Preventing Nails Toxicity During Chemotherapy

NATSGSG

Hello Sisters:

Hope this message find everyone getting well and good... I would like to share 2 piece of possibly good news with you that could help if your chemo treatment involves either paclitaxel or docetaxel drugs.

(I) PACLITAXEL INDUCED NEUROPATHY TO FINGERS & TOES

I shall be going for a 12 weeks current paclitaxel + herceptin chemotherapy  (once a week for 12 times)starting next week. One of the side effects of paclitaxel is neuropathy to our fingers and toes (decrease functions of fingers/toes due to nerve damage). My MO suggested that I bring 10-16 frozen blue ice in a thermal box or container. He said soaking my fingers and toes in ice water during that part of therapy could reduce potential harm to my fingers/toes. He gave me  a list of other things to bring each week. My initial session would be 4 hours, subsequent 11 sessions to be 3 hours.

1) Water proof floor mat;

2) Container to put both hands into (I bought a 14 x 5 x 5 inch plastic container from $0.99 store) - before I sit in my chemo chair, he said to fill the container with enough water so that water level completely covers both my hands. Ditto for the toes.

NOTE: Please be sure to urinate before starting therapy as it would be real inconvenient to go to the toilet once it starts;

3) Bring a large enough pail to soak my feet in. This is to place on the floor mat so the floor will not be wet;

4) 10-16 blue ice, frozen and kept in thermal box/container next to my seat. When the blue ice becomes warm, I should ring for the nurse to take out the warm blue ice, and take the still frozen ones from the thermal bag (for both hands and feet) - 2 for hands and 2 for feet (4 per 45 mins x 4 = 16).

5) Towels to clean any water spills.

Don't need it for the herceptin portion (1 hour) but I will need it only for the paclitaxel portion.

Before paclitaxel, I will have an hour of 3 anti-allergy drugs intravenously injected to prepare my body for the paclitaxel IV. So half an hour before paclitaxel begins, I should start soaking it in water so that by the time paclitaxel in injected into the IV line, my hands and legs would be sufficiently cold already. This soaking should continue for another 30 mins when the paclitaxel IV is over, to be sure.

He did say it would  uncomfortable BUT I am willing to do whatever it takes to reduce any nerve damage to my fingers and toes. After all, once you get it, it is hard to recover from for some people. What is a few hours of discomfort compared to long term benefits, right?

My MO said this has not been scientifically proven, however, patients of his who underwent this therapy who opted to follow this suggestion did experience lesser degrees of neuropathy to their fingers and toes in the long term. He said he'll suggest to this patients but in the end, it's our decision. Upon further clarification, he did say that thus far, it did not work on 2 of his patients. I like this honesty.

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(II) DOCETAXEL RELATED TOXICITY OF THE NAILS/HANDS

If you receive docetaxel as part of your chemo regimen, you could get toxicity in your finger and toe nails. So you can use the same routine above, or buy the cold gloves. Here are two links from the National Library of Medicines that proves that by so doing, you can reduce  docetaxel-induced onycholysis and cutaneous toxicity of the hand.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3411307/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15994152

Again, while this is no guarantee, I hope it would help us in varying degrees... Should you choose to follow these procedures as outlined above, please come back to this thread, and share with us all how it went for you.

All the best in your recovery as well

PS:

Oh, one more thing - because there are several toxic drugs being put into me, my MO said as soon as I get home, to try to drink 1 litre of fluid (whatever it is that I can drink). Water can taste like drainage water, so we should experiment. I intend to keep 1 litre each of  grapes, orange and apply juice in the refrigerator). It helps to discharge the toxins. Then to drink another litre an hour before bed.

Thereafter, I am to try to drink 2 litres of whatever fluid I can so that these toxins can be discharged and my body cleanse during the next 6 days. Where food is concerned, he say to eat something soft in the food category the nutrionist will tell me.

He told me to buy Biotene mouth wash and start gargling 4-5 times a day now and continue every day until the end of therapy. This could prevent sore mouth.

I did not ask him about supplements, but I intend to take supplements to boost my immune system every day except on chemo day. My gf who had breast cancer took it and her immune system is still good. Another gf who did not take it found her immune system weaker from chemo.

Let's see how all these goes...and I will report back...hehe