Please help!

[nikkisbump]

I have work in an hour but currently finding it hard to be away from a toilet for longer than 20 mins due to diarrhoea. I'm 18 weeks pregnant.

I was a little unlucky last year, I had swine flu, tummy bug and nasty water infection meaning I was off 3 times resulting in verbal warning. I can't call in sick!

Can I have pepto bismol or immodium being pregnant? I feel rubbish

Thanks for your help!

You could ring your midwife or a pharmacy to get the info.
Would call the MW first cause when I spoke to pharmacist he was bloody useless, but that may have been just my luck.

Hope you are feeling better soon!

Not immodium definitely but not sure about pepto. You poor thing Your employer doesnt sound too understanding of pregnancy though! Feel better soon.

Hiya,

Sorry to hear you're poorly. I assume your work knows you're pregnant?? My advice is call in sick and don't worry that you were sick last year. It's not your fault, plus you are pregnant so probably need the extra rest and recovery time.

Look after yourself on this one, you don't want to get run down even more - going into work may result in taking you longer to recover. You can also argue that your quality of work will be affected by going in so you may as well get yourself right - it may only last 24 hours if you're lucky!

Don't know if you can take those medicines, can you call NHS Direct or your doctor for advice? Sorry to hear you got verbal warning last year, hope they have more sympathy for you this time

Take care
x

I was told by a friend who is a union rep when i had ds1 in 2005 that pregnancy related sick leave does not count against your sick leave record. i had a lot of upset tums when i was pregnant with dd so maybe this is related to your pregnancy in that you are more vulnerable to these things. can anyone else give nikkisbump more up to date advice? I think if you do call in sick you need to try to see the GP. drink lots of water. hope you feel bettter soon.

Thanks for all your responses! I have no idea what would be a suitable pregnancy related illness to call in with, I am so bad at lying! Any ideas?

Could you call in sick but ask them to mark it down as a day of holiday, if you're worried about having it added to your record or if you've used up all your salary paid sick leave for the year?

Alternatively, call in sick and get yourself down to the doctors surgery, explain the situation and ask them for a note. If you turn back up at work later in the week with a sick note explaining your absence, there's not a whole lot your work can do about it.

I don't think they can discipline you for being genuninely ill, which the doctor's note would prove. Worst they can do is make you take statutory sick pay instead of salary.

I think that Loo is right and pregnancy sickness is/should be treated differently. Besides, surely a referral to occy health would be more appropriate than a verbal warning? People can't help being sick.

Hope you can get hold of your midwife for advice on what you can take. Hope you feel better soon.

X post...

Why lie? Just tell them the truth - that you have an upset stomach. Assuming they know that you're pregnant, they'll probably automatically assume morning sickness, to be honest. You don't need to give them all the gory details about which direction your stomach is upset in.