Nausea, vomiting, and ER visits
Well... It's been a rough few weeks, which is why I've struggled to keep up on the blog lately. Going back to the last couple days of June, I've really struggled with nausea and vomiting. For about five days prior to my arm surgery I didn't eat much. On Saturday June 29th, the vomiting began. I threw up a good 7 times that day. Then, on Sunday, I threw up another 9 times. Fortunately, come Monday the vomiting slowed down big time. I think I only threw up once that day. By the time Tuesday rolled around, the vomiting had stopped. Just in time for surgery!
I was hoping I was done with the vomiting, and fortunately for the duration of my hospital stay there wasn't any vomiting. However, when we returned home, the vomiting started back up on Sunday. Not only did it start back up, but it was to the point that it wasn't stopping. I was becoming very fatigued and was having a hard time standing up on my own. At about 1:00 am on Monday, July 8th I was admitted to the ER. They did their usual thing and got things under control...at least for the time being. I was able to make it through Monday without throwing up, but I threw up early on Tuesday. We contacted my oncologist and an appointment was scheduled for me up at the Acute Care Clinic at Huntsman. So, we jumped in the car and headed up north.
Once we got there, I met with a nurse and had some tests done, including an x-ray to check for a blockage. Luckily, no blockage. Unfortunately, there was no definitive decision on what was causing the nausea and vomiting. They did give me some medications to hopefully help, which they did for a few days. But, once again, come the weekend I started throwing up again. There was some concern that I may be having a reaction to the immunotherapy, so my nurse wanted me to come back in to the acute care for a brain scan and some additional testing. So...we drove back up to the acute care clinic last week to see if we could figure out what was going on. Once there, nothing happened. They helped me with the nausea and tweaked my meds, but that was it. No scans... No tests... Nothing. It was somewhat frustrating believing that this appointment was going to do some digging, but we were basically in the same spot we'd been. Fortunately, though the tweaking in medications has seemed to help. I've only thrown up once since going back and I believe I know the cause of that. Anyway... the nausea and vomiting has improved. Thank heavens!
My radiation oncologist believes that the nausea may be caused from swelling tumors in my brain. Immunotherapy can fight tumors in the brain and, as a natural consequence of that, the tumors swell. This swelling can lead to nausea and vomiting. So...while it's unpleasant, we're hoping that's what's going on. It could also be that this is a simple side effect of the immunotherapy drugs. Which hopefully stops once I'm off the combo drugs and down to just one drug. Only time will tell! Until then, I'll enjoy eating while I can! haha
One item of note that was neat... The first visit to the acute care clinic ended with a nice little present! A lady who worked for Huntsman donates quilts every year in memory of her daughter who passed away I believe 5 years ago. I was fortunate enough to be the recipient of one of those quilts! Naturally, I went with the math quilt!
I was hoping I was done with the vomiting, and fortunately for the duration of my hospital stay there wasn't any vomiting. However, when we returned home, the vomiting started back up on Sunday. Not only did it start back up, but it was to the point that it wasn't stopping. I was becoming very fatigued and was having a hard time standing up on my own. At about 1:00 am on Monday, July 8th I was admitted to the ER. They did their usual thing and got things under control...at least for the time being. I was able to make it through Monday without throwing up, but I threw up early on Tuesday. We contacted my oncologist and an appointment was scheduled for me up at the Acute Care Clinic at Huntsman. So, we jumped in the car and headed up north.
Once we got there, I met with a nurse and had some tests done, including an x-ray to check for a blockage. Luckily, no blockage. Unfortunately, there was no definitive decision on what was causing the nausea and vomiting. They did give me some medications to hopefully help, which they did for a few days. But, once again, come the weekend I started throwing up again. There was some concern that I may be having a reaction to the immunotherapy, so my nurse wanted me to come back in to the acute care for a brain scan and some additional testing. So...we drove back up to the acute care clinic last week to see if we could figure out what was going on. Once there, nothing happened. They helped me with the nausea and tweaked my meds, but that was it. No scans... No tests... Nothing. It was somewhat frustrating believing that this appointment was going to do some digging, but we were basically in the same spot we'd been. Fortunately, though the tweaking in medications has seemed to help. I've only thrown up once since going back and I believe I know the cause of that. Anyway... the nausea and vomiting has improved. Thank heavens!
My radiation oncologist believes that the nausea may be caused from swelling tumors in my brain. Immunotherapy can fight tumors in the brain and, as a natural consequence of that, the tumors swell. This swelling can lead to nausea and vomiting. So...while it's unpleasant, we're hoping that's what's going on. It could also be that this is a simple side effect of the immunotherapy drugs. Which hopefully stops once I'm off the combo drugs and down to just one drug. Only time will tell! Until then, I'll enjoy eating while I can! haha
One item of note that was neat... The first visit to the acute care clinic ended with a nice little present! A lady who worked for Huntsman donates quilts every year in memory of her daughter who passed away I believe 5 years ago. I was fortunate enough to be the recipient of one of those quilts! Naturally, I went with the math quilt!
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