Continued vomiting after treatment has ended

Hi. Best wishes to your partner. I was diagnosed and treated in 2008. I had 6 chemo and 33 radiations.

I'm guessing radiation is more targeted today, but for what it's worth, during the tail end of radiation I was badly burnt. At that point I could only whisper. Trying to speak more loudly would cause me to continually gag and feel like I had to vomit. I assumed it was a combination of air passing through my irritated throat and across irritated vocal chords. I obviously don't know if your partners is upset stomach or throat/gag reflex related. This issue subsided pretty quickly as I healed.

A little speculative, but all of us lose stamina during treatments. Maybe breathing a little heavier and that is enough to set things off(?)

Obviously check in with your surgeon/oncologist if it keeps up.

@jcl2018

Thank you so much for your comment! He definitely has had some trouble breathing and he is always coughing up mucus and has a hard time swallowing. I'm not sure how much this may correlate with the vomiting though. I feel like he was progressively getting better and feeling better and then he started to decline. I've told him to check with his doctor to get more information. This is all fairly new to us. He started with chemo and radiation but the chemo was so hard on his body from the constant vomiting that he went into kidney failure and was in the hospital for a few days. They then decided that he would receive radiation only from then on. We're still not even sure if he's in remission as of yet. The ENT doctor said that the mass in his neck has definitely shrunk but we're not out of the woods yet. We will know more once the PET scan is done next month.

I appreciate your time and your words and I wish you good health!

I'm sorry to hear that your husband is having such a difficult experience. Everyone is different. I went through treatment for stage IV SCC at the base of the tongue in 2006, with 6 weeks of chemo, and 42 days of radiation. I got quite sick during treatment, developing pneumonia in the 3rd week. My sister underwent treatment in 2022, with fewer treatments all the way around. She's had a great deal of difficulty with the aftereffects. I was 49 while she was 72. In a hundred years, they will look back on cancer treatment of today as being barbaric, but it is all we have. I wish you and your husband the best.

@56tburd
I agree with you 100% about the treatments being barbaric. I'm hoping you and your sister are now in good health. My husband went through 47 rounds of radiation and like I mentioned in another comment, he started out with both chemo and radiation but the chemo was too hard on his body after the first few weeks of treatment that he went into kidney failure. He will be 49 next month. I've sometimes wondered if we should consider Sloan Kettering. He's a veteran so he gets his treatment at the VA hospital but has the option of getting treatment at Sloan. Unfortunately it's a bit aways from us and while he was receiving treatment at the VA hospital we wound up staying at the Fisher House which is similar to the doctor Ronald McDonald house. I'm pushing him to make an appointment with his doctor but he is so tired all the time and doesn't feel well and thinks the symptoms he had will pass. I'm hoping for good news once the PET scan is done. He lost almost 50 lbs in six weeks from treatment and he's continuing to lose more weight but just at a slower pace. I'm so glad I found this forum. It's nice to be able to hear from kind hearted people like yourself who unfortunately have experienced this horrific illness. Sending you and your family well wishes.

Hi @nanandalex Welcome to the Head and Neck group. I too was nauseated from the radiation treatments, whether it was from the excessive mucus or actual radiation “poisoning” is unknown. Radiation poisoning is a term used to describe side effects from radiation, common after exposure such as was the case in Japan after the A-bombs were used. Not everyone is susceptible but some of us are.
My sickness occurred roughly five hours after I was zapped for the last four weeks. It was not an issue on the off day weekends and did not persist at the end of radiation treatment. I was prescribed different anti-nausea meds until finally landing on one which worked well. I don’t at this time recall which medication it was that worked for me, but it worked.
I was also short of breath and felt beaten. It took better than six months to get my breath back.
Mind his thyroid levels. Radiotherapy occasionally can bruise or otherwise damage the thyroid, which is located at the base of the neck. If the thyroid stimulating hormone or TSH is out of normal range, this is an indicator of thyroid damage. Any levels near or beyond normal range can make the patient feel all matter of horrible. It’s a simple blood test and one I encourage all neck radiation patients to request.
My thyroid crashed, followed by a return beyond normal output. Investigation revealed one wing bruised and enlarged. A simple daily medication brought the level within normal range, which I managed for more than twenty years. Eventually I “aged out” and presently taking neither thyroid reduction meds nor thyroid replacement meds, which is more common in older folks like me.
Things should only improve from this point on. It does take years. Some issues never resolve in a few patients. In the meantime, courage. Good healing.

@nanandalex Thank you for your well wishes. Unfortunately, my sister has been battling one cancer after another over the past 18 years, and the throat cancer treatment was unsuccessful, returning after two years. Radiation was no longer an option, and she didn't want them to remove her tongue when there was no guarantee that it wouldn't come back. She is in hospice care now. As young as your husband is, the outlook is very good for him. Tell him to hang in there, things do improve and we are very resilient.

I had 35 radiation and 6 cisplatin sessions and while the pain and burning was bad, the nausea from whichever source was the worst. From a few hours after the very first radiation session until about 9 weeks after the last I had different levels of nausea. From very slight (easy to ignore) to extreme, (running to the nearest exit/bathroom). I blamed radiation and thick mucus. I took anti nausea meds for radiation and used a saline nebuliser to breakup mucus. I knew the exactly when it was gone as soon as I woke on a morning in the 9th week post treatment. I felt so relieved to be past that awful feeling. Food still didn't taste great but I could stomach it which was all that mattered to.me. I'd say I was about a week from being admitted back into hospital and put on a feeding tube. Good luck with everything. We are all different and my experience might not be yours. Get everything checked by your doctor.

@hrhwilliam
Thank you for your response. My partner claims he recently had his blood work done and that his primary says it includes thyroid...I'm hoping so. I keep urging him to go to the doctor and I understand that he is completely over going to the doctor and hospitals. I'm just concerned. Like I've mentioned, he has a PET scan scheduled for later next month. I'm not thrilled with the VA hospital at times. He's been waiting for an acupuncture appointment for two months just to give you an idea. Wishing you good health and happy holidays.