Hi all --

We are chugging along -- Barry was somewhat more nauseous yesterday (after the amiphostine) -- kicked in later in the day -- just a bit queasy so he took some more compazine and sipped flat ginger ale. And ate lightly. I am going to try to find some ginger tablets as they work well for mild nausea without the side-effects of the other drugs. (I have some experience with this being a marine biologist by training and having to deal with students with sea-sickness -- if you want to talk about *nausea*!) -- it is also good to nibble on dry saltines -- of course this is out if someone has mouth sores -- to not let your stomach become empty nor over-full etc. Ginger ale (the real stuff with actual ginger in it) helps as well.

He is not sure how much of his nausea is the ethyol, how much the lingering chemo (although he is getting strong IV anti-emetic with his carboplatin and he's getting 6 small doses rather than 3 larger ones) and how much is due to having the PEG inserted Monday. He had his gall bladder out a few years ago and since then has found that his stomach is more sensitive to certain foods (esp. fatty foods) and more inclined to burp -- occasionally uses Prevacid for this -- and since the tube insertion has felt much more "gurpy."

I did have two questions -- any other tips for mild nausea and also, the relative effectiveness of Zofran, Anzemeb and Kytril? He doesn't have prescription coverage yet (on Medicare so their prescription coverage won't kick in until after his treatment is over) and we were a somewhat taken aback at the cost of these meds. Roche (Kytril) has a program for seniors on Medicare so if this works as well, we may contact them. We do have some Zofran for next week.

Well, a weekend off and a chance to catch up with all the garden chores -- miserably hot and humid (and polluted) so not anxious to go out!

Thanks to everyone for the encouraging thoughts,
Gail