DRUGS

I admit it. I happily resorted to drugs.

It took several prescriptions to find the right one.
Of course, It's kind of ridiculous to ask a nausea patient to swallow a pill. I threw most of these medicines right back out as soon as I took them, BUT they were all worth a try...

Reglan: This is a drug that is intended for short term use. It is usually given to patients with heartburn or to help people with nausea after they have surgery. Reglan didn't do anything for me. It was too weak.

Phenergan: From what I understand, this drug is great for relieving symptoms of allergies or preventing motion sickness. My Doctor told me it would also prevent nausea and vomiting while working as a sleeping aid. For me, phenergan made me feel loopy, twitchy, confused and uncomfortable. I took this one both as a pill and liquid through an I.V. It did make me tired, but every time I got close to falling asleep I would become jumpy. I felt like my feet were weighing me down and it was all I could think about. So weird. I felt extremely tried and extremely sleep deprived. I hate the way it made me feel...I definitely didn't feel good!

Suppositories: I had help with this one. :) Luckily, I didn't have to swallow the thing or worry about keeping it down, but unfortunately it didn't make any difference either.

Benadryl: I was given this prescription after a ER visit and it was given to me by a Doctor who obviously didn't understand the difference between morning sickness and hyperemesis. I thought he was a joke so I never even used it. It wasn't until a few weeks later, when I got a cold, that I had the prescription filled. To my surprise, I found it did help a little bit, especially at night. Sometimes, it helped me sleep enough through the night that I was able to skip my midnight barfs.

Zofran: This was the best drug that I have tried. It is a strong anti-nausea medicine usually given to chemotherapy patients. During my first pregnancy, It cost $75 a pill. I filled a prescripton of 10 and threw most of them up right away. On really bad days, my husband would beg me to take them, but I wouldn't because I didn't want to throw up $75 pills. Sometimes we got into arguments over it. When I realized that situation wasn't going to work, my Dr. gave me the prescription as a liquid, to give to myself, through a syringe, into my picc line. I could feel it take the edge off almost immediately and although I'd still throw up (always), it prevented alot of arguing.
During my second pregnancy, I took zofran as an ODT (oral disintegrating tablet). It wasn't as strong as through my picc line, but it still helped, at least enough that we willing spent over $300, out of our pocket, for less than a months prescription. It was worth every penny.

3 comments:

  1. I'm with you on this one too- pills? really? I ended up with a Zofran pump, which saved me!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You can actually get Zofran a Costco for a lot cheaper. I don't know how I would have survived my 1st trimester w/o it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I completely understand how frustrating it is to hear peoples "suggestions". This is my 4th pregnancy, and I had hyperemesis with all of them, but to varying degrees. This time around has been the worst, and it is the one that is filled with the worst questions/advice from people. My midwife actually told me, "You know, nausea and vomiting are a normal part of pregnancy" after I had not eaten for a week and was getting severely dehydrated. I found Zofran the best, but just to take the edge off. I have done the ODT and now IV forms of it as well.

    ReplyDelete