Anti-nausea combinations for EC

With the exception of the vitamin d, I had this combination of anti sick drugs . Made sure you keep note of side effects and let your team know. Dont be a martyr there is no need 

Londonmumof2

Wow, you seem to have been prescribed the whole bank of antisickness!!! With all that on board, you SHOULD get off okay. I say should as some people seem to get the sickness whatever they try! 

My unit prescribes the dexamethasone (steroid) as standard for the chemos - they do help with sickness, but also with reducing the likelihood of allergic reactions. 

They tend to give metachlopromide for the more mildly sicky chemos and ondansetron (IV initially, then tablets for up to 3 days) for the more sicky ones. I can't take metachlopromide as it just makes me fall asleep, so I have ondansetron as standard. My oncologist knows that I don't do sickness/nausea, so he prescribes it for me for even less sicky chemos, although only for the first 24 hours. 

Emend seems to be the gold standard (or was when I did my FEC in 2014), but there are probably others that are even better now! I've never had to have it. I've never had domperidone either, but it always reminds me of Dom Perignon! 

As for the vitamin D, I've never had it prescribed by the chemo team apart from in the Adcal tablets (calcium and Vit D) that I take for bones after the denosumab injections. However, I was low in Vit D before the cancer, so do take a supplement anyway. It was prescribed by the GP, but they've recently changed that as it is so cheap to buy over the counter. 

Hope you're doing okay and aren't rattling! Make sure you keep fluids up and get plenty of roughage - quite a few of the antisickness tablets can cause constipation! 

Hi London mum, 

Weeblemum has given  you a good break down of the sickness drugs. Emend, as she says, is very highly rated and very expensive. I take domperidone for vertigo related problems. It is very efficient although for me it works by making me sleep and when I wake the nausea has passed.

The problem you have is decide whether you try chemo 1 using mild sickness pills to see how you react and then change it if necessary next time or take the strongest.....the Emend....from the start. As I was prone to sickness from the vertigo,  I was advised to start the Emend prior to the chemo dose.Unfortunately for me nothing worked......I won't  go into details.....but I know the Emend worked really well for others

When  does your chemo start? I hope it goes well. Mine was in 2016 and I was lucky my hospital uses a port as standard and I had a free taxi so no driving to worry about and the actual session was pain free and easy. We don't  talk about what happened  after I got home and for most of the next three weeks but eventually after two low white cell delays, it was over and here I am writing to you three years later.

Take care. Let us know how it all goes.....Emend and all!

Love Karen

Wow! Do you rattle when you walk now?  More to the point - are they working?

I was only given Dex and Granisteron for 3 days and Metoclopramide for 5

They seem to be working as apart from feeling slightly under ther weather for an hour or two today I  felt ok. I've been peeing a lot (every 30 minutes!) these last few hours aftet taking my DeX, and had an upset tummy, so I called the out of hours number and was told unless my temperature or pain spike to get it checked tomorrow morning , My hospital is registered to dispense Nabolone (synthetic THC) if the usual ones don't work,  so my chances of redefining 'chemo-brain'  have gone since these tablets are working!

Two days down and it's bearable so far.  

Just worked out the reason for vitamin D.

vitamindwiki.com/Chemotherapy drugs often reduce Vitamin D levels, restoring levels helps– Aug 2018

Hi Londonmumof2,

Came home after 1st treatment today with very similar haul of goodies (or should that be badies?)

Emend capsules

Ondansetron 

Dexanethasone

Metoclopramide (to take after Ondansetron if still feeling sick/vomiting)

and Filgrastim to inject for 5 days from day 2 (that is going to be fun as I can't watch needles going in)

On the plus side I got through in just over 2 hours and went straight to garden centre for tea and cake!  Also managed a sandwich at lunch time but feeling a bit spaced out and nauseous.  My son went with me but has to go home later because of work so will be on my own tonight - bit nervous.  Found the vitamin D article interesting - already take because I was told I probably have osteoporosis when I fractured my right wrist at the end of last year.  Glad you meds are working - would love to see the hair cut!

Thanks for ther update.  It sounds like it went really well and you sound relaxed.  Fingers crossed that you have an easy time now until at least next week. I used to love having lunch at our local garden centre as they had ther best carrot cake for dessert:)

I've been  in a&e all afternoon as my face flushed red at lunchtime with a temperature spike of 38.3, which proved to bounce over the next four hours from 37.8- 38.5! I also felt like I'd a vice on my head. All bloods and pee normal,  so we think it's the steroids doing it,  but the pharmacist will call me tomorrow.  

My head is still itchy which doesn't bode well for hair loss using thr cold cap,  but one bonus of going to Breast Clinic at ther end of ther day is chatting to ther other women,  one of whom only lost a little with the EC, and it stayed growing back for her when she was on the T. 

Have a lovely evening! X

Sorry to hear you had to go to a&e today - lets hope it will prove to be something and nothing.  Am feeling much better about going to hospital for treatment now as it was not traumatic at all despite my fears.  Only picking at food this evening - glass of lemonade and a pot of fruit yogurt but not feeling too bad. Managed to walk Monty (mad dog) around the block for a quick walk this evening but feeling quite tired now and mouth still feeling odd so may try taking temperature later.  Gardeners World on at 9 so may have to try to stay awake for my fix of Monty Don!

Fingers crossed the head will ease up soon! xx