Constant Vomiting

[thunderstrike78]

Okay, I need some advice. We took this to the doctors at Kaiser, but they were remarkably unhelpful.

My fiance was pregnant, and we've known about it for about three weeks. According to an ultrasound that was done Monday afternoon, she was about 7 1/2 weeks along.

Unfortunately, she has been extremely ill. It started out with the normal periodic vomiting which was manageable at first. That was what got us to get the pregnancy test. All fine and good. But the vomiting has been getting progressively worse. Last week, she missed three days of work and pretty much stayed in bed vomiting all of last weekend and the previous weekend. Last weekend was much worse, and she moved to vomiting about every hour. She was having a very hard time keeping anything down, including water.

Monday morning I stayed home from work to take care of her. Her vomiting became even worse, and she started vomiting about every 15 minutes. She could barely spend any time outside of the bathroom because she was constantly vomiting, and the intensity of the vomiting and wretching became so loud that she could be heard throughout the house. Very painful. I called Kaiser, and they advised me to rush her into the ER, which I did.

She was in the ER from about 11 o'clock Monday morning until 4:00 on Tuesday. They hooked her up with IVs because she had reached a point of severe dehydration, and she was unable to drink any water to counteract it. In all, they gave her at least 10-12 bags of saline to keep her hydrated as she continued to vomit constantly. She was unable even to sleep. The doctors tried all manner of anti-nausea medication, and ultimately resorted to Zofryn (sp?), which they indicated is used for chemotherapy patients, and had very limited success. The longest she went without throwing up was about an hour and a half, but most of the time she was vomiting about every 20-30 minutes.

The doctor finally explained that she has a condition (the name escapes me right now) wherein she reacts very severely to the horemone levels in her body due to the pregnancy. They indicated that there was very little they could do for her to ease the vomiting, particularly if she planned to keep the baby. Ultimately, she made the decision to terminate the pregnancy. The OB/GYN doctor pushed through a referral to an outside clinic, because Kaiser has a strict policy of not performing that procedure at their hospitals. Tuesday morning, I was informed (after jumping through numerous flaming hoops just to get to talk to the clinic, even after explaining that my fiance was in no condition to talk on the phone or to go into their office for a consultation because she was hooked up to an IV in the ER) that the earliest they could perform the procedure was Thursday, and that only if she could come down to their office for a consultation on Wednesday. If she could not attend the consultation on Wednesday, then she would have to wait until Friday to do both the consultation and the procedure at the same time.

I tried to insist that she needed to be seen earlier than that, and that she couldn't just keep vomiting and dehydrating until Friday, but everyone was adamant that they had to follow procedures and that my fiance would just have to live with it. Ultimately, I had to resort to paying out-of-pocket for another outside clinic that was willing to take her Wednesday morning. Kaiser discharged her Tuesday night when I informed them that I wasn't going to wait until Friday and that she needed to be at the clinic the following morning. The doctor said there was nothing more they could do for her.

She had the procedure completed yesterday morning (Wednesday) and came home. She was still vomiting violently for most of the morning, but eventually fell asleep. Yesterday afternoon and evening, she was able to sit up in bed and obviously felt much improved. She took it easy on food and drink, but was able to drink water, a modest amount of juice, chicken noodle soup, and toast. Last night was the first time in over a week that she was able to go all night without vomiting, although she did wake up several times feeling nauseous.

This morning, however, she woke up a 6:30 in began vomiting violently again. It is now 10:15, and she has been vomiting all morning. I am very concerned about her fluid levels because she is back to being unable to hold down even water. On the other hand, I'm hesitant to take her back to Kaiser because they were so unhelpful and kept insisting there was nothing they could do for her. If she's just going to have to suffer through the vomiting, she can do that more comfortably at home.

Does anyone have any advice on what I can do to ease her nausea? She's completely miserable and borderline incoherent and she keeps saying her throat hurts from all the vomiting. She sucking on ice chips and trying to sip water, but she keeps vomiting it up. On top of that, she has some oral antibiotics that she needs to take after the procedure yesterday, but she can't take it because the warning label says it needs to be taken with food or else it will cause further nausea.

I'm really at my wit's end about what to do. Her mom is sitting with her upstairs right now while I try to find some information on easing nausea.

You might try Unisom and B6. Half a pill of each every six hours. It worked for me.

[Felsen]

You have my deepest sympathy for what you are going through. It is horrible to hear what you are going through. I wish I could give you some good advise. I am afraid I can't. But in my opinion she needs profesional care in a hospital and more Zofran, till it all quiets down.

I don't know what Kaiser is (I'm in Europe), but maybe you should take her to another hospital. I really, really hope she feels better soon.

Good luck to you both!

[Monsterlove]

Take her to an acupuncturist immediately for relief. She'll need several treatments.

you need to take her back to the hospital for iv fluids and anti nausea medication.

It will take a couple days before hormone levels completely settle down to non-pregnancy levels - until then she might still be sick.

I know that you don't want to go back but we don't want her dehydrated and needing more hospital care for dehydration.

I went through this very same thing when I was pregnant with my son. I went to ER had IVs all of that. She MUST keep fluids in her. Even if she ends up vomiting later. For me Gatorade worked better than water. (It kept me from dehydrating). I also received relief from a prescribed suppository. (I will try and get the name for you-this was 7 years ago) It doesn't make much sense to try and keep down a pill when you're constantly vomiting. Also anything with ginger in it. Just take your time and eat in small amounts. (Ginger Ale -diluted with water, ginger snaps, etc.) Also, give your wife back massages it will work miracles because of the pain and soreness from vomiting. Also she must be mindful of how she sleeps. Sometimes sleeping on your stomach can make matters worse. Try your left then your right which ever works for you stick with it. For me I ended up on my back. That wasn't easy to get used to but I managed. You may have to prop yourself. (It's a headache but any relief is worth it.) I hope any or all of this helps you. It is a miserable condition. My son was born fine without any problems thank God. Also, speaking of God don't forget to pray often. Keep your surroundings positive. My nausea ceased right after I gave birth. Some foods I could keep down was watermelon, popsicles, ice chips, sliced peaches, milk shakes. Also peppermint can be helpful in easing the nausea. I wish you well. God Bless.