Nausea side effect causing anxiety around eating
Been dealing with this prolactinoma for over a decade, I am now on cabergoline for the 3rd time in my life after trying 2 times before and having severe side effects. This time I am on .25mg twice a week, to try to minimize the side effects, because my tumor is too big and invading/completely covering very sensitive areas in my head (eyes/nerves/etc.) so surgery is not an option.
I thought I was gonna be okay this time because the first week on cab I only felt fatigued, but now I am 3 weeks on it and the nausea I had the first 2 times taking it is back. For context, I have been some baseline level of nauseous since I was 8 years old, so the nausea has been a constant since before I ever felt any symptoms of the tumor or (I assume) before it even existed for me. I already take zofran for this nausea. I have dealt with it for so long that I know what helps and what doesn't as far as home remedies (for example, mint doesn't help, alcohol wipes don't help, but being in a cool room helps).
I am now dealing with the fatigue, mental issues, and this increased nausea. Zofran only helps for about 2 hours. I am now getting pretty extreme anxiety and aggression around needing to eat. I don't want to eat, I don't crave anything, nothing sounds good, and even smelling food now makes me want to vomit. I can barely eat a few crackers before the nausea gets overwhelming. I haven't vomited yet, but I feel like it's just a matter of time. I am managing to eat "1 meal" every day (usually just a bowl of noodles, or some soup, or toast and bacon). It is becoming the worst part of my day to have to eat anything.
I really have no other option in treating the tumor, bromocriptine made my nausea so bad I had to get a feeding tube, and surgery isn't an option right now either. It may be in the future, but right now I can only have cabergoline. I'm waiting on an endocrinology referral to go through because the one they were going to have me see wouldn't take the charity sliding scale system I have at my PCP's office, so they had to do some digging to find someone I could afford as I don't have insurance. For now, my PCP is handling it all, but he doesn't really have any advice for these side effects. Does anyone have any advice? Any foods that you could keep down? I can't handle things like yogurt, oatmeal, mushy/chunky things. I tried and those things got me the closest to vomiting out of anything I have eaten so far.
Posted Apr 24, 2026, 8:32 PM UTC