Only on Herceptin Now

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Tommilyn
Tommilyn Member Posts: 6

I completed my last dose of Taxol last week and am now only on Herceptin.  Wondering if anyone was in the same boat.

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  • sheila888
    sheila888 Member Posts: 25,634
    edited July 2011

    Tommilyn.....I was in the same boat it was long time ago.

    Your hair start growing now.

    Are you once a week or every 3 weeks regimen?

  • elmcity69
    elmcity69 Member Posts: 998
    edited July 2011

    hey tommilyn, i was in that boat in february. cried all the way to treatment, all the way home. found out slowly, though, that the new normal is great. i found it helpful to consider it as closing a chapter: there's a time and place, and then it ends. i felt fear early on, but honest to God, I am so happy back at the "new normal" (whatever it is, and somedays i'm still struggling to figure it out), I rarely look back.

    anyway, take it a day at a time. when does your Herceptin end?

    and as sheila notes, your hair growth will really take off now. :)

    hugs

    j

  • firebird
    firebird Member Posts: 64
    edited July 2011

    Been there, done that, a walk in the park. Whatever slight side effects I had from the Herceptin were so minimal they are hardly worth mentioning (such as dryer skin, especially around the eyes). I chose the every-week regimen which I believe from everything I have seen and read is easier on the body than the triple dose every third week. It certainly was perfect for me, anyway. I didn't even have any of the fatigue that is often cited as a major side effect. Again I credit the lower weekly dose for that.



    However, a cautionary note about hair growth: For many patients, although it will start to grow again about a month after the Taxol is done, it may very well grow slowly. See the thread on "Does Herceptin slow hair growth?" for comments from those of us who experienced that. So don't be too frustrated if regrowth is slower than you expect, especially compared to those who did not have Herceptin after chemo, and also remember that Herceptin takes between 5 and 6 months to entirely disappear from the body after the final dose. After THAT point, yes, your hair growth will really "take off"! :-)





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