Monday, September 29, 2008

Residual Nausea?

I wanted to do a quick post on this to see if any other HG mums can relate to the experience of postpartum residual nausea.

Here is my "nausea history":

Pregnancy test at 4 weeks - felt fine
5 weeks - Nausea began
First trimester - Nausea builds
20 weeks - Nausea finally breaks a wee bit
20-40 weeks - Nausea gradually abates but still stays around with occasional stronger surges
1st week postpartum - Nausea drastically decreases
Birth - Baby's 18-month birthday - residual nausea lingers

It's the last part that I want to ask other HG mums about: Did you deal with residual postpartum nausea? My postpartum nausea was just brief moments or minutes of nausea. It never got to the point of throwing up (almost did once), but could be pretty strong. This would happen several times a day. This residual nausea was still pretty strong at one year postpartum, had mostly gone by 18 months and was almost entirely gone by 24 months.

Also, I've noticed changes in my system overall. For example, I now get nauseated when I get up in the morning if I don't eat right away (like right now!) - and that's something that never happened to me pre-conception.

I'd love to hear from other HG-mothers about this. Have you dealt with anything similar? Let me know!

8 comments:

  1. Hi Diana,
    I agree with you on your nausea history. Or, I should say, my nausea agrees with your nausea. I think a lot of us have been surprised to discover that the beginning, peak, and ending time for HG is quite different than the dates usually stated for normal morning sickness!!
    Diana, I like your blog, and am in the process of updating my E-book. I would like to add you to the Resource section as a great blog to go to, if that is OK with you.
    Sincerely,
    Wendy Shaw
    www.mymorningsickness.com

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  2. This is true for me! My baby is almost 7 months old and I still have off and on nausea. I even gagged the other day and thought I was going to throw up! I have also found that I am extremely sensitive to hormones now. I tried to go back on the pill (which made me slightly nauseous in the past, but I was able to work through it and take them), and after just 2 days of the pill, I was vomiting uncontrollably (had to pull out my old HG medications to help). So, I am now unable to take the pill. Thanks, HG! ;)

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  3. I had an HG pregnancy. The nausea started before my hormone levels were high enough to turn a pregnancy test positive. I had a horrible first trimester (eased by a Zofran pump). The nausea eased during the second trimester but came back full force during the last trimester. I delievered 4 weeks early. The day after my son was born, my nausea was more severe than it had ever been. It was so bad that I began shaking and wondered if I would go into shock- I felt like my body couldn't take it! For my first 4 months post partum, I was still extremely nauseated- it fluctuated from day to day. Some days were not terrible. I ended up with a PICC line to give myself IV fluids and IV meds at home. (I also had 3 hospital stays during this time due to the severity of the nausea.) The doctor's ran every test in the world and couldn't find anything wrong with me. They even sent me to the Mayo Clinic. (reseach hospital) Those doctors told me that this is a very rare condition. For some reason, my body just didn't "turn off" the nausea when my baby was born. The doctor told me that the expected it to be gone in a year (that was May 2008). Today, my son is 10 months old and I still take four different anti-emetics to keep the nausea down. Some days I still feel terrible, even with the meds. I am getting better...slowly!! I'm searching for women who have had post partum nausea. I'm glad I found your post!

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  4. I forgot to leave my e-mail. It's annawilloughby@gmail.com

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  5. Hi - I had a similar experience. With my son, I was severely nauseous through delivery (Zofran helped keep me from throwing up too often). My son is now 3 and I still suffer from daily nausea and food aversions that I just didn't have before HG. I saw a specialist and had a digestion scan done by eating radioactive food and having pictures taken of my stomach every hour for 4 hours. It turned out that my stomach muscles were so tight that they were causing food to FLY through my system. The thing is, I had to have another child or I'd just be too sad - so now I'm 6 weeks pregnant and figure I'll see how much of my residual nausea was psychological fear of going through the misery again. I worried about another HG pregnancy every day for the 3 years and it just couldn't have helped those muscles.

    I can't take the pill anymore either!!

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  6. My baby is a little over six weeks old and I'm nauseous like crazy. At first, I freaked out a bit. "I can't be pregnant again, dear God!" Coffee, my love of all time, makes me sick throughout the day, and let me tell you, with an infant that doesn't sleep through the night, that kills me.
    I haven't actually thrown up, just random bouts of sickness (crossing fingers) but it is a little scary thinking "Oh, man am I actually pregnant again?" But, according to my OB it's just residual hormones leaving the system, whew!

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  7. I am with just about everyone on this. When I was pregnant with my son I was sick the entire time. I lived off saltines and ginger ale. My son is now 14 months old and I still suffer from extreme nausea. Especially after I eat. But there are time when I don't eat that I still get severely nauseated. It keeps me up some nights. It is affecting my job and my personal life. My PCP had checked for ulcer and that came back negative. She is sending me to a gastroenterologist next month in September. It's just so bad now that I can't even eat. And at only a whopping 100 lbs, I can't really afford to loose any more weight. We will see what comes of it. I was thinking it could be gallbladder, but I don't have the pain that is normally associated with gallbladder attacks. I will see what happens. I am just tired of it. Hoping that whatever it is it's an easy fix.

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  8. Megan - Thank you for visiting!! I would encourage you to talk with Anna Willoughby (see her comments above), as she has had one of the very rare cases of postpartum HG - and she might be able to give you information. It seems that postpartum nausea is much more common than I thought, but many doctors just don't know about it. If you find out anything, please post! And I certainly hope that yours is an easy fix and that this passes quickly. The adventures never stop with HG!

    Everyone - I am so sorry, I am just seeing all these responses to this entry!! These must have been during the time when I wasn't receiving notifications. Thank you, everyone, for chiming in and leaving your stories! Wendy, if you're still reading this, of course you may add my blog to your resource list - I am SO sorry I haven't responded sooner! My apologies to everyone who answered here!!

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