What's causing the vomiting?

Gary has been waking up and vomiting between 1:00 and 3:00 am for past five nights. He is well beyond the SE time frame from last chemo tx. And he also had a lot of fluid (2 liters) removed from his abdomen, which took off a lot of pressure. His appetite has been better than recent and he has been eating well.
At his last visit to onc he had low potassium and complained of reflux (likely from fluid pushing on his stomach). Dr started him on two new meds. Cytotec and Aldactone to deal with those two issues.
Quick Google search shows nausea and vomiting number 1 side effect of Cytotec, and possibly a serious side effect of Aldactone if there is too much potassium from meds working over time. He could also be throwing up from the mets in his liver.
Late this morning Gary was unable to keep down any of his breakfast and that bout wiped him out for the day. He has been able to drink enough ginger ale to stay hydrated.
Every time I call the Dr about something happening like this they want him to come in, and Gary is just fed up with being at the Dr office all the time. So there is my dilema. To call or not to call. That is the question

The SE of the medication is always the first thing anyone, including doctors would suspect. Especially, if the nausea correlated with starting of the new medication.

It is only my hunch - the medication has pushed him "over the edge" with already impaired liver, that may not be able to process the medication as it should, so the concentration of the medication in blood may be higher.

I see it in my dad, who also has leg edema and a fatty liver (no mets). He is simply more sensitive to medication-alcohol than he used to be. But he also has a duodenal ulcer, so we don´t know if it´s that, gastritis, fatty liver, or general burden of the PC disease on all of the above.

Hope you can relieve the symptoms. Nausea and vomitting are bad, bad thing, they wipe even the bravest souls out.

Much Aloha to you both.... it is literally the best I can do...

Thank you all for your helpful posts. I did call medonc today and got Gary some zofran. His vomiting has subsided, but little appetite today. Hopefully he will rebound over the weekend.
Beth

Hi Beth. Sorry about this complication. Unfortunately, interventions cause other interventions.
So if we go back a couple of steps, it's the night time reflux that perpetuated the need of an intervention?

Being a reflux sufferer, I can only tell you what I do to prevent night time reflux, and that is don't eat after 6pm or drink after 8pm. That works for me. Albeit, Gary's situation might be different, but in my case, it worked for me.

@Newton,
You have a good.memory. It has been the reflux that is causing issues, and I think that is due to.th ascites fluid mostly. Gary stopped.eating after 4:00 some time ago. His doc is so keen on the Cytotec and does not like zofran because it's effectiveness lessons over time. IMO it is time an so I'm giving it to him. I'm see in improvements today already!
@Susan It's always.Good.to hear from you an I'm sorry you are struggling right now. I hope it gets better!

Post Edited (celebrate life) : 5/29/2016 12:11:33 AM (GMT-6)