Drug induced sickness. What can I eat / drink to help?

[Germgirl]

I have undiagnosed severe abdo pain & am on several painkillers and other drugs. I'm currently taking Dihydrocodeine, Tramadol, Nefopam, Gabapentin, Omeprazole and Candesartan. Plus Oramorph when the pain gets too bad.
I take Cyclizine for the inevitable nausea & vomiting that all these drugs induce, I seem to be quite susceptible to drug induced nausea & have been sick quite a few times this week.
The Tramadol, Nefopam and Oramorph are the main culprits.
The Cyclizine doesn't do that much tbh & I'm feeling pretty nauseous most of the time, which makes me not want to eat.
But I have to eat, because if I dont I feel even worse.
I've been eating Ginger Nuts like they're going out of fashion, and drinking Coke, these seem to help a bit but it's not the healthiest diet.
What can I eat that won't make me feel worse? I tried toast but threw it straight back up, plain pasta had the same effect.
I'm managing to drink a fair bit of water (with lime cordial) and Coke, anything with milk in makes me throw up.
I'm very miserable. I love my food but I can't eat anything!

Wow, that's a lot of medication for an Undiagnosed illness. How do you know the nausea isn't another symptom of the condition? Are you getting thoroughly investigated? Sorry, lots of questions and no answers.mi am taking most of the drugs you list for severe back and leg pain and don't have nausea. That's not to say it isn't the drugs because it might be.

Sorry no real suggestions re foods, I think you have to use trial and error to find what suits you. However I hope you are getting proper medical investigation because all those painkillers could be masking something that needs proper treatment.

Are you in hospital at the moment? It is exceptionally rare to be given oromorph as an outpatient for an undiagnosed condition.
You need to speak to a physician: morphine is an anti-emetic so it is very unlikely that your pain meds are causing you to vomit: you need further investigations asap to rule out some anatomical/physiological conditions which could be causing the pain you describe and the nausea.

I'm not in hospital.
Back story, sorry, not drip feeding, just didn't want to bore people:
8 years ago I had this horrible abdo pain. Diagnosed as a kidney stone.
But at follow up, kidney stone was discounted, apparantly the original x Ray had been misread.
On & off pain for 8 yrs, pain maybe once a month, up to 3 x a week, manageable on Tramadol or ibuprofen.
In June I had a horrible attack, pain wouldn't go away & ended up in hospitak for a week. Turns out I had a kidney infection.
Had lots of tests for abdo pain, ultrasounds, colonoscopy, x rays, a CT scan. Nothing seen.
Have been referred to urology as pain was so much worse when I had the kidney infection.
Had a contrast CT on my kidney but nothing seen. Doctors now think I may have intermittent stones or 'grit' but nothing properly diagnosed.
Been to A&E six times since July for IV morphine as at-home meds not working. My GP has now given me Oramorph.
The sickness occurs mainly after Tramadol, I was also on Duloxetine but that made me throw up after every dose. I do seem particularly susceptible to sickness with drugs.
Does Oramorph contain an anti-emetic? I didn't know that.
Just had some ham, really fancied it. It's still there at the moment but I feel really sick so I don't know how long it's there for.

Tramadol makes me feel sick and more so when I haven't eaten. Codeine can also make me feel nauseous if I haven't eaten anything.

The only things I find that helps is eating a bit of something plain like toast, rich tea biscuits or plain pasta. After an hour or so the nausea usually goes so I can eat something more substantial.

If your prescribed anti emetic isn't working then I'd speak to the GP to see if there's a different one you can try. I'd also try and find out which painkiller is causing the nausea if you can and keep that one as a last resort or see if you can have something else altogether.

Thanks crazy, the Tramadol is definitely the worst culprit, I do try to limit its use although I've had my maximum dose for the last 3 days as the pain is so horrible at the moment.
You're right that if you don't eat the nausea is worse, trouble is, I don't feel like eating! Which obviously makes things worse.
I'm going to get DH to bring some rich tea biscuits home, that's a good idea, thank you.
Btw, the ham made an explosive reappearance :(

So sorry to hear that you are in pain. I would say it is the Tramadol causing the nausea. Have you tried Maxalon for the nausea? You shouldn't have to suffer so it might be a case of trying something else.
Could you eat plain crisps or crackers? I found that & icy cold water helped my morning sickness.
I also found fruit pastelles helped.

Thank you. I'll add crackers to DHs shopping list. I hadn't thought about crisps, we have some plain kettle chips in the cupboard, I'll try those later.
I am overweight, so I suppose not eating will help that, but I'd rather not be forced not to eat!

there are other medications for nausea that can be more effective than cyclizine, ondanzotron is one I think.

Thank you. I will speak to my doctor about better nausea drugs. The Cyclizine are pretty useless most of the time.