How you take anti sickness drugs

This page is about how you take anti sickness drugs. There is information about

Ways of taking anti sickness drugs
If you have problems swallowing medicines

The easiest way to take any drug is by swallowing a tablet or medicine. But that isn't always possible, either because the drug you need can't be swallowed or because you have difficulty swallowing for some reason. When you are feeling sick, it can be very, very difficult to take tablets or medicines. And there is the added problem that if you are sick after you've taken it, you don't always know whether you've brought it up or not.

There are several different ways of getting any drug into your system. We have a page about how you have cancer drugs in the main treatment section of CancerHelp UK. The links in the list below take you to that page.

With cancer drug treatment, you usually have anti sickness drugs as injections with the treatment and then anti sickness tablets to take home with you afterwards.

If you are in hospital and are having problems with swallowing medicines, it is fairly easy for your nurses to give you your drugs by injection or through a drip instead.

If you are at home and tablets are causing you problems, do talk to your nurse or doctor. They may suggest

Suppositories – you may not be keen about using those, but anti sickness suppositories can stop you feeling sick for 8 hours or more
A tablet you can dissolve under your tongue to get a drug into your bloodstream very quickly
A syringe driver

Sickness medicines that can be given through a syringe driver include

Your district nurse can also give you injections just under the skin once or twice a day. You can have the drug through a small needle (cannula) taped to the skin, so you don't have to have an injection each time.