food question?

CynR

My friend Tyler has had a g-tube for a month or so now and is somewhat used to it. We weren't really expecting the issues that come with regular food (no good reason, we just weren't) to also be part of g-tube use - you know, things like nausea and constipation and etc. Anyway, he's pretty much adapted. But now it seems that whenever he tries to eat or drink almost anything by mouth - even something as simple as mango iced tea - he has nausea and often vomiting. He can keep down water and regular iced tea.
We suspect the last round of nausea had to do with it occurring during the 4th round of FU and cisplatin - each successive round of chemo has been worse side effect-wise, something else we were told would happen (but really didn't know exactly how and how much until it happened.)
But my real question is - after not eating solid food or much else by mouth, do patients develop a lack of tolerance to solids? Do they have to gradually re-introduce solids to avoid nausea? If so, how slowly? Has anyone had this experience? Is it maybe something that will go away on its own? He has Rx compazine and ativan and they do help some.
Sheesh, seems like every time we start to think we have a little bit of insight as to this cancer and its treatment, along comes another unexpected issue.... Anyway, any help or advice would be much appreciated!
Thanks,
Cindy

Tina Blondek

Welcome
Hi Cindy, Welcome to this site. I am not familiar with the g tube, but I know there are several others here that are. It would make sense to me to introduce small amounts of solid foods for awhile. Others will reply to you. Congrats to Tyler for making it this far! Yes with this cancer, you take one step forward, and many steps back....but you can beat it! Best of luck to both of you. You can also check with his drs. Let us know how he is making out.
Tina (caregiver to my dad who beat ec, got mets to his liver in dec. 09, could not beat this, and passed away 3/9/10)

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CynR

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Thanks for the tips!
I don't get to my computer as often as I'd like, so thanks for the replies. They kind of fit with what I thought but, as I keep reading, most of us are new to this and I don't think there's any way at all to be fully educated - the biggest help is hearing from others who have been there!

William, yes, Tyler has an appointment this coming Monday at UCSF. he has a CD of all of his local scans and his records have been faxed over. I understand from reading JohnnyW's posts that the MIE procedure is also done at UCSF, should the UC docs consider surgery an option. Tyler was dx T3N1 around Christmas, and our original understanding of the process was that the lesion was inoperable then, so chemo/rad to try to shrink it hopefully to the point of operability. Made sense to both of us. The local surgeon is probably a fine guy, but he and Tyler did not hit it off. Too many missed communications from his office (like not telling the patient until he arrived for his port placement that he'd be sedated and would need a ride, causing resched of port appointment, etc., and drat but these minor frustrations become huge when dealing with all of this!) So the part you quoted, William, totally took both of us by surprise. We pretty much thought at least a surgical opinion as to surgery or any other options would come along at some point - but the locals seemed surprised that we thought so! Anyway, we persevered and have the appointment this Monday.

I hope that the news is - well, I hope it's HOPEFUL most of all! I am definitely going to post what we hear when we get home (we're about an hour from San Francisco, depending on traffic.)

Thanks again,
Cindy