The anti-sickness tablet conversation with my GP

The advice that helped least was to eat whatever appeals. Nothing appealed. What I needed was a list of things I could get down when nothing appealed.

Mine came in waves of about twenty minutes and if I could sit still through the wave it passed. Trying to do anything during it always made it worse.

Mine was much better on the days I ate breakfast within an hour of waking, and much worse on the days I skipped it. That was the clearest pattern in my notes.

What I did not expect was how much better I felt after eating, when eating was the last thing I wanted to do. That gap between wanting and helping was the hard bit.

Mine improved noticeably when I stopped drinking with meals and had my fluids in between. Somebody here suggested it and I was sceptical and it worked.

I raised it at my review having tracked it for three weeks and we changed one thing. It was a much shorter conversation than I had rehearsed.

What got me through was very small amounts, very often, and not caring at all what they were. Nutrition can wait a fortnight; not eating anything cannot.

Ginger did nothing for me and mint did a surprising amount, and I have watched other people here report exactly the opposite. It seems genuinely individual.

Coming back to say it lifted. Five weeks of genuinely difficult and then it went, and I have eaten normally for eighteen months since.

Cold food was the thing that worked for me. Anything hot and aromatic was impossible for about six weeks and cold worked when nothing else did.

I have nothing to add and I did not want to leave it unanswered.

The pattern for mine was days two and three, every time, reliably. Once I knew that, I planned around it and it stopped being an ambush.

Plain crackers in the bedside drawer sounds ridiculous and it is the single most useful thing anybody in this circle ever told me.

Mine was worst in the evening, which meant dinner became the hard meal. Moving the substantial part of my day earlier fixed most of it.

I want to say gently that if the difficulty eating has started to feel like relief rather than a symptom, that is worth mentioning to somebody. It crept up on me and a member here noticed before I did.

You have described the bit that nobody warns you about.

Smell was the trigger for me more than taste. I could eat things I could not be in the room while they cooked, which took me weeks to work out.