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/topics/nausea-vomiting-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.

Hi all, I feel bad posting here, as others have had it much worse than me. But I’ve noticed worsening of my vomiting this week (16 weeks tomorrow). I’ve been vomiting every hour or so for the last couple of days (it had been under control with medication). I’ve split my lip from the vomiting, god knows how and am feeling like I’ll need to contact the GP again. Is it normal to have an escalation of symptoms? I’ve only been on IV fluids once (at 9/10 weeks) and had managed to keep the weight loss under control throughout the 2nd trimester until recently.

This is my first pregnancy and I am feeling so overwhelmed and miserable

Oh @Derbee it's so overwhelming and miserable. It's always hard in second trimester because you feel a bit better and feel like you should be better, but still suffer and by that time you've been vomiting and feeling shit 10+ weeks so it's exhausting, even if symptoms are mild. Your symptoms do sound worse at the moment. Unfortunately it is normal to have very bad spells even if there's been some relief since the horrific first trimester. I'm 22 weeks and eating and drinking normally most days but then vomited all day on Tuesday and had to go off sick for a day! It sucks and you're not alone!

@Derbee can you identify any reason for the bad patch? In my previous pregnancies I found relapses in mid pregnancy usually had a reason -- eg had tried to do too much just beforehand, stress or a minor illness. If you have been better in general over the last few weeks it almost certainly will get better again soon and you'll be starting from a better baseline in terms of avoiding ketosis etc. It is so depressing though. Are you on any meds? If so, can you up them temporarily or restart if you'd stopped? Also just get as much rest as you can and try to cut out any stressors (easier said than done I know). Are you working?

Oh and just to say @Derbee my heart really goes out to anyone in a first pregnancy. Even though I was even iller with DS2 I was so much more traumatised in many ways by my first pregnancy, it was just such a tremendous shock and no-one who hasn't endured it understands at all. But we do! Is your DH/DP being supportive? It is quite a learning curve for them too. You are nearly half way and doing brilliantly!

Derbee Welcome. Sorry about the relapse; might it be a hormonal surge? Everyone is very supportive on here. You have already had great advice from others. Do make sure you don't end up too dehydrated from the violent relapse; would sucking ice lollies/ice cubes help? I include my normal spiel that might help, though you may have come across it on the thread. Ignore the bits that don't apply. Most sufferers find that they improve a lot at some point between weeks 14 and 20, or sometimes later. Even those who are unlucky enough to suffer throughout generally are not as ill later on as they are in the first part. A good anti acid can make a surprising difference to the sickness. Kesostix are worth buying online or from a chemists, as while they aren't they best test of dehydration, hospitals take them seriously. When reporting on the vomiting to doctors, remember to emphasize the number of heaves in each vomiting session, as doctors tend to count these as 'vomits' and this can lead to their underestimating the severity of your symptoms. Besides drinking through a straw, here are some drinks that have helped others: full sugar flat coke (if you don't find it too acid), ice lollies, the juice of tinned fruit, Lucozade, apple juice, Ribina, Dr Pepper, soda water, Elderflower water, tonic water, ice cubes, Iron Bru, lemonade, lemon squash, orange squash, orange juice (if not too acid), fizzy orange, 7Up, isotonic drinks, sips of chocolate milkshake (maybe soya), fizzy water, apple juice, Robinson's fruit drinks, Rubicon sparkling mango drink , raspberry Lucozade sport and frozen ice cubes of flat Lucozade sport . Foods of a sort include tinned fruit, cuppa soup, nibbles of crisps and chips, cheap ice cream, Scotch pancakes, bagels and biscuits, potato smileys, slices of melon and mango. Protein drinks have also been mentioned.
FateHasRedesignedMost I think that was unnecessarily officious of the police to breathalyse you!
Grim driving experiences from abbs1 and others.
thingymaboob Oh dear. I am glad you've got an appointment with the consultant on Wednesday.
kalidasa Glad things are not quite so bad today. Cheering you on as ever. Good advice from you and everyone.

@thingymaboob thank you for sharing your experience. It’s good (but awful!) to know that relapses are quite common.

@kalidasa I had a really good day on Wednesday, so may have pushed myself a bit far as I thought I was past it all now. Certainly paying for that mistake, if that’s the cause. I’ve been managing recently just on cyclizine, but I may need something else again I suppose. My DP has been amazing. I’ve been feeling so guilty with him having to do EVERYTHING but he does it so willingly. When I was crying about how guilty I felt, he told me he felt like it was a strong bonding experience for us, like soldiers in a disaster zone. I couldn’t have got through this without him, so I do realise I’m lucky!

@LucindaE thank you for all the suggestions. I’m going to read through your post a couple of times, and make a list of things to try.

So grateful to have found this thread, and hope everyone else is doing ok.

@Derbee your DP sounds lovely. It makes such a difference to have that support. My DH is the same. He was incredible in first pregnancy - really looked after me and this second pregnancy he has done everything, including all childcare and household stuff. When I was bedbound he did all laundry, cooking, cleaning, nursery runs, taking 3 year old out to ballet, the park etc. Whilst working full time! We have normally a really good 50/50 split with chores anyway and he's very hands-on dad. It's made me love him even more!

@thingymaboob your DH sounds lovely too! It’s so hard for the partners too, and other children I’m sure.

thingymaboob

Sorry you had a rough time at the hospital and trying to get home. Public vomiting is so embarrassing isn’t it. Although I think people notice less than we think they do at the time. I remember in my first pregnancy I went to work to get some documents and vomited on the grass outside. Two colleagues drove past in the staff car waving at me and calling hi through the window! When I later asked them why they drew attention to me throwing up they said they hadn’t realised, they thought I’d dropped something in the grass and was bending over looking for it 🤦🏻‍♀️

Derbee

Sorry you’re suffering a relapse! I think first pregnancies are especially hard as it’s all so new and bewildering. You don’t expect to get HG so it’s like being plunged into the unknown. My experience is it comes and goes, you have weeks/days of feeling a bit better then it hits you hard again.

Can you get some stronger meds from your GP? I’m holding it together this time with ondansetron and metaclopramide, so far I’m managing to stay out of hospital and manage the morning school run (on foot now) though I’m only 7+4 so things could get a lot worse.

I’m meant to be going to a friends’ bbq this afternoon (outdoors, they have a gazebo thing and garden lounge area) but I’m not sure I can make it 😬
I feel really bad if I cancel as she already re-arranged it all once when I had a kidney infection after surgery.
I’m terrified of getting there and vomiting uncontrollably in her garden. I know everyone will be kind but it’s so embarrassing. Or sitting in silence for hours trying not to vomit 🤢
I’ve asked DH to go alone or just with our 6-year-old but he doesn’t want to as he wants to ‘announce’ it with me there (some friends are travelling a long way). It’s only 10 mins drive from us but I don’t want to get trapped there or stuck in the bathroom. Plus some friends are bringing their big bouncy friendly dog, and I don’t want him jumping up at me when pregnant.

How do I convince DH to go alone?

Hi, I hope no one minds me posting here, started a thread with this question and someone suggested in post it here. has anyone else taken ondansetron every 4 hours rather than every six to eight?

I asked my doc if I could take an extra dose on top of the recommended 3 per day and he said I could but did still say to take it 6-8 hourly.

I'm certain in my last pregnancy I took it four hourly and just wondering if anyone else has done the same? Started getting paranoid about overdosing even though, like I said, I'm sure I took it every four hours in the past.

I didn't take it until 10 weeks last time but started around 5/6 weeks (I think) this time so am also worried about cleft palate etc. Has anyone else taken this dose (4x4mg) this early?

@sisss I'm pretty sure I was on 4x8mg in my last pregnancy! That was in hosp though. You could also try alternating the ondansetron and something else like cyclizine. This pg (no 3) for me I have just about managed to avoid hosp so far (now nearly 10 weeks) with Xonvea so you could also ask about that. Xonvea is not particularly strong but it's in a slow release preparation which personally I think makes a lot of difference (but also makes it expensive -- I'm in France so just pay the extra no prob). Ondansetron is expensive too though and you're already on that. Watch out for the constipation, I had to come off ondansetron in the end last time due to the severity of it.

I was on ondansetron from very early with both previous pgs, from 4 weeks with DS2. I wouldn't worry about the cleft palate thing, the statistical increase was small and it's not clear it was caused by the ondansetron itself. Women on ondansetron have been/are being by definition extremely sick and are very likely to have a period of malnutrition or starvation. That itself might also make such defects more likely. Protracted starvation is obviously bad for mother and baby and these medications help to avoid that. One of my nieces had a large cleft palate and my sister had had a very bad pregnancy with severe sickness which wasn't medicated at all I don't think and certainly not early on.

@kalidasa thank you for your message! I'm pretty sure I was on 8mgx4 in my last pregnancy too but it was so long ago now I'm not 100%. I am taking prochlorperazine with the ondansetron but can't tell if it's helping at all or possibly making me feel worse. I've never heard of xonvea so might look into that.

Yeah I had a pretty traumatic experience with constipation last time and am quite worried about that happening again but the relentless nausea is unbearable 😩

Congratulations on your pregnancy, I hope the sickness let's up for you soon!

Hi @sisss yes, I was taking 4mg ondansetron every 4 hours from weeks 6-14 fairly regularly as sometimes I'd think "4mg is enough" then 3 hours later it did nothing. Most of the time I'd take 8mg at a time (3 x a day). I'm 22 weeks now and no cleft palate / lip

Thank you so much @thingymaboob that's very reassuring. I agree, 4 mg is long worn off by six hours, I honestly can tell the time by how I'm feeling. I know when it's approaching four hours. I'm glad to hear your pregnancy has progressed so well 😊

😡just had to postpone picking something up off Facebook marketplace as vomiting. Said "sorry I've got Hyperemesis and I'm vomiting today" she replied and said "dunno if it helps but I drank lemon, ginger and honey tea when I felt sick and it really helped". Yeah. Thanks. 🖕🏻😡🤬

sisss Great advice from kalidasa, thingymaboob and everyone.
thingymaboob How annoying!
FateHasRedesignedMost I hope you didn't go to the barbaque and OH and LO had a nice time anyway. There is no fun attending an event when feeling so ill and the dog would be the last straw.
You are so right about people being suprisingly unobservant at times.

Hello lovely ladies, I’ve been awol for a few weeks (went back to work, and my day revolves around trying to do enough but not too much at work - thankfully I have an incredibly supportive and understand team - and trying to get enough rest). I’m sorry to read that some of you are still so poorly - the vomit in the throat thing (@thingymaboob I think you said this?) is how I feel when I know I’m going to vomit and after three or so purges it still feels like vomit sticks in my throat, and I keep heaving as smaller amounts come out (sorry, gross I know, but isn’t it all) - I thought it was the cyclizine doing that to me.

The number of people who tell you about ginger does make me laugh (although nice ginger biscuits have been something I can eat, they only help whilst I’m actually eating them and I get the same effect with oat biscuits so…). My mum had hypermesis with me, and was sick throughout until 42 weeks, but not with my brother and she did say that she felt ginger ale helped her so I tried it, and after one experience of throwing it back up… never again! I am very lucky (or we are very unlucky) that my two best friends have had hypermesis to differing degrees in their pregnancies, they came to stay last week and we discussed how just as everyone’s hypermesis is different everyone’s ‘help’ points can be as well. One of them found ice lollies helped and that has helped me too, the other could only eat custard creams and steaming herself with a hot shower helped her nausea - she said she’d stay in for hour; a hot shower makes me want to vomit even more!

I’ve been having lots of better days in recent weeks (16 weeks now) and my nausea isn’t as constant - I get some relief most days now, but not all day. It’s funny what people have said about doing too much though, when I have bad days it’s usually when I’m tried or have had a particularly good day the day before and perhaps have done so much. Last week I walked to Asda, thought I was fine, came out of the shop holding my shopping and suddenly started vomiting - looking back it was comical really, I was trying to head for a bush but I’d stop and throw up down the side of the shop, trying to keep my bags out of the way, carry on for a bit and do the same again… and again… etc. I definitely think I looked like a casual drunk (and I have every sympathy with your car story @FateHasRedesignedMost).

When I don’t take the cyclizine in time I quickly start vomiting again, and yet when I spoke to the GP last week to get another prescription they talked to me about weaning myself off because I’m 16 weeks now and if I’m having better days… (I am down to two tablets a day, but as soon as I don’t take my morning one I’m sick so!). Thankfully he’s given me more (he’s hoping I can just have it there as a back up… that would be nice!!). The previous GP I was talking to who initially put me on cyclizine prescribed me an anti acid that the pharmacist told me has been banned due to safety concerns… google seems to agree and it’s undermined my faith a bit as google also took me straight to the local NHS cheat sheet on HG… it’s about 4 years old, includes this now removed anti acid… and is pretty word for word what she’d been saying to me so I think she’s just been reading it at me.

Finally (sorry for the essay!) - how are people coping with oral health? Cleaning my teeth often prompts intense vomiting, so I have to time it right and I’ve managed to floss about twice in the last 10 weeks. Add to that all the vomit. My teeth on one side feel weird (almost like my jaw is bruised… it’s not toothache as such and it’s not constant, but still, I’d rather avoid tooth trouble). I rinse after vomiting and I’ve tried rubbing toothpaste on my teeth as a minimum when it’s impossible to clean my teeth properly (because the brush makes me immediately sick) but I’d welcome any other tips!

I’ll shut up now!!

I hope you didn't go to the barbaque and OH and LO had a nice time anyway. There is no fun attending an event when feeling so ill and the dog would be the last straw.
You are so right about people being suprisingly unobservant at times

Thanks Lucinda, I didn’t go. Felt guilty but realised it would be horrendous sitting there feeling sick all evening or having to vomit in the bushes! Plus DH decided to go shooting all morning (target practice for an Airsoft skirmish) so he left me with our 6 year old all day, got back and expected us to be ready to go to the BBQ. I just said no, I’m too ill and have had no break, so he and son went alone. And they had a lovely time! While I napped 😊

I’m glad you didn’t go @FateHasRedesignedMost - I really don’t think men get it at times.

looking back it was comical really, I was trying to head for a bush but I’d stop and throw up down the side of the shop, trying to keep my bags out of the way, carry on for a bit and do the same again… and again… etc. I definitely think I looked like a casual drunk (and I have every sympathy with your car story @FateHasRedesignedMost)

Sorry you’ve had public vomiting experiences too! It is comical when you look back isn’t it, I’ve already started to laugh at the car incident!

I think I definitely looked like a casual drunk that day, we were running late for school so I had my old leggings, trainers and long cardigan with holes chucked over a T-shirt! With bed-head hair, no make up and I was probably grey and sweating with nausea! One policeman actually asked why I was so ‘nervous’ but I couldn’t bring myself to say ‘I’m worried I might throw up on you!’ They did kindly offer me a lift home but I declined as didn’t want to risk throwing up in their car too. 😳😂😳
Luckily school’s not too far walking, I take a short cut and the fresh air helps a bit now autumn’s here. Looking forward to dark misty mornings 😂

I’m not sure about the teeth brushing thing as I’ve not had that, but I know others have and might have advice?
I went through a stage of hating the taste of mint in my last pregnancy and found a tooth-cleaning stick (an actual dental twig from a worldwide supermarket, packaged like a toothbrush) easier than using paste (it has something in it that cleans teeth so you don’t need to use paste). I tried lavender toothpaste and lemon toothpaste which helped a bit. I’ve heard you shouldn’t brush teeth straight after vomiting so I just brush morning and night, and use mouthwash in between.
Just a thought, have you tried those sachets that you put on a finger to clean your teeth? They’re called temporary toothbrushes I think (designed for travel as you don’t need water or paste). Like the ones for babies teeth but an adult version with fluoride.

I somehow got away with no damage to my teeth last time but not sure I’ll be that lucky again. I know i won’t be able to face the dentist any time soon!

thingymaboob

Argh the dreaded ‘have you tried ginger tea?’ I even had that advice from the doctors last time. Ginger made me instantly sick as I had heartburn.

One strange remedy that did help last time was the acupressure points on my wrists, but I had to apply a lot more pressure than those bands apply. I ended up sellotaping pistachio shells to my wrists at home as it helped the nausea (but looked very odd opening the door like that!!)

FateHasRedesignedMost I'm glad you didn't go and they had a lovely time. I can well believe it about acupressure - I was helped a lot by acupuncture, but not everyone is. I so agree with you about heartburn and ginger in any form, including tea. But oddly, a sufferer on here was helped by g*** tablets. I am sure you didn't look as disreputable as you thought. Not exactly sensitive treatment from the police, as I am sure that most people are nervous when questioned by the police, even if they've nothing to hide!
Pleasedon'tworry Aagh about that vomiting session. On tooth cleaning, I did find that kids' strawberry toothpaste and a kids toothbrush were more bearable. I think the most important thing for teeth is the thing everyone tends to do anyway, rinsing one's mouth out with water to get rid of the strong acid from bile on the teeth.
Waves to everyone.

In one of my pregnancies I used an Indian toothpaste (ordered from an online Indian grocery) which was spice or herb flavoured (can't remember exactly) but not at all minty or fruity, totally different. It really helped me. I can't remember the details I'm afraid but I probably posted about it on here at the time (either 2012 or 2014!).

I do actually and have always found ginger a tiny bit helpful especially in the very early stages, but I agree about it making heartburn/acid worse. At the moment I am sucking gaviscon tablets / rennies after every time I try to eat anything and it def helps (along with the max dose Xonvea). I prefer them to heartburn medicine because I find they take away the horrible taste in my mouth too.