hyperemesis sufferers unite!

[Leesider]

Can I join your group - I wish so much that you were all around when I was pregnant although it was probably likely that I wouldn't have been able to post much at the time as I was so ill.
It would have been so great to hear about others going through this awful condition and to hear how they were getting through it.

NIfirsttimer - I came across your weekly ask a mum thread and it was like reading about my own pregnancy there were so many similarities!

Here's my story ( the short version):

I am from the South of Ireland and started with severe nausea at 5 weeks and progressed to vomitting 20/30 times a day at 7 weeks.
By 8 weeks I was in hospital and was admitted another 13 times over the next 32 weeks until I stopped vomitting ( the terrible heartburn never stopped ;-) )
At the start I thought that I just couldn't handle pregnancy and vomitting - that all women had to put up with this - and eventually I realised that I was experiencing something a bit different.
I had all the 'usual' drugs bucastem, stemitil, phenergan etc. during my early pregnancy but eventually at 18 weeks and with depression setting in (vomitting all day every day can do that to you), I made the decision to take the Zofran and while it didn't stop the vomitting completely it helped me to get through the pregnancy.

I lost 2.5 stone overall but managed to give birth after a very nice labour ( there is some God afterall!) to a beautiful perfect 7 pound baby - now aged 18 months

I have lots of stories about ginger, 'just get on with it' comments, unhelpful medical professionals etc. etc but I won't bore you with them now.
To this day if someone mentions ginger to me - it freaks me out ;-)

Anyway, the memories did fade ( eventually) - the bowl I used to puke into has caused a few tears over the last year and a half but somehow I never got rid of it - and tentative thoughts are now turning to no.2 - something I said that I would never consider - and it has brought up all the old memories again.

I look forward to meeting fellow sufferers and hopefully supporting you too.

 

[Dream.A.Dream]

Hi Leesider :wave:

How is everyone else doing today? It's got rather quiet in here. xx

 

[anothersquish]

Enjoying food at long last!
Its the strangest thing not to wake up in the night to be sick and being able to drink an entire pint of water and not being sick.....in some ways I am already forgetting how horrid it was, I feel so much better already and Im sure thats just down to the fact that for the first time in 9 months Im actually hydrated to a normal level. I drank so much yesterday after birth it was ridiculous, I just couldnt get enough fluid in me at all. Has made me realise that although I thought Id done pretty well with drink though pregnancy that I had certainly thrown more up than I needed.

The other lovely thing is that after so much worry, and I have worried endlessly, baby is perfectly healthy. Hes very content, he slept last night from 3:15am til 8am at which point I prodded him awake a bit to get him to ask for some milk!

My heart really goes out to everyone still pregnant and I will stick around to offer as much support as I can, even it its just to say that last night, 12 hours after birth, I had sausage and chips from the local chip shop covered in vinegar, salt and tomato ketchup and it was amazing....the taste of food and the feeling of being full is sheer heaven. Can certainly say I have a renewed appreciation!
Im not being particularly healthy, Ive had some chocolate today (which made me nervous but oh....yum!) and my OH is putting on some mini kievs for me to have for lunch....my claim is that its turkey, therefore its protein and I NEED protein....honest!

 

[Temg]

I'm not pregnant yet, but trying to be!

I have had hyperemesis with all my pregnancy's. I have 2 children, 2yo and 5yo and I've had 3 miscarriages, one was a twin pregnancy I lost at 6 weeks and the twin at 8 weeks when I just got too sick and doctors refused to treat the HG.

On my DS's pregnancy I was sick from 5w+4d until the birth, I lost over 10 kg, had steroid induce diabete's, threatened miscarriage, emergency surgery (they thought he was ectopic but they found 4 cysts that didn't show up on ultrasound), Bells palsy, renal failure and ended up with TPN.

I was on IVF, Pabrinex (iv vitimins), ranitidine, domperidone, stemitil, Zofran, cyclizine, maxalon, and steroids, and eventually TPN. I was still vomiting.

My DD's pregnancy was better, I started on meds early and was had IVF, Zofran and stemetil and teh sickness stopped at 20 weeks and I put on a little bit of weight at the end (I was so excited about this!!!)

I"m nervous about becoming pregnant again but hopefully it will be like my dd's pregnancy and managable because I just LOVE being a mum so so much!

 

[Dream.A.Dream]

Yay squish! I'm really pleased for you that your little man is here and you can eat again. All that food sounds soooo good, can't wait until it's me! I think you more than deserve to eat whatever you want to make up for 9 months of hell.

temg- Hi :wave:

I hope your pregnancy this time is less sicky. Good luck testing this month xx

 

[NIfirsttimer]

yay squish!!!!!!!!! woooo woooooo hooooooo!!!!!
hes here!!! and you are eating!!!!!!!!1
im SO pleased for you!!
honestly tho, dont worry about being healthy just yet, eat what you want when you want it, its the fastest way to get back to normal, and its bloody amazing too!

katy... it WILL be you soon, and you are going to feel just as good as squish is feeling.. can you imagine... chips & ketchup & vinegar!!!!

hey leesider & tmeg.. welcome

 

[craftymum]

congrats squish!! Enjoy that chocolate - I tucked into a big box of m&s finest after and choc never tasted so good!

 

[Leesider]

I remember the toast just after my baby was born - it was the nicest thing I had ever tasted!

I spent the next weeks ( and months) filling myself up on all the foods I had missed during my pregnancy - it was heaven.

That was all fine until I stopped breastfeeding and now I have piled all the 2 and half stone I lost during the pregnancy and more.

Enjoy every moment of it squish - you deserve it!

 

[ttcbambino#1]

Hi tmeg & leesider!!! :wave:

Hooray squish glad your little man arrived safe and sound, enjoy filling up on all the goodies!!!

Katy - you must be soo excited, not long to go now!

So back to business, I thought I was doing reasonably well on the stemitil, but I'm still forever feeling sick, then heaving and being a tiny bit sick, only eating very small amounts etc etc I've been much worse in the last few days so thought I'd buy some of the ketostix to see if there was a problem, and I'm +2 I can't understand, I thought I was doing a good job, I'm trying to eat and drink more but there's only so much I can consume before I am constantly full blown sick, which puts me back at square one. I really really don't want to hit +3 so I'm sitting at work forcing down some shreddies, which I can already tell are gonna come back and haunt me .... Sorry to be depressing!

 

[Temg]

Leesider, just wondering which part of Ireland are you from? I'm in Dublin and couldn't find a doctor who would prescribe anti-emetics for me during pregnancy, thankfully with my first I was in the UK and my second I was in America for the beginning of the pregnancy.

 

[NIfirsttimer]

god its WEIRD how many irish / northern irish ladies are on this hyperemesis thread!!!

ttc... concentrate on the fluids not the foods... its the fluids that fend the ketones off, food is great yeah.. but its the liquids that matter the most... i found if i took a drink it would all just come back up, so i stuck to little sips.. sometimes just enough to wet your mouth, but every few mins.. i REALLY makes a difference.. ice chips worked sometimes too, and my old faithful lime juice.. sometimes a was even able to keep down a dash of lime cordial in some soda water... BLISS!!!
try drinking your water warmish too... for some reason that sseems work better for most of us.. must be less offensive to the tummy....
your right about the stematil.. like all the other drugs, if might fend of the vommitting, but it never eases the nausea

 

[Leesider]

Hi. I'm in Dublin too. My gp would never give me anything but my consultant who I saw very regularly prescribed the anti emetics and every time I went to hospital I was given them routinely. It was only after my symptoms still progressed after 18 weeks that I was given zofran. Let me know if you need more info.

 

[NIfirsttimer]

we cant get zofran here in NI... only by Iv in hosp. we do get cyclazine, metchlorpromide & stematil routinely tho....usually just from the GP

 

[Leesider]

If you visit any Dublin hospital it is amazing how many women are hospitalized with hyperemesis but I never found any website/ discussion forum where you could talk to other sufferers. And Irish doctors seem to be very very wary of presribing any meds. And all of them are used routinely in America in pregnant women.

I second the fluids as a priority as well. I found that I kept more fluids down if I avoided aggrevating my tummy with food. A nutritionist in the hospital told me that water on it's own is too harsh so add a small bit of cordial. Capri suns were a favourite of mine as well as elderflower cordial - you can get it in m&s. Hope you manage to keep something down today. I have to admit that I admire you for being at work - I know how tough it is to keep a job going through this.

 

[Leesider]

I can't believe how the treatment differs everwhere. Even in the hospital I was in each doctor had very different ways of treating patients who were in beds next to one another. I think that the price of zofran is one of the major reasons why it is not used more routinely. I know the doctors have to weigh up the risks to the baby and I have been made feel bad for taking it - one particular nurse offered her unwanted opinion - but without it I wouldn't have been able to keep going.

 

[NIfirsttimer]

yep same here.. taking any meds while pregnant is very scary, never mind taking them 4 x daily for 9 months, but i couldnt have coped without them either.... and im glad to say they didnt do ruby a button of harm!
im surprised you met so many other women in hosp with hyperemesis.. i was the only one each time i was in, its a lonely old condition isnt it!

 

[Leesider]

Yes. My baby is absolutely perfect as well and when I'm brave enough to have number two I will not stress so much if I end up taking the meds.

Maybe the reason that more women end up in hospital here is because the gps are over cautious in prescribing and as a result more end up getting to the stage where they end up in hospital.

I totally agree it is a very lonely condition and it is difficult to understand how it feels unless you have been there - I was in a room on my own alot in hospital and actually asked to be moved to a ward - even the chorus of vomitting was better than being on my own ;-)

 

[Dream.A.Dream]

I've always been the only one in when I've been admitted too.

TTC- I agree, fluids have to come first, even if you get really hungry. Sometimes trying to eat just aggravates your stomach too much and makes all the fluid you have managed come back up xx

 

[ttcbambino#1]

Thanks ladies, I'm really upset now, I made sure I drank some water, but wasn't really agreeing with me, I've felt really bad today to be honest, tested again just now and I'm +3, in fact the purple colour is quite dark . I won't call the hospital tonight, I'll go home and get some cordial, I find squash too sweet, and last time I had lucozade I projectile vomitted everywhere!! Hopefully if I get enough fluids I'll be ok by the morning.

Oh and when I was admitted a couple of weeks ago I was out in my own room too, was like being in a cell!!! I was the only one with Hypermesis too, so glad we have this thread!

Oh and Kitty posted in 2nd tri, she's being admitted again as her BP and pulse were elevated at her appt today, so she thinks she's in overnight and ecg in the am. I expect she'll text you Katy xx

 

[Dream.A.Dream]

Will check my phone. Hope she's okay.

Make sure you go and get fluids yourself if you need them although I do the same, try and give myself till the morning to avoid going in. Also, if you ring then I'd advise not telling them you've tested your own ketones because my hospital get really shitty about it. Just say you've been admitted before and think you're dehydrated and you're more likely to get treated xx