Taxol - First Treatment; day after side effects

JCNC

Hi - I had my first treatment of taxol, herceptin, perjeta about 24 hours ago. During the taxol after about 10 min I had a reaction and they stopped, dosed with more Benadryl and steroids and then made it through perfectly fine .

Had some flushing of the face and chest and slight chest tightness with a scratchy throat. They said it was a relitavely mild reaction so they continued.

The next day, about 24 hours later (pretty much a little while ago) my face was flush and warm, so was my chest and had a slight itchy throat and itchy chest. Took 25mg of Benadryl (1 pill) and started feeling a little better.

Is this reaction normal and can I continue to take Benadryl as needed. How long might this last? Do I need to be worried if I am still flush for another 24 hours and experience some of these same symptoms as mentioned above?

Thanks for listening and your help

Heya24

I think you should call your doctor or a nurse and ask about it, because that sounds like an allergic reaction. If they OK'd it during your injection then I don't think it's serious, but you might wanna call and ask just to be safe, ok?

Is it any better today? Any changes? Everybody responds differently to chemo, hopefully this'll be the worst you have to deal with. I hope everything goes well!

JCNC

Hi Heya,

Thanks for responding. The second day it was better - not as much of the allergic reaction issues as day one , the diarrhea came into effect though probably as a result of the herceptin and perjeta, but some Imodium helped that.

Doc says it's ok to take allergy medicines like Claritin or anything like that and he was saying he wouldn't consider these symptoms even yellow flags. It's just crazy not knowing what to expect during this process and just not quite sure at times what is serious, what to keep a close eye on , or what is actually 'normal'

Heya24

I know that feeling, chemo really messes with you and a lot of the normal reactions to chemo look the same as the symptoms that you have to watch out for, which is pretty scary at first, but just make sure to mention everything to your doctor and after a while you'll learn what's normal for you. It wasn't until after my second round that I knew for sure what was normal for me! So just hang in there, it'll get easier Best of luck!

muska

Hi JCNC, from what I recall a little bit of flushing happens to almost everybody. From your description however, it appears you had more than just a little bit of flushing. When you come for your next taxol infusion mention your symptoms to the nurse. Maybe they can increase the duration of the infusion slightly, that might help with the side effects.

ThePrincess

Herceptin and perjeta are famous for causing the Big D - but the first dose is a larger loading dose, it will be lower for all the subsequent ones - hopefully that will help... Rumor is to watch out starting day 5-10 also.

Good luck!

proudtospin

just had first taxol treatment yesterday

Guess i am doing ok since i discussed my alergies with onco ahead, they included some benadryl with my infusion, i am alergic to all nsaids so i have learned to stick with tylonel for pain

Sort of sniffly today and just took a Claritin

Way tired and trying to figure out what to eat?