Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

Hyperemesis Support

989 replies

LucindaE · 14/08/2021 09:39

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.

Hyperemesis Support
Hyperemesis Support
OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
BBonBoard · 18/10/2021 19:13

[quote Pleasedontworry]I’m with @kalidasa - it’ll be about cost, I found this for my area when I was scoping it out: www.nottsapc.nhs.uk/media/1609/jfg-minutes-october-2019-final.pdf[/quote]
Wow @Pleasedontworry that is shocking!!! What is especially difficult to understand is how widely it's prescribed in North America. My friends in Canada were prescribed it right away. They didn't have to try various things first. They had never even heard of the things that I've been prescribed.

Anyways, it is what it is. I'm not going to take the metoclopramide. I'm in another group chat and a girl in the US said her doctor refused to prescribe it because she's on antidepressants. I suspect my GP forgot and/or just didn't bother to look at the other meds I'm on.

BBonBoard · 18/10/2021 19:15

Thank you @LucindaE that's really helpful!

RockinRobinn · 18/10/2021 20:13

@BBonBoard you could get a vitamin B6 supplement to take as this is one of the parts of xonvea and the other is a drug that is an antihistamine like cyclizine. I took b6 myself I'm not sure how much it helped but I started when I was ttc. I can't seem to find the amount on my emails anymore from pregnancy sickness support but they will have the info on their website which is always linked on the first post of a new thread.
I hope the new medication is ok for you, if you're worried about interaction with other medications the pharmacist is probably the best person to talk to.

FateHasRedesignedMost · 19/10/2021 06:06

@LucindaE

Welcome back! Sorry to hear about your mother. And the tragic loss of her cleaner, how awful.

To your list of helpful things can I add Fentamens Pink lemonade and also still cloudy lemonade. They’re quite sour but I find they really help with nausea.

FateHasRedesignedMost · 19/10/2021 06:19

@Melleebacca

Sorry you’ve had some bad nights, how are you feeling now? Hope the heartburn/reflux settles.

Interesting ondansetron is prescribed readily in NZ! In the U.K. it tends to be reserved for chemo patients or very severe cases of HG, in my last pregnancy it took months of waiting to see an obstetrician and trialling many other meds that made me feel worse to get to ondansetron.

Yet this time the private GP actually suggested it, when I said I’d had HG before! Yesterday I ordered more, nice caring 30 minute phone call (he actually sounded interested and knowledgeable about HG as oppose to the NHS one who only prescribed it because the private GP did so first). And has sent the prescription directly to the big Tesco pharmacy (I rang ahead to check it’s in stock there!) Unfortunately DH can’t collect it until tonight so I have a day with no ondansetron, but better than a week waiting for the other pharmacy to re-stock!

My friend’s an oncology nurse and she said ondansetron is expensive compared to other anti sickness meds so maybe that’s why it’s hard to get.

I’m still taking metaclopramide but doubting it’s effectiveness. I seem to remember it being more helpful in later pregnancy when digestive transit slows and nausea/vomiting can be made worse by that?

FateHasRedesignedMost · 19/10/2021 06:21

Sorry I’ve forgotten who mentioned a link between serotonin syndrome and metaclopramide. I hadn’t heard of that. I take Sertraline, but I didn’t realise metaclopramide raises the risk of serotonin syndrome?

FateHasRedesignedMost · 19/10/2021 06:25

Does anyone know which team I’m supposed to contact to make the booking in appointment? (U.K.). My GP gave me the number for the health visiting team, who gave me the number for the community midwife team, who never pick up the phone or respond to voicemail 🤔

I know the NHS is understaffed and very stretched (I work in it when not floored by HG!) but I’m getting frustrated as I’m past 9 weeks and need to book in order to arrange the scan (within the timeframe for nuchal screening).

Do I try the EPU or keep ringing the community midwife number? I don’t want to block the line in case someone needs to get through urgently.

LK182 · 19/10/2021 14:29

Hi all, I’m new here and was sent this link by my HR department at work. Hope you dont mind me joining this thread.
I’m 14 weeks tomorrow and been suffering with HG for the last 9 weeks. I’ve been hospitalised and currently taking a combination of medications to keep me going. I’m a full time teacher in a secondary school but haven’t been back this term. I’m meant to return after half term but I don’t know how I’m going to manage, I barely have the energy to get dressed let alone teach 4-5 lessons of teenagers a day!
Has anyone else been signed off or struggling with work guilt?

LK182 · 19/10/2021 14:31

My doctor sent me a link for pregnancy self referral and I was sent a letter in the post for my booking appointment. Perhaps Google self referral for your local area? Hope that helps x

FateHasRedesignedMost · 19/10/2021 16:21

@LK182

Welcome to the thread (but sorry you’re suffering so badly). There’s lots of support here.

Don’t worry about being signed off, rest is so important with HG. In my first pregnancy I kept trying to return to work and it set me back each time. This time I’ve been signed off since… July actually. I wasn’t pregnant then but had a lap&dye, and fell pregnant before I was due to return after the surgery. Narrowly avoided a stage 2 formal meeting (they can’t do formal sickness reviews when an employee is pregnant, I’m sure teachers are protected under the same law.)

Thanks for the advice about booking in, I phoned GP again and a different receptionist directed me to an online booking site, so I filled in the form and hopefully they’ll contact me soon with an appointment!

LK182 · 19/10/2021 16:41

@FateHasRedesignedMost

I think that’s what I’m worried about, I know for a fact that if I try and do anything in the day (even go for a tiny walk) it sets me back and I then have a horrible evening of sickness ahead of me. I know I will need to try and go back, even on a phased return, but I’m so worried it will set me back and I’ll feel worse. But I carry so much guilt knowing my department is carrying the weight of me not being there as there’s only a few of us.
They have also suggest I work from home from 28 weeks for Covid reasons so I would only be back for half a term too!
I’ve also been told you feel guilty for everything being a mum (this is my first) so maybe this is just practice for what’s to come Hmm

Melleebacca · 19/10/2021 16:59

@LK182 oh you poor thing! Stay signed off for at least a few more weeks. Even once you stop vomiting, your body needs a couple more weeks to recover or you may relapse. I was signed of with my first from 6wks to 26wks, because I kept trying to go back early and would get sick again. The one perk of HG, is that the worst part of the motherhood journey is right at the beginning, I find everything after HG easy, because I can eat and move.

@LucindaE welcome back. So sorry to hear about your mums cleaner. I’ve also been recommended Hydralyte ice blocks, that I have in the afternoons. Keeps my electrolytes and fluids up.

@FateHasRedesignedMost I always feel so bad for you all in the UK. I get 100 ondansetron tabs at a time as my GP is quite happy to prescribe them. Doing better with the acid, using my ice blocks to soothe the throat. Plus the last 2 days I’ve fallen asleep before I’ve vomited up dinner so that seems to have helped.

I got my nipt test booked yesterday, so I have that in 3wks time. Also contacted my midwife and burst into tears (I think I have ptsd telling people I’m pregnant, I find it so unbelievably hard to do). But my midwife is just so lovely and supportive.

LK182 · 19/10/2021 17:27

@Melleebacca
I think you’re right. I’ve got 2 more weeks before I’m meant to try a phased return but that’s my worry, that I’ll try and relapse. But I am going to try and be very black and white about it and if I get more sick from being in then I’ll get signed off again.

After it goes does life go back to normal a bit more? I miss being able to go and see friends and do anything normal!

Melleebacca · 19/10/2021 18:12

@LK182 that sounds like a good plan. I tend to stop vomiting around 17/18 wks, and then slowly build my strength up again. I’m nauseous until I give birth though. When I gave birth to my second daughter, within an hour I felt amazing. She was a terrible sleeper, screamed blue murder, and really tested me, but I still felt better than when I was pregnant. It does end, it’s just hell while you’re living it.

LucindaE · 19/10/2021 20:02

LK182 Welcome. Sorry you are suffering badly. I so agree with others, don't try and rush back. You won't be up to it. Your HR department linked our thread? That is flattering! You've already had great advice. 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. Also, pink lemonade and cloudy lemonade. 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've added your lemonade tips!
Melleebacca So true.
BBonBoard I suppose in the US health insurance seems to mean that expense isn't taken into account so much. I know they have home rehydrating apparatus available, too. But then, if Ondansetron is freely given in New Zealand, that isn't the only factor. A few years ago, there was a sufferer on here in the Netherlands, and she said they are even worse about prescribing meds over there. It is all highly unfair!
Great advice from RockinRobinn and everyone.
Thank you for kind words about my mother, everyone.
Apologies to anyone rudely overlooked.

OP posts:
BuffyFanForever · 20/10/2021 07:09

Sorry to hear that @LucindaE , I do hope your Mum is ok. I think everyone was hoping you were enjoying some sunshine somewhere!
Well I’m grateful to have you guys here as I’m not bakc in the thick of it...felt abit rough yesterday but the heaving started last night 😢 was so hoping I might be lucky and avoid it this time. I am going to fill the freezer with ice again so hopefully that will help.
Hope everyone has a good day!

BuffyFanForever · 20/10/2021 08:36

*now back . Clearly can’t even string a sentence together!

abbs1 · 20/10/2021 09:58

@BBonBoard

So I spoke to my GP this morning. Had this whole speech prepared and ready to ask for Xonvea. She said she had to check with the partners at the practice and that she would text me with the results. Well, she sent a text saying that Xonvea is not recommended in primary or secondary care by our prescribing authority but that she has issued a prescription for metoclopramide. She said it may be even better than Xonvea. It seems way more intense than Xonvea so I'm not sure why they're so hesitant with Xonvea. Also, I take escitalopram, which is an antidepressant and so now I'm at risk of serotonin syndrome.
I'm so sorry, Ive only just seen this. Not getting alerts for some reason. Xonvea is considered 1st line medication on the hg triangle of levels of medication. Its the same level as cyclizine and the procalzine?? (Spelling) one. It will definitely be down to the cost of it. It is super expensive and sadly not all NHS trusts offer it as its only been licensed in the UK since 2018. Some do it as a private prescription but it costs around £190 a month for full dose of tablets. I would say its so much more worth them paying it and fund it to keep women out of hospital as Im sure a hospital bed and treatment is a lot more than that. Metoclopromide is a level 2 medication like ondansatron so see how you get on with it. I found it did work alongside ondansatron for me at I took it from week 9 until I gave birth. I hope you get some relief soon 🤗
DaimDillyDoo · 20/10/2021 11:07

Hey, I hope you don't mind me jumping on this thread but could really appreciate some support to get through this.

This is my third pregnancy (two miscarriages prior to this pregnancy), my second pregnancy I was in hospital on the EPU hydration suite with IV meds to get the vomiting under control.

I'm now pregnant again, started Cyclizine x3 a day and Promethazine Hydrocloride x4 a day. The meds are clearly helping because I haven't been sick and i'm 7 weeks 3 days, however the nausea is unbearable. I don't know whats worse at the moment because at least I got a bit of relief for about half an hour when I was sick last time.

Is this something I just need to muddle through? It's honestly crippling. I'm terrified as to how poorly i'll get, how I'll manage day to day tasks. The only relief I got yesterday was when I was asleep.

I asked for Xonvea but they are not allowed to prescribe it in my area Sad

Thank you all for any help and I hope you all begin to feel even marginally better soon.

Pleasedontworry · 20/10/2021 11:44

@DaimDillyDoo - you poor thing, I totally agree the nausea can feel much worse. My advice is to take it a day at a time, sleep as much as you can, and see if you can find something (anything) that helps the nausea - it was trial and error for me, but 7UP free with summer fruits squash helped me in the moment I was drinking it, and more recently I’ve found crumpets and peanut butter stave it off for a bit . A friend found ice lollies helped, and another found steaming herself with a really hot shower helped (it would probably have made me vomit, but each to their own and we’re all different!). I’m now 17 weeks and the nausea has reduced to periods of a day rather than constant nausea now, and whilst it’s not totally gone it’s something I’m incredibly grateful for. Sadly, the meds seemed to do very little for the nausea, for me at least but I’ve heard the same from others. Hang in there lovely, and try not to think about the bigger picture too much… one step at a time.

kalidasa · 20/10/2021 13:00

@DaimDillyDoo I'm really sorry about your losses. That is really bad luck as in general women with HG seem to be less likely to miscarry. And yes I'm afraid the drugs only really help stop the vomiting, not the nausea. Some women find ondansetron helps the nausea a bit. Minimising movement as much as possible may help a little bit too. It also may be slightly less bad if you can force yourself to keep eating a bit rather than nothing, easier said than done I know because it's so hard to eat. But it is absolutely grim and I totally agree it's the worst part. In some ways it is better to be sick if you can keep the vomiting to say 3-4 times a day max. This is my third HG pg and quite a lot better than the previous ones and I've found at that level I am able to use the nausea-free 15 mins after vomiting to eat and avoid the ketosis/starvation/dehydration loop. But in my previous pregnancies I just couldn't keep the vomiting under control at all, as soon as it started it was totally relentless and I had to be admitted.

Having said all that I'm 11 weeks now and despite a couple of better days in the last week I've also had several of my absolute worst days so I'm hoping I'm not going to lose control now having got this far!

Can anyone remember what the guidance is about weight loss? I've lost about 7 kg (from start of 59kg, dead middle of the healthy BMI). Seems like quite a lot but not sure if I should be worried. Just had my bloods done and they were ok, maybe a tiny bit anaemic but nothing awful.

Hope everyone is hanging in there. I have my 12 week scan on Monday and if it is ok then I'll finally be able to tell my mum and the children. Fingers crossed!

kalidasa · 20/10/2021 13:14

P.S. I didn't personally find ondansetron did much for the nausea. With DS2 steroids def did help -- at least they made it much easier to eat despite the nausea. But steroids are really last ditch so I'm afraid no-one gets them unless they are really stuck in hosp and have failed on everything else.

BuffyFanForever · 20/10/2021 15:59

@DaimDillyDoo I totally get where you are coming from. I found last time the ondanestron didn’t take the nausea away but did make me very sleepy so was able to sleep through some bouts. Not at all helpful when you have things to do but helped abit at night at least!
@BBonBoard shame you couldn’t get the one you wanted. Give these ones a try and some meds help people more than others. Last time I tried half a dozen before settling on a few different ones at different times of day!

Melleebacca · 20/10/2021 18:29

@kalidasa I’m so impressed that you’re now 11wks and still not in hospital. I know it still sucks, but you’re doing amazing. I’m a similar weight and lose about 6-8kgs each pregnancy. I’m down 3kg at the moment but I was also slightly heavier than normal to begin with. I have in the past been referred to dieticians etc to manage my weight and get protein supplements etc. But mostly I found them rude and degrading me as if it was my choice to spend months vomiting. Eating disorders run in my family, so I am well aware of the problems they cause, but HG isn’t an eating disorder. You can get supplements to help you gain weight when you’re able to eat again, and I had multiple iron IVs to get my iron levels up due to being unable to eat meat while pregnant. But mostly it all rights itself again after giving birth.

@DaimDillyDoo so sorry to hear about your losses. There’s nothing worse than being horribly sick and not ending up with a precious little bundle at the end of it. I’m about the same gestation as you. And a little jealous because I’ve been vomiting since bang on 6wks. The nausea does suck, I feel it’s there constantly but it gets worse in waves. Just take it slow. The meds won’t really help the nausea at the moment because the hormone levels are too high, but they will start to help in the second and third trimester. At the moment, just focus on getting enough liquids and nutrition in. You’re doing great.

Pleasedontworry · 20/10/2021 18:54

Has anyone seen the bbc news report on HG… I wonder if the woman interviewed is/has been on this thread? It made me cry a bit watching it.

Swipe left for the next trending thread