Hubby is having a rough time with the chemo. First blast was last Thursday, and he is still having queasy gut and passing wind, and it isn't because he's eating beans.

His doc came back with this:
"You can take Zofran (up to 3 times a day), Decadron (up to 3 times a day) and Compazine (up to 4 times a day) for your nausea. Yes, you take all these 3 medicines."

And my/our question is, that sounds like a very heavy drug load to us, so is this kind of administration of meds normal?

And what's normal for the nausea? I thought it would only last 48 hours or so. Thanks for your help on this one...

Elin, He's getting Chemo......"Heavy load of drugs" does not compute. If he has nausea take what they offer.

Next time try Emends. Has to be taken the day of chemo and the next 2 days. Very expensive but what isn't?

Take the meds, on schedule whether he thinks he needs them or not. I was on Zofran, Phenegran, & Marinol and was very well managed by mt OCNP so I had very few problems with nausea.

Kevin

We don't even want to get started on all the drugs I was taking during treatment. I was on a series of antibiotics because of pneumonia along with pain meds and a couple other things. For nausea I was on phenergan, zofran, and I had Aloxi given via IV before all my chemo treatments. Usually I'm not even one to pop an ibuprofen for a headache, but in this case, I was all about getting through treatment as painfree as possible.

Elin,

Zofran, which worked beautifully for me in the past, didn't do anything for the nausea I got from Cisplatin. I ended up on a combination of Emend and Aloxi which worked well.

As far as the 'heavy load of drugs' goes, yes, it is. But Cisplatin is nasty, nasty toxic stuff. The nausea didn't hit me until around 48 hours after it was administered and lasted days in the first couple of weeks. After they switched my drugs, I didn't have any trouble with it.

That's the same combination I have been given. Although I have dropped the compazine because it makes me feel like I'm crawling out of my skin. David is right the Emend can be a wonder drug, you take it the day of chemo and then 2 days following. Expensive but it works great. But I would say the regimen you've been given is the same that many of us have been given...zofran, decadron, compazine, etc. Even taking all three I find that I'm queasy all the time.
-Steve

Thanks, guys and gals. I've copied hubby Ron on all of these so he can make better decisions with his doc.
What gets me in all this is how much we ALL need to be proactive. The doctors are always looking for case studies to see if what they learned works. That's not always in the best interest of the patient. I'm starting to get "righteous" which spells bad news for anyone who gets in the way of my "Mom Mode" (I don't have kids, but I know what it means). I want the best care, the most effective care. I'm not ready to start in the blog, but I am blogging with my computer. I need to vent somewhere...

We all vented at various times. That's partly why we're here because believe me we understand. Come on, hit me with your best shot!!

You may also have to use your "tough Love" mode when that time comes. My wife developed her's quite nicely.