Thank you @martid!
Nausea really is one of my biggest fears, so I'm glad to hear there's options for avoiding it. How are you feeling and doing with your treatment?

There are several different drugs available for nausea. Compazine gives me a headache, although it works well. Check into some of the natural controls; some may work for you. I learned to treat it like morning sickness; a little something in my tummy really helped. For me it was sesame stix; some do crackers - and ginger ale. Anything with ginger may help. They make a ginger candy that worked for me that I found at a health food store. My husband froze juices and then chipped up the ice and I was able t suck on that to avoid dehydration. Dehydration is a big problem during chemo - it was before and is now so I think it may be all of the chemo drugs, plus the process itself. One of the drugs I am n now causes extreme sensitivity to cold so I cannot do ice chips. I kind of stay on the edge of dehydration right now because of the back ground nausea. Just remember, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate - no matter what. If you get dehydrated it makes everything feel a whole lot worse - physically and mentally.

Once you start on the Herceptin/Perjetta only, you will probably feel a whole lot better, but that is a tough regime to start with. Communicate with your doctor and nurses and stay on top of everything. It is easy to think that feeling awful is obviously "normal" and just not say anything. For instance, you may be given steroid pills to take a few days before chemo and they may bother your stomach and esophagus. I was not forceful enough about how much they hurt and ended up with some damage to my esophagus. They were able to lower the dosage (better to be a bit more nauseous) which helped. Fortunately, this time I do not take oral steroids although I do get them be infusion on the day of chemo. A difficult part about this is doing a 48 hour pump which has to be carried in a fanny pack. It is supposed to be very effective though, so I am adjusting to it. Getting a stage IV diagnosis is tough and accepting the very real probability that one won't still be around in 5 years is tricky while still remaining positive. So far the emotional/mental factor has been the more difficult; I am fortunate that I do not have many physical complaints at this point.

Good luck! Keep that good attitude.

Hi @sheenah, I am a nurse and educator with Mayo Clinic Cancer Education Center. Your questions and concerns about chemotherapy are all very normal. I'm wondering how you are doing? I hope that you are not experiencing too many side effects. Most chemotherapy regimens include an anti-nausea medication to prevent it from the beginning. You might also have a prescription available for any breakthrough nausea. If one is not working well, let your team know...there are many to choose from. Anti-nausea drugs can cause constipation too, so keep this in mind...you may need to take miralax or something similar to counteract this effect. As others have mentioned, ginger can really help too. Also, once you have an idea on how you feel during and after chemotherapy, you will get to know when you feel better during the day. Take cues from your body and eat small meals when your appetite is good with little snacks in between. Stay well hydrated with water and juices and take short power naps throughout the day to keep your energy strong. I really like this resource for Nutrition from the NCI http://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/eatinghints.pdf. Keep us posted on how things are going.