Hyperemesis sufferers please help me

[crokky]

I am 8 weeks pg and have hyperemesis (for the 2nd time). I have lost nearly a stone already and I can't face looking at/smelling/eating any food. Can anyone suggest anything that I might be able to eat? The only think that I can stomach at the moment is cornflakes (which I don't ususally eat funnily enough!) and they do come back up anyway, but not every time. Was there anything at all that you ladies with this horrible illness could stomach?

just wanted to offer you all the sympathy in the world. I'm just coming out the other end of hyperemesis.

TBH i found nothing helped really until they put me on really strong anti sickness tablets. Then I found peanut butter sanwich's the only thing i could eat although you are supposed to avoid it.

Ribena ice lollies.

Sugary sucky lollies, like chuba chups - the sugar gets into your system and helps break the cycle of food/liquid hitting an empty stomach and immediately coming out again. Small chwey sweets (Starbursts for me) also ok and easy to up-chuck if that is what is going to happen.

Huge sympathy.I ended up on meds in both pgs (Avomine and somenthing else) and on a drip both times.And it has put paid to me having the 3rd child I'd have liked. Hope you feel better soon.

Hi

I had this with all three pregnancies till 20 weeks

I ended up weighing less at end than beginning with first (in hosptal twice.Drugs did not work at all and I could not keep anything down.

2nd time I managed it better and just sipped on a glass of fresh juice throughout the day and thats all I kept down, the one glass but it was enough to hydrate me and prevent hosp admission.

This time (I am 27 weeks now) I was so fed up that midwife referred me for nhs accupuncture and I also wore pressure bands. It was noticeably better but still there.I have lost weight again and now just have a ball in front!

Its the worst thing ever. I really feel for you
x

I have one dd and was hospitalised for hyperemesis. I took Stemetil too. Once I was able to hold anything down I lived on dry crackers and bowls of Readybrek for ages. Also could manage the plain salty Hula Hoops after a while. I remember the doctor telling me that if I found something I could eat not to worry about it being a healthy option - even if it was crisps or what ever, just eating anything was good.
As the months wore on and it eased a bit I found that I could not tolerate an empty stomach at all. If I waited too long to eat I would throw up and it would start the viscious(sp) circle again.
I would advise not waiting too long to seek medical help if necessary. I persisted in thinking the next day would be better too long and was delerious with dehydration by the time dh convinced me to go.

I had it for the whole 9 months with my DD and am with kathy (i think) who said spicy food - my fav was chicken tikka masala... I can honestly say it was the only thing I never brought up - I think my body was so horrified of what it would be like to come back up it kept it down!!

After 12 weeks my doc put me on a drug called Maxalon (sp). Its a drug used by migraine sufferers... it makes the contents of your stomach digest incredibly quickly (aids migraines by digesting their medication quickly so drugs kick in quicker). It helped in that I digested food (which I wasn't doing before) but I was still sick (just brought up the lining of my stomach instead). Not nice but gave me some nutrition.

I lost 2 stone from when I became pregnant to when I gave birth.
Am now 6 weeks pregnant - bring on the puke

R
xx

Oh Rosybelle, hope it isn't so bad this time around. The thought of having it again puts me off having another baby. Last time round I was so weak I could barely get out of bed for weeks. Don't know how I would cope with a toddler too. People find it hard to believe but I threw up every day of my pregnancy. In the last few months it was just once a day - it was the first thing I did after getting out of bed and then I would think 'ok, thats out of the way so I can get on with the day'. I threw up same as usual the day I went into labour.

Thank you Mumtodd - I hope so too!!
My DD is 4 now and about to start school which maybe a blessing (get to puke all day without her seeing).
I was the same as you & waited 2 yrs before ttc again... just cos the thought of being pregnant again so soon was horrific.
However we haven't fallen - and just had 2 rounds of failed IVFs. Then 3 weeks ago found we got pregnant naturally 2 weeks after ivf failed.
Can I say to everyone with hypermesis - like Mumtodd i threw up less at the end but still every single day - but the minute she came out it stops - the nausea just left... really weird but it felt so good!!

Ooh horrid thing hyperemesis. I lost nearly three stone with dd2 and was in hospital four times on drips for a month in all - had it all the way through. Some medication helped, don't think stematil did. I tended to have the same stuff to eat for about a week, then I'd hate that too. One week at about five months I ate almond croissants and hot chocolate all week and it stayed down, but I was throwing up water!
Most of the time I managed ginger tea made with fresh ginger first thing in the morning, sometimes a ginger biscuit, sometimes porridge made with water but that came up sometimes too. Having other people to make me food helped - can you do that? You need to have water - just keep having sips so some gets through - otherwise you'll end up on a drip.

yes i agree. i still puke everyday but it stops being all day at about 20 for me

It's good to talk to other people who had hyperemesis although I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I know lots of people who had babies around the time I had dd and most of them didn't even having morning sickness! I can't complain really though - I had an awful pregnancy follwed by the quickest birth. Dd arrived 3 days before her due date so I didn't have any of that waiting around and I started having mild pains at midnight, was 2cms dilated at 5.30am and dd born 2 hours later. No time for any pain relief or anything.

Wow Mumtodd - thats the way to do it!

My DD was breech and I had pre-eclampsia so no choice for me but an elective. They wouldn't risk turning her.

A midwife told me that Hypermesis was often a sign of the high blood pressure to come but they all think different things and i still don't agree with her - I do think its linked to having girls though. My consultant said that it takes more hormones to make girls so the body over compensates with hormone production - hense the nausea & sickness.
Although i'm sure everyone will come back with boy stories

Mine was MUCH worse with first two pregnancies, both girls

This preg was better and its a boy...

I have heard that is worse on girls too. At least it is now accepted as an illness though. In the past they thought it was psychological!!! I often wonder how common it is. I have never met anyone in RL who had it and my gp didn't have any experience either.
My practice nurse was so funny about it. When she would ask me how I was at check ups I would say 'still vomiting but otherwise nothing unusual' and she would write in my notes under general health 'feeling fine' !!!!! I often wondered how bad things would have to be before she took any notice.

Mine was worse with dd than ds, though I thought that was because I knew what I was doing with ds and got treatment sooner and rested more.

Drip fed with DS1, this pg more sick but better managed.

What helped me:

Coke (recommended by hospital - got to be full fat tho when you are really rough)
Digestive biscuits
Frozen raspberries
Ice (apparently some people find really really hot water also works)
Hoola hoops
Ready salted crisps
GP-prescribed fortified milk shakes, sipped throughout the day - when nothing else stayed down, at least you are getting the essentials, esp iron to avoid anaemia which makes things worse.

Personally, anything with ginger in just set off an instant association with throwing up so had to be avoided.

My consultant this time has said there is a def link between vomiting and tiredness. I've been on cyclazine from 11 weeks, which works for me but has severe side effects of making me comatose! But it did mean staying out of hospital and off the drip.

It is truly grim so I do sympathise - but ime it has been easier to manage second time around because at least you know there is a definite end point that makes it worthwhile (in my case, vomiting all the way through labour and during emergency C section but felt hugely better within minutes in recovery).

On plus side, latest research is that the more sick you are the more protection you have against some female cancers.

Lots of sympathy.

I could sometimes manage:
Sugary, orangey drinks like lucozade sport
Orangey ice pops
White rolls, particularly small ones from Marks, sometimes as a banana sandwich
Mash

When I wasn't in too much of a state I also ate:
Prawn cocktail crisps
Cornflakes and frosties
Melon

Proper hyperemesis only lasted till about 11 weeks for me, then normal-ish morning sickness until about 14 weeks, then fine. 17 weeks into this pregnancy, can eat everything, it's sooo good.
8/9 weeks was the worst bit, in hospital with fluids and loads of drugs.

OOh, jelly babies! I could eat jelly babies! For a couple of days, anyway. Not skittles, though - they came up . And Gaviscon - if you're feeling bad now, you don't ever want to vomit gaviscon (sorry, tmi).
Crokky, DH had a vasectomy straight after dd2 was born. We couldn't go through it again.
I found accepting that it might go on for the whole pregnancy and then it would stop helped(I threw up whilst in labour). The drs kept saying it would end "next week"/"at 8 weeks"/ at 10/12/16/definitely not going to go over 20 weeks" which just made it worse when it went on and on.

Did you know that Charlotte Bronte (the author) died of hyperemesis? WE are in intelligent company!

Good that they can manage it these days as well. And amazing that it was considered psychological until quite recently. Anyone who has had the full deal knows it is most definitely NOT!

I could never eat the same thing twice...one day I'd 'need' something from the bakery, and have to trawl out fighting the sickness with Ds1, buy it and eat it immediately...it helped!
But next day the thought of the same thing was awful, and I'd 'crave' something else. No chance of getting in supplies then
as the cupboard would be full of stuff I'd only eat once.

Could not stand anything bread-related or cheese, for some reason...couldn't even approach a cracker! Nothing fizzy either though ginger beer works for some, it didn't for me...second the cola though, that was the exception!
Sour sweets can help...it seems to be a bit like a bad, bad hangover in that a big unhealthy egg-and-bacon sarnie often makes you feel way better!
Good luck xx

Oh and I had a list of days, in a notebook...just every line had 1, 2, 3, etc. marked out in weeks, and I'd count the days till it might be over. A bit grim when it went over the date I expected (till about 20 weeks!) but at least it was easing off by then...definitely much better by about 13 or 14, because I could do other things without constantly being conscious of the nausea iyswim. That helped.

Slouchy, re Charlotte Bronte - from what I read I think hyperemesis is indeed the most likely explanation, but it's not generally accepted as lots of people think she died of TB.
I read one particularly stupid article once which said 'she couldn't have died of HG because HG doesn't make you throw up blood.' Had thrown up a bit of blood myself at the time and was Not Amused by that argument.

RE: the girls- have three boys LOL

It was avomine that worked for me, had stemetil injections in hospital but nothing else I tried (bucanesten was awful) worked.

I did get pre-eclampsia after it with ds1 (re the Bp thing), but P was fine with ds's 2 and 3

Almost all of the foods recommended here make me feel awful just reading them! Only thing reliable atm- pears, but at least they contain fluid I guess.

Have heard lots of poeple rave about flat coke, btw= worked for my sister.

Have almost keeled over twice today (once at the school) so starting to get a bit edgy, don't want to see GP as I don't think he'll be helpful- tried to discuss with him before and got a lot about 'Well my wiofe was hospitalised for almost 40 weeks so was worse than you'- really not inviting to go back (though think he though he was being supportive). last GP would just rpescribe Avomine when I said I was pg, for the alst 2. Helped me avoid that collapse stage.

Ther IS a shown ink between hyperemesis and exhaustion btw, so rest is important, other than that in all my time on the helpline never saw any real link at all- indeed, I strongly beleive the causes vary from eprson to person

God Peachy, you're strong to be posting on here I remember computering made it worse for me so it was even hard to go on the HelpHer forums

Is there another name for Avomine? I am so scared about having another baby and I would love more children but not sure I could cope with HG again.

I had Stemetil, Cyclizine, maxolon, etc. (agree Buccastem was useless and tasted like Kwells which made it worse!)

In the states they have something called...Oh what is it? It's an antihistamine/B6 combo. Seems to work well for lots of people with regular M/S.