Nausea vomiting 10 days post bmx

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Anniekay80
Anniekay80 Member Posts: 127
edited December 2015 in Surgery - Before, During, and After

Help. Waiting for Dr office to call back. Last night and again this morning I had nausea after eating then vomited an hour or so later. I was doing pretty well 10 days out from Bilateral mastectomy. Been taking Norco 10/325 every 4 hours or so for pain. No fever and drains came out yesterday. I only recently started to eat normally. I don't know where this came from but while vomiting is never fun, doing it when your whole chest is right with pain is a nightmare. I'm afraid to take pain meds now but I really need them. Until I hear from doctor any suggestions? Tums? Or stick with water. I seem to feel better after I vomit like the food is just sitting there and not digesting. Did I start eating normal food too soon? Before surgery I had/have appetite issues and usually only are dinner....I would forget to eat. Dr told me to eat at least 3 meals a day cause my body needs it to heal. I was forcing myself to eat small amounts of easy foods frequently since surgery and was doing okay...no nausea. Then yesterday I was starving and are a whole meal; 2 hours later I was vomiting. This morning felt okay so had some coffee then a breakfast sandwhich; about an hour later I vomited that up. I know I shouldn't take meds on empty stomach but am afraid to eat anything. Any suggestions?

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  • LisaAlissa
    LisaAlissa Member Posts: 1,092
    edited December 2015

    if you haven't been using cold packs on your chest, may I suggest them. 😊 Protect your skin with a tea towel, but it should make everything feel much better at least that was my experience after surgery.

    So sorry you're having so much trouble.

    LisaAlissa

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  • Queen_Celeste
    Queen_Celeste Member Posts: 68
    edited December 2015

    You might try holding a pillow against your chest if you have to vomit or cough.  Hope you feel better soon.

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  • macb04
    macb04 Member Posts: 1,433
    edited December 2015

    Anniekay80, I think what is going on is that you are having too large an amount of poorly digestible foods all at one go., you had a whole meal, then the next day you ate a whole sandwich.It sounds like your stomach might have shrunk from not eating much food over a long period of time. Also your gut motility/gastric emptying is severely slowed down by the Norco because it is a narcotic. I work in health care and see that all the time. Are you constipated as well?

    Try eating small meals, making sure you get some protein for healing with each meal. It doesn't matter if you spread your calories out throughout the day. Are you also getting enough liquids in each day. Remember, you can't take a large volume of either food or liquids in, so small amounts are key to decreasing or stopping the nausea and vomiting. Why not try a little scrambled eggs with a half slice of toast, and I mean small amount, like a few bites. then if that stays down, in a couple of hours have a little more food. You need to gradually increase the amount of food and liquids you take in, a little bit each day. Don't worry, this will get better, just takes some time. Could you try switching to Ibuprofen instead if the Norco some of the time? It is a well known fact that narcotics really mess up your gut motility.

    Also make sure you get a lot of Vitamin C, which is markedly decreased by surgery and is necessary for collagen formation and tissue strength.

    Are you taking antinausea medications? You can ask your doctor for antinausea med, I like Transcop Derm, it is a little patch you put on the back of your neck. Lasts up to 3 days and is used for Motion Sickness.

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  • Anniekay80
    Anniekay80 Member Posts: 127
    edited December 2015

    macb04 thank you so much for your advice. I will definitely try your suggestion. Before yesterday what you describe is how I was eating. I suddenly felt really hungry, so I are a big meal. I guess because I was feeling so much better earlier that day I thought it was okay. My body very clearly disagreed with me. My doc still hasn't called me back so I still have no nausea meds; I have an appt with him tomorrow. I was prescribed Motrin (ibuprofen) 800 mg to use q8h between doses of Norco. Up until the nausea I was taking both as prescribed. I stopped the Motrin because I thought it might cause stomach upset and just used the Norco twice. Motrin has upset my stomach on other occasions before surgery. I never knew that Norco could slow down digestion; if I had known before reading your post I would have used more care. A couple years ago during an upper endoscopy they told me I had gastric stasis but doctors never really followed up on that. Apparently during the UE they found the entire meal I had eaten more than 12 hours prior. Anyway I'll go back to easy to digest small amounts like I have done for years before I had my brilliant idea of eating normal. I am trying to drink water as much as possible especially since I am almost always chronically dehydrated....again similar to before surgery. Thank you again for responding. I made decisions so fast and everything moved so fast I didn't prepare nearly as much as I needed to. This surgery has been the hardest thing I've ever been through. The pain is beyond anything I imagined and I have dealt with chronic back pain for over 10 years. I thought I knew pain before my surgery......I didn't. My husband is taking good care of me 24/7. Luckily he was able to take a couple weeks off work; I dread when he has to go back. This has been a hard year for us already...husband had a heart attack, open heart surgery followed immediately by a strike. He spent July and part of August (a whole month) in the hospital; he was off work and worked hard for his almost 100% recovery for a total of 4 months before returning to work. Then I got my diagnosis. 2015 Will not go down as one of the best years of our 35 year marriage.

    So I will take your advice....hopefully stop vomiting after eating...and get something for the nausea from my PS tomorrow when I see him. I know I am really lucky since surgery is all I have to do as far as treatment so things could be worse. I guess this year just has worn me down and I haven't even begun the emotional part of all this......I keep shoving the emotion into a locked vault to be dealt with later.


    Thanks for the support! Right now I'm sure that God is carrying me through......cause those aren't my footprints in the sand.


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  • Anniekay80
    Anniekay80 Member Posts: 127
    edited December 2015

    Breast surgeon and plastic surgeon told me NO heat or cold on chest. I can't feel any of the skin in the entire surgical area. Guess that is why. Thanks for the support.

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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited December 2015

    Narcotics can cause nausea

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  • farmerlucy
    farmerlucy Member Posts: 3,985
    edited December 2015

    Care and recommendations are so different with each doc. My PS gave me these cool ice pack thingies at the mx and at the exchange and told me to use them (can't remember the instructions exactly.) Oh yes - those narcotics always caused me nausea. I switched to Tylenol as soon as possible but even it gave me nausea. My PS prescribed promethezine cream which we had to have compounded and put in syringes and I rubbed it on my hand when I had nausea. The last thing she wanted was for me to mess up her work!

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  • Anniekay80
    Anniekay80 Member Posts: 127
    edited January 2016

    PS appt tomorrow. His nurse was finally able to call me back and just told me to eat crackers, drink water and gatorade. When I see the PS tomorrow I'll ask for a prescription for the nausea cause you are right....the plastic surgeon's don't want us messing up their work. I'm grateful because it gets me the care I need, but am beginning to feel more like his "artwork in progress" than a person. I've decided to find this amusing, a nice positive emotion. Besides after the BMX and He placed the TE's no fluid was added until he is positive my skin remains viable. So...his "artwork" ain't too pretty right now......humorous really. Not that I care any more about how it looks or will look. My vanity was knocked clean out of me after the pain of surgery and all the various discomforts I've been through.

    Besides with my husbands love and support and my faith, I realize for me the only truly important thing now is health and life......everything else is frosting on the cake.

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  • macb04
    macb04 Member Posts: 1,433
    edited December 2015

    Anniekay80, glad they finally got back to you, I am not sure why they need to see you to prescribe an antinausea medication. I want to warn you that the slowing effect of the Norco on your gut motility will continue for several days after you finally stop taking it. Can you increase your exercise a little bit.? Increased exercise, even walking will speed up your gut, as will hot beverages. Make sure, like your nurse told you, to have water AND Gatorade, as having just water after a lot of vomiting will leave you electrolyte depleted. Try a Tummy Trouble Tea, available in several supermarkets, has several herbs that helphttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18403946

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3016669/

    Try getting some Ginger, scores of studies show that it is effective and safe (even given as a recommendation for nausea and vomiting in pregnancy) you could make a fresh ginger tea, or suck on ginger candy. Hope you feel better soon, just take it slow.

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  • Anniekay80
    Anniekay80 Member Posts: 127
    edited January 2016

    Thanks again everybody, especially you macb04. I didn't know it would take a few days for the Norco effect to diminish. Irony is I was on Norco about 6 weeks before my BMX cause I had trigger thumb surgery without any problems. In fact I had been on pain control for back pain for more than 10 years before all this including T4. All this was just managed by my primary care doc and time passed. It wasn't until I started this BC process and had to give lists of my current meds that I suddenly realized how very abnormal it is to use narcotics for so long. My biggest worry before bmx was that pain killers wouldn't work well for me because I had built up a tolerance.

    Now I know why I have gastric stasis. Now I know why my appetite was fIakey. I thought a lot of my issues were related to sedentary lifestyle, thyroid out of whack, smoking (which I quit in September), and general malaise/depression over my chronic back pain and migraines.

    So now my plan is to cut the narcotics out as soon as possible as much as possible. Right now that means none as long as I can stand it. I guess that's a new goal for me once I get through this BMX stuff.....how to manage the back pain in other ways besides a pilI. I need something for nausea cause I can't live on gatorade Vernors water crackers and yogurt.

    Also I know walking would help my gut, but PS wants me to rest rest rest. No arm exercises or anything else yet. But it only has been 13 days since surgery. We will see how it goes today.

    Thanks again everyone.

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  • macb04
    macb04 Member Posts: 1,433
    edited December 2015

    Hi Anniekay80, here are two nonnarcotic pain relief options that I know work well for some people with Chronic back pain. First would be a TENs unit. They used to be prescription only, now you can buy them over the counter for 25 to 50 dollars. They have reusable electrodes, nonadhesive, attached to a small battery operated device. They work on the Gate Theory of Pain, ie, that when your nerves are busy with a small,amount of intermittent electronic impulses, then they are too busy to carry pain impulses to your brain. They are usually programed for 20 to30 minute sessions, and are able to be worn whenyou move around. Can not be used over over an implanted electronic device like a pacemaker, but are ok near TE'S and silicone implants.

    The other option I was thinking of for you is a Lidocaine Patch. It is a prescription only items, but is used very commonly in Pain clinics for chronic pain issues, when they don't want to worry about narcotic addiction. Only drawback to Lidocaine patches is that some people are bothered by the adhesive of the patches. After seeing how long you said you have been on narcotics for pain, your story reminds me of a friend with a very similar situation. She found it very hard to stop the narcotics cold turkey, so she got her doctor to prescribe Gabapentin, which is good for chronic pain, nerve pain, ect, and weaned herself off of the narcotics slowly over a few weeks. She initially had some crazy doctor who was giving her Benzodiazepines like Xanax for her pain, wound up messed up and in drug rehab, so don't let anyone sucker you with a prescription for a benzo because they are easy to become addicted to and are really only meant to be used for short term anxiety.

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