Nausea Tips Needed

hello all. besides kytril is there another medication to control the nausea caused by chemo? or if you have tips on how to control it or at least minimize using alternative products it would be greatly appreciated. as always, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, it really helps. god bless ya'll!

Zofran is the standard "big-gun" for controlling chemo-induced nausea, but there are times where even keeping the Zofran down is a challenge. Phenergen comes in both a pill and suppository form - particularly useful if you can't keep anything down. Compazine is a pill form that sometimes helps when Zofran doesn't. Both Phenergen and Compazine will make you tired. There is another drug, Marinol, which my wife used while on CPT-11/Avastin. Marinol is a synthetic, pill form of marijuana. You take it beginning 72 hours before your chemo and for up to 72 hours afterwards. It helped when none of the other drugs did. Good luck!

Zofran ODT is sublingual. Doesn't need to be swallowed or kept down.

If possible, taking the chemo at night (if it is pill form) helps because you're sleeping through most of it. I read that tip a while back on this board. Hope this helps.

Lisa

zofran is the best. we have tons of kytril in our house sitting in a drawer- they prescribed it because it worked once or twice at the hospital, but zofran is magical! we got the kytril because our insurance paid for it, but it's damn expensive! zofran, too. they're around $52 a PILL- so a months rx can run you thousands of dollars... we like zofran. it's teriffic.

Hi Joe,
Tablets are not the only factors for preventing nausea. My son is on Cpt11-avastin & Tarceva. I give him a compazine tablet at bedtime but at mealtime I make sure he sits up and eats then remain awake in a sitting position for at least 90-120 minutes after eating, this helps the digestive system to work for a while. Works like a charm as only one episode of vomiting in past 3 months.

As always, I really appreciate your assistance, I really do, from the bottom of my heart. I wrote this bacause my younger and uninsured brother is fighting gbm IV, overseas! So I went to the drug store to purchase Kytril and when they've told me the price my poor jaw was all over the floor, in pieces :) too expensive, $59.00 bucks per pill! what the hell is this made of? plutonium?? not to mention that I'm also buying Temodar 350! maybe if i wasn't slaved to temodar i could do it, but for now i can't! that's why i was thinking of getting an alternative/natural product to deal with this nausea. Thanks so much for your input...one day,I'm sure, I'll return this kindness to someone else going through this very same nightmare we're all going through...with evil gbm...keep fighting!

peace out!

I was on TAC treatment for breast cancer and dr. gave me Kytril, Compazine and Ativan for nausea.  Nurse said Kytril was the gold standard but gave me terrible constipation and after the 5-6 days of taking it I would have 2-3 of diarrhea.  Compazine was helpful and the Ativan I eventually used to help me sleep.

I started accupuncture and it did help with the nausea plus the bone aches of Neulasta/neupogen shots.  I always told myself if I could get through the needle core biopsy that accupuncture needles were a piece of cake.

Nothing seemed to work for my nausea, until the Dr. asked me if I drank soda.  I said I gave it up as soon as I found out I had cancer.  So he told me to drink Coca Cola if I could stomach it. 

 Sure enough, that was all I wound up needing.  It may not work for everyone, but it worked for me, and it's the same treatment they used in the movie Doc Hollywood.

 

On 10/31/2006 Kewlsense wrote:

hello all. besides kytril is there another medication to control the nausea caused by chemo? or if you have tips on how to control it or at least minimize using alternative products it would be greatly appreciated. as always, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, it really helps. god bless ya'll!

 

Hopefully you no longer have nausea by this point, however if you do, we are using "Emend" with great success.  It is taken 1 hour prior to Chemo and one time daily for the next  2-4 days.  It is a very new drug and studies are underway to see if it can be used on a longer term basis.  It works differently from, as well as complimentary to, Zophran, Phenergran, and Ativan.  Hope this helps. 

PS. Ask your MD for a free sample or a voucher for a free Rx, and call ahead to the drug store as it is so new (and costly) that many don't stock it.  The pharmacy at your hospital will likely have it on hand.  Best of luck.