Vin, from one caregiver to another- who has been at this for a year now-here's a big hug and a pat on the back to you. Remember you are your wife's best advocate and her support. Come home with fresh flowers, hold her hand and look yourself in the mirror as many times a day as it takes and say "We can do this together". Keep after anyone who you think can help. Amy

Michele,

We are 8 months from end of chemoradiation and the phlegm is still a major issue. It's a really thick mucus that gets stuck in the throat and triggers the gag reflex. I have to agree with Nelie. At this point we feel that the phlegm is the cause of the nausea since all treatments have ended.

We use a lot of Robitussin which has Guafesenin (spelling ?) which is supposed to make the phlegm thinner and easier to swallow. But then the mucus accumulates in the stomach and again it triggers nausea.

Some on this forum have suggested taking a daily water intake in ounces equal to the person body weight divided by two. So if the person weighs 180 pounds the water intake should be 90 fluid ounces. This should be done in conjunction with doubbling the daily dosage of Robitussin which would then cut the amount of the mucus by half. Of course this should be discussesd with the doctor.

Regarding the slow feeding, our chemo doctor advised us to feed in small daily does as this would be easier on the stomach. We do one can of Jevity per feeding and sometimes a half can but there seem to be no change with respect to the nausea. Sometimes I just give water and meds though the tube and it is immediately followed by vomiting.

At one time I used to keep daily records of Jevity intake, water intake and meds given to try to understand what triggered the nausea. For us the nausea comes and goes. It seems to be erratic. But I feel the causes are the mucus and the lingering side effets of the radiaton and chemo. One of the forum members said and I will quote him "Radiation is the gift that keeps on giving." It's absolutely true.

Regarding your question as to weather radiation can cause nausea, I will tell about our experience.

When we were during the 7 weeks of treatments (radiation and chemo), our Radiation Oncologist would tell us that the nausea was caused by the chemo and Chemo Oncologist would tell us that the nausea was caused by the radiation.

Both the chemo and radiation have a poisoning effect on the body which can trigger the nausea.

My wife also had XRT in conjunction with cisplatin for chemo. She had both nausea and vomting after and during the infusions.

We never tried Dexamethasone. Our experience with hiccups has been just about nil.

Michele, there is something that doctors do not tell you that may happen after the end of the treatments. We thought that there would be a gradual improvement in health. Instead the opposite happens as experienced by other members on this forum. For some as in our case, there is a gradual decline in health followed by a gradual weight loss for several months following the end of the treatments. At times we got very worried because we had no idea why this was happening.

But then I posted our experience and I was reassured by other members that they also got sicker following the treatments. I sincerely hope that this does not happen to your husband. Thank you for sharing your experiences we appreciated.

Vin

Hi JAM,

Thank you for support. I felt a lot better after reading your post. I really needed a big hug and pat on the back today. I also send my support, a big hug and a pat on the back. Likewise I have been a caregiver two my wife for over a year since the diagnosis in January 2005. As caregivers, we understand the emotional and physical strains we undergo in tending to our loved ones because in addition we may jobs and or businesses to attend to.

For me it's been the hardest thing I have to do in my life. It takes a lot of strength, courage and patience to be a caregiver to a cancer patient. Plus a lot of their anger is directed to us so we have to take the brunt of it. My wife has fared better than I have but she is also a lot stronger than me. I have been there for her every step of the way.

We got alot of help from our children especially during the surgery and follow-up treatments, but they are grown and have their own lifes to take care of. They have been wonderful.

Again, thank you for the hug. I really appreciate it.

Vin, we had the same exact responses from our radiation oncologist and chemo oncologist - each one saying that the other treatment caused the nausea. The chemo oncologist said it again today. But regardless, the thing to be done is find a way to minimize it (the nausea) as the treatment must go on. I do appreciate your sharing your experiences with the nausea as we were starting to think his problems with it were excessive, as the doctors act as if the meds should be taking care of it. However, I believe the Cisplatin is a very strong regimen which some have more trouble with than others.

I have been trying to keep in mind and "gently" letting my husband know that even after radiation he may be feeling pretty rough, hopefully that will not last too long. And you are right, the doctors did not relay that information to us other than to say that he will need time to rest up after the Rt is done (as he may need surgery after, but we hope not). I have read of your wife's and others' experiences following radiation and it seems to be common to most. I guess they (the doctors) don't want to put any ideas in anyone's mind, so as to not have a patient "talk themselves into feeling bad." I can understand that but it is unfortunate that having to go through such grueling treatment, you would like to think that once the sessions were over, you would start improving gradually from that point instead of feeling worse.

I have quit (this weekend) trying to determine what is bringing on the nausea, as it seems to be a different situation each time, and erratic as you said, making it very difficult to pinpoint an exact cause. We are starting into the third week past the last round of chemo, and things have calmed down, so I am pretty convinced it is just the chemo for the most part causing the severe nausea for the 2 weeks following, but also from phlegm, radiation, meds, nerves, etc., as the nausea is continuing although not as bad 2 wks out from chemo. We are just trying to deal with it and move on, although that is easier to say this week since it (the nausea) has calmed down a bit - next week I will be frantic again, as third round of chemo is next Tuesday.

Anyway, thanks - it sure helps to know there are people out there to talk to about the 24-hour experience of cancer versus the text-book version.

Michele

Michele,

I did not mean to imply that your husband will feel worse after the end of the treatments. We belong to a local H/N cancer support group and we were happy to hear from some of the group members that they were able to go through chemoradiation and also managed to work at the same time. They also experienced few if any side effects during and or following the treatments.

Your right about the doctors. In our case the ENT other than saying that the last two weeks of radiation "would catch our attention" he never really said anything about the possible post-treatment health issue because he did not want to scare us away I believe. Likewise our Radiation Oncologist really did not go into issues relating to general patient health following the trteatments. I believe that their approach is to present a viewpoint that makes the treatments seem relatively easy to tolerate. We also got this viewpoint from our Chemo doctor.

In retrospect I feel that they may doing the right thing. If they were to present a different viewpoint that may scare some patients away and would then be doing a dis-service to them.
The doctors' objective is to restore the patient back to health. And I feel that they see some of these health effects (such as nausea and vomiting) as transitory which disapper wih time and they are not to overly concerned with them. For the patient though they more than an annoyance.

Finding the causea of the nausea seems near impossible. But there is a positive outlook in that it will go away with time.

Our ENT keeps telling us "it takes time". He does not say how much time because that is hard to predict. But he seems right from the experiences shared from forum members.

Vince

AngAk,

Thank you for the tip about the alcohol swabs. We will try it.

We have been told by doctors also to increase the number of daily feeding so to cut down on the amount per feeding. We found that this works sometimes and other times no matter the amount of feeding given there is immediate vomiting.

Some members have indicated to follow with the daily feeding regimen and than estimate the amount vomited and add this quantity to the daily dosage so that the patient receives the same amount of calories everyday.

Vince