Oral capecitabine and anti sickness medication

Hi Jdspin,

I have been on capecitabine for the last 5 months for advanced breast cancer. I may be unusual in that I have never needed anti sickness meds, other then that given as pre meds for iV chemo, for any treatment over the last 3.5 years. I get prescribed them, and there is a certain trepidation every time I start a new treatment as I wonder if I should take them. I know the general rule is that it is better to prevent nausea than to try to deal with it when it starts.  With capecitabine I have not had any nausea or bowel problems. My side effects are more to do with hand and foot soreness ( and watery eyes). Whatever you decide about the anti sickness meds, do make sure you have lots of good emollient creams in to deal with any hand and foot problems. Sadly we are all different and no one can advise you with certainty. If you do go with the antisickness meds, then I also recommend getting movicol or laxidol or similar, as anti sickness meds do tend to bring constipation with them - the joys of treatment, Good luck whatever.

Thanks for this advice, especially about the hand and foot problems.

I did 8 cycles of capacitabien, don’t recall having any issues with nausea or sickness, as your other response has said my biggest issue was hand and foot syndrome (I ended up losing all my fingerprints, three years later still haven’t any) so my advice for you would be to start taking care of your hands and feet’s now, I was recommended a product called udderly smooth moisturising cream. 
take care. 

Thanks for this advice. I have not been recommended udderly smooth but will get some to use.

Hi Jdspin.

I had 8 cycles of Capecitabine, I also had no problems with nausea but did get hand and foot syndrome. I was recommended Udderly Smooth cream as well, which you can only buy from Amazon. I found it to be really sloppy and ended up with more on the floor and on my bedding than my hands and feet. I then bought Dermalex Repair and Restore from Boots, which I found to be much better. I had my treatment for rectal cancer.

Good luck with your treatment.

Kim.

Thanks for this advice. I’m on my first cycle and so far have not had any nausea but my palms and soles of my feet are looking red so I will get some of the cream you’ve recommended.

1. Hi I started treatment today too. Nurse recommended anti sickness tablets for 3 days and then come off and see how you are. So trying that. Thanks for fans and foot advice. Dx

Hi I took anti sickness medication for the first 2 days and then stopped and have had no nausea so far, am now at the end of my first week. I’m looking out for signs of foot and hand problems though. Thanks for all the advice.

Just had a thought, if you put whichever cream you find most effective on at night put a pair of socks and gloves on over the top. Keeps the cream where it’s meant to be and to a degree saves your bed sheets. Hope you’re doing ok. X

Thanks for this advice which sounds sensible. Have just completed my second cycle and had foot problems towards the end, worse in the hot weather but I soaked my feet in cool water before using the cream and that seemed to help. Otherwise I’m doing OK so far.