I spotting this hilarious buzzfeed post about "Day on a Plate" going viral on Facebook this morning as a backlash to the depressingly perfect and blatantly bullshit “My day on a plate” feature of the founder of a juice company - no happy person lives like this:

So I thought I would give you a giggle with an HG version of “my day on a plate”...

5.30am – Wake up with desperate urge to vomit... dash to toilet and just about make it so acid splutters bowl instead of bedroom carpet.

6am – crawl back to bed hoping to get a bit more sleep (my only relief from the relentless nausea)

7.30am – Husband wakes, creating minor movement in the bed, causes retching, then child comes in with morning breath that makes me retch again. They quickly evacuate the bedroom and get on with their days

8.30am – Try nibbling a ginger biscuit as instructed by every human I've ever met and some that I have never. Sticks in my mouth so attempt a sip of water... projectile vomit into bowl. Back to sleep

11am – Woohoo! I've passed most of the morning asleep! Take anti-sickness tablets with sip of water

11.02am – Throw up anti-sickness tablets. Fantasise about food and lie very still

11.30am – Attempt to go downstairs, throw up in bowl at bottom of the stairs for 20 minutes but hey, at least I'm downstairs now!

12.00am – Sooooooo hungry behind the nausea so consider making a slice of toast.

12.30pm – Toast successfully eaten! Now to sit very very still in the hope it stays down.

1.30pm – Well it stayed down for an hour! Go to change pants.

1.35pm – Up stairs now so may as well stay put – attempt to sleep

1.40pm – Thank fuck for my smart phone, engage with outside world via facebook and twitter. See that other people are at work, play groups, on holidays and other such normal things, feel more miserable and guilty. Message a school friend about pregnancy (trying to be positive!), mention sickness and haven't left the house in 6 weeks except for hospital admissions, secretly hoping she offers to visit. She comes back with congratulation and had I tried ginger? - click defriend.

2pm – Doctor phones, apparently I shouldn't still be sick because it ends at 12 weeks and I should try going for a walk. Wants me to stop medications soon – I reassure him they don't stay down anyway.

2.30pm - Midwife phones to book appointment, wants me to go to surgery for it, explain I can't due to HG, asks if I've tried ginger. Hang up, wondering if I can request a different midwife.

3pm – Boss phones to see if I know when I'll be back at work... says his wife had morning sickness but still managed to go to work. Suggests I could get up earlier to spew up before work? TWAT!

5pm – Husband and child home, cooking smells and noise from downstairs spell 1 hour of retching and spewing acid.

6pm – Take anti-sickness tablets and welcome the drowsiness. Mentally high five myself for surviving another day but sort of wonder if I'll actually wake up in the morning. Sleep.

Hmmm... doesn't seem very funny reading it back...

“Have you tried ginger” is a common suggestion received by sufferers of hyperemesis gravidarum from friends, colleagues, relatives and healthcare professionals, fact!

Now I'm going to be very careful here because I don't want to lead or skew responses, but... I want to explore how hearing the suggestion of ginger makes women feel and the mental impact it has, either positive or negative. I want to know if they find it helpful and comforting or if it has a negative impact and increases isolation.

If I get enough responses from this I will look to get it published in a healthcare journal but due to the self selected nature of my readership I will need a LOT of responses to make it credible. To take part you need to have been admitted to hospital at least once for hyperemesis gravidarum in the last ten years.

In the meantime I'll publish preliminary results on this blog so if you want to know when they are out then sign up using your email address in that little "subscribe" box on the right...

The survey will take around 5-10 mins depending on how much thinking you have to do and how much you have to say on the matter...

TAKE THE SURVEY NOW

Well last year finished off rather manically for me as I worked my little socks off bringing the Charity's amazing support network up to speed and matched dozens of desperate sufferers with volunteers to hold their cyber hands over the Christmas period while they endured non-sick relatives and bouncy excited children.

As a result I half wrote two blog posts which never got posted. The second of which was a proud reflection of the amazing achievements of the Hyperemesis Improvement Movement over the last year which I'll summarize more briefly now we're already heading to mid January... Not only has my own blog and work been shortlisted for the BIB Awards, MAD Blog Awards and, most amazingly, Tesco Mum of the Year Award, but the Hyperemesis Day Unit at Birmingham Women's Hospital was nominated for a prestigious HSJ Award for Value and Improvement in Acute Service Redesign and came second in category with special recognition. Even more spectacular than that the incredible IV nurses at Sirona Care and Health in Bath who have been pioneering the IV at Home service in their area and setting a gold standard national example of excellence in Hyperemesis care WON their category at the Nursing Times Award in October! You can watch a short film about their amazing service on the Pregnancy Sickness Support website here.

Of course a huge personal achievement and important development for the whole of the HG community was the publication of Hyperemesis Gravidarum - The Definitive Guide, which went on sale in October and has received some fantastic reviews so far.

Right at the end of the year came an exciting development which will take us on into the new year... I have successfully gain the position of Expert Advisor on Hyperemesis Gravidarum for the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which means that during reviews of maternity, gyne wards and potentially GP surgeries the needs of women with hyperemesis will be accurately represented. Poor care can be rooted out and corrected and excellent care can be highlighted and held up as what should be strived for. If you want to get hyperemesis care on the CQC's agenda then be sure to tell them about your experience of treatment, either good or bad, on their website.

So looking ahead to 2015, what is in store for the International Hyperemesis Improvement Movement?

Well, in addition to the CQC work, I and my colleagues at PSS will be focusing on research into the condition. We have already form a research subgroup within the Charity which has met and agreed various directions so expect more from that in the coming months. I will also be running small surveys on here to highlight certain issues and I hope to publish more articles this year.

A Healthcare Professional Conference is planned for May 11^th this year and they'll be flyers available soon for posting in hospitals and letting your midwives, gyne units and GPs know about it. It's all about developing services in the UK, such as IV Day Units and IV at home services. These are increasing rapidly, with areas like, Bath, Birmingham and Nottingham leading the way in excellence.

I know I say it almost every time but I'm hoping to blog more... it's just easier said than done sometimes and when I'm faced with the choice of speaking to a sufferer and matching her with a volunteer or getting a blog post up, it's a no brainer... my priority is with the sufferer. Quiet times on the blog usually indicate busy times elsewhere so please bear with me while I learn to juggle more and more balls as new and exciting opportunities present themselves this year.

And, dear readers, there is something I want to ask of you this year... fundraise, donate and volunteer... please... I can't do this on my own.