Unless you have morning sickness, this post may not be for you. But if you have it, read on. It always helps me to find someone who suffers my ailment. Morning Sickness Misery Mamas needs company too.
I’ve been experiencing bad m/s for over a month now. It’s not bad enough for an IV because I can keep enough food and fluid down. But it’s not solvable by a few saltines either. We’re talking actual puking 5 – 10 times a day. This post isn’t pretty but I think some ugliness is called for here. After all, if women can blog about their bodily fluids, I can blog about my m/s.
One thing I’ve discovered is that there are different categories of vomiting. They range from a Category 1 vomit where you have one or two dry heaves. And they go up to a Cat 5 where you have 10 or more “wet” heaves, if you will, in a session, where you lose your meal from hours ago, where you’re on your knees in front of the toilet, red-faced, tears streaming, body shaking, wondering if you just coughed up an internal organ. (I did say it wasn't pretty.)
In order to avoid grossing you out too much, I’ve substituted the word “episode” for all other lovely words in our vocabulary for getting sick.
Here are the remedies I’ve tried and how they’ve worked out for me.
- Promethazine 25mg – A single pill knocked me out for about 18 hours. Not conducive to trying to live life, especially for a working girl. Plus this is a Class C drug, meaning that studies on animals show adverse effects to a fetus.
- Zofran 8 mg – I took these every 8 hours for 5 days. It decreased my episodes from about 10/day (most Cat 1, 2, and 3) to about 4/day, Cat 4 or 5. I'm not even sure if that's an improvement. But anyway it's not worth it because even after attempting to counteract the constipation with Colace and Benefiber, I didn’t have a bm (i.e. poo) for 5 days straight.
- Unisom Sleep Tabs (the kind with doxylamine succinate – white & orange box), 25mg – I've taken these for the past few days. (or, more accurately, evenings). It helps me to take a half pill one hour before bedtime. When I awaken, I have no groggy feeling, plus I'm at about a 50% lower risk of an episode. I tried taking these during the day though with less than ideal results (duhh -- they are a sleeping pill). A half pill first thing in the morning made me sleep until lunch. A fourth of a pill first thing in the morning staved off an episode until lunch. But the fourth-of-a-pill zombified me through the afternoon. Even so I'm trying it again tomorrow.
- Ginger Root Tablets, 250mg 3x/day – Tried this for a few days, didn’t notice any impprovement.
- Vitamin B6, 25mg 3x/day – I took this for 5 days, with no noticeable results.
- Acupressure Wrist Bands – I’ve had these on constantly for the past month. Don’t know how much they help but it’s so easy to do, I figure why not just leave them on.
- Acupuncture – Effective in the very short term but depends on the practitioner. After a session with my regular female acupuncturist, I’m usually better (as in no episode) for 6-10 hours. It is well worth the $20 copay just to be able to feel semi-normal for a little while. With a alternate practitioner (when my regular person was out), I received zero relief – in fact I had an episode in the bathroom down the hall from the office immediately afterwards.
- Ginger Tea – After getting sick on Constant Comment (cinnamon tea), I can’t bring myself to try this, even though a new box is sitting on my kitchen counter. It’s probably a miracle cure.
- Peppermint Extract – I boil about 30 drops of this in 4 oz of water at night and sniff it while taking my prenatal so that I can choke down the horse pill without an episode. I should probably carry this around with me all day long, come to think of it.
- Peppermint Tea – this came right back up.
- Peppermint Candy – same result as the tea.
- Fresh Lemonade – same result as the tea.
- Popsicles – same result as the tea.
- Jolly Ranchers / Lifesaver Candies – same result as the tea.
- Fresh Air – A good sniff usually delays an episode. Really I should just live life outside. It’s cute when a dog sticks its head out a car window, but not so much when a grown woman does it.
- Crackers – You’ve got to be kidding. Nada, nothing, no help whatsoever.
- Protein – I have never once had an episode where a protein came back up. Of course I have no desire whatsoever to actually eat protein foods so this is one of those cases where I know what’s good for me but have a hard time doing it. Like working out and avoiding sugar.
- Ginger Ale – The bubbles seem good but the sugar makes me queasy, so in small quantities – like a fourth of a glass – this is alright. However I’m told there is no actual ginger in Canada Dry so the therapy must be the carbonation?
- Prenatal with no iron – I do feel a bit better the next day if I either skip the prenatal (don’t worry this doesn’t happen often) or avoid one with iron.
- Cola – Little sips of DH’s Coke seemed to help, but seeing as I avoid caffeine and aspartame, I didn’t want to take more than a few sips.
Things I’ve discovered that nobody told me:
- Imagery – Try to not think about food. If you start to think about food, or if you feel an episode is imminent, immediately picture yourself walking in the great outdoors, sniffing the freshest air you’ve ever smelled. This is an essential skill especially when in public and at risk of an episode.
- Walking – Although nausea doesn’t go away when walking, walking seems to delay an episode until at least an hour afterwards.
- Hugging – Having a husband or someone to hug after an episode is key. This person should love you enough to want to hug you even if you have puke-breath. Don’t expect any kisses though.
- Dogs – Having a dog follow you to the bathroom, lay on the floor next to where you’re kneeling, and look at you like she wishes she could help is emotional support of the bestest kind.
- Pumpkin Pie – Maybe this is just my lame excuse to eat it, but it seems to settle my stomach a bit. I avoid the crust to cut calories. Makes sense, since I give my dogs pumpkin when they have digestive issues.
- Low fat buffalo mozzarella cheese – a little piece of this before bed helps decrease nausea a bit while falling asleep.
- Pudding – a few spoonfuls of pudding before bed has the same effect.
- Cherry-flavored Chapstick -- for some reason the smell of this puts my tummy to ease.
Hopefully this helps someone out there. I know everyone's different but for sure there's enough similarities in the female body to make it worth sharing what helps and what doesn't help an individual. If you are suffering like me, I feel for you, there’s just no way to make it go away, and management of m/s to lessen its annoyances is be a bitch.
