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.

Snowwhite2020 That's good about Omprzole helping. I so agree about anti acids helping with the symptoms.

I had been taking Rennie's that I bought over the counter but one day I ate so many they made me the most constipated I've ever been. It was not a pleasant weekend and I don't even want to think about how I had to clear the blockages.

The doctor had prescribed me something that's the equivalent of gaviscon, but cheeper. But most my reflux is at times I can't use it as it had written on that it has to be 2 hours after any other medication.

I was in over the weekend on fluids and I came home on cyclizine , xoneva and omeprezole and I feel so so so much better. I'm still being sick but only a few time and the nausea has really really calmed down.

It's my second pregnancy with HG and I never got this relief last time so if you are reading this in the depths of despair then stick with the cyclizine after a few days to get used to it it's really working for me. I refused it initially because of how drowsy it made me

SpottybutterflyThat is awkward about the other meds. I hope the new stuff helps. I know what you mean about those methods you have to use!
ohhollyfred I am so glad that combination is making such a difference.

@Spottybutterfly what have you been prescribed for the reflux? I find omeprazole has very few side effects and works well to minimise the reflux (and nausea).

@ohhollyfred I so agree about cyclizine. I’ve taken it on full dose from early in the pregnancy and it has made such a difference. I can really feel it when I’m “due” to take one. It doesn’t take the sickness or nausea away completely but definitely has made life bearable.

love to all xx

Waves to Snowwhite2020, Spottybutterfly and everyone.
I just hope everyone isn't suffering too much in this heat.

I have been quiet on here as I went back to work last week and have been absolutely wiped out. I hadn't been sick on the combination of ondansetron and cyclizine for over a week, but then was towards the end of last week and again over the weekend, but I'm totally blaming being tired and the heat. I vomited spectacularly at work yesterday and it was unstoppable, then when I stood up I passed out! It was hideous but also I'm pleased my colleagues have seen actually how bad it is. I think some think it's just regular pregnancy sickness and don't know why I can't work through it. My husband came to pick me up and I spent the afternoon in bed sipping on lucozade sport. I had a phone call with our business manager (I work in a school) and I'm going to do reduced hours this week and next week. I already feel so much better this morning knowing I don't have to be there until 12.30!!

@ohhollyfred I had the same experience with cyclizine and agree it really is worth persevering with. The drowsiness knocks me out with bad headaches too, but within a week it wears off. Thankfully the ondansetron constipation has eased too! Now if I could please just request the temp drops beneath 20° please.....

buntywindermere Aagh! That sounds awful. I am glad that they saw how awful it is, though, and that they have reduced your hours. It seems a bit shocking to me they expected you to go back to full time hours. Good advice for ohhollyfred.

@buntywindermere I am so sorry you felt the pressure to be in work and you had this experience as a result. I’m sure many of us on here can relate to others’ general ignorance about HG… and how appalled they can be when they see/ experience the truth!

When I last phoned my GP about it the receptionist wrote down “hyperthyroidism” and the doctor called me back confused… he said they will never hear the word normally. My midwife also said she has had almost nobody with it (and she has worked for nearly 15 years.) I hope this isn’t because others suffer without the correct diagnosis but I think it is quite rare… 1 in 100 I think? This, of course, doesn’t excuse the ignorance and reluctance to believe by some…

Glad you’ve got reduced hours for the foreseeable. Hopefully if you work in a school you can get some time off over the summer?

love to you xx

Snowwhite2020 It is a bit shocking that they hardly ever hear the word in the GP's surgery - after all, of thoses surely hundreds of preganant women attending a surgery in a few years, there must be a percentage of sufferers. I fear that you are right, and many go undiagnosed. Oh dear, about the receptionist writing the wrong condition!

Weather warnings today. I hope everyone manages in the heat.

I'm still feeling sick but now more than all-day nausea I seem to get where it ramps up quickly, I vomit and then get some relief, so atleast I'm not nauseous 100% of the time now. I'm still not well enough to tidy and do house work.

My husband used the hover earlier, and I found a new trigger, the hot smell of the motor made me vomit.

We have the health visitor coming Tues and my husband is driving me mad. He's left a lot of the cleaning, laundry, tidying the whole time I've been ill, 8 months. It really needs done. But if I complain he's sat playing on the phone, or watching the telly, I just get "I need a rest".

My dad's done more tidying for us than my husband. I don't know how many more different ways I can say the health visitor will look all over the house. Things like dust he just ignores.

Prunes have 100% helped with constipation.

Spottybutterfly That's annoying. Some on here have paid for a cleaner to do a mass clean up every few weeks when their OH's just didn't do it.

Has anyone here had promethazine? I'm about a week into it, it has helped the vomitting but not really the nausea, and it makes me so tired (I take one at night but still feel wiped out in the day). Will it take longer to get used to the drowsiness? Or should I ask for something else?

@Thetractorjustmoved I'm on it now. It also stopped the vomiting so I could keep stuff down early on but still felt dizzy and nauseous. I don't think the tiredness ever went away.

Thanks @Spottybutterfly it's good to know other people's experiences. It's great to not be vomming all the time but I am pretty zombified!

Thetractorjustmoved A number of the women on here have been on that anti emetic, and found it pretty good. I know that many find the sleepiness caused by Cyclizine wears off gradually, but I'm glad that Spottybutterfly was able to advise you about Promethezine as I can't remember what sufferers say about that.
Hmm. Very hot weather tomorrow. I will be thinking of everyone.

Does anyone have any magical tips when not able to keep fluids down?? Have tried numerous items in suggested drink list. I'm having planned fluids twice a week at the hospital but in between that not able to keep anything down at all

@ohhollyfred Sounds brutal, especially in the heat. I presume you've tried sucking an ice cube of frozen juice?

@ohhollyfred I feel for you especially in this awful heat.

Have you tried ice lollies or even just spraying a bit of water into your mouth with a plant spray.

ohhollyfred My goodness, I agree with BalletN. In this weather, this most be torture. Are you very dehdyrated - not just ketones, but dry mouth and non-eleastic skin, headache, blurry vision, etc? Maybe you need fluids more often in this heatwave. though it must be such a business trying to add another appointment. Some swear by very sweet drinks, ie, the juice of tinned fruit, but you say you've tried these? Does drinking through a straw help? Frozen cubes of flat coke?

If I'm feeling sick but have a dry mouth I will put some drink/water in mouth then spit it back out. I find it helps relieve mouth dryness for a few minutes.

Also sucking a boiled sweet helps keep my mouth moister.

Sucking on tangerines but not eating the pulp has helped, or sucking on watermelon.

ohhollyfred How are things?
ElephantGrey101 Sorry, I somehow missed your post and good tips.
Great tips from Spottybutterfly and others.
Apologies to anyone rudely overlooked.

Hi, I’m just wondering if anyone has managed to successfully get through hyperemesis without the medication?

this is my third pregnancy with hyperemesis, but first in the U.K. (I’m British, but had my oldest two in the US). In the US I was offered medication many times, but when I said I didn’t want it, they always understood. Instead I was placed on a programme of regular IVs. Obviously, I felt horrific, but I got through.

However, now that I’m in the U.K. I’m experiencing things very differently. Drugs are again being pushed (more than in America?!?!), but nothing else seems to be available. I was sent to hospital yesterday for rehydration as I had very high ketones. I felt like the nursing staff weren’t listening to my desire to try and do this without medication and made me wait 13 hours before giving me the IV. It was as if they were punishing me/keeping it ransom until I agreed to the drugs.

im not saying the drugs are terrible and I know they do so so much good for so many. It’s just that any kind of medication always makes me apprehensive and as I’ve managed it twice without before, I thought I could do the same again (I also have a ridiculously high sense of fairness, so I feel guilty medicating this baby when I didn’t my previous two - sure that sounds ridiculous).

has anyone else managed to successfully do this without drugs? Or successfully advocate for different treatment in the U.K.? I feel like I’m being bullied into drugs or nothing :(

Thanks in advance x x x x

sageandrose Welcome. Sage and Rose are two of my favourite plants.
In answer to your question, many sufferers like myself who had it only mildly and not for very long, did have to decades ago, when if you managed to keep out of hospital you didn't get prescribed meds, but I know I was severely dehydrated at one point and it was only the fact that Acupunture proved unusually helpful for me that I managed to avoid having to go in for fluids. Doctors tend to weigh up the very real dangers of dehydration to the baby with the minimal risks of the anti emetics, and take a decision accordingly. I don't know anyone who has had severe Hyperemesis on these threads who hasn't been on meds, so it all depends on how badly you have it as to whether you can get through without drugs. Generally, doctors start by prescribing the weakest drugs and only go on to others if they aren't effective. I hope this helps.
I am going away for a couple of days, but I know that as everyone on this thread is so good at looking after each other, I don't need to fret too much. I've got to go on a family duty visit; no fun involved!