Can you help me prepare for a HG pregnancy?

[DaimDillyDoo]

I have just found out i'm pregnant, very early days (11 dpo) with a much wanted baby. I've had two miscarriages prior - one at 7 weeks and one at 11 weeks. My second pregnancy resulted in hospital admission because of HG and I was totally unprepared for just how ill I would feel. I am already feeling sick and I know the rough ride i'm about to go down. I lost a load of weight despite being put on different sickness meds and regular trips to a hydration suite.

It doesn't help we are in the final stages of buying a house (due to exchange tomorrow) and will be moving in around the 7th week of my pregnancy. I am predicting I will literally be in the removal van with a bowl and it's already making me panic.

So far I have:

• Call the GP and see what they recommend to try and prevent the sickness
• Start to batch cook so DP and I won't live off take aways
• Start packing the house up early

Any ideas or advice will be appreciated.

You need to see your GP ASAP to get anti sickness meds in your system as quickly as possible. Also inform your midwife on your booking appointments what your pregnancies are like.

For the move, if your budget will stretch to it then consider hiring the removal people to pack the house as well as remove. It saves so much work, effort and stress on your part when you're feeling awful - you just live in the house as normal up until the day before the move, when a team of people come in and pack up your entire house in one day.

I know how you are feeling. I starting gagging and trying to be sick from 12 days before I missed a period. Went straight onto medication, worked for 3 days, on to doctors ASAP on a different medication again only worked for 3 days, changed again. We were in the middle of moving too and I have a toddler. Managed to stay out of hospital by making sure I was on top of it with the doctors, just ring straight up. It was 3 different medications until we found something that worked and by work I was only getting sick 3 times a day rather than 12/15.
I’m 27 weeks now and still on the medication, tried to reduce and started straight back up.
Hopefully you have a good doctor like mine who completely understood how bad I was.
Wish you the best and I hope it eases for you. I’m on the tablets now until my c section. I have also had 2 miscarriages too.

Thank you for recommendations. I'm so apprehensive and I'm a little bit scared, to be honest.

Are there any sickness medications to specifically ask for? I have some Cyclizine and Prop-something left over from last time so I'll start taking those now.

@Em39ma I can't even begin to think about HG, a house move and a toddler. You sound like superwoman! What med combo helped the vomiting for you? I'm scared

@DaimDillyDoo I’m on Stemil and omoperzole, tried the even stronger medication but they made me very poorly. I manage to tear some blood vessels in my throat getting sick, so that’s why I’m on the omoperzole .
I’m know superwoman, fortunately have my parents close by to help.
DH is amazing too and is still working from home. Some days are harder than others, I just remember that as soon as baby is out it stops. It’s like someone switches the switch. I had a c section with dd and felt like I could a jig the next as felt like me for the first time in 9 months.

I'm in my second pregnancy and had HG for the first half of my pregnancies and then it gradually tails off for me thankfully. I'm 38 weeks now and just get mild-moderate nausea some days, usually evenings, and that's it. My biggest piece of advice is contact the Pregnancy Sickness Support charity because they will give you the best advice about everything tbh.

@Daimdillydoo I had awful hg first pregnancy and was im hospital nearly everyday from 7 weeks for fluids and IV medication and ended up on steroids at 12 weeks at home from nurse visiting twice a day.
This time I got some great help and support from Pregnancy Sickness Support charity and they advised me to ask the GP for Xonvea to take as soon as I got my BFP. I managed to get an appointment with GP for when I was 5 weeks and honestly the Xonvea has been a life saver. I have had nausea still but only 1 lot of vomitting and as the medication built up in my body the nausea has been manageable and Ive been able to function, do everyday tasks, take care of my little boy and not be bed bound or in hospital. Im now nearly 16 weeks.

Please ask for it. I know of several women who have had hg and its helped them so much in other pregnancies. It is licenced in the UK and safe.

Also check out the hyperemesis support page on here under the pregnancy tab for loads of support and advice. They got me through my first pregnancy and Ive been back on it this time.

I wish you all the best and stay strong x

I am 16 weeks into my 4th pregnancy and have had HG 4 times. Luckily for me it gets milder into the start of the 2nd trimester then gradually fades away. I feel so much better now and am enjoying my favourite foods and doing things I enjoy but also know I can never ever do it again (and 4 is enough lol) Starting batch cooking is definitely one of the most important things as the kitchen will become your worst enemy. I got on top of everything I needed to do as soon as I found out I was pregnant but everything quickly spiralled out of control. Iv actually never been through anything that compares to HG. It actually leaves me with some form of PTSD and crippling anxiety for a while. I have pictures in my phone of me hooked up to a drip that I sent my dh and I find them really hard to look at as I remember how I was feeling at that time and I wanted to terminate my baby that I'm now so happy to be carrying. Good luck with everything and remember to be easy on yourself and rest when you can x

@abbs1 your message is so reassuring - thank you. It gives me hope to know that I might be able to still half function with the right treatment. Was it just Xonvea you were on? Congrats on your pregnancy, btw

I'm stressing, I have two huge projects that require me on site at work. It's an hour commute at least twice a week but will likely be more in the next coming weeks.

@Mamascoven omg I also have photos of my face in hospital hooked on a drip - I wanted to see how chapped my lips were because I was so dehydrated. I remember reading the posters in the hydration suite which were about terminations due to hyperemesis and that is was a normal thought to have. I remember feeling the exact same as you.

I'm going to batch cook this weekend. Everything turned my stomach - even dettol spray which we used a lot of during lockdown!

I'm going to do the little jobs I need to regarding the house move earlier than initially planned. The mail redirection, packing earlier, clearing out stuff as I remember I was completely unable to move at 6 weeks. It's only 3 weeks away!

@Daimdillydoo Yes so this time ive just been on xonvea but ive got ondansatron amd metoclopromide if I needed it but so far I havent.
Last time i was on ondansatron metoclopromide and steroids but only IV ondansatron worked until I had steroids so hospital was the only option to keep me and baby alive. It was a huge mental and physical battle but I made it and have had a lot of help prepping for this pregnancy due to how bad my last one was.

If you cant get Xonvea ask for ondansatron ans metoclopromide to take in sync with each other. Make sure the GP is aware of previous hg so they dont try to fob you off.

Congrats on your pregnancy too. Im so sorry about your losses. I lost my firsf baby through miscarriage and it was very hard so sending hugs.

The Pregnancy Sickness Support charity also offer peer support so you can have someone message you and help you through your pregnancy which has been amazing so please feel free to reach out to them.

Its crazy how looking back at the photos just brings back all the feelings. Also I forgot to mention I didnt take medication , I was prescribed stemitil and cyclizine but it didnt work. I tried to push for ondensatron (maybe wrong spelling) but they wouldnt prescribe - it's very costly to NHS. By the time they actually prescribed me something else the sickness had calmed luckily. Hopefully you get the right medication that works for you and helps you keep some food and drink down. I hope it isn't too rough for you and doesnt last long. The biggest thing to remember is it's all worth it X

Batch cooking is a brilliant idea, bearing in mind you will likely want plainer comfort food again. I would also try liquid vitamins if you are anything like me and struggled with swallowing normal vitamins and the sickness.

Completely agree with PPs who say get into your GP ASAP - get the cyclizine or whatever it is you need into your system. I had cyclizine then went to Ondansetron then back to cyclizine. I have read if you can catch it earlier it isn't as bad (not sure how that works mind you). Get whatever fluids in that you can, I enjoyed mi wadi and it gave me a bit of sugar (not the sugar free ones). Also I had preggy pop drops in, as well as some mints and sickness bags.

Really hope it isn't as bad for you this time, but remember it WILL pass 🤞🏻

Definitely agree on getting anti sickness medication ASAP, studies show that it is more effective to take before sickness starts.
Be prepared to push your GP if you have to, I literally just came off the phone with GP who hadn’t even heard of cyclizine and then told me it was best to avoid any meds in pregnancy, despite me telling her I was on them for the entirety of my last pregnancy, ended up being signed off for 2 months and lost significant weight
Also vitamin b6 is supposed to help with nausea, you’d need to check the dosage amounts though (I don’t want to give incorrect info!)

Ahhh having a battle trying to get any sort of help early.

GP will only provide Cyclizine and PromethaZine even though they didn't work last time and I rapidly went down hill. They will only prescribe this as it's first line therapy and then "when im being sick again" call back and we will discuss further options.

I called the EPU to advise I suffer with HG and want help before I'm being sick constantly and can't move. They won't do anything without a GP referral and the GP won't refer me until I've lost X amount of weight

I’m sorry to hear you’re suffering already - I spoke to my doctor at six weeks after having HG last time and being on ondansetron from week 15-40 (after trying the various cyclizine/prochloperamide/metachlopramide etc!) I read a lot from pregnancy sickness support, which supports preemptive meds and my doctor was persuaded. It might be worth providing your GP with this and see if it makes any difference?

www.pregnancysicknesssupport.org.uk/documents/prep-for-preg.pdf

Fingers crossed you get something in place that helps. I moved at 14 weeks last time, and will be moving at 16 weeks in October. Last time I sat in the car being sick into a Bag For Life and let my husband do everything, but it wasn’t as bad as I’d hoped. You can definitely get through it

Each of my HG pregnancies has been different - 1st was horrendous, 2nd was not great but no to as bad as 1st and 3rd was pretty rough.

My GP was v helpful though - I told her I couldn’t keep anything down and she referred me straight to the EPU and they gave me an injection in the bum that gave me a chance to keep something down and ‘reset’ if that makes sense.

Good luck!