nausea and headaches

[Willfightit]

Took 6th shoot last night.  1st 5 weeks were not too bad; however, I am now starting to experience terrible nausea.  My appetite and sense of tast is just about gone.  Foods have a very nasty taste.  I have been constantly drinking a lot of water, but am starting to get these excruciating headaches.  Platelets took a nose drive from 168 to 107 in 2 weeks; WRC 2.5; neutrophils 25; Hemoglobin 12.4-11/11/07.  Any advice and suggestions on dealing with the nausea?

[Willfightit]

Thanks for all the advice.  It has been helpful to me.  I have also found that sugar intake can also induce the headaches.  I can deal with the headaches, but the nausea is of great concern.  I can't afford to not eat and lose weight.  The nausea has fluctuated day to day.  I have also noticed that salt and processed foods are very nasty to me.  It is a great comfort to me that I can come to this forum and people are eager to help.  I greatly appreciate how Trish has embraced and welcomed me to the forum.  Again, thank you for the advice and information.

[Robin_Fla]

Regular gingerale is ok but a good one like Reeds really works wonders. It has a lot of ginger root in it. I take capsules also which are great.

As for the headaches, I have always had the occasional migraine but several weeks into tx, they got much worse. I read some fine print in the Pegasys literature that said to avoid aspartame. As soon as I stopped drinking all diet drinks and using nutrasweet in my coffee, the headaches quit. I also upped my water intake (although I thought I was drinking a lot already) and that helped with both. The second I felt an ache coming on, I would drink a vat of water and lo, it responded quickly.

Hope you're better soon - the sx often change with time so hang in there!

Robin_Fla

[alagirl]

dr. prescribed vistaril for me tonight, we'll see how it works.  I'll let you know if its any better than the others I've been using.

[wyntre9]

I've suffered through a 2 week stint of late onset nausea and it isn;t fun

Never had that sx during the first 11 months so it seems strange it's  bothering me now.

wyn

[alagirl]

I've had unremitting nausea the entire time unfortunately.  I trade off between zofran 8mg sublingual (I dissolve it under my tongue in the mornings just so I can get my morning riba down with some milk or other fatty food) and then use phenergan pretty much during the day.

I get migraines anyway, but they have been much worse since the combo tx started and FAR worse since my epogen has been upped to 80,000 units per week.  My body in terms of bones and joints and my head all hurt constantly.  And my skin literally crawls in my arms and legs.  It's not a very comfortable tx for me, but I try to remember that there are children going through cancer treatments that have it worse than I do.  Then I apologize to the universe at large for being the hugest weenie baby.  For lo I am a whiner...

[Trish77]

Hi Will, I have been wondering how you're doing.  I'm sorry that the sides are starting to kick in or so it seems.  Hopefully you find some relief from the headaches.  I could take alot of things but headaches were, well, a pain.  Good luck with that and hopefully one of the pieces of advice will help you.

Take care and thinking of you.

Trish

[charm27]

hoping you feel better soon. Hopefully pills & gingerale will help it subside .

Charm

[FloridaMouse]

Yeppers, I had the persistent nausea too.  (Lost 40 lbs).  Like Granny up there, I go an rx for the nausea.  My doc gave me a child's dose of Phenegran so I could take anywhere from half a pill to 2 pills.  That way I got to somewhat control how drowsy I got.   Only problem with Phenegran is if your liver is decompensated you can't take it.

Mouse

[GrandmaA]

Sorry to hear you are having a rough time. I had trouble with the nausea also and the doctor gave me a prescription. Also, be sure to take fat with the ribavirin. I used to take 8 or 9 almonds in the morning before my capsules and ice cream after dinner. I lost 17 lbs. Yes, I also lost my appetite and things tasted funny for awhile. I also lost half my hair.  I only had a headache once when I didn't drink enough water, it lasted all night. Best wishes to you. Take good care.

[me4u38967]

Try ginger ale for the nausea, tylenol for headache also I lay in a quiet dark room when I get a bad headache. You said you have been drinking enough water make sure of that!