Taxotere and Cytoxan Side Effects

kcpainter77

I recently started my chemo treatments, Aug 21.  The first four days I was an emotional wreck and in a complete fog, crying and confused.  I received chemo on Thursday and do not remember anything that happened in my life until Sunday (and even Sunday is a little vague).  By Monday I was still totally emotional but I can remember what happened that day.  Now I am mentally together.  I have not begun to lose my hair yet but I am experiencing some other side effects that are becoming rather bothersome...

Has anyone else experienced; pelvic pain that shoots down your legs, extremely dry skin on face, break out over chest and shoulders, always feel like your starving?  At this rate I am going to be a nipple-less, overweight, bald woman with really bad skin.  Does anyone know of any really good skin care products while going through chemo?  Does anyone have any bullet proof ideas curve the thoughts of starvation? 

familyroks

Oh Kelly..I'm so sorry you've had such a rough time. 

I was on A/C (Adriamycin/Cytoxan).  The hair loss didn't come until around day 17 or 18 after first treatment.  I didn't experience any loss of memory.  I did experience severe fatigue around days 4 & 5, after each A/C treatment.  No pelvic pain.  Did you get a Neulasta or Neupogen shot?  If so, that could contribute to bone pain.  Dry skin and hunger are very common.  The steroids alone will cause the hunger.  I would try to stock my kitchen with low fat/non-fat, but tasty foods.  I was already on Weight Watchers when the whole BC thing happened, so I was already set with what I knew were healthy foods that met my sweet/salty/ or whatever needs.  I never did find the cure for dry skin but I really didn't try that hard..just tolerated it.  I would seriously suggest you talk to your Onc's office about your concerns.  It is their job to minimize your negative side effects.

Have you checked out this thread?  http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/69/topic/706846?page=5#idx_125 .  There are some awesome tips in there.

Gillkath

Hi Kelly,

My chemotherapy regimen consisted of taxotere and cytoxan.  I had four treatments, each three weeks apart.  I was one of the lucky few who had many, many strange side effects.  A rash was one of them.  I lived on Benedryl basically from the day before my chemo treatment to two weeks after chemo.  My rash would get better in between my treatments. 

I had lots of pain on the chemo drugs, as well ... and this was made worse by the Neulasta shot that I received the day after treatments.

I'm guessing that if you are taking steroids they are behind your appetite.

Good luck to you.

Laurie

AndreaM4567

I just got done with 4 cycles of T/C.

I am still very emotional. It is an emotional thing to go through. Let yourself cry.

My side effects were "Chemo Brain" I can't get words out, can't remember anything, can't get thoughts put together. It slowly goes away but I still cannot remember what happened during the weeks of chemo.

Yes, I was hungry all the time. Reece's seemed to be the one thing I could not get enough of. I ate as much as I wanted and as often as I wanted. Please do not be concerned about your weight right now unless you are losing a lot. That would be something to report to your Dr. for sure. This is the one time they encourage eating

I too had the Neulasta and with that came extreme bone pain that lasted about a week each time. Tylenol every 4 hours helped. But I could not lapse at all, I had to take it 4 hours on the nose or the pain would come back.

Diarrhea-especially for those with underlying IBS-D, look out for you IBS-D sufferers! Please make sure you get Lomotil AND Cholestyramine. You will need both, no question! And plan on not going anywhere for that week.

Chemo rashes, yup but tolerable. Just a bit itchy nothing too bad. Totally manageable for me. I had a bad rash when I was pregnant and I fell in love with Gold Bond for itch. Keep it in your purse and around your house. It takes the itch right out. Great stuff!

Drea

Kelly, if you haven't seen it already, check out the thread "Anyone of just Taxotere and Cytoxan?"  It's always on the front page of the Chemo forum, and I think this link will work too: http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/69/topic/697783  It's almost 100 pages long and many women (including me) have posted info about their TC side effects there.

I'm on Day 11 of tx 1.  I am not exactly starving all the time, I sure can put away food, and I do so without worrying too much about it.  Also having some unlovely skin problms that sound like yours -- flaking dry skin combined with acne, what's up with that???  I had shooting pains in my legs on Day 4-6, amongst other pains.  OTC pain meds didn't help, even Percocet didn't on Day 4 (the worst day of all) -- but fortunately it's more or less resolved on its own.

I'm sorry you have to go through this.  It helps me sometimes to focus on the fact that there's an end in sight -- both to the chemo and to the effects -- and that I'm doing this for a damn good reason.

Best,

Drea