Taxol Side Effects

cjl78

Taxol Side Effects

cjl78

I took 4 treatments of AC and 4 treatments of Taxol.  My treatment were given every other week.  The taxol has caused me so much pain in my ankles and my hands.  My last Taxol treatment was in March 2008 and the pain is still really bad at times.  Does this ever go away?  I have heard that the pain can get worse up to 6 months after treatment before it gets better.  Has anyone out there experienced that?  It seems the more I use my hands or am on my feet the worse it is.  Sometimes at night my hands will ball up in a fist and get so tight.  I will wake up and open up my hands but it is so painful.  The pain has gotten worse with time.  I am wondering does it ever get better?

coonie

Hi cjl78

I took the same treatment during the same time as you. I also finished up March 14, 2008. I just noticed my hands and feet hurting about 2 weeks ago, but didn't know why. I'm doing Herceptin until January of next year, and also just started taking Arimidex. I thought one of those could be causing the side effects. My hair is just starting to grow back, and I'm feeling pretty good except for the hands/feet issue. My doctor did tell me once that it takes as long to get chemo "out" as it did to put it "in". I guess we will eventually be chemo free! Good luck to you!!!

Anonymous

I think that everyone's time clock on this is different, but there are things that you can try to alleviate some of the issues. My onc team has its patients take L-Glutamine throughout treatment with Taxol in order to counteract the neuropathy and joint issues, so I think that might have helped me. I continued taking it for about 6 months post-chemo to get maximum benefits, so you might consider trying it (get the powder and put a heaping T. in a 8-12 oz. glass of water or juice...it's tasteless). There's also Glucosamine and fish oil supplementation which may or may not work. In terms of medical intervention, my doctor prescribed Neurontin which did help for a time. Other women here claim that Lyrica worked well too. Finally, since my hand issues seemed to trigger the development of carpal tunnel (helped along by Aromasin), I've been having cortisone injections in my right hand/wrist and they work absolute miracles, so you might want to inquire as to whether you'd be a candidate for that. Eventually, when I have time, I plan to have surgery, but you're hardly at that point and have every reason to believe that this won't be a chronic problem for you.

~Marin