I know people have horrible nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy. What can be done to help me with that?

It is true that chemotherapy medicines can cause nausea and vomiting. There have been many advances in this area. The newer medicines cause less nausea and vomiting than some of the older medicines. There are also medications to treat nausea and vomiting that are very, very much better than older medications. You will probably be given medication right before treatment starts to prevent nausea from developing. The exact way your chemotherapy will be handled depends on what you are getting and how you are feeling.

Each person is different. There are multiple medicines to treat nausea and vomiting. You need to tell you doctor and the people administering the chemotherapy how you are feeling so they can adjust or change your medicines if needed.

They will also give you lots of fluid by vein, so you don’t get dehydrated. This is especially true if one of your chemotherapy medications is cisplatin or a related agent. These can cause kidney damage if there is not enough fluid in your system, so they will give you lots of intravenous fluid to prevent that complication.

If you wind up experiencing the nausea later, at home, you need to call and get medication (if they didn’t send you home with any) and you need to continue to try and drink fluids. If you get dehydrated, you will have to go back for more intravenous fluids.

At home, if you have lingering nausea, try and eat small amounts of bland food frequently. Do not try and eat large meals. Stay away from anything very spicy or with very strong odors. If you are feeling really nauseated, try to eat crackers or other very bland food. You need to drink, but drink fluids slowly and frequently. Many patients say it is easier if food and fluids are at room temperature, but of course everyone is different.

It should be mentioned that depending on where you live, you may have access to medical marijuana. It has been shown to be useful in reducing the nausea and vomiting of chemotherapy.

This may or may not be something you want to try.