Nausea with radiation therapy

I had both, but come to find out it was due to a malfunctioning gallbladder. Let your care team know so they can keep tabs on you. Good luck!

Rads can cause nausea. You also mentioned headaches...they can also cause nausea. Zofran is great for nausea relief. Also, don’t eat/drink anything highly acidic like orange juice, lemonade, grapefruit, tomato juice, spaghetti, etc before rads treatment. Bad combination with rads for sure.

They told me it does happen, as does an increase in acid reflux.  It's the blasted position.  Lying flat on your back with your arms over your head kind of stretches the esophagus and, I think, whatever is connected to that.  In my case, it was acid reflux that was bothersome, so my RO's answer only went as far south as the valve that connects the esophagus and stomach.  I managed it by taking a Tums before treatment..

Also contributing to nausea and headaches is, of course, stress.  Some of us (me, for instance) experience greater stress during rads.  

The radiology department knows exactly where the beam goes, and the stomach is way out of its range.

Do take advantage of your weekly visit with your RO, or, if you want a rightaway answer, ask to speak with whichever RO is seeing patients that day.  They can answer any questions and perhaps prescribe an anti-nausea med.

I don’t think my nausea was reflux. Radiation is toxic. I was never nauseus before radiation.

Sorry, Marijen.  I responded to your post assuming it had come from Tess1962.  I know you're not new to all this.  I hope your nausea went away and stayed away?

My MO said the nausea during radiation is caused from scatter towards the esophagus. She offered me medication (which I didn't need because it was slight, like really mild morning sickness), whereas the RO denied the possibility and wanted to send me to GI.

Sorry that happened. I am not surprised. My RO was like that too, apparently according to them radiation is the one medical treatment that has no side effects, lol. They drove me crazy with all that. It's like they teach them to deny absolutely everything.

I also would get a minor scratchy throat, about mid afternoon on treatment days, it would be better by the morning and then return (my treatment was late morning before lunch). Fine over the weekend. I told the nurse and she said it was impossible for radiation to cause that, and I must have the flu. This was like three weeks in. I had to ask, really? I get the flu every afternoon? And then it gets better? With no fever or any other upper respiratory side effects? Morons.

I do hope you feel better and the nausea eases quickly for you!

I had radiation on entire rightbreast and finished a week before Christmas. I'm also on Tamoxifen. I began getting bad headaches and insomnia immediately. A low dose of Neurontin helped. I've been getting very nauseous and feel weak. Oncologists insists that neither radiation nor Tamoxifen could cause my symptoms and it is all in my head. I wake up with bad taste in my mouth and dry mouth. Has anyone experienced anything similar? I didn't have chemo because of low oncotype