Happy Wednesday! Today I’d like to talk about medication management when dealing with the stomach flu, food poisoning, or nausea in general.
For me, I tend to get nauseous mid-morning almost every single day. I have tried quite a few varieties of what to eat & drink with my morning medications to try and ward off the nausea, but nothing really seemed to make a difference. With previous medications like Topamax, I really didn’t get nauseous that often but I struggled with quite a few other side effects. The Lamotrigine that I am on now however gives me pretty severe nausea. It’s especially bad if we are in the car anywhere mid-morning; I get carsickness just from backing out of the driveway!
Finally, I came across two products that really help!
The Ginger Chews I found at Trader Joes. The ones I use are a soft chew that you eat, but there are also hard candy varieties and gum varieties that would probably work just as well. They come in a bag of about 25 chews, but 1-2 of them seems to do the trick for me. They do have a somewhat spicy kick from the ginger, but that taste dissipates pretty quickly after swallowing.
The Mint Marrakesh Tea I found at Whole Foods. It is very slightly caffeinated so it works well for evening nausea or for people that are carefully monitoring their caffeine intake. I like to put a little bit of honey in mine and it settles my stomach really quickly!
However, when it comes to the stomach flu, our bodies tend to get rid of anything we put into them, so nausea remedies may not be as effective. Yesterday, I was on the couch all day with the stomach flu; I had a fever, was achy, very nauseous, and vomiting quite a bit. Unfortunately, two of these vomiting episodes occurred very soon after taking both my morning and evening meds. Luckily, my neurologist uses MyChart and I was able to quickly email her to find out what I should do. Should I re-take my meds? Should I just wait and see?
*Each neurologist will have a different response to this, since each of our diagnoses are different. Be sure to ask your neurologist for any advice that you may need regarding your medication.
Luckily, today I am feeling much better and the nausea has passed. I did end up re-taking my morning medication but not the evening dose since I was pretty certain that they did not come back up. I also did not have any seizures! I am very thankful that both Andy & my mom are so willing to alter their schedules to ensure that I am not alone. They made sure I had ample fluids, checked my temperature often, checked for any seizure Aura symptoms, and made sure that I was in a comfortable, safe position in case I did end up having a seizure.
Do you have any special remedies for your nausea? How about for any other medication side affects that you experience? Contact me with any recommendations you have; I’d love to pass it on!
Have a happy, healthy rest of the week and remember to Seize The Day!
Hello from Minnesota! I was diagnosed with Generalized Idiopathic Temporal Lobe Epilepsy in 2006. My goal is to create and contribute to a community for those living with Epilepsy & other neurological disorders, so that we can support each other, raise awareness, and share our hope for fewer seizures in the future!