Taxotere side effects?

Dear Linda,

I am so happy to read your blog. I completed my first 4 rounds of A/C chemo and I too breezed through it with very little side effects. I stayed healthy and worked 60 hours per week,

I just had my 2st round of Taxotere and I was miserable on Day 3,and 4. All of a sudden I have shooting pains in my knees and shins. I have heel pain (like heel spur pain). I have chest pain and severe muscle pain in my shoulder blade area. I have severe pain where my lumpectomy was done. Today is Day 5,I feel better but my upper back is killing me! I am still walking my dogs to get some exercise. Your blog made me feel much better. Thank you.

KC

After reading all the postings I'm really scared to start taxotere this week? It seems most of these posting are 2 yrs old.....could the SE's have changed within the last 2yrs? Can anyone comment on taxotere SE's that is more recent? I've been out of work now for 3 months and was hoping to go back the first week of Decemeber...jobs are not plentiful these days....I need my job! People have been telling me taxotere SHOULD BE EASIER THAN THE AC TREATMENT I JUST FINISHED...I thought the SE's of AC was killing me ......now to know that this treatment MAY continue those SE's in addition to having shortness of breathe and my toenails and fingernail MAY fall off.....I'm REALLY SCARED...I was hoping for some SE's reliefs.......Please someone tell me IT WILL BE EASIER THAN AC!

I'm beginning my fifth of six 3 week cycles tomorrow.  I get Taxotere and Gemzar on Day 1, then Gemzar on days 8 and 15, with one week between,  Both Taxotere and Gemzar are very powerful drugs, but I have had no nausea, no vomiting, no extreme fatigue, no problems with my nails, no mouth sores, nothing much out of the ordinary.  I get great pre-meds (steriod, Pepsid, and Benadryl) and have no side effects at all from the chemo drugs.  I take the Neulasta shot on the Day 2, but even that has been tolerable with the Claritin/Aleve "trick" I learned from the ladies here.  The only side effect I have had is hair loss, and it never completely fell out - just thinned to about 1/4 of my usual volume.  And it's begining to grow back now.  I have about an inch of colorless fuzz and look like a baby chick. 

 I work a very demanding, stressful job and many weeks, I work more than 40 hrs.  I take off only my chemo day and have never felt the need to take off any other days, even though I could if I needed to.  Quite frankly, I've been amazed at how good I feel most of the time on these drugs.  I have a great appetite and no "icky mouth" at all.  I was scared to death to do chemo, but it's been pretty easy and uneventful.  Have faith in yourself......YOU CAN DO IT!

I'm a newbie to all of this and need some help "from the trenches" in making a difficult chemo decision.  I am 50 and  have stage 1 BC, HER-  with an onco score of 17.  Although I'm in the "low risk" scale, I'm  at the  high end of it.  I  had a lumpectomy in october and sentinal nodes were clear.  My doc is pretty much leaving it up to me whether chemo will be part of my treatment.  My survival odds are listed at 95% with chemo and 89% without.  He says that the chemo regimen would consist of 4 cycles, with one treatment per cycle using Taxotere and Cytoxin.  I plan on radiation and Tamoxifen, but naturally, chemo will be first.  If my score was in the intermediate or high range, this decision would be a "no-brainer" and I'd would have no choice but to do it. But,  because my score is where it is, chemo is an option for me and I'm trying to decide if the side effects and risks associated with chemo are worth the small 6% benefit I would gain.  Has anyone else been in this position or willing to give me some insight?

That's something I didn't think of.  I'm meeting with my surgeon next week to help me with my final decision and that's something I'll bring up.  Thanks and have a good Thanksgiving!

The taxotere and then the neulasta i had to take were rough.  the first time I had the tax, i went into respiratory failure and they said they would not continue but I knew I really did not have alot of choice and would suffer thru this suciky chemo.  I had every se including all the rare ones.  my nails turned black, my toenails fell off and a couple of my fingernails did also.  I itched all over and the joint pain is still here with me a year after chemo ended,. I am on Femara after Arimedex did not work and the joint pains were so horrific.

But keep in mind chemo kills the cancer and other cells also.  What real choice do we have?  We are all survivors.  after 5 months after I finished and without training I decided the morning of a gilda's club walkathon to go and try.  I figured I would walk one block.  It was at a race track and one hour later and in alot of pain i finished one mile!  I was so thrilled that I did it and it was 99 and humid that day with bright sunshine.  Two of my oncology nurses t ook part and when they finished with me (they did 2 miles) i was proud as punch.  Of course I came home and slept for 5 hours.  LOL but the fact is I was determined not to let cancer and the bad stuff bring me down.  I hope I never have to go back on chemo but if I do, at least I will know that I will survive. 

I haven't noticed any visual SE's. I just did my 6th of 8 Taxotere doses, and the cumulative SE's are creeping up. My hands are cracking and peeling and my heels hurt. I've also started developing mouth sores and everything tastes like cardboard. My nails are OK for now.

Beggy?  That sounds almost exactly like me except for my onca test wasn't able to be done by the time they cut up all the tumor, for some reason, they didn't have enough to test.  I don't know.  So my Onc is telling me that just to be on the safe side, I'm "young" so I should get Tax  & CytoxanX4.  I'm terrified.  Did you do it?  Are you doing it?  How are you if you are?  thank you!!!

HI- just wanted to weigh in- I just finished 12 rounds of weekly taxo, and it wasn't too bad for me. I had A/C beforehand and got every side effect you can have, landed in the hospital, was so sick for months. But the tax- it was fine. I would totally reccommend the weekly style, at the lower dose, to anyone whose onc is willing. Same amount n the end, but less hard on the body each treatment. I have some lingering fatigue, my feet are extra chilly, but that's it. I had a tiny bit of twitchy eye, but it stopped. Almost all the SE issues I had were from the steroids that you have to take with it, and those are awful, but managable with lots of ativan (and then something so you don't get constipated). So it doesn't have to be terrible. Good luck to all..

Becca:

How did you go about getting the tubes?  What kind of doc did you have to see, and what did the surgery consist of?  Are you put under for it?  Are the tubes permanent?

Thanks!

Shirleyl:

I think I spoke with you on another site about the 1 in 16 women who don't have hair regrowth?

I was given 4 dd AC & then 8 single dose Taxol. I started to have a lot of neuropathy and the doctor decided to switch to the less toxic "Taxotere."  I had 2 single doses and 1 1/2 dose of Taxotere that really knocked me off my feet.

The side effects of Taxotere were much worse than the Taxol.  I had a lot of the symptoms mentioned and many that I didn't know that were related to the taxotere. The worse one that was dizziness & motion sickness.  I could barely stand up. I am still having motion sickness that I think is still related to the Taxotere.

My last treatment was 6-13-2008. This time last year barely had 1 inch of hair  & very sparce. Now 2 years later it is slowly getting thicker. It is still very thin on top, but about 4 inches long.  I have had a few trims. 

My eyebrows are barely there. Probably have about half my upper lashes and less than 20 lower lashes on either side.  So my eyes still matter a lot.  I wash them everyday with baby shampoo and use Zyrtec eye drops, this seems to really help my eyes a lot.

This is my humble opinion but I don't plan on taking Taxotere ever again.

Taxotere: I am on Taxotere,I have one more to take ,sept.1st. and I have had nothing but trouble.

My eyes never stop running,they are puffy and itch.cant hardly see to drive.I broke out also in a rash,I have a yeast infection in my mouth everthing time I go for the treatment. Feel like I  have the flu all the time,But they keep giving me this,with all the side effect you would think they would Have switch me .If I can just get thru this last treatment of this,Never again Will I take it!! Cant wait untill I am finished.Any suggestion that you used for your eyes?

I am  on my 4th treatment of taxotere, carboplatin and herceptin and have had really bad SE from the taxotere.  I have the eye twitching, just recently though, teary eyes constantly, just now developed the leg pain and muscle aches. The gastro problems feel like I am gonna die, seriously makes me so ill. two more treatments till the chemo is over and I can't wait. My oncologist warned me taxotere can be real tough on some people.

I went through 8 treatments of taxotere, cytoxin & 4 of adriamyacin.    I didn't quite know what caused what SE's because I had all 3 at the same time.  I did get watery eyes.  My onc said to take benadryl or an antihistamine daily and that helped a little.  I also got pretty bad nose bleeds all the time on chemo.  At times I had bad muscle pain, but not constant.  Melatonin helped at night to help me sleep and relax.  I took vicodin when I had muscle or joint pains.  All in all; the results outweighed the SE's.  It took a long time but my scans looked pretty good after 10 months and I'm stage IV.

Terri