Weight Gain

miniki02

Hello.  I am 33 years old and was diagnosed with Stage 2 ER+ breast cancer in April.  I have done 4 rounds of AC and am starting my first of 4 rounds of Taxol on Friday.  Since the first treatment I can't stop eating.  I have gained about 17 pounds.  I have a hard time doing any activity because I am just so dang tired.  Does anyone have any advice or suggestions? Thank you!

april485

Hi miniki,

Well, since I did not have chemo, no advice for you on this, except one clue might be how tired you say you are. I know that I gained weight after starting my AI because it makes me very tired and I tend to reach for food to try and create energy (low fuel kind of feeling and thinking that food may be the answer although rationally, I know it is not!) cause I feel so low. I decided to try a little more exercise and voila! Appetite decreased some. While I am still carrying the weight I gained, at least I am not still gaining! Hugs and good luck!

Sinsin

It's the steroids. They can make you hungry and eat more. Best advice I can give to help with that is to eat smaller meals and more of them so that you keep your metabolism at a constant flow. And also, try to eat healthy. As to the fatigue, that is very normal and sounds like you're on a dose dense Taxol regimen so fatigue maybe even more prevalent than for some who are on the weekly doses. But it is still chemo and fatigue is an expectant side effect. It's also cumulative and can add up too. So just take it one day at a time and if you need a nap and can take one, do it. There is NOTHING wrong with that. You're body needs the rest as it's being poisoned. So just hang in there!

Kicks

We all react differently to the different drugs and chemos.  I did 4 DD A/C and it did not slow me down at all but the 12 weekly Taxol had me completely and utterly exhausted the entire time - either in bed or on couch in front of TV.  It seems that those who have it relatively easy on A/C will find Taxol harder and visa versa - hard A/C, easy Taxol.  The exhaustion did start getting  better one week after last infusion and was better daily even though I was going through 25 rads that started a week after last Taxol.

The steroids given with infusions is what causes eating more for some - weight gain.  For some of us though they don't - I lost weight because I never though about eating at all.  Hubby had to call me several times a day to remind me to eat.