[DoreenMichele]

Dehydration itself can make a person nauseous.

You don't have to take anything orally to treat dehydration. A bath or shower can help with hydration at times when she can't stand to take anything orally.

Dehydration isn't always as simple as a lack of fluids. It can also be impacted by a lack of electrolytes and inadequate fat.

So it may help to add salt to the bath. Table salt can be problematic for someone in frail health because of the additives. Sea salt, kosher salt or canning and pickling salt won't have those additives. You can probably find the latter two readily at a local grocery store. Good sea salt can be ordered online.

If fluids and electrolytes are insufficient and you think she may need more fat, this can also be remedied without giving her anything by mouth.

Coconut oil is high in medium chain triglycerides. These can be used directly by the body without being broken down via digestion, so the body can absorb it if it is applied topically (to the skin).

Coconut oil has a long history of being medically recommended by the medical establishment for people with serious gut issues, such as folks being treated for stomach cancer.

Don't overdo it though because it can promote nausea and diarrhea, especially when taken in large quantities. You want to do small amounts regularly so the body can handle it, not start with a tablespoon of oil at a time. That will not go happy places.

Coconut oil is a little on the sweet side, so some people don't like cooking with it because of how it impacts flavor. As an alternative, butter is a decent source of medium chain triglycerides.

Clarifying butter to make ghee can remove elements that some people don't tolerate well. This can be helpful to people in frail health as an alternative to oils they aren't tolerating well while sick.

[jcims]

Hey the coconut oil suggestion is awesome, thank you so much! I'll definitely look at getting some quality oil and adding it to our regimen. I tinkered with MCT oils and whatnot in the past for my own health and have definitely 'greased the chute' by accident lol.

Totally agree on the side effects of dehydration. I could see the cycle happening over the course of a week or two and we'd end up in the ER (8 times in the last four months now). We've finally got her set up with a port and have home health services coming by mondays and fridays with hydration (and labs). Then she gets a bit more during weekly chemo on Weds. We're only a week into it and it is already showing benefit.

Thanks again for the suggestions!

[DoreenMichele]

Keep an eye on the port. If they aren't kept adequately clean and end up infected, it's ugly from what I gather.

Best.

[jcims]

Yep. There's a whole protocol that the nursing staff has to do when they 'access' (aka stick) it. Extra disinfectant, both my wife and the nurse wear a mask, then an adhesive cover applied right after the catheter is put in.

The way it was described is that the port doesn't have an immune system, so infection can camp out there. They said that if she got any kind of bacterial infection anywhere they may need to remove it because the infection can spread there and hang out.

That said, she's super stoked to have it (finally). My wife's arm's look like she's the world's worst junkie. Giant bruises up and down both because she's always been hard to get started with standard IVs and they've wrecked the veins in both arms. :/

[DoreenMichele]

Yikes! Yes, a port can be a huge improvement over being constantly jabbed and is often spoken of glowingly by patients who finally get them.

(Insert Borg jokes, if that doesn't offend. We made such jokes when I was taking care of a relative with cancer post-surgery with all the drainage tubes and what not. It helped put the kids at ease a bit.)

[athriren]

Hang in there, one stranger to another.

[jcims]

Thanks !!!

[nradov]

Humans can't absorb any significant amount of water through the skin in a bath or shower. If the shower raises the bathroom humidity level enough the patient might breathe in a tiny amount of water but it's not enough to matter.

[DoreenMichele]

That really doesn't fit with my experience. Granted, I have a condition known to cause very bad aquagenic wrinkling, so I likely absorb water better through the skin than most people. But I know someone who doesn't have the same condition who was able to mitigate dehydration with soaking in a tub when they were too nauseous to take anything orally.

The OP's wife has a port and is currently getting fluids that way. He's expressed zero interest in that portion of my remark. I don't see much point in arguing this.

[Lordarminius]

> You don't have to take anything orally to treat dehydration. A bath or shower can help with hydration at times when she can't stand to take anything orally. Dehydration isn't always as simple as a lack of fluids. It can also be impacted by a lack of electrolytes and inadequate fat....

Big No