Hello Friends,

My husband completed 12 Rads yesterday and we saw our Oncologist who prescribed Fetanyl for his pain (Husband has been in big pain with tongue sores and not being able to eat/drink much) Anyways. he applied the patch last night about 5PM... Today he has gotten sick 4 to 5 times whenever he tries to even sip a glass of water.. I called our Doc who is going to contact the pharmacy to get us an anti nausea med, but was wondering about your experience? How soon before he could become dehydrated?? We are going into the weekend and a little nervous about that! Thanks so much!

Ron never got sick from the meds or radiation. But he has had nausea but he just would go to sleep whenever he didn't feel good. He had that Fetanyl in the hospital after his surgery in the Stepdown Unit. when he came home he got Riocet liquid form of course and Vicodin or Percosets for pain. He now goes to pain management and is still getting Vicodin but they gave him Lyrica and he's afraid to use it because of all the "bad shit" they say can happen to you. Yesterda the pain management doc told him they want him to start taking it. I've heard nothing but bad about it from people and I told him no(heard stories bout very bad anger issues)i don't need to fight with him anymore than we do and he told me he won't tell me when he does take them. I told him if I notice a difference in temperment he better let me know if he started taking them. He's supposed to take at night so when he wakes up he's not in so much pain. In the am his mouth swells up and his lips. Does this happen to anybody else? Of course his mouth is dry also. He looks like hell in the morning and when he talks it is like he has a mouth full mush.

Hi JDR

sorry to hear about your husband, but what you describe sounds pretty much like what happened to us. We had chemo with our radiation which would have made Alex sicker than just radiation (more nausea and ulcers) but because of this, we were given anti-nausea medication up front. Even so, Alex still threw up on occasion. There was so much going on, that we never did figure out whether is was meds, radiation, chemo, cancer or even stress that caused it.

It also sounds like you have done exactly the right thing by calling the doctor. Your doctor would have immediately considered dehydration as a side effect of your husbands nausea which would be why he immediately recommended anti-nausea medication.

Try not to worry too much, you are actually under control and doing all the right things - just don't wait too long in getting the anti-nausea meds into your husband (and don't forget if he is vomiting water he won't be able to keep pills down either so you need injection or patch). Dehydration in a normal adult would not do serious damage over a weekend but you need to consider how thin or sick your husband is and your doctor is best placed to determnine this.

FYI - dehydration is not uncommon in your situation but it doesn't help with how ill the person feels or how fast they bounce back. We actually found that if Alex kept his liquid intake up, he felt better and seemed to cope better with side effects.

Can your husband maybe tolerate some other liquid? Maybe something with a tiny bit of sugar and fizz in it?

good luck, you are doing everything right.

Hi Suez
I understand that you don't want any more anger than you already have but the doctor has recommended it knowing the possible side effect.

It is a fact of life that people only talk about the bad things about drugs but we need to keep it in perspective. Of the 100 people that take Lyrica maybe only 1 will have an anger reaction. Unfortunately that is the patient you hear about as the other 99 who don't have problems say nothing. You are much more likely to have issues with confusion and "feeling weird" than anger.

Have you or your husband explained to the doctor why he doesn't want to take the Lyrica? Maybe once the doc understands your fear he will give you something else?

THANK YOU for the quick response! I was able to pick up the prescription for the anti nausea and he was able to take it (around 4PM) and hasn't been sick since.. He is sipping water and even had a "couple" bites of dinner... WHEW! OK now back to worrying about keeping him hydrated with calories and protein!

The nausea made all my other jobs as a CG, impossible, so I am praying THAT doesn't happen again!

He was actually getting sick at the Radiation Appt today and we were both concerned that it would mess with his treatment. Thank God he was able to keep that mouth piece in and the mask on with no nausea problems on the table.

Thanks again for calming me down. Can't WAIT to fast forward to 2011!!! :-)

Hi JDR,

I'm 8weeks out of radiation and chemo and was on 50 Fetanyl patch. They do their job in pain maintenance but just remember to wean of them slowly as I'm having really bad withdrawal symptoms at the moment.

Minh

JDR,

Get him started on Carnation Instant Breakfast VHC which has a whopping 560 calories in the small 8 oz can. You must either get it over the internet or a faster and sometimes cheaper way is to order it thru the pharm dept at Walgreens or CVS. No prescrip needed. I lived on that stuff well into my 2nd year POST Tx.

Nausea can be triggered by many things assoc with this Tx including dehydration, constipation, chemo, rad, pain meds and even anti nausea meds. Keep on top of as many of these and let's hope you can control it.

Hi David, I DID buy a case of the Carnation.. He complains that it is "too thick" I have tried watering it down with milk but he still complains... UGH.. Very stressful trying to get someone to eat and drink! I find myself making "Deals" with him all the time!

Minh,
Sorry about your withdrawl symptoms, hope it resolves soon.

JDR - in case it might help, there are acupressure pressure points for relieving nausea. If you Google acupressure + nausea, you'll get a whole bunch of ideas and even a video on it.