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.

@kalidasa are you sure essential oils? Essential oils are incredibly toxic if ingested. They're poisonous aren't they?

@Pleasedontworry I had exactly the same with a lower wisdom tooth recently which had come through too far. It had to be taken out as an emergency the week before my dad died. Not brilliant! I have found though that when I do have a medical appt I get so worried about vomiting but usually the adrenalin kicks in and I get through it ok though vomit a lot afterwards.

@thingymaboob I think so but haven't actually got the prescription yet. When it arrives I will update! It seemed weird to me too but there's a lot of alternative stuff here, she prescribed me some homeopathic remedies as well.

Pleasedontworry

Sorry about your tooth and the extraction needed, hope they get it done quickly and without making you vomit!

@Pleasedontworry omg. A tooth extraction and HG?! That sounds positively awful. Will be thinking of you.

@FateHasRedesignedMost oh god. Standing in someone else’s vomit. Just makes me squirm. I’m awake at 4.30am because I go to bed at the same time as the kids (7pm) in an attempt to stop the vomitting. I’m better in the mornings and get gradually worse until I’m vomiting at 4pm onwards. It’s not much fun being awake when everyone else is asleep, and then sick when they’re awake.

I don’t remember who asked, but I’m waiting for all screening tests to come back clear. Our labs here used maternity21 as the nipt test, if I remember correctly.

I got a job in June of this year, working in a local high school part time as support staff. It took 6 years for me to return to the workforce and now I’m feeling immensely guilty that I’m sick. It’s school holidays at the moment, but I’m due back on Monday, and I don’t know if I can cope with it. Hubby thinks I should try a day or two because he thinks I cope better with distractions. I’m still really nervous though. With meds and my own immensely strong self control, I don’t vomit in public (I know, lucky me), but I will be much worse when I get home. I’m just really nervous.

I’m on 8mg ondansetron 2x a day, and 4mg 1x a day, and then cyclizine 3 x a day. I might talk to the doctor about xonvea, but I can’t find any details online that says we have it here in NZ. This is my first pregnancy trying cyclizine as I was hopeful the drowsiness would help me sleep more.

@Melleebacca the Xonvea has different names in different places. Here in France it's called Cariban; I think Diclectin or something like that in Canada/the US. It's 10mg doxymaline + 10mg pyridoxine (vit B6) in a slow-release formulation. I found it really knocked me out to start with but that that effect wore off (sadly!) after about a week. Like you I find it helps to sleep through the nausea as much as possible!

BuffyFanForever Welcome back. Exciting to see if its twins or not. I'm glad that the doctor was good about meds last time. As others say, if it is a singleton, you might well escape Hyperemesis this time.
FateHasRedesignedMost Ha, Ha, I had to laugh too about the siders and the standing in vomit: but gruesome...Much sympathy about migraines. That memory lapse about last time must be merciful.
Pleasedon'tworry and kalidasa Sorry to hear about having to have dental treatment. With Hyperemesis, that is grim. Interesting, kalidasa about the adrenaline aspect.
thingymaboob and kalidasa I remember an alternative practitioner advised that I drink 20 drops of hydrogen peroxide twice a day with a glass of water to clear up a stomach bug. Amaziingly, it worked, though one would have thought it would kill off all the benign bacteria, too, besides giving stomach ulcers or something! I'm not entirely surprised at that recommendation for you.

Meleebacca Those nights alone in the bathroom are truly awful., well, next to waiting for test results. I wasn't much good at holding it in myself! Congratulations that you can.
I have to go and visit my mother in Buckinghamshire, but lovely RockinRobinn will be looking in on the thread. Mother Hen will b e cheering you all on from afar.
Apologies to anyone rudely overlooked.

Saw my obstetrician today. Told her that my oesophagus feels full and that food feels like it's running up and pouring out of stomach, not just throwing up. Ondansetron clearly culprit so have been swapped to metoclopramide so hopefully will help. She said if it doesn't help, I should consider steroids. She took bloods too to check all things to try and rule out stuff that might be making me feel like shit. My obstetrician is very interventional- she doesn't beat around bush and I feel very happy with her.

thingymaboob That sounds awful: I am glad that your obstetrician is taking that seriously: it sounds dreadful!
Off now for a few days on a visit to my mother. Lovely RockinRobinn will be looking after the thread.

I’m awake at 4.30am because I go to bed at the same time as the kids (7pm) in an attempt to stop the vomitting. I’m better in the mornings and get gradually worse until I’m vomiting at 4pm onwards. It’s not much fun being awake when everyone else is asleep, and then sick when they’re awake

I know what you mean! Sorry you’re on this strange time schedule too. I’m dreading the clocks going back! DH and I are like ships in the night, he likes going to bed around 2am or later (he works from home a lot and likes working at night) then as he’s getting ready to come up to bed I’m on my way downstairs! Son keeps me company from around 4am (seems to be his natural wake up time, although if I’m very quiet he’ll stay in his room waiting until he hears me creeping around!)

Once I’ve kept down my early morning meds I feel better and this usually lasts until after school run, then I go back to sleep. Evenings are the worst time for me so I go to bed around the same time as son.

Melleebacca

Don’t worry if you’re not well enough to work. I know it’s awkward but you’re fully protected by Maternity policies if in the U.K. so even your sick leave can’t go on your record if it’s pregnancy-related. Take it easy if you go back.

In my first pregnancy I’d changed jobs (within the NHS) and was working my notice while waiting for the new job to get all my paperwork together, when I got pregnant unexpectedly. We were planning our wedding and moving in together, and I’d taken the new job because we’d found a flat in a different city. Then HG hit so I spent the rest of my 2-month notice period on sick leave, moved house at 12 weeks, tried to start the new job at 15 weeks and lasted a few days before being off sick the rest of the pregnancy. They were very understanding and kind, possibly because they’d recently had a colleague with HG so they knew how serious it could be (she’d been in and out of hospital too and signed off). Then we moved to the other side of the country while I was still on mat leave, and I had to go in (with baby DS) to announce I wouldn’t be coming back after all! They were still lovely about it and mostly just wanted to take turns holding DS!

Thanks @LucindaE! I got my beta hcg results and the level is similar to what I had with my twins so we shall see. So far just feeling knackered and dizzy with a tinge of nausea so I’m keeping everything crossed!
Wishing everyone else a vomit free few hours at least.

Vomited out the liquid they give for GTT tests, so I've got to reschedule that.

Literally managed to keep it down for 1 hour 40 minutes and just as I was able it to leave for the second Blood Test 🤮🤮🤮

@theconfused I never did the GTT test in either of my previous pregnancies for exactly this reason. There was just no way I could keep it down. I think there are other ways they can check if you insist.

@BuffyFanForever what was you hcg out of interest? I've never been told mine before but I'm in France for this pg and you have to have a blood test to confirm the pregnancy and they give you the results. I was told mine was very high so was a bit worried about twins but only one at the 7 week scan. I think there is some evidence that women with HG often have higher than average HCG? How would you feel if it were twins again?!

@kalidasa my HCG was 15,000 at 5w5d, and noted as abnormal high on my records. I don’t have the HCG levels for any of my previous pregnancies. I do know that high HCG can also be a very soft marker for genetic issues (you don’t need to worry, but with my history I’m worried). I have my dating scan today and I’m hoping my dates are 7w and not lower. I’m feeling really overwhelmed at the moment by the sickness and anxiety that I don’t want to have to wait any days longer to find out what’s going on. I will be booking my nipt test this afternoon once I know what date it can be.

@BuffyFanForever good luck! Will be waiting to hear if it’s one or two.

@theconfused oh I feel for you. I never vomitted it up, but the GTT drink made me feel so awful and nauseous. I hated it.

@FateHasRedesignedMost I’m in NZ (bottom of the world), so our policies are a little different, but I am still protected job wise. I just feel like I’m letting everyone down, and it’s not a particularly strenuous job. My biggest issue is I need to work 26weeks paid to be able to claim paid maternity leave. I’ve already done 12weeks, and I could take the whole of next term off and return after the summer break hopefully feeling better, and then there would be 14weeks of term time before my due date so it could work. But we also have covid spreading in the community in Auckland and if it leaks out to where I live, we will go in lockdown and I will be paid to be at home. So I’m holding out on getting a sick note just yet, and going to see if I can make it work on Monday and also kinda hoping for a lockdown (I’m double vaxed as is my husband, and anxiety wise, it would be nice to keep the kids safe at home while it’s going around the community). So many things to worry about so no wonder I feel awful.
Woke up at 4am this morning. Stayed awake till 8pm in an attempt to sleep later in the morning which didn’t work. My husband is the same as yours @fatehasredesignedmost he went to bed at 11.30 last night which woke me up.

I upped my ondansetron dose to 3 x 8mg a day and managed to only bring up 2 very small vomits yesterday. But my abs (🤣🤣) hurt so much from the dry heaving.
Thanks for the info @kalidasa I can’t stomach B6 very well, it makes me vomit, so xonvea probably wouldn’t work for me.

Sorry for the enormous post. Hope you’re having a lovely holiday @LucindaE

@kalidasa it was 2540 at about 4weeks 2 days last time and 2224 at 4weeks 2 days this time so not as high as @Melleebacca but hope yours all keeps going well! Have also heard of the links with high numbers and HG but all the midwives I had on various hospital stays last time said it was more to do with having boys?! That seemed fairly random!

Mine was 37,000 at 5w3d ! I hope the baby is ok. All seemed fine at 7 week scan but I haven't had any other tests done yet. I know it was high in my other pregnancies too though they didn't tell me the figures and it wasn't tested as early I don't think.

I suppose that also explains why I got such a blazing positive on a super cheap test the day my period was due!

Oh and HCG is actually higher on average with girls rather than boys, that's been quite well established I believe. They think that may be linked to why HG is apparently statistically slightly more common with girls than boys (though I was desperately ill with my two boys!).

@kalidasa I’m sorry, my anxiety and worry is probably rubbing off on you. Please don’t worry, I’m just finding every little sign to freak out at.
Just waiting outside at my scan. I got the first appointment of the day and don’t want to hop out of the car unless I can actually go inside

Good luck @Melleebacca ! One of my sisters is in Australia so I am vaguely tuned into your time zone!

@kalidasa Thank you. One baby in there, measuring 6w5d, so not quite as far along as I would like to be. That also means my HCG levels were 15,000 at 5w3d.Left a message for booking in my nipt test, hoping they call back soon.
I did my gap year in Belgium/France. 😉

Woke up at 4am this morning. Stayed awake till 8pm in an attempt to sleep later in the morning which didn’t work. My husband is the same as yours @fatehasredesignedmost he went to bed at 11.30 last night which woke me up

Oh no, I hope you get some sleep soon Melleebacca it’s awful being woken up.

Husband keeps asking me to return to our room instead of sleeping in the guestroom but as we’re on such different sleep schedules there doesn’t seem much point. Also the guestroom has an en-suite a couple of metres from the bed, as oppose to going through another room to reach a bathroom in a hurry!

I went to bed at 8pm last night, got woken 3x by son wanting things (no I’m not going to cut your toenails after bedtime, or get up to check your wobbly tooth!) then woke almost hourly and decided to get up at 2am… so came downstairs only to find husband asleep on the sofa with his headphones on and a movie still playing 😂🤔
I sent him up to bed and took over the downstairs. Son will be up anytime from 4am though could be 6am if I’m lucky.

Husband is complaining every day that he feels nauseous from ‘lack of sleep’ and even seems to ‘catch’ my hormonal migraines, reporting pain in the same eye etc. Luckily he’s off for a testosterone-fuelled paintball weekend so he’ll have no excuse to say all ‘the pregnancy hormones in the air’ are affecting him 😊

BuffyFanForever

That’s interesting about midwives saying more women carrying boys are hospitalised with HG. When I was admitted last time the nurses on EPU and the gynae ward said it’s normally more severe in women having a boy. I know HCG is higher in girl pregnancies but maybe it’s our sensitivity to HCG or something to do with a baby boy’s hormones reacting with ours? She said there’s no scientific explanation it’s just what they observe on the unit.