My baby would not still be in my belly were it not for unproven and untested drugs on terms of trials. I had to trust the experience of consultants who had used them before, and the fact that they are in the RCOG guidelines (as a last resort drug). If you are unable to tolerate food or drink then you are going to be seriously ill and that is sure to have a negative impact on your baby. I don't say this to try to bully you into taking any meds, but to try and give some context.

DM also available to help me tomorrow which is good. Managed to eat most of a pizza (cold) and the so far kept it down along with a creme egg. Now got pains in my back almost like period pains but I'm guessing it's coz I need the loo. Not been able to go for a few days but not constipated. Still got some lactulose I think but haven't needed it for ages. Last pregnancy kick started my gut again.

Thinking of you eal. Hope you get some rest and all the help you need.