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.

@LucindaE it is my first so I do have that on my side. I am hoping and praying she won’t come until next week. I forgot to mention in my last post, are there any ladies who have had to occasionally take Tylenol while on their anti-nausea meds? I know Tylenol is pretty safe as long as it’s not taken routinely. I had such a bad head cold that I thought it would be better to take a dose of Tylenol and to suffer and potentially develop a fever. I haven’t done it since I’m taking ondansetron which I stopped taking the days that I took the Tylenol.

@LindSan omg. That sounds awful! You poor thing! I have known lots of people who get colds etc around their due date, but find they tend to get healthy prior to going into labour. With my first I slept a full 12hr stretch the night before I went into labour, it was like my body knew to rest. Keep resting and I hope you feel better soon.

@abbs1 oh no! You too! Thank you for letting me know your symptoms, I’m almost certain I will get it in the next few months because I work at a school, and I’m very worried about how weak my body already is from HG, so it’s good to know it’s not too bad. I’ve just become due for my booster, so that will be this weekends job I think.

@PopGoesBang I only worked 4hrs today, because I didn’t need to be there longer, but Im now in the bath after covering my daughters school books almost killed me. Im so exhausted and sore. The puppies are a delightful distraction though. Everytime they see me, they get all excited that Im going to feed them, and they snuggle so nicely.

@LucindaE thank you for your kind words. Everyone at work was very supportive, although shocked that I don’t look any more pregnant than I did 7wks ago. I actually have lost a kilo probably from doing too much around the house. It’s nice to get back into the new rhythm of things.

Hi everyone, as ever I’m in and out of this thread, but sending strength to all those new and old to the horrible HG club. I’m 33 weeks tomorrow, baby appears to be running out of space and I’ve finally finished work (using some carried over annual leave before mat leave begins!).

Sickness most days still, but far less of the horrendous heaving which is strangely better and not looking at my computer screen and not being work stressed has been a game changer.

Sorry to hear some of you are still really suffering. I’m only now realising the toll this has all taken on me and my view / experience of pregnancy, mostly as I appear to have very little memory of months 1-5. I guess that’s normal? Also since being able to actually eat and keep food down my body appears to be hoarding the calories and weight and I’ve completely changed shape- has this happened to anyone else?! Is it an extreme reaction to the starvation mode I had it in?

For anyone really in the thick of it, you have all my sympathy, the fog has lifted for me, and it will get better and I’m so thankful for this thread and community of others who have been through it and just ‘get it’.

Sending you all positivity for a good day ahead

@MrsNovember Im glad youre feeling better than you have been and now off until baby comes.
I definitely blocked out a lot of the first 5 months as it was truly horrendous and I didnt want to remember any of it. I do still have nightmares about it now and again but not too much thankfully.

I would keep an eye on your weight and keep checking how much your gaining a week. I found that after losing 15lbs due to HG sickness, I'd gained it back by around 30-32 weeks but then from week 34-38 I ballooned and gained 11kg which I thought was due to eating loads after so long without being able to eat but baby hadnt grown and my body was full of fluid and I had pre eclampsia. Not to scare you but just to keep an eye on it and mention it to your midwife.

Thankfully once Id given birth baby was only 5lbs 8oz and within a week id lost all the fluid and was back to pre pregnancy weight.

I hope you can get some good rest before baby comes. 🤗

Everyone, lovely abbs1 will be calling in to offer advice on the thread while I go and visit my mother for her birthday. I should be back on Sunday evening with luck. abbs1 Great advice to BFPDec2021 LindSan and others.

@BFPDec21

I’m sure your GP can’t decline to provide a sick note when you’re still vomiting and on meds! I think the NHS is rather busy at the moment so sick notes can take time, but I eventually persuaded my GP to sign me off for the rest of my pregnancy, suggesting it would be easier for both of us than me phoning to get back dated monthly notes. She was reluctant at first, and said the sickness should have gone by 24 weeks (ha ha) but when I pointed out I’m still vomiting daily and under obstetrics for meds she agreed. This is a GP who rarely gives sick notes for anything BTW but it’s a bit different with pregnancy!

I don’t get fevers but I do get chills and cold sweats when I’m vomiting in the night. Could you have an underlying infection eg UTI?

@LindSan

I hope you feel better soon and the covid is over quickly. I don’t think they make you wear a mask in active labour, as you’ll have gas&air etc. And you’ll be in your own room.

Is Tylenol paracetamol? If so it’s fine to take it in pregnancy with anti sickness meds. I use it quite often for migraines, along with codeine sometimes.

@Melleebacca

Well done for managing at work! Glad your colleagues were supportive.

Hope your booster goes well. I had very few side effects apart from a sore arm. There are 4 covid cases in my son’s class so I’m lateral flow testing us every few days!

@LucindaE I hope you have a lovely time visiting your mum.

Hey everyone. My drs has finally said she thinks I have hg. I'm having to monitor my weight and if I have a prolonged period of not keeping anything down I can drop a urjne sample to the surgery for testing.

Im on the third anti sickness (domperidone) which I can take alongside the prochlorperazine. But they're not doing much so far. I'm off work today, I did go in but went home as I wasnt keeping anything down.
I told my work I was pregnant yesterday, it didn't go down with my manager very well. So let's just say he's going to be less than understanding at the moment (snotty comments about how at 7 weeks not much has happened to my body, as a cis male he can get fucked)

Im really struggling to know how to deal with this. I feel sick constantly. I'm barely keeping things down. I'm exhausted. I have no idea how I'm going to work and keep my job for the next 7 months. A little bit of my is breaking each time the anti sickness meds don't work.

@skaterchick can you ask your Dr to sign you off with a sick note but make sure it says hyperemesis of pregnancy on it not just morning sickness. HG is definitely made worse with not enough rest especially if your being sick so much. If your not keeping much down you may need some IV fluids and medication in hospital. Dehydration is far more dangerous than medication with a HG pregnancy. I literally lived off 3 bags of fluids and IV medication on a near daily basis for months from 7 weeks pregnant on a day unit in hospital to keep me and baby alive.
Can your Dr prescribe you something stronger like ondansatron or metoclopromide to take alongside your other medication?
Also there is so much information and support on this website from medication, helps with employers not understanding HG as well as hospitals around the uk that have specific HG day units etc. I also was able to get a peer support person that has been invaluable this pregnancy.
www.pregnancysicknesssupport.org.uk/get-help/treatments/

Let me know if you need anything else hun. I hope you feel supported in this group. It honestly was my life line in my previous pregnancy. Thankfully this time ive not been near as sick and baby is due in a few weeks but its so lovely having women who understand what each other is going through when so many don't.

[quote abbs1]@skaterchick can you ask your Dr to sign you off with a sick note but make sure it says hyperemesis of pregnancy on it not just morning sickness. HG is definitely made worse with not enough rest especially if your being sick so much. If your not keeping much down you may need some IV fluids and medication in hospital. Dehydration is far more dangerous than medication with a HG pregnancy. I literally lived off 3 bags of fluids and IV medication on a near daily basis for months from 7 weeks pregnant on a day unit in hospital to keep me and baby alive.
Can your Dr prescribe you something stronger like ondansatron or metoclopromide to take alongside your other medication?
Also there is so much information and support on this website from medication, helps with employers not understanding HG as well as hospitals around the uk that have specific HG day units etc. I also was able to get a peer support person that has been invaluable this pregnancy.
www.pregnancysicknesssupport.org.uk/get-help/treatments/

Let me know if you need anything else hun. I hope you feel supported in this group. It honestly was my life line in my previous pregnancy. Thankfully this time ive not been near as sick and baby is due in a few weeks but its so lovely having women who understand what each other is going through when so many don't. [/quote]
Thank you. It really does make me feel better knowing that there are people who understand. I've taken tomorrow off work and if I can't keep anything down still in the morning I'm going to have my ketones checked.
I was on metoclopramide before the domperidone and it didn't agree with me. Made me extra anxious, shaky, lathargic etc. Could not function on it what so ever.
I'm glad youre doing better this time around and I wish you all the best when baby comes xxx

@skaterchick oh thsts good your off tomorrow. You can buy ketone test sticks off amazon to do at home which is really useful as well to check your hydration levels. I know a lot of women on here use them.
Metoclopromide unfortunately doesn't agree with quite a few women sadly. I found cyclizine made me all droswy and completely out of it so i didnt use it but many women say it works well with ondansatron. Can you ask about ondansatron? If you get some make sure to get some lactulose as it makes you very constipated but works well for a lot of women.
A new medication i used this time was xonvea and its worked incredibly well so may be worth asking for that?

Aww thank you. Can't wait for baby to get here now. Last few weeks.

@SkaterChick same reaction on metaclopromide here. Makes me shaky and anxious. I’m on ondansetron and cyclizine but down to just one dose a day. Was doing 3 doses in the peak of it, but starting dropping meds at 17wks. Most people don’t get relief from HG until well into the second trimester. With my first pregnancy I had to change GPs because my first idiot male one would only sign me off for 3 days at a time despite still vomiting and requiring IV fluids. My next one, a woman, signed me off in 4 week blocks. There are sympathetic people out that, you just need to find them.

@MrsNovember I think women with HG have to block out the first few months, just to be able to survive and do it again. Every new pregnancy I’m shocked by how sick I get even though I’ve done it before. It’s like labour. It’s going to hurt like hell, but I can’t remember how badly until it starts, and by then, I’m ready to eat real food again.

Waves to everyone else.

@Melleebacca i definitely had to block out my first pregnancy otherwise I would never done another one. This one has been so much better but still had scares along the way. My husband and I really want more children but no idea how we'd cope with 2 kids and me being stuck in hospital for months if I was as sick again as I was with my little boy. I'm having a girl this time. We couldn't ask family to come and stay to help us out as we haven't got the space and my husband is working. Our little boy would be in nursery 3 days a week but would still be a huge thing to do.
How have you managed to do it? At the moment we are sadly saying no more but we both feel we aren't finished yet if that makes sense.

I think you are all right, you totally block out bits.
I'm with a new Dp this time. And when we were talking about trying I warned him I was very sick before and that I ended up in hospital and it wasn't just average sickness and how it could mean I'd be pretty useless - 'it'll be fine'.
There have been days where he's been quite frustrated - more at me suffering than anything else. I think he wishes he could do more. Do I think he fully understands it now? No, I don't think he does. But to be fair, there's days I don't understand it either.
We know this will be our last baby, age, the sickness etc playing massive parts in that.

I did chuckle when my GP said to me when it all kicked off again 'and you decided to give it another go' - weirdly although I knew it would probably be the same (I think it's worse) I had an optimistic approach that it might not be. Oh how we fool ourselves!

Eurgh my ever helpful drs had me in for a urine test as I haven't kept anything down for 24 hours. Dropped it at reception and was told someone would call me with the results as they didn't have any appointments but someone would test it.
No one's come back to me and when I called to chase up apparently they closed at 3.30 today. So no idea what's happening with that now.

@SkaterChick

Eurgh my ever helpful drs had me in for a urine test as I haven't kept anything down for 24 hours. Dropped it at reception and was told someone would call me with the results as they didn't have any appointments but someone would test it. No one's come back to me and when I called to chase up apparently they closed at 3.30 today. So no idea what's happening with that now.

Oh no! Can you order some tests to your house to check it so you don't have to keep taking it to the Drs? Closing at 3:30pm seems very early for a GP surgery. If your GP isnt helping definitely call your EPU for advice and help

@abbs1 This time has been easiest because my eldest is at school, the bus picks up from directly outside our house. My 4yr old goes to kindy 4 days a week, and one day at home. Hubby works just up the road from her kindy and has the flexibility to work from home. The pandemic helped with him working from home being normalized. Essentially he would pick up the 4yr old in the afternoon, and do all the after school, bedtime routine, and then do a couple of hours of work after bedtime. We didn’t have any other family help out. Hubby got 6wks long service leave at the start of 2020, and we were meant to go to the states, but that was canned, so we’ve had no guilt about him using a little bit of leave to be home more often.

@PopGoesBang whenever hubby gets any slight illness, or a cold, he apologizes profusely to me. He can’t comprehend that I feel rundown and nauseous constantly regardless of how well I appear to be coping. If you haven’t lived it, it’s really hard to understand. Women who suffer some MS kinda get it, in that they can understand that their worse day of pregnancy is our best day.

@SkaterChick I feel for GPs with the whole pandemic thing, but it also feels like you can never get an appt at anytime, or any results either.

@Melleebacca You're right, and to be fair some days I find it hard to comprehend too!

I'm supposed to have a works meal tonight - a late Christmas meal. But evenings lately have been my worst time. It's not local, it's about a 30 minute drive (I don't drive) and we're all getting a taxi as the others will drink. I'm in two minds. I'd love to go, but I'm worried if it's a difficult evening I'm stuck in a restaurant, trying not to show how I feel, and can't just make excuses and leave. Or likewise just turn up for half hour or so and then slip away again. We're only a small team, and I'd feel bad for letting them down but I feel I should probably not put myself under that pressure. Am I over thinking it?!

@abbs1 yeah I think I'm going to order some for home

@Melleebacca I absolutely feel for them, they're stretched and are doing their best.

It's now been 48 hours since I've kept anything down. I called the drs this morning and they just said my test was negative. They're going to have a nurse practitioner call me.
I don't know what else to do.

@SkaterChick Would it be worth a call to your midwife/midwife team and explaining to them and see if they have any different ideas? In your situation you'd think it would be wise to get you in for fluids and treatment before it continues.
I hope just for your peace of mind the nurse is sympathetic and just goes down the route of iv treatment for you and you get some relief.
💐 for you and really hope you get a break soon.

@PopGoesBang I don't have a midwife yet. I put through my referral at 6 weeks. I've had my screening clinic app through but nothing else (I'm 7+4 now)
If the nurse isn't helpful in debating just going to a&e or seeing if I can speak to a midwife via 111

[quote SkaterChick]@PopGoesBang I don't have a midwife yet. I put through my referral at 6 weeks. I've had my screening clinic app through but nothing else (I'm 7+4 now)
If the nurse isn't helpful in debating just going to a&e or seeing if I can speak to a midwife via 111[/quote]
You don't need to have had your booking in apt or seen your midwife to get treatment at EPU. Id go there over a and e as you will be seen quicker. If you need to go to a and e i just getting there for 6am-7am when its quietest and you get seen sooner.

I hope you can get some help soon OP.

@SkaterChick ah, that's rubbish. Maybe even maternity triage might be worth a call. And just explain you aren't getting anywhere with anyone else. But otherwise I would absolutely be debating a&e.
I really feel for you having to deal with trying to work out what's best on top of everything else.