I wonder if you're eating enough protein when you take 'em. I haven't had personal experience with your particular conundrum, but I do know that unless I take my multivitamin with a chunk of protein, I get an upset stomach.

Hmmm, I hadn't thought of that. I've been eating a lot of peanut butter lately, so I think my proteins are okay, but I'll pay attention to that.

And I hope you don't mind if I stay out of the gross food find thread right now, Speck -- I have a restaurant story that involves finding white plate chips in my noodles that I thought at first were my teeth (!) but I don't need to turn any greener at the moment!

It's an expected side effect, melissa; the oxycodone in the Percocet stimulates all the opiate receptors, including the ones that induce nausea as well as the ones that relieve pain.

Ginger has strong, safe anti-nausea properties. I think I'd probably start there, either with ginger ale, ginger tea, ginger cookies, candied ginger, or whatever; some of that really strong bottled ginger beer they have, maybe.

I'm not a huge fan of trying to suppress medication side effects with other medications; it never seems to work that well.

Melissa, from time to time I need to take strong pain meds for Kidney stones, and ginger -- especially "raw" gingerale (from my local whole foods) is the only thing that does the trick.

Feel better!!

Poor you, pain or nausea, rock or hard place. Try nibbling on some saltines or plain soda crackers. I used to get very nauseous every morning from birth control pills and this was the only thing that did the trick.

I find that if I don't eat enough, I get nauseaous. After a moderately-sized, actual meal is my best time. Also, avoiding alcohol for 24 hours before taking one helps me.

Thanks so much, everyone. Darling H is putting on his shoes to go to the food coop for me -- do you have any ginger ale brand names to suggest, or should he just look for anything with "raw" in the name or label?

And I'll put saltines on the list, mmj. How could I forget?

My grandmother has sworn by ginger root for years. She even slices it up and puts it in her wine. (Of course, if she didn't drink so much wine, she wouldn't be as nauseated, but that's a totally different story.)

And I'm really sorry you're in so much pain, melissa may. :-(

Reed's ginger brew. (Regular ginger ale won't do it, since it doesn't actually contain ginger.)

Ginger tea is also an excellent suggestion. Just thinly slice some raw ginger, heat but do not boil for ten minutes or so, add honey. Also good cold.

Know what's a funny word? Ginger. Ginger ginger ginger.

Ginger rock bell!

Speck, H took off before I could add root to the list, but we'll pick some up tomorrow, and make tea from your simple but lovely sounding recipe.

(And jrossi, if you were trying to amuse me: success! Grandma Rossi reminds me of all the upright ladies who once dived enthusiastically into "tonics" and patent medicines to cure their aches and pains, or anyone for that matter who calls the sauce their "medicine.")

Either that or make your own. This is the recipe i used a while back, with a little less sugar, but its all in the cooking, baby; use as much or as little as you like.

http://www.jamaicans.com/cooking/beverages/gingerbeer.shtml

Feel better, melissa!

I usually drink Stewart's Ginger Beer, but Ginger Beer is an aquired taste and is also lightly fermented. Reed's Ginger Brew is great, too.

Thanks, ana; I will keep those in mind. H found something called Natural Brew Outrageous Ginger Ale (subtitled: A brew of Jamaican ginger and Chinese ginger root creating a crisp ginger flavor). And I must say if ever a drink deserved a subtitle it is this one. It's really doing the trick to calm things down.

urban, that link is great and I might try it when I'm feeling more ambitious. Thanks again, all -- you are wonderful.

melissa, as you probably know, I have chronic pain and take two or three tylenol-4 a day, which is codeine. (I had been taking Vicodin, which is hydrocodone.) Unfortunately, I don't have any good advice for you. I might get mildly nauseated occasionally but really don't have problems with this type of med. My father and sister also have the disease and the chronic pain. Dad doesn't seem to have nausea problems. On the other hand, my sister has very bad nausea problems from narcotic pain meds. But she doesn't have any advice—she just doesn't take them.

In general, though, I've always had pretty good results from drinking ginger ale when I was nauseated. It's good to hear that that is helping you.

I'm very sorry to hear of your chronic pain—as you know, it sucks. My biggest problem as a result of the pain is fatigue, and there's not a lot you can do about that, either.

Have you given a thought to acupuncture? As a pain treatment it has become fairly well accepted. Several year ago I had a chronic, low-grade, pain in my elbow left over from a broken bone. Acupuncture put it right with little fuss.

I am glad the ginger brew helped, melissa. It is also recommended for pregnant ladies who cannot take powerful medications because they are not safe for baby; for those ladies, ginger has been shown to work even in cases when nothing else does.

Ask the pros at Mayo Clinic.

There's also a search function.

The peanut butter may not be the right thing. Fatty food is contraindicated. The short answer is narcotics are toxins and nausea is a sign of going toxic. Titrate your dose?

The therapudic dose of anything is the least quantity that produces the desired result. You may be taking too much. Try "chipping" your dose. Take a quarter and see if that helps.

You know, homemade ginger beer is easy to make. I've made tons of it. Do any of your friends homebrew? They'll have the equipment and most homebrewers are flattered to get somebody new involved. If this is a chronic condition, why not dig in for the long haul?

Oh, and by the way. Compozine (sp?), a prescription drug, is probably the #1 anti-nausea medicine. Ask your doctor.

(another of warbaby's famous after-the-post posts)

Thanks, warbaby, and again to everyone else for your good advice. I enjoyed a wonderful meal last night and feel myself for the first time in a long while. I am truly thankful.