Help With Nausea

Hi molse,

I've read of advice to drink ginger tea to fend off nausea. I know with anti-nausea medicine, it's suggested to take the medicine before the onset of nausea is felt because it takes some time for the medicine to kick in. With that in mind, did your dad take his medicine at bedtime on the day of his chemo (that was suggested to me with the first round of chemo for my mom)? In that same vein, if he wants to try the ginger tea, he should drink the tea before he feels nauseous for several days after chemo to stave off the nausea. How much ginger he needs to simmer, I don't have the exact dosage. He can experiment with grated ginger (or finely sliced) of enough he can taste it and increase the strength to see if it works. One important caveat is that ginger has anti-clotting properties so that has to be abstained for surgery or if he has any bleeding problems. And when he's deep into his chemo cycles at a point when his blood count is affected, ginger may have a harmful effect on his platelets. That seemed to be the case with my mom when she was consuming a lot of ginger in her soups. She hasn't had that recurring problem since she stopped consuming ginger.

Another non-drug alternative is acupuncture. Your dad could go to an acupuncturist post-chemo and check out if acupuncture works for him.

If none of that is doable, he should consult with his oncologist for stronger anti-nausea medicine. Zofran is more potent and effective but it's also more expensive than Compazine (Prochlorperazine).

On the sleeping problem, walnuts have some quantity of melatonin, which aids in sleeping.

Good luck to your dad.

Hi Molse, It has been more than a week, I hope your dad is doing better with the nausea and sleeping by now.
I have been pretty lucky not to have much trouble with nausea, but I have found that I can't each the same amount I used to eat. It is like food processes slower and eating a normal amount of food makes me feel too full like I just ate an enormous Thankisgiving dinner. So I have to eat smaller meals more often. Also try to avoid eating dinner too late at night. I have Zofran tablets but 30 lasted me 6 months.
Your dad is likely getting an IV of "pre-meds" before his chemo. This can contain things like steroids, benadryl, and anti-nausea drugs. The steroids might make it difficult to sleep for the next 2 or 3 nights after chemo. I now use Ambien to help sleep on those nights.
I have talked to other next-chair-neighbors and they have similar experinces. It is hard to sleep for a day or 2 after chemo then on the third day the steroids wear off and I crash for 2 days. Then back to normal until the next chemo.
I did search google for foods that help promote sleep. here are some sites you can try:
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/4/T042400.asp
http://www.psychics.co.uk/dreams/sleep.html
http://food.yahoo.com/blog/beautyeats/746/top-10-foods-for-a-good-night-s-sleep
I use the milk and oatmeal-rasin cookie combination.
Well I hope this all made sense. In a couple of weeks you may be asking, "What is chemo-brain".

Hope your dad is doing better coping. Bye