Post Esophagectomy nausea 61F

Williamtaylor601

Howdy, my mother has spent the last 2 years with hospital complications, it has been 1 step forward 2 steps back. She did well after surgery , was even playing on going shopping. As of now she is probably over a year out of hospital. She has the worst nausea. i cant put it into words how bad it actually is. She still has the feeding tube in and is able to tolerate the formula she is on, she vomits every morning like clock work. Cant sleep more than 3 hours a night, cant eat but a little of real food. She's seen gastro doctors and had brain scans done to see if it was neurological. i guess I'm putting this on here as a hail Mary. If anyone has any suggestions or questions please don't hesitate anything helps.

lisagwinnt

I feel you. I'm 5 years out and I live with that same nausea every day. I have journaled everything trying to pinpoint what sets it off and what doesn't and nothing is 100 percent cure. You just have to take the good days and do as much as you can with them and split up a lot of the chores so you only move 5 or 10 minutes at a time before you sit for 15 or 20 minutes to help the nausea abate. I take 20mils omeprazole 2x per day and a couple zofran every day and i still have red solo cups hidden in every room just in case. To be honest if it were not for THC I would not be able to function. The lowest percentage gives me the greatest relief from the nausea without making me stupid. But also it was 4 years out... just last year... that I actually had a gastro guy tell me I needed to be on a low residue diet. They just don't teach you enough about post-surgical lifestyle. Increasing your Dairy especially with yogurt actually helps. Greek yogurt is better. I find I don't gag on the fumes of it when it starts to digest in that pouch next to my lung and it is the one thing that actually makes a tiny bit of difference sometimes in how often I have to get up to throw up. But by and large the biggest issue is to keep moving. We no longer have peristalsis to help move things through our digestive tract and gravity alone doesn't help. If you can move every 3 to 4 hours or right before you usually cycle into a nausea event., you can sometimes decrease your nausea events. I am in the habit now of waking about every 2 and a half hrs, putting a child sized bean bag in the well made from sitting cross legged in the middle of the bed and leaning forward to hug it. It puts you at 90 degrees for a time and i doze back off to sleep. I then wake about an hour later with no reflux, bloating or nausea. (I actually learned that trick from my dog . When I was going through chemo I was so sick , I would sit up cross naked with my elbows on my knees and just wretch or groan for hours . She was barely a year old and began to come curl up in front of me and lean into my chest like she was trying to hug me . I in my worn out state of wretching would lean into her and she would stay that way for hours supporting me . She would slow her breathing so she wouldn't pant and set off the nausea and to this day she lives for the words good morning because until I say that she knows I may not be right yet and if she jumps on the bed or approaches me too quickly she could make it worse . I since adopted the beanbag to give her a break..) After sitting leaning into who or whatever, I might belch a few times in relief, then i settle back into my 70 degree position for another 2 or 3 hrs. Every once in a while now ill find the beanbag where it goes after i use it without me fully waking up to get in the position. I know i came out of deep sleep for that time but its the closest i get to a full nights sleep. And that sleep deprivation of throwing up for an hour every couple of hrs coupled with the dehydration the nausea breeds can just zap your strength AND brain power. So if Mom isnt sleeping at a hi enough angle, try increasing it (Bear in mind sleeping at a higher angle requires your watermelon of a head to balance on a Matchstick of a neck for longer than it was designed to do so. She may want to invest in a soft breathable padded neck collar to help with that and don't forget the tailbone! The higher the angle the more weight on the tailbone so be sure there's ample padding where she sits up right. ) And the final thing thats shown promise of relief for me is moving rough. I have my spine and knee issues so walking fast or jogging is out. But if I take a ride on my brother's mobility scooter and try a hit as many bumps in the road as I can so I get jostled and rattled a lot after I eat, I will do much better that night. I know it's not much but take what experience you can from that and I hope it makes a difference with your mom

lisagwinnt

Oops…i never sat in the middle of the bed "naked". I sat cross legged. Ya gotta love talk to text!

Williamtaylor601

https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/comment/1723910#Comment_1723910

Thank you, i will relay this message. i want to say she tried THC but i trust she will try it again after this, and yore right the bad days outnumber the good by far. I'm sorry you're going through this i know its hell on earth. do you happen to know what milligram you take for the THC i wonder if she was taking to high of a mg.