Who knows of natural methods of controlling nausea after anaesthetic?

I have just had surgery and obviously I am not keen on the somewhat cavalier cocktail of medications supplied to me for post-operative control of symptoms. #1 because of the compassionate aspect which obviously weighs heavily and #2 because of the side effects that they have which practically out-weigh the benefits.

These include:
anti-nausea medication
pain-control medication
antibiotics (which if experience serves will ultimately cause thrush that then needs to be treated somehow)
in conjunction with a stomach medication that I already take (albeit under some duress) to control severe reflux and irritable bowel - I am also on a very strict diet to heal my stomach and reduce my time on this preparation

I am just wondering if you know of any natural products that can reduce nausea and the muscular discomfort I seem to be experiencing. At present I'm using cold flannels (or "facecloths" as they're named by the Americans and Aussies) applied to the head and neck to reduce swelling and ease my headache. Baz invented this for me and it works brilliantly. Also periods of inactivity, just sitting still helps with the nausea and pain. I have taken the pills but am loathe to take more because my stomach is so tender after the medication that I've already taken that I am keen to do away with. I am prepared to keep the antibiotics if necessary as post operative infection does occur with this procedure and can be very nasty. It is a short course, however I feel I can do better regarding the other prescriptions.

I have heard raspberry is good? How would you take it? I have low sugar, natural, vegan, red licorice that I've been sucking on but I imagine some sort of "tea" would be preferable as the licorice is just a bit too yummy and probably does qualify as junkfood given the added sugar. Did raspberry work for you?

http://health.enotes.com/alternative...edia/raspberry

I'll be visiting my naturopath tomorrow, but what do you recommend?

During this time I've gotten to pondering why people would voluntarily put themselves through this! After watching those women on tv doing "The Swan" and "Extreme Makeovers" I am amazed. My procedure was considerably smaller - to the throat, excision of a cyst in the thyroglossal duct (a birth defect, only showing up now, in my 30s) that was blocking my swallowing and airway. However I have seen footage of those cosmetic surgery patients after the operation and I cannot imagine it that the horrendous suffering they must endure (after being cut and broken to the head and face so severely) would be worth it - it elicits a "wow" on so many levels. At the moment I feel like I've been punched in the jaw, and this was a very small operation, comparatively!

Thanks guys, your thoughts and advice would be gratefully received.

Arohanui

for the nausea, try ginger tablets, or ginger tea. ginger helps incredibly with nausea. (i would recommend the tablets if youve got stomach problems)

heres a list of natural remedies i found for nausea:

• Anise, dried peach tree leaves, fennel seed, red raspberry or ginger teas
• A teaspoon of cider vinegar in a cup of warm water
• Infusion of ginger root
• Smelling ground ginger
• Increase iron rich foods in your diet
• Ipecacuana 6X three times daily for 5 days
• Nux Vomica 6X
• Slippery Elm tablets, two before each meal
• Aromatherapy: lavender, rose, or chamomile for a massage oil

for the thrush, you wont get it if you take probiotics after your antibiotic treatment. i take bio-k, a probiotic that comes dairy free, after every course of antibiotics i go on and never get thrush afterwards. (my naturopath is the one who gets me to do this and it works fabulously)

i dont know if you get bio-k where you are, but heres the link:

http://www.biokplus.com/

i take 1 1/2 bottles, put them into a big tub of soy yogurt, mix it around, and eat a serving everyday for a week until its done. then i do the same for the next week. so in total i use 3 bottles, and 2 tubs of yogurt, for 2 weeks. i never ever get any yeast infection problems if i do this after my course of antibiotics.

ask your naturopath about probiotics and if you can take them after your antibiotics to prevent thrush/yeast infections.

probiotics also help my sister who has really severe stomach problems, irritable bowel and acid reflux included. the bio k she takes, (1/2 a bottle everyday) and it really stops all her problems. you should ask your naturopath about this aswell for you stomach problems.

this link is also good, scroll down until you see "ginger" and "acidophilus":

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-3583.html

Thank you very much for that, really awesome.

I will be looking into this further. I'm also interested in mention of slippery elm as my doctor is great with me being vegan and recommends alternative medicines to me each time to use either on their own or in conjunction with medictations. When necessary he will even send me away with no drugs (nice to see that in a doctor) and just lifestyle recommendations or tell me to wait on it. He told me that slippery elm was excellent for IBS. It's ironic actually because the doc thinks it's great I'm vegan and my naturopath frowns upon me for it just a little reckoning that I should be vegetarian as opposed to vegan so I can drink cow olestra (um, no thanks) I was breast fed for 2 years, I think I got enough olestra then. In all other regards however he is very good and I just tell him I prefer to eat vegan and he deals with it. BUT, I digress...

Ginger tends to really upset my tummy so I'll be avoiding that, however I will discuss pro-biotics with my naturopath and see what he can supply! Many NZ pro-biotics contain dairy so you have to really hunt for dairy free ones, plus soy is a big upsetter of my tummy and system (I'm intolerant) so as much as I love it, I won't be able to eat heaps of it in yoghurt form!

Perhaps I can look at smelling ginger as you suggest though, then I'm not injesting it that may be a good alternative - and I'll look into some of those other teas.

I've also heard that acupuncture is good for nausea!

I just read up on ginger and acidophilus as you suggested, through that link and was interested to see that ginger was known to neutralise stomach acids. This is interesting because I found it to stimulate my tummy. It's funny, like my friend told me lemon also neutralised acid when taken before food, even thought it's acidic. I may tentatively try a ginger brew. In my first attempt at being vegan, years ago, which was rather unsuccessful, I used to eat cabbage, bok choy, and ginger, boiled up, for breakfast. At that time I didn't have many resources and that was about all I ate : ) I was so, so skinny.

Funny, how times have changed in 5 years. It's easy to be a chubby vegan if you're not mindful about steering clear of certain foods.

peppermint tea

peppermint tea is bad for acid reflux i think.

Unfortunately you're right it's very bad for reflux - you know your teas foxy.
I ADORE peppermint tea. I am probably the most addictive person in the world and when I started on peppermint tea it was because I was told it was a digestive aid - my inner addict was thrilled when I discovered how delicious it was, and again disappointed when I discovered that along with chocolate, mint and onions (my three favourite things, all very addictive) has a drugging effect on the lower esophageal sphincter that causes it to relax thereby allowing more acid to enter the esophagus.

This is the best article I have ever read on reflux and aided me in restructuring my diet as well as my own mindfulness of the impact that injesting certain foods had within my own body - persona triggers such as garlic and capsicum, any citrus fruits and anything carbonated.

http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall0202pu1.htm

still in saying that could be excellent for a person without reflux suffering post-operative nausea...