Nausea is evil. That's what evil is. Nausea.

Three days of chemotherapy and radiation. No problems at all. The first day, the nurses gave me few prescriptions for Compazine and Ativan for nausea. They said to use it when I felt like I needed it. I'm tough. I was feeling pretty good. They had just loaded me up with a mega dose of steroids via IV. Nausea was the furthest thing from my mind. In fact, I felt good enough to eat, which was amazing after how I had felt the few days before.

Well, here is some sound advice - some I need to take from myself.

1. You will not know when you need to take anti-nausea medicine until it is too late.

2. Do not wait for signs of nausea - this will make taking the anti-nausea medicine actually harder to take.

3. Don't try to brave through the nausea. You'll go crazy and think you need to be taken to the hospital for IV fluids and mental help. This is not worth it.

4. Take the medication like they suggest - but do it that afternoon. You will hopefully feel a lot less nauseated and be able to eat and drink.

These the things I did NOT do. I thought I would wait it out. I felt fine. Why should I think I would get nauseated? Plus, I have been nauseated before and made it through. By the time the nausea hit on about Saturday night (day 4), it was too late to take medicine. I felt like I would throw it up.

Yes. I wanted Craig to take me to the hospital so they would fix me up. By Sunday, I could barely walk. I just wanted to sit or lay - mostly lay. I cried. I worried. I ate ice chips and finally got to the point where I could take a pill for nausea. I started eating a few dried apricots that night. By Monday morning, I was still feeling nauseated and throwing up quite a bit, but never what I had eaten or drank. It was always the stomach bile, yellowy stuff. I started taking the pills as suggested and then, after Craig took me to radiation, where I was wheelchaired in, I was actually craving something to eat. KFCs mashed potatoes and gravy.

I continued to take the pills as directed. Craig asked what I wanted for dinner: mushu vegetable from Dragon Diner. So, that's what I had. Dessert? Lemon sour cream pie from Marie Calendar's. Later: frozen bean and cheese with green chile burrito.

Today, I've been eating and drinking almost like normal.

Here's the deal: just take the medication from the beginning. That's what I'm going to do next time to see if it works and I never have to go through this hell called nausea.