Saturday, July 08, 2006

I was feeling kind of seasick

The nausea is not psychosomatic; it has been getting gradually worse all week. I guess it must be the Ibuprofen eating away my insides again so I have tried to cut down and made a doctor's appointment. At least this time I have a good idea what's going on; last time this happened, it coincided with menstrual mayhem and I thought I might be pregnant.

The nausea rendered me incapable of picking up the slug I found in the kitchen last night. I hoped it was dead and, since I thought I would throw up if I touched it, I decided to leave it and deal with it in the morning. This morning it was gone. I feel extremely pathetic about this; that and the spider.

In other news, I was looking for a document of novel notes this morning and having forgotten its title I searched my computer for Word documents containing the word stomach - thinking that there would only be one; I can't think of stomachs coming up in very much of anything I have written. There are 43 Word documents on my computer containing the word stomach. 43. This fact also made me want to throw up.

I have written way too many words and they're almost all complete and utter nonsense. I think my laptop's recent problems may be due to the machine spontaneously evolving some sort of digital version of consciousness, developing aesthetic taste and then deciding its life wasn't worth living.

Blackcurrant-liquorices. That is the most effective treatment for nausea I have come up with. The doctor will give me pills that do the job properly, but if anyone has any tips to survive until then, would be most appreciated.

10 comments:

Penny L. Richards said...

Ginger is supposed to help, but it can take a while to find the texture/form that you can handle. Ginger Altoids are the least food-like version, and strong too. Some folks do better with ginger tea, ginger beer, candied ginger.

Also: if someone else can clean out your fridge for you, that helps you avoid the trigger sights. When I was last in this state, I couldn't open my fridge for days, until someone else removed the jar of...you don't want to know right now, but it was unbearable to behold.

I kinda lived on chocolate milkshakes--loved how I couldn't smell them or see them (cup with lid, drink through straw), no texture, no complicated flavors. Stay hydrated, anyway. And a lot of chemo websites say to avoid your really favorite food, because getting sick on it can be really demoralizing.

Anonymous said...

Depends what's causing the nausea, he said just to be irritating.

If you're sure you're not pregnant, try travel-sickness pills. As Penny says, a lot of people swear by ginger.

Acupressure?

Drink aerated water or sodawater rather than plain water.

Brufen certainly can cause this in therapeutic doses, unfortunately, as I know from personal experience; the only thing to do is change NSAID.

Anonymous said...

Ginger ale mixer (schweppes do one) are a flat ginger beer. I was also going to suggest ginger tea (twinings lemon and ginger - mmm! Can send you a few bags if you can't get any). Also BottleGreen do ginger and lemongrass cordial - but quite expenisce and sugary. Hmm... this seems to have become a plug for ginger products - I have no financial connection with the above companies!

Oh, of course peppermint is supposed to help to, I think.

Sally said...

Oh poor Goldfish.

When NSAIDS and anxiety were eating up my stomach lining, I managed eventually over a long time to heal the stomach lining with camomile tea, sipped warm last thing at night sat up in bed, so it was the last thing in my stomach for as long a possible.

Camomile tea tastes foul, but Sleepy Time tea by (I'll look itup and come back on that !) has camomile and other stuff including lemongrass combined to make it more palatible.

Ginger tea - cheaply and sugar free - use fresh root ginger from the supermarket, peel, then cut two or three slices about the thickness and size of a 2p, cut into smaller pieces into a tea cup, pour on boiling water, leavea few minutes to steep to taste, drink warm.

Sally said...

I see now that none of my suggestions offer any immediate relief, sorry.
Celestial Seasonings make Sleepy Time tea, try wordlwidewebdot
goodnessdirect dot co dot uk and enter Celestial Seasonings on their search box.
And ..
Send AJ out tomorrow for some ginger root ?

BloggingMone said...

Oh dear, poor Goldfish! Want another piece of (hopefully) good advice? Soy milk (take vanilla, chocolate or just slightly sweetened) is having a smoothing effect on stomach irritations.It is like putting balm on the inside of your stomach. It does not cure anything, but makes you feel better as there is less pain and less nausea.

The Goldfish said...

Thanks everyone,

Has been useful. I have found ginger to help in the past and had a load of crystallised (or candied) ginger in the cupboard - all of which I shipped down to my sister when she was having morning sickness.

I didn't think of camomile tea - which I actually like (it is an acquired taste). I find it good for sore throats, hadn't thought that it might be good for the stomach as well. This is the one thing I have plenty in stock.

I've put in a supermarket order for tomorrow so will try some of these other suggestions out as well.

Thanks again. :-)

Sally said...

Goldfish, pardon me, but Bloggingmone's reference to soy - soya - tips me into a favourite mini-rant - not everyone can digest soya, and as an emulsifier it gets in everything - bread, chocolate, puddings, even top quality ready meals (which those of us ill and tired sometimes need to rely on) ... and its genetically modified as the USA don't seperate GM and non-GM and they are the biggest exporters.

Even manufactured organic food can contain 1 % non-organic ingredients, and you bet its soya, and cannot be guaranteed not to be GM soya.

How does anyone know they cannot digest soya ? - headaches, stomach ache, joint ache, limb ache, muscle ache ...

If your body is happy with soya, excellent, but othewise, why do so few people know this ?!

BloggingMone said...

Goldfish, sorry, but this is a quick reply to Sally's mini rant: You are right, but my advice of course was meant for those who do not have any problems in digesting soya. I am just very enthusiastic about soya, because I am allergic to animal fat, meaning I cannot eat or drink milk products, like milk,cream, butter, etc. and no meat except a bit of chicken and fish once in a while. Soya is a great substitute for all of this, but I do take care not to buy any GM soya, either by the choice of shops or by checking the ingredients. GM soya is quite often declared as such. On the other hand I have bought a can of vegitable-sauce and felt awful after eating it. It turned out there was chicken fat in there. In a VEGITABLE sauce....

Anonymous said...

A few bites of plain bread can help absorb stomach acids and can thus sometimes help settle a nauseus stomach. (Or if plain bread bores you too much, and you feel you can handle something on it, I've sometimes turned bread into cinnamon toast or whatever. But one time when my partner was feeling poorly, all she could face up to was just half a slice of bread all by itself. Depends how badly off you feel I guess. But it did seem to help, and she had a little more bread soon after.)

Ok, I know I'm replying to this a few years late, but just in case it helps anyone.