Reducing nausea on chemo day...

The longer one takes chemo, the worse the side effects are.  Seems unfair.  I've learned a few things about reducing chemo nausea that I would like to pass along.  

Water. I received advice from another myeloma patient to "hydrate, hydrate, hydrate," especially on chemo days. I always have trouble with this, for some reason.  Water helps flush chemo through one's system. On chemo days, especially, push yourself to drink a lot of water. 

Walk. The other advice that I received from the International Myeloma Foundation was to move after getting chemo, so that the chemicals move throughout my body and do not stay 'in one place.'  I take my chemo pills (Revlimid) each morning, so that I have the day to let them circulate while I walk around.  In the past I received my bi-weekly chemo shot (Velcade) in the morning so I had the day to walk thereafter and I always felt pretty good.  My main challenges were headaches and vision problems, until yesterday.

Yesterday I got my shot at 530 pm.  I woke up in the middle of the night feeling unbelievably sick, as if I had food poisoning.  I eat mostly vegetables so I felt pretty sure that I did not have food poisoning, then I tasted the Velcade in my mouth.  Because I got my shot so late, I probably did not walk enough thereafter and I certainly did not drink enough.  I drank a lot of water at 4 40 am and it helped a bit. 

There is nothing fun about chemo, but if you can walk for at least half an hour after getting your shot or drip, it may make you feel a lot better.  If you can drink a gallon of water, thereafter, hopefully nausea won't interrupt your life.  If you still feel sick after walking and drinking, Zofran will surely help.  I'm sorry this is happening. 

Walk. Drink water.  Love deeply.  


https://packageinserts.bms.com/medguide/medguide_revlimid.pdf

https://www.velcade.com/side-effects/

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