Signed off work with nausea?

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Has anyone been signed off work with nausea?

I am currently 9w2d and struggling terribly with nausea all day every day. I am also feeling exhausted. I was prescribed cyclazine which made a small difference but made me drowsy. I then was prescribed Prochlorperazine however this really floored me in terms of drowsiness.

I’m really struggling with work. I’m not able to give my full effort, I’m lucky if it’s even half effort at the minute. I have a major guilt complex surrounding taking time off work so am very reluctant to do it. I’m wondering if this is something the GP would sign me off for so that I don’t need to feel guilty about taking time off?

At the minute I’m running on empty, finishing work and napping for two hours, then sleeping for 10+ hours at night. Any advice would be welcome

Yes you can ask your GP for a sick note and to review medication again - there are still others you could try.

I'm sorry you're dealing with this. Please do not feel guilty. I was off work for around 2 months with pregnancy related nausea and vomiting. I was reminded by my kind manager that in the course of your career it is a very small amount of time and won't matter at all in the grand scheme of things. Pregnancy related illness is treated differently.

Yes. I was subsequently signed off with antenatal depression and fatigue. 5 months in total (4 weeks for sickness).

Thanks everyone. I’ve never been off sick for longer than 2 days, this might sound stupid but do I ask the GP if they will sign me off or do I just tell them how I’m feeling and hope they’ll suggest it?

Oh yes, absolutely get signed off! I was signed off for eight weeks with extreme nausea in pregnancy and it was absolutely necessary - i could barely function. You’re growing a human being! Be kind to yourself.

In terms of practicalities, give your doctor a call and ask to be signed off - they’ll usually ask how long, so maybe start with two weeks? Then see how you feel at the end of that two weeks and call the docs to extend if necessary. Remember that pregnancy related illness isn’t counted by employers in the same was as ‘normal’ illness, so make sure your doc specifies that your illness is related to pregnancy on the note you give to work.

Then rest up with zero guilt. It’s a tiny fraction of time in your career - don’t stress.

@KnitFastDieWarm thanks for that, good to know. I have some deadlines coming up so I will hopefully complete my work so that I’m not leaving my colleagues with a load of my work to do and will hopefully look at being signed off before I start back work on the 29th. Feeling so miserable and a couple of weeks off will hopefully do me wonders

I was signed off for 4 weeks with DC1 and 3 weeks with DC2. Before that I think I'd had a couple of days a year off sick!

I asked to be signed off the second time, I can't remember whether the first time I asked or just heavily hinted. The first trimester was the worst - at the other end of pregnancy I worked until just over 38 weeks with DC1 and 39 weeks with DC2.

You can just request a sick note from reception - they will pass the task on to the GP. The GP may just do you one as you’ve been to see them already with sickness - if not they might book you in for an appointment to see them to discuss. Please just tell them so they know that’s what you want, they won’t think it’s weird or unusual x