Relief Band For Nausea

[megan2]

Hi everyone,

I have been struggling with constant nausea for awhile now. I'm currently on zofran and it has been working fairly well, but it's not something my pcp wants me to be taking everyday. He has been considering domperidone but seems reluctant. I did a search and it seems that many of you have tried those medications and have been using them awhile. So is it okay for me to be on those medications for a prolonged amount of time?

My pcp spoke to a GI who suggested ReliefBand. Anyone tried this and have success with it?

[MelissaCrystal]

My doc refuses to put me on anti-nausea drugs because she says they can do permanent damage to my organs and stuff. I haven't heard of the band though, I really need to find something that works....

[EarthMother]

I used SeaBand for all of my three pregnancies ... worked like a charm!

~EM

[llp479]

ReliefBand is a watch like device that emits a small shock. It works great! I used it when we cruised, and use it anytime I feel nauseas. I wish I had had one when I was pregnant. They are about $80 and are available from numerous web sites.

[Sunfish]

whether or not a band-type device is likely to help is generally related, at least in part, to the etiology of one's nausea. if the nausea is more of a motion-sickness type thing it's very likely to help. if the nausea seems to be connected with POTS/ orthostatic symptoms in general or otherwise a more systemic it also may be worth a shot. this could include pregnancy-related nausea i suppose. if, however, you have a GI tract that's not emptying such that your food is stuck in your stomach and, as such, is thus causing the nausea, no type of band is likely to help. that said a band is a pretty benign thing to try so aside from the cost there's really no down side to trying it.

re: other medication options, there are most certainly choices that are considered safe when taken long-term. no medication is without the possibility of side-effects or risk but, on the balance, some of the GI meds are considered fairly benign i comparison with many other classifications of medications. at the risk of being rude it actually really bothers me that a doctor (the other melissa's) would make such a blanket statement implying that all anti-nausea meds cause permanent organ damage b/c that's simply not true. not even close. any med of any type can cause permanent organ damage if/ when used improperly, and of course some are riskier than others, but meds exist for a reason & i don't like the sound of any doctor making that type of incorrect statement. (melissa is this a gi doc or your primary doc? iif nausea is really an ongoing issue for you i'd encourage you to either talk further with this doc or a different one, i.e. a GI specialist if this is your PCP. there's no reason for you to be suffering unnecessarily).

one med that many people do have trouble with is reglan. it can cause pretty serious side-effects & they can be permanent, though that is definitely not the norm. you didn't specifically ask about that so i'll leave the details aside but all in all it's the med that is the worst idea for long-term use, and many can't tolerate it at all).

my understanding is that that zofran is quite safe as well, though i've never looked into taking it around the clock on a continual basis. i've taken it intermittently for years & have never had any problems with it & my doctors have no concerns about my taking it. i've not been given any restraints on how often i take it either (more so than the prescription recommendation that is) but unfortunately it does nothing for my underlying nausea. it only seems to help me a bit when my nausea/ vomiting flair up particularly badly which means i usually take it between 3 & 6 times a week, give or take. i've been offered (& tried) taking it more to see if it helps though by more then one of my doctors over the years; it just doesn't provide me with any additional benefit when i take it more frequently.

re: domperidone, someone else asked about it just a few days ago. the link to that post is http://dinet.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=11052 and you should be able to read my ramblings about it there. for me it hasn't changed my life but i am better off with it than without. and i've heard many stories of pretty dramatic success, though also a good number wherein it hasn't helped much at all. i've heard VERY few instances of anyone having to stop it due to unwanted side-effects. and yep, it's generally considered relatively safe for long-term use. but go ahead & read what i wrote in the other post & then let me know if you have any other questions.

there are a few other meds that can help with nausea as well but before i ramble on & on have you tried anything else with or without success? do you know the etiology of your nausea, i.e. is it "just" systemic quesiness or is there a more specific GI origin that you're aware of, i.e. gastroparesis. certain meds tend to help more (or less) depending on the "why" behind the nausea so, up to a point, it can efficacious to delve into what's making you nauseous in the first place. knowing the "why" can also help pin-point which, if any, dietary changes might be helpful as well.

hope this helps,

melissa

[mkoven]

I have nausea intermittently and previously had gastroparesis. Reglan messes with my mood and makes me twitch- it has an effect on dopamine. Zofran makes me break out in hives, but was otherwise effective. My recent motility study was normal, but I still suffer from nausea periodically. I think it is often connected to migraines, even when I don't have head pain. I take tigan as needed. It's not extremely potent, but makes life bearable. No real side effects, and I'm super sensitive to meds. (Compazine and I don't get along. It also messes with my mood.) I once tried the seabands-- they were very cheap, less than ten dollars, and look like those wrist bands that tennis players wear. There is a little ball on the inside that applies pressure to an acupuncture site on the inner wrist. I think it helped some. It certainly didn't hurt and was cheap, so worth a try. My nausea is fortunately not a daily problem at this point (has been though), and I'm very grateful for that. Nausea is miserable. You're pobably also up on how/what to eat/not eat. I've had periods when I could eat no fat and no fiber.

BTW, opiates really make me ill. I was on methadone once for pain (not heroin withdrawal!). It was very effective, but has a very long half life. you can't start and stop it. So I had it in my system for a couple months. Man-- the nausea was AWFUL! Ten times worse than the pain I was taking it for. But I could only taper it 10% a week to avoid what I heard was terrible physical withdrawal--aparently worse than the pain or the nausea. So I felt wretched for another ten weeks. and then blessed relief when I was finally off it. If I ever need a longacting drug for pain again, it will NOT be methadone. (I felt like I was curled up in a ball with my head in a bucket for that period of my life.)

[megan2]

Thanks! Sunfish--you are really knowledgeable.

I haven't had a motility study done but I suspect that that's part of my problem. When the nausea is really severe though, I think that's from my migraines.

I'm on Zofran as needed, but I end up needing it everyday. I don't think anyone is overly concerned about it because they are letting me keep taking it, but they're not happy about it either. Mostly, it just keeps my nausea from becoming really bad, it doesn't actually get rid of it.

I'm going to try the ReliefBand. It's expensive, but they said I can return it if it doesn't work. If it doesn't work, I think then they may let me try domperidone.

[juliegee]

Before you give domperidone a try, why not try a tiny pediatric dose of erythromycin? Both my son and I have taken it for years. (Neither of us do now as we've both improved:-) This is what the docs at Johns Hopkins prefer. GI's tend to prescribe too high of a dose. This is a case where LESS is MORE. We found relief with 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of 200mg suspension sweet pink liquid erythromycin about 15 mins. before meals. We also took a dose before going to bed at night to help with AM nausea. Too much can actually cause nausea. A tiny dose irritates the tum into emptying more quickly. I took it during a period where I couldn't eat anything. A bowl of rice would last me two weeks- literally. I survived by sipping vitamin water. The "E" turned things around for me. It actually turned the nausea into real h-u-n-g-e-r.

We tried a different type of relief band, that simply applied pressure, at a specific point on the wrist. Didn't work. The other with electric stimulation sounds interesting.

AND, ditto to everything that Melissa said about long term use of zofran. Mack took it for years, several times a day. He couldn't have attended school or resumed any kind of life without it. He suffered no ill side effects. It took the edge off of my nausea and helped me function better. I also took it liberally. NO LONG TERM PROBLEMS. I can't help but wonder if your doctor made that comment as he is acting as a gatekeeper for the insurance company, i.e. trying to keep your medical costs down. Zo' (as my son calls it) is expensive. Getting your insurance company to approve long term use may be the bigger issue.

Best of luck-

Julie