It's not just morning sickness (Hyperemesis Gravidarum)

Member Name: sandemp

Product:	Hyperemesis Gravidarum
Date:	10/08/09 (207 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You get a baby at the end of it

Disadvantages: Malnutrition, dehydration, exhaustion, and of course the vomiting

I'm writing this between visits to the toilet, so bear with me if it's a little bit disjointed. I've already got four children so I knew what I was letting myself in for. You see I've suffered from Hyperemesis during every pregnancy, so I knew the chances were that I'd be blessed with a very intimate relationship with the toilet bowl when the magic second pink line appeared on the test. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, you probably have very little idea of what Hyperemesis is, so I'll try and explain the condition and how it affects me.

Hyperemesis is a fairly rare and debilitating complication of pregnancy, if you've ever experienced morning sickness, then think of that, but at least 100 times worse. The basic symptom of Hyperemesis is an over-riding feeling of nausea that not only lasts all day but results in almost constant vomiting. For me, personally, the feeling of nausea begins before I've even missed a period. This time round I was feeling sick for at least four days before I was due on, and the vomiting started the day my period was due. Now I've never experienced 'normal' morning sickness, so I'm probably not the best person to compare symptoms. But from what I can gather the 'normal' version can be a pain but is self-limiting, with the sufferer being able to carry on with life, almost as normal. For the woman suffering from Hyperemesis, normality is something they can only dream of.

At the moment, I'm a little under five weeks pregnant, feel like I'm going to be sick all the time and am vomiting several times a day, with it getting steadily worse, day by day. In previous pregnancies the same thing has happened, until by the time I was six weeks I struggled to keep anything down and was being sick ten, twenty or even thirty times every day. Three months ago, I had a miscarriage, but in the weeks before that I was almost constantly sick, often with no warning and there was one particularly bad day when even a sip of water would make me vomit. But this isn't just about vomiting...

It's about the various effects the vomiting had on both my body and my mind. Let's start with the obvious, the fact that there came a point where I was simply not getting enough nutrients. Now I'm not at this stage yet, but in previous pregnancies I've experienced very dramatic weight loss, there was one particular time when I lost a stone in two weeks. This is not a good thing at any time, let alone when carrying a baby and had far reaching effects including being the catalyst to developing gall stones. Not being able to keep food down meant that I wasn't absorbing the right balance of vitamins and minerals, and so I became anaemic. My hair became lank and lifeless, I had ridges on my nails, my skin felt wrong. Basically I was suffering from malnutrition and it showed. As my body wasn't absorbing enough energy from the very small amount of food I kept down it was burning body fat, and this produced Ketones, which are actually toxic and made me feel even sicker. These ketones also made my breath smell, which wasn't pleasant either.

As well as not being able to keep food down, I struggled to get enough fluids and I became dehydrated. I remember one time, well I don't remember that much it's all a bit confused, when I became so dehydrated that I was confused, disorientated and the whites of my eyes became tinged with yellow. Basically I was in a life-threatening situation and needed lots of fluids pumped through my system to prevent my kidneys becoming damaged.

So what other effects were there? Well the lining of my throat regularly tore, so there would be specks of blood in my vomit, I burst blood vessels around my eyes which isn't the most attractive look, I was always tired and found even simple tasks took an extraordinary amount of effort.

The effects on my mind were also quite substantial, I became scared to eat and drink, simply because I knew that I'd end up throwing it all back up. I rarely ventured out, and if I did, I made sure that there was always a toilet nearby so I didn't have to be sick in public. Of course that didn't always work and there were times when I'd find myself being sick in bins, sinks or even the kerb, because when that feeling comes there's nothing you can do to stop it. I had to give my job working on a supermarket till up, I didn't have the energy to work, even if I'd have been able to last a whole shift without vomiting. All in all, I felt isolated, useless, tired and generally depressed at it all.

I also spent regular periods as an inpatient in hospital as the most effective treatment is to break the cycle of being sick as the malnutrition and dehydration would make me feel even more sick. I have scars all over the backs of my hands where I've been given drips to replace fluids and sugars. And it does help as it would improve my general health (for a few days at least). I was also given drugs in hospital in an injection form that would ease the feeling of nausea. I've since discovered that the drug I was given is also given to chemotherapy patients to help stop them being sick. After a few days in hospital I would being able to keep some food down and be allowed to leave with a bottle of tablets in hand, but I always found the tablets didn't work as well and over the space of a week I'd steadily deteriorate until I once more needed treatment. In all of my previous pregnancies this was a cycle that would continually repeat itself, a week at home feeling steadily worse and then a few days in hospital. And this generally lasted until I was about 20 weeks, when although I was still vomiting, it had cut down to two or three times a day.

One thing that was a big worry first time round, was the effect this was having on the baby. But, as it was explained to me, the baby would take whatever it needed from the little I did manage to keep down. I was given regular scans to make sure the baby was growing properly, and yes the baby was always fine, it was just me that suffered. In fact, although there has been no long term research, there appears to be no greater risk of complications. And as I'd been vomiting so much I had incredibly strong muscles in my stomach area, and found labour an absolute doddle.

So here I am, pregnant again, and starting to recognise the symptoms steadily building up, so what can I do to help myself. Well I'm making sure that I try to eat little and often, even though the actual process of eating makes me vomit. There's more chance that something will stay down that way. Also eating something every few hours means that I'm not vomiting up pure acid, which is extremely uncomfortable. I'm making sure that I get plenty of fluids by regularly sipping drinks, if I try to drink a whole cup of anything at once then that will make me vomit, but by sipping then at least something's staying down. I'm also staying away from situations that make me feel ill, certain smells are the problem at the moment. It's not the smell of cooking as such that's the problem, but the smell that lingers after the foods been cooked and eaten, my sense of smell is very sensitive and I can smell food for hours after it's been eaten even if everything's been washed afterwards. So there are plenty of scented candles around the place to make it smell a bit nicer. I'm also trying to keep my mind active so that I don't dwell on the nausea that is my constant companion.

At the moment I'm not at the stage where I need treatment, but if it does come, I'll be prepared to go to the doctor and if necessary the hospital. Basically if it gets to the point where I'm being sick five or more times a day for more than a couple of days then I'll go and get help. I once left it two weeks and was in such a bad state that I drifted in and out of consciousness due to dehydration, I'm not going to let that happen again. What I don't want to do is end up on medication, so I'm going to do my best to cope without it. That is apart from folic acid and multi-vitamins as I know I'm not really getting enough of these. I'm also not eating foods that I know from past experience will make me feel ill, or be particularly nasty to vomit up, mashed potato is out as is milk (I know what happens when I bring that up and it's not nice). I also give myself plenty of time in the mornings, as when I wake up I always feel far worse and can't manage to get out of the house for at least an hour.

If you're pregnant and any of this seems familiar to you, then I would advise you see your doctor and get help as while Hyperemesis can't be cured, it can be managed. This is not morning sickness. From what I can gather, morning sickness is self-limiting and improves (or completely disappears) by about thirteen weeks. Hyperemesis is far more serious, involves excessive vomiting leading to weight-loss, dehydration and malnutrition and although (for me at least) it improves at around twenty weeks never completely disappears and in fact I'm usually still being sick right up until I give birth. Hyperemesis also doesn't seem to respond to any of the usual morning sickness remedies, at least it doesn't for me, ginger biscuits certainly didn't help, they just tasted disgusting when I threw them up. I've never been given a reason why I become so ill when pregnant, but it has been suggested that it's done to some sort of reaction to hormones, and it is possible that it's hereditary, as my mother suffered from the same thing. Chances are, you'll never experience this, as it only effects 0.3-2% of pregnant women, but if you do, don't try and suffer in silence, see your doctor and get treated because it can do life-long damage to your body as my lack of a gall bladder shows.



***UPDATE***

I'm now nearly 9 weeks pregnant and have been hospitalised not once but twice in the last week. I started taking anti-sickness medication (Cyclizine) three times a day at about 6 weeks and this helped for about a week but then at just over 7 weeks I began to be sick all day and unable to keep even a sip of water down let alone the medication. As I already knew the score I visited the doctor with a bottle of wee in hand and it turned out I had ++++ ketones (that means lots) and so I was admitted to the maternity ward. While on the ward I had a drip set up, which was normal at first but then changed to one containing potassium, and received medication through both the drip and an injection in my bum. The one that went through the drip (Cyclizine) was extremely painful with a stinging burning sensation working it's way right up my arm, but it worked really well and reduced the nausea enough for me to be able to eat and drink at least a little. The injection in my bum (Stemetil), however, did nothing for me.

After two days of these drugs and fluids I was keeping food down again and was allowed home, but unfortunately within two days I was once more bringing everything up and went back to the doctors. I'd caught it a little bit earlier this time and only had +++ ketones, but still needed to go into hospital for drips and medication. Because I'd caught it a little bit earlier, I only needed to spend one day in this time and came home again yesterday. Today hasn't been to bad, I've been feeling nauseas, but have only been sick a couple of times. I'm aiming to stay at home for at least four days this time, but if I'm constantly sick for more then 24 hours then I'll be straight back to the doctors.

Summary: Morning sickness gone crazy