Hello everyone,
I'm going to jump on board. Currently ~7 weeks into my fourth HG pregnancy, I feel like an old hand at this now but also feel prior experience doesn't make it any easier.
A bit of history, my first HG pregnancy was in 2017. I struggled to get any help managing the sickness, neither GP nor MW wanted to hear how ill I was so I managed on my own vomiting up to 15 times a day, easing to a few times a day in the second half of pregnancy but was sick right up until giving birth. I developed sepsis towards the end of pregnancy but put my symptoms down to a reemergence of severe HG so didn't seek help until it got quite bad when I was admitted to the hospital through A&E for rehydration and treatment. I had IV ondansetron on that occasion so experienced my first sickness free period of pregnancy. DS was born healthy but unexpectedly died as a newborn, I asked during the lead-up to his inquest if my untreated HG could have played a part and was told probably not but I still wonder.
Second HG pregnancy in 2018, sickness initially felt much worse but that pregnancy started as a twin pregnancy, I had a blighted ovum so only one baby developed but I wonder if that is why it was initially worse. Pregnancy was managed much better by a mixture of cyclizine, promethazine, prochlorperazine, and metoclopramide. I was still on mat leave at this point and didn't have any other children to physically take care of, so could spend as much time resting as I needed which helped a lot. DD was born healthy at the start of 2019.
Last year I had an early miscarriage at 7-8 weeks, sickness symptoms started before I'd even had a missed period so I got medication from my GP straight away. I realised I was miscarrying when my sickness began to subside at ~7 weeks, I then went on to lost the pregnancy.
And now here I am on pregnancy number 4. I haven't been able to speak with a GP yet but have been taking the medication I was prescribed last year and I have an OOH phone appointment tomorrow morning. The combination of cyclizine and prochlorperazine has helped me keep on top of the worst of the sickness but I still feel constantly nauseous and even with medication my vomiting has been getting progressively worse over the past week, I know from experience I still have a few more weeks until it'll probably reach its peak and I already feel so sick. I've also been taking promethazine in the evening but it makes me so sleepy I don't want to take it during the day. I had to cancel work yesterday, and I have exams coming up next week so I'm really hoping whichever GP I speak to tomorrow will prescribe me ondansetron so I can get on top of the sickness. The only thing that really helps at the moment is complete rest which just is not possible with a three-year-old and work.
I feel so guilty that my husband is taking on everything around the house and looking after DD, and guilty that I'm not spending much time with DD. I just wanted to hop on board for a bit of support from others who know the horror of HG, if it wasn't for really not wanting DD to be our only living child I wouldn't be going through this again, and if this pregnancy ends I'm really not sure I can face another.