Nelie,

You should try to drink a minimum of 72-80 oz.s of water a day but it will be difficult. The chemo nausea is a funny beast. The first chemo, Harry was so sick and vomitting violently. We gave him every med in the book and nothing would stop it. After a couple of weeks we were able to find a cocktail that worked for him. He has had 2 more chemo txs since then with no vomitting. The docs now pump him up before the chemo and they give a medication called Emend. That seems to be working well. He has one last chemo one week from monday and for the first time since he started this thing we have not had to give him any nausea meds for the last week.

Also, the radiation can do a number on your electolyte balance so try to drink as much gatorade as you can. It will really perk you up and as the chemo seems to take a lot of potassium and magnesium out of you it is an easy way to replenish these minerals.

Harry has been dehydrated badly twice now, despite my best efforts and the last time the doc said that sometimes it is just unavoidable.

To keep him from dehydrating now I have him on a 24 hour a day 100cc per hour IV drip that I run for him. He just cannot take enough in even with the PEG to keep his body happy so this works and keeps him out of the hospital.

For the dryness in the mouth, all of the advice we were given was drink, drink, drink.

Many people keep a bottle of water with them all of the time. I have yet to convince Harry to do that (not for lack of nagging of course) but many people say it helps.

I hope this is useful information for you.

Cindy