Desperate for info on AC chemo treatment started September 2018

Expat2uruguay

I'm not able to get good information from my doctors because they speak Spanish and I don't . so any information I get here is going to be absolutely critical for my health . I got the first treatment this morning and have vomited twice, at the 8th and 13th hour following treatment . I don't really feel nauseous I just can't keep anything down, including just water . I'm going to try to talk to someone tomorrow but I need to be educated on what is normal for treatment

also, it would be helpful to know how I can expect to feel on the first day following treatment and the second day following treatment Etc. That way I could hopefully better plan to do the things I need to do...

I have been reading the Articles here, but I didn't see anything that gave a timeline, and there may be good reasons for that.

moth

Are you doing just AC or AC + T ?

Anyway, I'll link you the BC Cancer Agency protocol for AC + T and if you're not doing T, just ignore that part. http://www.bccancer.bc.ca/chemotherapy-protocols-s...

The nausea treatment protocol is in this document. It's considered high emetogenic so they used the drugs from the first box on p. 2 of this document http://www.bccancer.bc.ca/chemotherapy-protocols-s...

I had oral meds to take before the treatment, and them a variety of scheduled meds (as in that document above) and some that I took as needed. Because some of the good anti nausea meds are steroids, you get a bit of a steroid boost for the first couple days. I had my treatments on Thursday. Monday following treatments was a very weak and shaky day for me because by then the steroids were flushed out of the system. Steroid crash is what you'll hear it called. Tuesday & every day after was better. My nausea was well controlled with the meds they prescribed, so long as I took them regularly & by Sat night nausea was all gone and I tapered off the PRN meds.

So hopefully they either have or will prescribe for you some of the medicines in that protocol. I was also told that on top of all the prescription meds I could also take dimenhydrinate which is an OTC anti nausea medicine here. It is also available as a suppository if that ends up being the only way to get it into a person. It usually makes people drowsy & I took that the first night after each treatment so that I'd sleep through the worst of the effects (just set the alarm to take all the scheduled prescribed meds)

hth a bit! It must be frustrating (& scary!) to go through this where you're not able to communicate well!

Expat2uruguay

thanks moth. You're an absolute angel!

Expat2uruguay

Got that protocol appears to be for dose-dense. Is there one for the standard treatment regime?

kdrake1007

Expat,

Did you receive pre-meds before your AC infusion? Hopefully so as that would have contained the anti-emetics/steroids that Moth mentioned. How many AC infusions are you scheduled to receive? You may well be receiving dose-dense infusions.

AC is a tough regimen and my reaction was different every single time. I threw up after my 2nd infusion. I did have some nausea, but it was more of an acid reflux reaction all during my AC treatment. Zantac (ranitidine 150 mg) twice a day helped tremendously with that. Also helpful was really increasing my protein intake with meals, especially the morning of and during infusion.

Good luck!

Kim

kdrake1007

As for the timeline, everyone is different, but generally, Days 1 (infusion day) - 3 aren't too bad as the steroids keep most serious side effects at bay. Days 3-5 steroid crash, fatigue, nausea. This is where the anti-naseau/acid reflux meds help most. Days 6-14 you usually feel better. Because the accumulation of side effects are somewhat cumulative with AC, each infusion will generally take you longer to "get over". By the 4th infusion, I felt pretty crummy for about 9 or 10 days.

moth

expat - I think I linked to the regular one? It's repeat every 21 days for 4 cycles which is regular dosing for AC here.

http://www.bccancer.bc.ca/chemotherapy-protocols-s...

(dose dense for AC is repeat every 14 days)

What schedule have they got you on?

Expat2uruguay

I am on a 21- day cycle. I went and saw the doctor yesterday and got a anti nausea medication zofran. They didn't tell me how long I would be taking this, but there's only 10 pills in the package, so I imagine the nausea is not expected to last long. They told me to take it 3 times a day but I want to try to get by with twice a day.

I don't know if I'm taking steroids. I am receiving herpecin.

I'm going to be working I'm getting a English-speaking oncologist. One has been recommended to me, I just need to talk now to the hospital. in about 2 weeks I will start the 3-day regime of shots that are supposed to help boost my immune system. There is so much information and new terms here that I'm feeling quite overwhelmed and unable to organize my thoughts well. So I apologize for my scatterbrainedness,