How to help a cancer patient undergoing treatment with nutrition?

Hello @mh2023 and welcome. My understanding is the Chemo sickness is only a few hours to a few days where as the radiation sickness can be steady with increases roughly six hours after each treatment. There are anti-nausea meds that the oncologist can prescribe and quite possibly several might need to be tried before you hit on one that works well. Then the trick is to eat what you can, be it scrambled eggs and toast or custard or oatmeal, whatever works and as much as can be tolerated. Many of us have had to have a feeding tube or PEG tube installed to get adequate nutrition. I for one was on some heavy meds for the last three weeks of radiation and still lost twenty pounds (ten kilos).
Others may have some good suggestions. But all in all make sure the radiation oncologist is informed.
At what point is your family member in treatment?

Zofran for nausea (odansetron). I am surprised it was not provided.

We rely on milkshakes for tummy issues but everyone is different. Some are sensitive to dairy so other types of "milk." Smoothies, that type of thing.

We’re past the halfway point. Still have about three weeks left. Everything ingested is being returned due to nausea. Any suggestions? Thank you so much.

We’re doing the milkshakes but it’s hard to keep them down due to nausea. Thank you.

As for me, I was assigned to a nutritionist and she rode my butt daily to ensure I was consuming the proper amount of nutrition through my feeding tube.
Milkshakes are not the answer for nutrition! Milkshakes would have way too much sugar and cancer loves sugar!!!
Nutrition is available in liquid form which is fed SLOWLY through the peg.
If not dripped slowly I would vomit the entire meal!
Sometimes it took a couple hours to complete.
I was also taking anti nausea meds which included Ondansatron.
Unfortunately the nutrition is expensive and not covered by insurance but some cancer centers have financial donors and like me, my out of pocket was very low!

Hope this helps
MOJO

Zofran alone did not work for me. The combination of Ativan with Zofran was the answer for me. It was still hard to eat, but that gave me some relief from the constant nausea. As far as food goes, that is very individual. For me (& my sister, who also went through this treatment), sweet & tart things helped. For example sweet gherkin pickles, or sucking on a sour gummy Candy (which I normally think is disgusting). Good luck.

My nutritionist and oncologist said eat what you can during treatment. Sugar feeding cancer is not universally accepted, but let’s not get into that. During treatment get whatever calories down that you can. The nutritionist was very helpful in finding foods that were caloric and easier to consume.

I was undergoing radiation for larynx cancer. I got esophagitis early on in my treatments, so swallowing was painful. My wife made me purées that included chicken, sweet potatoes, and several vegetables. They were surprisingly delicious and they were very easily tolerated.

A friend of mine was directed the same as you were.
My nutritionist was pretty much against sugars so I just followed her direction.
Unfortunately my friend had a recurrence, can’t say it was the sugars though.
I’m glad it worked for you though.

MOJO

Everything?
At the very least the patient must be kept hydrated be it water or tea, juice, etc etc. At a minimum water because we don’t survive without water but we can go weeks without food.
You should get your doctors and a nutritionist involved ASAP.
You can also expect continued downhill overall health for days after treatments end and recovery is slower than most folks expect as well.
Other comments posted on this discussion have been informative as I read them.
Me personally I lived on Sprite, Jello and chicken broth for about three weeks.