[rumnting]

Controlling nausea after stem cell transplant

by rumnting on Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:47 pm

My husband is 11 days post autologous stem cell transplant. He has been hospitalized for the last week because he is so nauseous that he can't take anything by mouth. His WBC has inched up to 0.5 today, so hopefully engraftment is starting. He is an otherwise healthy 55 year old. He is on all kinds of anti-nausea medications and today they added Marinol.

Can anyone recommend options for controlling the nausea beyond the Marinol?

My husband sleeps almost continuously, but if he's awake, he's wretching.

[Dr. Peter Voorhees]

Re: Controlling nausea after stem cell transplant

by Dr. Peter Voorhees on Thu Oct 20, 2011 6:04 am

Given how recent the transplant is, I am not surprised that nausea is still a factor. However, this does seem to be a more extreme case than we typically see. I would make sure that there are not any additional factors contributing to the problem. For example, is your husband on narcotic pain medications (e.g. morphine) to treat painful mouth sores? Sometimes people can get significant problems with nausea and vomiting with these medications. Certain antibiotics are also notorious for causing nausea, although not typically to this degree.

The good news is that this should get better very soon. I anticipate that symptoms will improve over the next week and beyond.

Hang in there!

Pete V.

[lys2012]

Re: Controlling nausea after stem cell transplant

by lys2012 on Thu Oct 20, 2011 11:00 pm

Hi sorry to hear about the nausea.

My hospital does transplants as inpatients so I was admitted for 14 days. I had a lot of nausea. It started about the third day and lasted util after I was discharged. I had a reaction to Maxoran (sp?) and the other drugs so I could only take gravol which is not the strongest drug. I had food aversion and trouble eating for at least a month. Also had moderate diarhea, that started at day 10 or so also. So not a good time for me!

One of the big issues I think was that I had moderate mucositis of my throat and tongue. as this improved so did my stomach issues. It just caused this horrible feeling in my throat that made me feel like being sick. The throat numbing mouthwash made it worse.

[rumnting]

Re: Controlling nausea after stem cell transplant

by rumnting on Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:48 pm

Day 14 . Still can't take anything by mouth. Not on Morphine, but antibiotics will continue another couple of days. Blood counts increasing nicely. Backing off on the anti-emetics because he was so out of it and having some hallucinations (especially on Marinol). Just have to wait it out and hope it passes soon. It really is miserable .

[formerradioperson]

Re: Controlling nausea after stem cell transplant

by formerradioperson on Mon Oct 24, 2011 7:39 pm

I completed a stem cell transplant at the Wesley hospital in Brisbane, Australia in 2003. Nausea was continuous until I came out of hospital after three weeks. I lost 19 kilograms in weight, a diet I certainly don't recommend ) While in hospital I found that the only 'food' I could keep down was a drink called Sustogen (chocolate flavour). But attempting to clean my teeth would bring on nausea yet again. Eventually things settled down and the best part was that the transplant gave me five years of steady multiple myeloma figures. In late 2008 the disease started to take off again. My oncologist prescribed Revlimid and I take a 25m capsule per day. As I was diagnosed in July 2000 I'm into my 11th year of survival and, at 73, I enjoy generally good health.

[NStewart]

Re: Controlling nausea after stem cell transplant

by NStewart on Thu Nov 03, 2011 2:24 pm

I had nausea starting some time 1 week after transplant that lasted for several weeks. None of the anti-nausea medications made any difference so I just stopped taking them. I never knew what was going to set me off other than smells and obviously food at the beginning. About 6 weeks post transplant it would happen 'just because'. It took me many months before I could eat just about anything that I wanted to eat. I still have problems even thinking about oranges. Tomato sauce on a pizza is still a problem, too. In the hospital I was able to keep down clear broth, tea and water.

I had my transplant 1/10.

Nancy in Phila

[bjtucker]

Re: Controlling nausea after stem cell transplant

by bjtucker on Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:07 pm

Just catching up so hopefully he is doing much better by now. After my transplant, we got ginger beer (non-alcoholic) in the health food section at the grocery and it helped me a lot. In fact I still use it when my stomach is bothering me. My daughter-in-law swears by ginger ale, but the ginger beer is more effective for me.

[bjtucker]

Re: Controlling nausea after stem cell transplant

by bjtucker on Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:13 pm

Also, my worse days were when I took the medications for nausea, and I found that sipping ginger ale did help those first days. As the days passed, rinsing with Listerine seemed to help my mouth and throat. L-Lysine also helps with the mouth sores.

[LuckyT]

Re: Controlling nausea after stem cell transplant

by LuckyT on Sat Nov 05, 2011 7:50 pm

I too suffered from nausea approx 5 days after transplant that lasted until 6 weeks later. I was not able to tolerate the thought of food and drank only tea with lots of sugar. Because of the preservative for the stem cells I just recently am able to tolerate the smell of garlic. I still have a problem with different textures of food. Bananas once my favorite I can no longer stand the way it feels in my mouth. I also love anything bitter ( also new) lemonade, limeade.. etc. and sweets..the sweeter the better

[rumnting]

Re: Controlling nausea after stem cell transplant

by rumnting on Sun Nov 06, 2011 7:28 pm

Thanks to all who responded. My husband is now day 30 post transplant. The nausea stayed pretty bad for about 3 weeks (was hospitalized because of it for 14 days). He is doing much better now - has some random nausea, but no vomitting. He is able to eat most food now, just in smaller portions.