They must have some "secret" even Medimmune doesn't know about! The Medimmune Ethyol booklet specifically directs patients to take an anti-emetic 90 minutes before the two injections, and also, to drink 20-32 oz. of water within the same time period. My husband diligently followed these guidelines. Hopkins also gives the amifostine in 2 sub-cu injections, one in each arm, 500 mg total in sterile saline, and although he did manage to take the drug all the way through, the had him skip chemo days (due to chance of nausea) and also, towards the end of treatment, he missed 2 Fridays -- also due to nausea. It may depend on what chemo you are getting, but he had 7 very low doses of a relatively low-toxicity drug (carboplatin) -- we observed that the folks who were getting cisplatin had even more problems with amifostine than he did.

Make sure you are taking a serious anti-nausea drug (Barry took Zofran) and drink that water!

Barry tells everyone taking the Ethyol was the hardest part of the treatment for him, BUT well worth it as he has good salivary function and also, he had less mucositis and was able to eat all the way through. Our RO nurse says she's observed that her patients who took Ethyol all the way generally have less mucositis -- although there is little clinical data to support this anecdotal report.

Gail