Vitamin "A" is the nickname for Ativan reported on several oncology nurse blogs. (credit to "nurse pearl" ) I'm a believer since it has basically done what Zofran, Compazine did not fully handle: the "anticipatory nausea' from chemotherapy. The others kept the actual nausea/vomiting down to once a day, but then the rest of the day and night were miserable as I felt like I was just about to vomit, then would have long tearing stretches of dry retching. So there was never any relief.

I did some more research on it and it appears that since Ativan crosses the blood/brain barrier it occupies the brain receptors that trigger nausea while Zofran blocks the receptors in the stomach that send the signal for nausea to the brain receptors. So both together get the signals that the other ones miss.

Just another idea for the chemo nausea
Charm


65 yr Old Frack
Stage IV BOT T3N2M0 HPV 16+
2007:72GY IMRT(40) 8 ERBITUX No PEG
2008:CANCER BACK Salvage Surgery
25GY-CyberKnife(5) 3 Carboplatin
Apaghia /G button
2012: CANCER BACK -left tonsilar fossa
40GY-CyberKnife(5) 3 Carboplatin

Passed away 4-29-13