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HELP - chemotherapy & insomnia

Posted by Lori in Mid Atlantic on October 04, 2005 at 03:34:29:

Any help or insight on this one is deeply appreciated.

My husband, Perry, hasn't slept for longer than 45 minutes at a time, (and that is only a few times a day), since he's been undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer.

The first round of chemo failed. He's now taking Taxotere chemo once a week, plus the steroids necessary for him to tolerate the treatment. I can understand the steroids keeping him up for a few days, but even on Lorazapam and five days after chemotherapy he still cannot sleep.

How can a body heal with no sleep?

I just began adding melatonin and the Standard Process vitamin "Niacinamide B6" to his evening pills. He's also on Percocet for pain, Lorazapam for anxiety, Zantac for stomach acidity & Zofran for nausea. I believe the steroid he takes the night before and the day of treatment is Dexamethasone.

I tell the docs that he doesn't sleep and they truly do not believe me, or my mother. They prescribed Ambien and that only made him "loopy" for several hours. I'll never give it to him again.

Please help is you know anything about any of these drugs causing anxiety or insomnia -- I can't find anything, and doctors tell us nothing. IE: Six weeks after treatment began, they finally took him of Compazine which can cause moderately severe anxiety, and put him on Zofran.

Any suggestion, theories, insight or ideas would be helpful.

Thank You!

Lori in Maryland

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