What works for treating the nausea caused by pain meds?

Hi Lexi,

I have to use medications - but my nausea relates mostly to gastroparesis - delayed stomach emptying - rather than a direct effect of the opioids. I do try to limit use if I can - (cost if nothing else...works out at $8/wafer) but I use ondansetron when I really need, which in combo with lorazepam, apparently something they use in chemo patients, does help.

The reflux - I can well sympathise. I'm on pantoprazole, which reduces acid. I still 'reflux' but it doesn't burn like it used to.

Ginger can be good for helping nausea - ginger tea or dry ginger ale - you can also buy ginger capsules. I find that peppermint tea helps a little too - if I can keep it down. I actually have a tea blend here - I think it is peppermint, liquorice, and a few other herbs - called 'tummy tea' - that my Mum bought from a big tea shop for me.

I hope you find something. It's a horrid thing to deal with.

Laura

You can try Zophran, or phenegran but phenegran will make you sleepy. I hope you feel better!

I have a script for Zofran. Fortunately, I need it sparingly, but when I do take it, it helps and I experience no side effects.

It doesn't affect dizziness, or other related symptoms, but specifically nausea -- felling like you are going to vomit.

Zofran gives me muscle spasms and stiffness...which is partially why I need the pain meds in the first place, so I don't think adding to the problem is a good idea.

My Dr. knows how bad my nausea is, but there's not much we can do as I need to be on the pain meds in order to move, dress, shower, etc. With the muscle imbalance in my back, and the spasms everywhere and my hips dislocating it's just ridiculously painful if I don't take anything.

LexiRae I do hope you have been working with your Doctor on this problem, vomiting allot is not good for your throat or any of the tissues that connect the mouth with the stomach, and it can cause some severe problems. There are allot of new drugs on the market that they use on Chemo patients that help with nausea and vomiting, cancer patient have really bad problems with it because, most of them are on some pretty strong pain meds, and then add to it the chemo therapy! Anyway this has been along time ago, but  I know for some of the really difficult  cases, where nothing seemed to work to stop the nausea and vomiting, allot of the Onco Doctors would prescribe Dronabinol, and it had a pretty good success rate. It is by prescription only but you might want to look it up and then talk to your doctor about it.

Some people just have a difficult time with taking pain meds, my daughter is one of them,  but allot of the times it is just dose related and you need to be started off on a very low dose and then gradually increase the amount till you get to the effective dose. It doesn't sound like that would work your case but if they haven't tried it yet, it might be worth doing it. Just a thought???

I do hope you can get this resolved soon, keep on your Doctors to find a solution, as it is not just important to your physical health, but it must also be very difficult to cope with!

Good luck to  you!

White Beard 

I've already been on MS Contin, and every single pain medication I've EVER taken, no matter how low a dose or high a dose has made me feel nauseous.

So it's not that the Fentanyl is too high a dose...it's just that everything makes me feel sick. The purpose of the patch was to hopefully cause me LESS sickness and more pain relief, because it's not something I consumed that my body is trying to get rid of.

In terms of how I have been in the past, there is less vomiting (it used to be every day I was getting sick multiple times) now it's 3 or so times a week, BUT thats still not where I want to be.

So that's why I asked about alternative things for nausea other than meds, because the meds part I have covered with the promethazine (phenegren).

I cannot take the other antinausea meds used for cancer patients...either because they give me side effects such as muscle spasms (which is part of why I'm taking the pain meds) OR my insurance will not cover them and out of pocket I couldnt even afford a couple days worth, being on disability.

I've been experimenting with different pain meds to see what makes me less sick and I'll continue to do that but I'm just looking for some other possible helps.

Also, I'm on 10-325 when it comes to the percocet, so I'm on a low amount of the acetaminophen. But On my next visit I was planning on asking about being put on just straight oxycodone and see if that makes a difference.

Part of the problem is that I was born prematurely so I'm just sensitive to a lot of things.

Over the counter Dramamine (used for motion sickness) works well for me unless I have to take a stronger dose due to increased pain from being active. I have spinal Arachnoiditis and DDD in the lumbar and cervical spine and a few other things.
Hope this helps

While I was in the hospital a couple years ago for an esophagus tear they stopped very quick onset nausea with one of the alcohol swabs under my nose. That worked for severe quick nausea, but I don't believe this is what you are having.

Take care,
Bill