Help...Need suggestions

Ativan
Hi,
Sorry your mom is having these problems. I'm wondering what the anti-nausea meds are. Emend is definitely the big one that she should have taken just as prescribed. That one is the one that prevents the nausea from starting. If it does start though, Ativan is the way to go for the fastest relief; or marijuana. Whichever your doc prescribes. As for the pain meds; I got the quickest, longest relief from Dilaudid. Hydrocodone is pretty tame for radiation pain or even tumor pain. The patch that she's on works for a lot of people but I didn't notice any pain relief from fentanyl. Be careful with the tylenol and advil as they have their own side effects that don't often go well with chemo and the lowered blood counts. Your doc should be able to adjust the pain meds to where she feels NO PAIN. Pain will cause a chain reaction of symptoms that are hard to recover from. Best to stop it ASAP. Let us know how she's doing and how you're doing. Stay strong.

Bob

Skiffin16 said:

Pain Meds
Take them when needed, that's what they're for......

I also had the liquid morphine, could not tolerate it, made me sick and did nothing for the pain.

I mainly used percocet, hydrocodone or oxicotin, along with the throat numbing solution.

As for nausea I used Emend (great stuff), Zofran and Phenigrin...

USE the MEDS....

Best,
John

Stay ahead of the pain.
I am so sorry to hear that both your folks are fighting, and I admire you and your sister for joining forces to be there for them. I am deeply touched. That point in life where the shift takes place between parent and child.
When Mark was going through treatment his radiology ocologist took the lead in his pain management. His philosophy was to get ahead of the pain and stay ahead of it. Before chemo and radiation began, he put Mark on a drug called neuronton. I believe it is an anti-seizure medication, that they have found helps with pain at the basic nerve level. He took 3 doses a day (cannot remember the mg). The thinking is to never allow the pain to spike, because then you are chasing pain and being reactive. Once your mom finds some pain releif, she should stay on a regular pain medication regiment, never skipping because she feels good that day. That allows the pain to get a foothold again. I suggest you talk this through with one of her doctors, but Mark managed pain pretty well (he was tonsil, stage IV, radical neck disection, 6 weeks chemo and rads). Doing well one year later.
Also Emend for nausea, and ativin IV at the time of chemo.
Best to you, your sister, mom and dad,
Kim

My medicines
I took emend, ativan, compazine and hydrocodone. For me, the chemo hit hardest on days three and four after I had received it. Never did vomit, but I sure felt lousy, and I certainly wasn't eating. Round one of the chemo made me feel so ill that none of the foods/liquid diet I'd been eating before appealed to me. That's when I switched over to the slow feed through my PEG tube with a pump. Made all the difference.

Best wishes in your search for effective medications.

Deb

Greend said:

The memories
This reminds me of when I started treatment (15 years ago). I was given anti nausea pills and told to take them every 8-10 hours. I recall one morning trying to keep the pills down and I couldn't. They were $30 each and I saw $100 floating in the toilet. The X-ray technicin recommended smoking marijuana just before taking the pills to keep my stomach settled long enough for them to dissolve. I did this and it worked. Contrary to popular belief I never did get high and it didn't help my appetite but it did allow the pills to stay down. The worst days were 3-4 days following treatment and then things would start to get a little better; just when I was feeling good it would be time for another treatment and the cycle continued.

Now my mother is going through treatment (83 years old) and it is amazing to me the new meds they have and how well she is doing. She is not having any of the problems I did and for that I am thankful.

Tell "mom" to hang in there.

Witch's Brew
As others have said, everyone responds to the pain and anti-nausea drugs differently. At this point, it is very hard to determine what is working and what is causing more nausea - she will be on several meds a day for a while. Try to get her to take the pills on schedule and try to document her nausea, pain and other side effects as much as possible.

Since she has never been much for pain killers, it is quite possible that the pain meds are increasing her nausea. Doug was unable to take any of the pain killers (we tried them all) without throwing up - he could tolerate oxycodone and oxycontin (the first first for breakthrough pain and the second to keep a constant dose of the same med going all day).

Day 4-6 is generally when the Emend stops working and you find out how bad the chemo-related nausea will be. Many folks are not very affected - Doug's chemo guy said he often finds that heavy drinker/smokers barely need antinausea meds after the first 6 days. Other folks get hit hard and nothing works well - we tried them all, very systematically. What worked best in the end was a combo of decadron and reglan - both can have serious side effects, but he stopped throwing up and started getting better, so we hung on and watched carefully for those side effects. I would try the rest first, and give each a good trial of a few days.

One thing to be aware of - she might not be digesting most of either the pain pills or the antinausea pills because her digestive system is so upset. I'd consider trying a nothing-by-mouth med plan for a few days - increase the Fentanyl patch dose and go to phenergan suppositories for the nausea and see if things settle down. If she can tolerate the Fentanyl (Doug couldn't) then when things settle down you can consider trying other meds on top of that for breakthrough pain. Doug threw up a lot when we were trying the different pain meds - he found that magic mouthwash right after throwing up helps a lot with the immediate pain.

Also, ask about IV hydration - it's never too soon, and dehydration makes both pain and nausea worse.

nausea
Hi Brigboo, Sorry to hear your mother is suffering through nausea and pain. Try to make sure she takes her nausea medication on time before she gets nauseated. Once nauseated it is harder to stop the ill effects. After the Emend the 1st couple of days Connie relied on Zophran to control the nausea. She also did the Fentanyl patch 50mg. The only other pain medication she did was Hydrocodone through her peg tube. Did your mother get a feeding tube yet? The tube would help for nutrition and her medicine can be administered through the peg tube. Tell her we love her here at CSN and we will pray for your family. Hang in there, Homer & Connie