i would welcome any advice of how to reduce nausea and vomiting i have my 3rd fec next week and then 3 tax,after my first 2 FEC i had nausea /vomiting dispite having sick tabs ( sick 2hrs after taking domperidome for 2 days ) before my second fec i told onc who gave me ondansetron which i took but had side effects ( bruise on eyelid and red face ) so had to stop, i also have difficulty in swallowing the sick tabs the combination of nausea, the thought of being sick, the mouth thing and the fact that even water makes me gag is giving me a phobia for taking tabs and i am dreading the next lot, please don’t get me wrong i don’t normally moan on about things and after the first week i feel ok but next week i will be thinking about thursday’s chemo and dreading it after the sickness i also get heartburn/burping and can only sleep sat up so any advice on that? sorry for the moaning minny routine but i know there are a lot of “experts” out there going through the same thing and i would be grateful for any comments…
I didn’t suffer from nausea during chemo, but I wore sea bands. They are elasticated wrist bands (a bit like sweat bands - think John McEnroe) with an acupressure ‘disc’ on the inside. I put them on a couple of hours before I went for chemo and kept them on continually for about 5-6 days, you can sleep in them as well. I know Kelly (Princess 18) used them as well and they do seem to work, as I said I never had any sickness.
Hope this helps.
Love Julie xxx
P.S. If I remember right, they’re about £7 and I got mine from Tesco.
There are tips on the site for Nausea but i know if you dont feel too good you havent got the energy to read through all the threads.
I am on a different regime than you but have sickness/nausea for 2 weeks. During which time just brushing my teeth sets me off. I am sometimes sick before i can take a tablet.
Please tell your Onc next time you go as i am on my third different type of anti sickness tablets as the others didnt wrok properly. What suits one doesnt always suit someone else. Domperidone didnt do a thing for me, neither did Metoclopramide . I was told by a GP that they usually give you the cheapest first so there are others available. I do take Ondansetron for the first 5 days (twice a day) but can top up with Levomepromazine. I also got a puffy face and red blotches but last time my Oncologist gave me allergy tablets which stooped it. If you are struggling with tablets ask for the injections. I had these. They were given to me when i had my chemo to bring home and i just had to ring the district nurse and she would come and inject for me.
One side effect from the tablets is a very dry mouth. You can get a dry mouth spray from Boots which helps with this.( Its their own make.) Also recomended on this site is ginger ale. ginger biscuits and lucazade.
Try Julies idea too. Anythings worth a try
Mizzy - feel for you so much as I also vomitted each time and it is so grim. I tried domperidone, ondansetron - no joy. For the final push I got nasuatran (spelling?) which made me more or less pass out. I woke twice to be sick but passed out in between times. That was better than the normal 6 times and the night passed quicker, but hardly a great result all the same!
I used to have violent inclinations towards the nurses who kept saying “ah, you’re only being sick because you’re anticipating it.” There must also be a link between the toxic chemicals you are pumping through my veins, I wanted to yell!
Keep trying different drugs is all I can suggest.
I also tried a counselling session (of the slightly whacky variety involving crystals). It did not help sickness but helped release huge amounts of other stress I did not know I was carrying.
Good luck. I think there just are some folk who are sick on chemo.
Hi
I am on granisteron plus my steroid dexamethasone and havent had any nausea (touch wood) could be worth asking about it . I have just had my second fec on tuesday and so far so good. I do take my anti sickness early though (around 7) as when i woke up I felt if I left it any longer I may have felt a bit ill.
Male BCs get vomiting too. I had my first FEC last week, all was fine until mid afternoon when vomiting started. I couldn’t keep a sip of water down and everything ached from pit of stomach to collar bones.
Since I had only received the pills to take home after the treatment, I never actually kept any down long enough for them to reach my system…
The pills: Dexomethasone 2mg, 2 per day for three days, Ondansetron 8mg, 2 per day for three days and Domperidone 10mg, 8 per day for 20 days – though I noted from a cancer treatment website that: “The first dose of ondansetron is usually taken 30 minutes before the start of chemotherapy” which was not an option for me!
I went back to the unit and was re-hydrated and given anti-vomiting injection which worked. I’m hoping that the next treatment goes better with a different sickness drugs mix.
Clunk
Sympathise with your sickness. Dont they give you any when having your chemo
I have a syringe of anti sickness drug first, then a syringe of steroids then the Epibrucin. As well as being on the saline drip all the time. A couple of hours after getting home i start on the tablets.
The reason everything hurts or aches is that the wet lining in your body from your mouth to your bum normally regenerates every 24 hours or so but when on chemo this takes much longer so thats why people have symptons varying from mouth ulcers, gut ache, indegestion, stomach cramps,constipatipn or diarrhea. I didnt find this out from the hospital a friend whos a GP told me after i told him about my aches and pains. At least knowing this helped me understand why i felt so c**p even though it didnt alleviate any of the symptoms.
Hope it goes better next time
Hi mizzy,
So sorry to hear you’ve got this b******y awful sickness. I’ve just finished the same chemo as you’re having and had exactly the same problem. I couldn’t take Ondansetron either because bizarrely it made me more sick. I also got to the point where even water made me feel like throwing up. Please do speak to your onc or chemo nurses again because there is plenty they can give you IV with the chemo. I was having granisteron plus dexamethasone IV and in the end they also gave me lorazepam tablets to take one half an hour before the chemo. The pills are minuscule so v easy to swallow and are particularly good if you feel you have got to the point where even arriving at the hospital makes you feel sick as I did. By the end I had managed to control the vomiting completely and only a little nausea to contend with. The good news is that Taxotere was tons better. I wasn’t sick at all on that but kept up all the medication to be on the safe side and control the nausea - hope it is the same for you. Remember after the next FEC you will be halfway through & then you’re on the homeward strait. Hope things work out well for you.
thanks for all your advice i will talk to onc again about sickness before next chemo, Lucy i so agree with you when you say arriving at the hospital makes you feel sick i’ve been for a muga scan today and felt exactly the same, plus the nurse said my vein felt a bit hard so had to poke around a bit ( something else to worry about ) hope i am the same as you with taxotere thanks for that info it makes me feel better, roll on spring and radiotherapy!!!
not much to add to what the others have said - vomiting isn’t pleasant and there is nothing worse than seeing the tablets that are supposed to stop it come back! I’ve had an injection previously and that worked brilliantly. There is also an anti-sickness drug that you just put under your tongue, no swallowing, plus there are suppositories. At least with these your stomach gets a rest. Drink as much as you can. If you have had children, and morning sickness - try whatever worked then.