Hey guys,
Well, the good news is my mother-in-law has decided that she can no longer look after herself and she will be living with us. The bad news is thats its been the longest month of my life, it's almost like having a newborn in the house, up every couple of hours for meds or nausea or pain etc and just when I think we're getting into a rhythm something else changes! She has another infection in her lungs so we just had a chest x-ray and her arm was x-rayed to because of suspicious pain there. Now she has been having bad headaches so they want a ct for that. Anyway, my question for all is, has anyone here used haliperidol for nausea? Thats the latest drug, seems a little over the top to me but its supposed to be good. The nausea has been really bad the last few days, no-one can tell us why (this is a new thing) so I am giving her lots of water through her peg. If anyone has any experience with this drug please let me know.

Thanks Karen

Hi Karen
My husband uses Haliperdol for anxiety and I've just read the drug sheet with it, and yes it is used to treat nausea, although I'd never heard of this before...
Sunshine.. love and hugs
Helen

Karen-

Glad you have your mama with you. Hang in there and I promise you will soon learn to nap when/where you can (usually while she naps and within ear shot).

The haloperidol is the generic compound for brand name Haldol. It is generally used (and classified) as a tranquilizer or "antipsychotic" drug. The area of the brain that controls anxiety also controls nausea/vomiting and doctors are now realizing there are other drugs developed for other uses that have additional benefits for the treatment of other disorders/maladies. This is one. It eases feelings of anxiety AND help to control nausea.

I'm certain this will not be the case for your mom but poor Ed spent 90 days on the bathroom floor. Throughout his ENTIRE treatment we were never able to get the nausea and/or vomiting under control. The closest we got was by using Zofran. I injected it slowly into his mediport and though ideally it should have been with DEXAMETHASONE (a steroid that is supposed to enhance the effects of the Zofran, Kytril, Emend, etc. and every other anti nausea drug they made) Ed had such adverse reactions (putting it mildly) I'd rather donate an organ than ever give it to him again.

You hang in there. You know how much she loves you and all we do is return the favour our parents did for us and extend our home. If you ever have any questions or wish to share stories, Ed was primary care giver for his mom during her final stages of ovarian cancer. It was a great honour and blessing to both of them and us.

Susan

Karen,

Make sure you monitor the electrolytes if your mother-in-law is vomitting. The side effects of dehyrdation will cause many problems mental and physical.

You are such a wonderful and special person for what you are doing. Many people would struggle with the concept, even without the cancer. There will probably be more rough days than good ones, unfortunately, for a while.

Please feel free to email or ask me anything if I can help you.

Ed

Well, we were at the hospital again today to meet a pain specialist. She was quite nice though not very helpful as far as the nausea goes. Mom was put on Biaxin on monday for a lung infection and I think that is making her sick so I decided to stop it and see what happens. Yesterday she only had 3 cans of food and vomited a lot of that and today I only got one can in and she brought it all up and then some so I've just been giving her water all day. They gave her the dexamethasone today for pain she has in her head. Dr said it might help relieve the pressure until they can do a MRI to see what is going on, but hopefully in the meantime it will help the haldol work. I can only hope.
Thanks for the sunshine!

Karen