Can't eat or drink

swartpb
swartpb Member Posts: 32
in Head and Neck Cancer #1
Can someone please help - what should i do?

I can't eat or drink and if i do try a shake or even water i vommit and it's all out.

I finish hopefully monday the 6th June with rad.

I feel weak and unstable on my legs - do i need to check in for a drip? what kind of drip?

My mouth is bleeding in the inside because of the sores.

Will appreciate if you can help me with advice or suggestions.

God bless you all!!!

Comments

  • Noellesmom
    Noellesmom Member Posts: 1,859 Member
    #2
    CALL THE DOCTOR NOW! DON'T WAIT UNTIL TUESDAY!
    You need immediate help with several issues. Check with your physician's office to see what they recommend. They get these calls regularly - you are not the first one.

    It is a holiday weekend and you might have better success if you go through the ER - don't know where you live or how responsive your personal physicians are. Going to a clinic or an ER for a line is probably a good idea, dependent upon the last time you were able to take nourishment but also to prevent dehydration.

    No more vomiting - that's not going to help your mouth or your throat.

    Do you have medication for nausea? If you can't keep oral medication down, you definitely need either suppository or an i.v. to help with the nausea.

    Mouth sores - do you have the magic mouthwash? If not, a solution of baking soda and water to rinse your mouth is a start but you are probably going to need Nystatin for fungal infection as well as something to numb the sores while they heal.

    Let us hear from you.
  • Goalie
    Goalie Member Posts: 184
    #3
    Noellesmom said:

    CALL THE DOCTOR NOW! DON'T WAIT UNTIL TUESDAY!
    You need immediate help with several issues. Check with your physician's office to see what they recommend. They get these calls regularly - you are not the first one.

    It is a holiday weekend and you might have better success if you go through the ER - don't know where you live or how responsive your personal physicians are. Going to a clinic or an ER for a line is probably a good idea, dependent upon the last time you were able to take nourishment but also to prevent dehydration.

    No more vomiting - that's not going to help your mouth or your throat.

    Do you have medication for nausea? If you can't keep oral medication down, you definitely need either suppository or an i.v. to help with the nausea.

    Mouth sores - do you have the magic mouthwash? If not, a solution of baking soda and water to rinse your mouth is a start but you are probably going to need Nystatin for fungal infection as well as something to numb the sores while they heal.

    Let us hear from you.

    Run! Do not walk, to the hospital.

    OK, drive. But you get my meaning. You can survive for weeks without eating if you can get some nutrients. But you can't survive more than days if you don't hydrate. As I neared the end of treatment and even after, even though I was eating and drinking some, I was still going a couple of days a week for a quart by IV. This was something we just didn't want to mess with.

    If they can get the right stuff, they can also feed you (or give you necessary nutrients) by IV as well. It's probably not as good as eating nor even as good as a tube (which I managed to avoid) but your situation now is survival for the next couple of weeks. Even if they put in a tube next week you would need hydration and nutrients to get there.

    Please don't take this lightly and let us know what is happening. (If you were in the Washington, DC area I would take you myself.)

    Doug
  • delnative
    delnative Member Posts: 450 Member
    #4
    Goalie said:

    Run! Do not walk, to the hospital.

    OK, drive. But you get my meaning. You can survive for weeks without eating if you can get some nutrients. But you can't survive more than days if you don't hydrate. As I neared the end of treatment and even after, even though I was eating and drinking some, I was still going a couple of days a week for a quart by IV. This was something we just didn't want to mess with.

    If they can get the right stuff, they can also feed you (or give you necessary nutrients) by IV as well. It's probably not as good as eating nor even as good as a tube (which I managed to avoid) but your situation now is survival for the next couple of weeks. Even if they put in a tube next week you would need hydration and nutrients to get there.

    Please don't take this lightly and let us know what is happening. (If you were in the Washington, DC area I would take you myself.)

    Doug

    Let us know what happened
    I certainly hope you sought medical attention. Dehydration is a very, very bad thing.
    Please keep us informed.

    --Jim in Delaware
  • stevenl
    stevenl Member Posts: 587
    #5
    delnative said:

    Let us know what happened
    I certainly hope you sought medical attention. Dehydration is a very, very bad thing.
    Please keep us informed.

    --Jim in Delaware

    It happened to me
    The same thing happened to me in my last week of chemo treatments. My wife to me immediately to the hospital. Uncontrollable vomiting. I couldn't even try to eat. Got the hospital now!!

    Best,
    Steve
  • DrMary
    DrMary Member Posts: 531 Member
    #6
    stevenl said:

    It happened to me
    The same thing happened to me in my last week of chemo treatments. My wife to me immediately to the hospital. Uncontrollable vomiting. I couldn't even try to eat. Got the hospital now!!

    Best,
    Steve

    Dehydration is the worst
    You can deal with eating later - the mouth sores are nasty and you need to treat them every few hours with whatever you were told - if you were told nothing, then do the old baking soda and water rinses, alternated with swish-and-swallow l-glutamine rinses. Mucositis is terrible, but only your own body (with help) can do the recovery.

    It sounds like the only way you will get fluids in, however, is IV, so you should talk to your doctor about this. I hesitate to echo the ER recommendation, however. Our experience was that they were more worried about the lack of nutrition than the lack of water and so almost killed Doug - they gave him almost homeopathic doses of fluids by IV and then hit him with an IV food mixture that caused an allergic reaction. The problem with actually checking yourself into the hospital is that they can't release you unless you are stable and can't just treat your symptoms without a plan to make you healthy again. Since "healthy" is not going to happen for a few weeks, you might find yourself limited in terms of options (we were lucky - the chemo doctor was willing to sign the release to get him the heck out of there and let him do IV fluids on an outpatient basis in the infusion center, where they don't faint at the idea of giving you a liter an hour or so).

    One hint - Doug found that swallowing his magic mouthwash right after barfing made that particular pain go away, which was indeed a blessing.
  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #7
    Noellesmom said:

    CALL THE DOCTOR NOW! DON'T WAIT UNTIL TUESDAY!
    You need immediate help with several issues. Check with your physician's office to see what they recommend. They get these calls regularly - you are not the first one.

    It is a holiday weekend and you might have better success if you go through the ER - don't know where you live or how responsive your personal physicians are. Going to a clinic or an ER for a line is probably a good idea, dependent upon the last time you were able to take nourishment but also to prevent dehydration.

    No more vomiting - that's not going to help your mouth or your throat.

    Do you have medication for nausea? If you can't keep oral medication down, you definitely need either suppository or an i.v. to help with the nausea.

    Mouth sores - do you have the magic mouthwash? If not, a solution of baking soda and water to rinse your mouth is a start but you are probably going to need Nystatin for fungal infection as well as something to numb the sores while they heal.

    Let us hear from you.

    Hi swartpb
    I also agree you need to call you doctor or go to the ER and have them check you out. It might be that they will need to give you some fluids; you are week because you are dehydrated.

    Praying for you my friend
    Hondo
  • miccmill
    miccmill Member Posts: 248
    #8
    Hondo said:

    Hi swartpb
    I also agree you need to call you doctor or go to the ER and have them check you out. It might be that they will need to give you some fluids; you are week because you are dehydrated.

    Praying for you my friend
    Hondo

    checking in
    Hope you headed straight off to the ED and got fluid and pain relief.

    Check in with us, we're thinking of you.

    Lisa
  • Noellesmom
    Noellesmom Member Posts: 1,859 Member
    #9
    getting worried about you
    Let us hear how things are going...

Discussion Boards