Lenny is correct that Ativan is a mild sedative but it also helps with nausea and my feeling is if you're dealing with serious chemo nausea, don't worry so much about if it's addicting. My medical oncologist told me that most cancer patients who take potentially addictive things like pain meds and Ativan don't become really psychologically addicted--although they may become physically dependent and need to taper down before going all the way off. I know I went off the Ativan as soon as I could and never missed it after the worst nausea was over, but, in combination with other things, it was a godsend in helping me control all the nausea from the Amifostine,chemo and phlegm in my stomach during the last weeks of treatment.

They will probably give John an IV anti-nausea drug on the day of chemo--or maybe several. They gave me Anzemet and a steroid--and that will usually control nausea while the chemo is going in, the hard part becomes keeping the nausea under control after that wears off. The first time I tried with compazine, which didn't do much, then they gave me zofran and ativan and that combination worked decently, although I still got sick a few times.

Does John have a port? If he is going for lots of chemo sessions, I'd strongly recommend he get one--especailly if anyone has eveer said his veins were hard to find. It's a surgical procedure to insert one but is outpatient surgery usually and it made my life SO much easier when I had chemo(also if, God forbid, his red blood cells get low enough that they recommend a transfusion, he's all set up for that with a port).

Which reminds me, also ask about Procrit and the one that is supposed to help keep your white blood cell count up. They wouldn't give me procrit until my RBC had dropped severely after the first chemo--I don't know why since my understanding is that that almost always happens but maybe it was about insurance covering it or something and they never offered me the drug for helping with your white blood cells (Neulasta? I think?) --they did discuss it with me at the very end of rad when I was in the hospital with a really low white blood cell count, but they said I had enough signs of baby blood cells that would become white blood cells in 3 weeks that it probably wasn't necessary (since the medicine takes 3 weeks or so to regenerate white blood cells anyway). But it sounds like John's chemo might be more often than I had and lasting longer, so I'd definitely ask about it (they advertise it on TV all the time so I'm sure everyone asks about it).

As for eating, I think they did want me to have a little something in my stomach before the treatment then they may PUSH eating during the chemo infusion (which took several hours for me--and my impression is this is true most of the time) because it helps keep the nausea down to have something in your stomach. I don't know how John's eating will be after surgery but the medical oncologists's office where I had chemo had crackers, because of course those help with nausea, and juices and gingerale. But they recommended bringing somehting and I did both times (I had just finished fighting a urinary tract infection when I ahd teh second chemo and I was off of sugary drinks because of that and the mouth was definitely too sore for crackers!)

I hope this helps, Amy. I'm still sending wishes for speedy healing John's way.....

Nelie