Vomitting.......causes and remedies

Sara,

My Mike has his 1 year post transplant anniversary tomorrow..no more itching, no nausea and vomiting, no swollen belly or legs. He's not perfect, but a successful transplant is a miracle.

I hope your mother's call comes quickly. Today actually is the anniversary of "the call." And we are a little emotional today.

I am sorry to say, Mike often had nausea and vomiting. He ate the simplest of meals towards TX day. Soups, jello, canned and fresh fruit (but canned tasted better to him then), puddings, sherbert but not too flavorful. He didn't enjoy spices at all...just plain. And toast with jelly. Like a person with a 24 hour virus...every day. I got him to take an ensure every day, sometimes twice a day and that kept more nutrition in him. He dropped from over 200 lbs to 154. Now he is getting chubby again and has himself on a diet.

Others have had good luck with creams for itching.

Mike's first Hep doc gave him an RX for Cholestyramine about 9 years before his transplant and he used it after meals for all that time. It is a powder you mix in water or juice and it does something to rebalance the bile acids...though I don't know how that works really. But Mike was scratching himself in his sleep and bleeding from where he'd scratch his arms. Ick. That stopped. The quit the cholestyramine on TX day. Woo Hoo.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/drug-information/DR601905

Check it out.

BTW, some folks say they hate the taste of the powder. Mike figured three seconds to drink his "tang" (cause that's how it looks) was better than the scratching! Ask the doc if it can be used in your case.

At the top of this forum there is a SEARCH bar. Click on it and put in any key word and old posts come up.that is why the title is so important, so our members can look what others have said on a particular topic.

Mike got on a list in February 2011, they found a 2 cm tumor that same month and gave him extra UNOS points. He got the liver May 1, 2011. Three full months of waiting...but really it was 9 months because he needed to be 6 months sober. He quit drinking in September, but didn't start in AA til November 1st. So NOV, DEC, JAN, FEB, MAR, APR...he made it to TX day just in time.

She is going in to the ER tomorrow for another paracentesis. I'll have her ask the doc about an itching prescription. Thanks for your suggestions!

I am also going to try to get her on some Ensure. She is eating very little. When she first went to the hospital the day before Thanksgiving she weighed in at 260, but that was with a belly filled with ascitic fluid. Now, immediately post-paracentesis she is down to 209. That is a lot of weight lost. She has not been this close to 200 pounds in all the years I've been alive. She may even get below 200 before her liver comes. That would at least be a positive for her, no matter how she got there.

Thanks again....have a great night!

Sara