chronic sickness - any tips?

[mckenzie]

My friend is 12 weeks pregnant with her second child and is being sick, sick,sick. This morning she was sick 6 times before 10am. Her DS has a cold and is waking up in the night and she's even being sick when she gets up to see to him at 2/3am. She's not a whinger at all and is normally very fit and active but she's feeling so down about this sickness that she asked her husband to shoot her! With her first pregnancy she did have sickness but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as this. She can't even drive at the moment because of being sick and this this afternoon had to use a waste bin in the local bank!

Can anyone recommend anything? She's tried ginger, rich tea biscuits.

When I was pregnant with both of mine I had very very bad sickness and I used to sip either ice cold water or tonic water and even cold ginger ale, those things seemed to work for me.

Hope your friend feels better soon

I had this v. badly with both my dds all the way through,the only day I wasn't sick were the days I went into labour!!! I tried pretty much everything and I have to say v. little worked, especially with dd2. But accupuncture did help a bit, homeopathy didn't help me but may be worth a go. I did get some relief from crunching ice!! I know it's weird but it would help if, when the wave of nausea would start, if I could chew on ice it would help it to lessen/disappear so I wasn't always vomitting. I was like a woman possessed if the ice tray was empty.

I really sympathise with her. I used to take a tupperware box, with sealable lid(!!) for chucking whilst driving! And have thrown up in the oddest of places. In the end I got used to it I suppose. It is soo hard when you're looking after another dd/ds too. There is a website for "hyperemesis Survivors", she may get some other info there. Wish her all the best.

I was just sick in 1st trimester, but maybe some of the following may help. I found those pressure bands you put on your wrists (usually for travel sickness) helped quite a lot. You press them when you feel you're about to be sick and it does abate. Was handy for travelling to/from work especially. Also, I opened a can of fizzy drink (Fanta, 7-Up etc) night before to sip (when flat)in morning (before even sitting up). Seemed to help me - boosted blood sugar level, I suppose. Also found eating dried fruit helped.
Hope she feels better soon.

Vitamin B6, 50mg x2/day. GODSEND!! Nothing else worked. I was throwing up 3-4x/day on average, and stopped almost completely within 4 days of starting the B6.

I had acupuncture for morning sickness (dh is a qualified medical acupunctuist thank goodness) an it was brilliant. FOund the seabands worked a bit but not as good as the needles.
I used to make fresh ginger and lemon tea (the bags werent good enough) by steeping about 1" sqaure of ginger and the juice of one lemon in about a pint of water, leaving it about 10-15 mins, and then straining it and drinking it lukewarm. It made a big difference. HTH.

I had realy bad morning sickness untill 16w pg, to the point i ended up in hospital 3 times, but at 14w pg i found something that worked, for me anyway, mints mints and more mints!!!!!!!!!

hope this works for you!!!

She has my compete and utter sympathy. I had hypermesis during both my pregnancies and was being sick 12/14 times a day. Things like ginger, flat coke, etc made me even more sick. I used to go everwhere with plastic bags to be sick in and pull over frequently when driving to be sick. DS1 used to come and be sick with me in the toilet...look Mummy I am being sick as well!!

What helped me a lot was a tape called Morning Well, was works on electrical impulses in the brain to reduce sickness.

I really really recommed it, and I have faith in the research as I found our later my consultant was involved in the medical trials and he is by far the best member of the medical profession I have ever come across.

www.morningwell.co.uk/

Other problems to be aware of which I had are anaemia caused by keeping no food down. My GP pescribed me tablets, which as I couldn't keep food down I didn't even bother taking. However my consultant arranged for me to have iron injections and a blood transfusion which were painful but excellent.

Also 4 months after DS 2 arrived I was rushed into hospital with renal colic and kidney stones which I blame on the severe dehydration. My GP would never admit me to hospital as I was only 20% or so dehydrated and the rule is 25%, complete rubbish I now know so insist on being admitted for rehydration!

I was the same as Eve re hyperemisis. Nothing worked for the first two but a visit to the doctor , who took one look at me and prescribed an anti sickness drug. Worked wonders for me. The second two I was prescribed the drugs again, but I wasn't quite as bad (i.e I could manage to sit upright sometimes) so I sent dh out to get some seabands, which did a really good job at keeping the sickness just to odd bouts. They can be bought in Boots, and cost about £8 I think. They work by acupressure . I kept them on constantly until about 5 months pg just to be sure.

Btw as I said I was sickest with my first 2, who were both girls, and my last 2 were boys, maybe she's having a girl!?

OOOh Eve, poor you with the kidney stones! I suffered from them during pregnancy (for a different reason, my calcium metabolism was shot by pregnancy and my kidneys took too much calcium from my blood and got it stuck inthe kidneys). Cant beleive you were persistently 20% dehydrated and they wouldn't put you in hospital. That is a nightmare. Have you recovered properly from the stones now - a year later I still pass an occasional one and get the odd kidney infection.

This sounds awful, I though I'd had it bad! It might even be worth getting checked out by her GP as some women with really bad sickness have dehydration problems. I actually found drinking even water could make me vomit but it's important to keep trying, and once I'd got a bit down I did feel better. I also kept track of when I was actually most likely to vomit, it may not apply in your friend's case but I was more likely to be sick at certain times of the day, so I'd try and eat at other times. Notably before I went to bed which at one point was the only way I could be sure of digesting anything - by going to sleep straight away! Apart from that I just stuck to eating what I actually fancied (strangely it was usually ice lollies) and eating little and often.