How can I combat nausea?

Nausea and vomiting occur most commonly after chemotherapy and sometimes radiation therapy, too.  Different types of treatment can cause different amounts of nausea.  Some chemotherapy drugs (like Cisplatin) can cause a lot of nausea, while others (like Vincristine) may not cause any. 

Each patient has a different strategy for dealing with his or her nausea.  If a chemotherapy drug is known to be highly emetogenic (cause a lot of vomiting), then usually your doctor will give you a medicine beforehand to try to prevent your nausea.  There are many different types of medicine to help prevent nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy, and new ones are being made all of the time!  Each of these anti-nausea medicines works in a different way.  One of the most popular ones today is called Zofran (this works on the vomiting center in the brain to try to prevent you from feeling nausea).  Many patients have a lot of success with Zofran.  Another drug commonly used is, believe it or not, Benadryl.  This helps many patients, and has the advantage of making you sleepy as well (so you don't have to be awake to experience your nausea).  A brand new anti-nausea drug is called Aprepitant, this one is very expensive and so only used with the drugs known to cause a lot of vomiting.  Some doctors will even give several doses of Dexamethasone (a steroid) in a row to help their patients with nausea. 

There are also other techniques to help cope with nausea like eating non-spicy foods, eating smaller, more frequent portions (as opposed to eating large meals that might make you feel bloated and want to throw up), or even smelling soothing aromas.  Each person learns their own techniques that work.

Unfortunately, some patients develop anticipatory nausea and end up vomiting even when they just think about coming to the clinic or hospital for their chemotherapy.  This usually goes away with time (after the treatment ends), and sometimes an anti-anxiety medicine can help with this type of nausea and vomiting.  This type of vomiting is very common.   

It is a good idea to ask other patients what works best for them, and to try various ideas to see what will work best for you.  If one medicine your doctor gives you doesn't work, always remember to ask your doctor for another.  It's impossible to completely prevent the nausea of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, but we certainly have medicines to help make it better.  (And remember to always ask your doctor before trying a medicine that he or she didn't recommend because you don't want to interfere with the chemotherapy from working!