Heart Burn and Nausea with Ratiation Treatments

MarieK

Into my second week of radiation I felt a tightness in my chest.  It was heartburn and the rad onc recognized it immediately and prescribed Zantac for me.

Alcie1

My rad onc said I shouldn't be having nausea unless the stomach was in the field.  I got him to look at the "plan" and sure enough there it was - fundus of the stomach getting 65 grays.  But my rads were on the left side, not the right.  I suppose you could get the stomach zapped if the beam was coming across the body.  Ask to see the pictures.

You also might get nausea if something like the gallbladder (on the right) is getting zapped, or maybe even if your blood counts are off.

I took Zofran which worked like a charm.  BUT I got seratonin syndrome symptoms when I took it with my painkiller (tramadol) for fibromyalgia.  I had to make sure not to take the two together.

Rads also gave me axillary web syndrome (aka "cording").  Getting enough vitamin D is helping that some.  (For every 1ng/mL you are short you need to add100 units of D to your current dose.  For my level of 18 I had to add 3000 units to get to 48.  50 to 80 is the new "normal.")