Side effects of TCH

I have had two TCH treatments and I am experiencing similar symptoms.  After my first treatment, I felt fine until day 5 when I started nausea, severe abdominal pain, vomiting and severe diarrhea.  My onc saw me twice between day 5 and 10 and I had to have IV fluids both times because I was an absolute mess.  I had used Emend initially and felt no symptoms for the first four days.  When I met with my onc for my second treatment, she told me that I had a large dose of Carboplatin with the first treatment and that they would not be giving me so much because she believed the Carboplatin was causing the problems.  She put a patch on me call Sancuso on day 7 when I was there for iv fluids and it seemed to help with the vomiting. 

With the 2nd treatment and the lower dose of Carboplatin, I had similar symptoms but they were no where near the level I had experienced before.  I did not have the patch for the second treatment but I will have it for this third treatment on Thursday, so I am hopeful that it will be better this round.  The doctor basically told me there was nothing that could be done other than trying to find the right treatment to counter the SE's.  If they got severe enough she would stop the Carboplatin but so far so good.  Not pleasant but do-able.  Best of luck!

I had the stomach pain too. I had it after each of my treatments, all 6 times. I did not vomit, but I had nausea. I also had constipation first and then rapidly terrible diarrhea. I went on the patch, sancuso, which did help a lot. It was never gone completely though. They put the patch on me during chemo and I left it on a week. The sancuso is really an anti-nausea patch but it did help the epigastric pain too.

Good luck!

hi ladies,

i might be a bit out of turn here as i was not on tch but on tc plus avastin, (Avastin trial to see how well it is tolerated with chemo for 12 months, once every 3 weeks), i beleive they are sister drugs, the avastin and herceptin, i had those side effects on the tc plus avastin, had a severe allergic reaction after round 2 so they had to change the order of the drugs back to the first treatment apparently the 1st treatment is given in a different order to the rest and they slowed it down and put more flushes and anti sickness drugs between ivs. i found that drinking with a straw helped get the fluids into me and that the epigastric pain was at its worst on week 2 always present though and they kept telling me it was my gallbladder acting up, had scans etc that showed i had no gallstones, i have never had trouble with it was not overweight and was 35 at the time.

i do think that the medication irriated my gallbladder though and was way worse when i was sitting down, i used to get severe constipation which prune juice and peppermint tea helped and then diahrea for a few days very like a bad bout of ibs then back again, i had nausea but no vomiting thank god and apples made the pain worse. it was way worse when i was sitting down, if i went for a walk it seemed to help. it is unpleaseant but ye will get there, there is light at the end of the tunnell. it still not settled completely but i am hoping with diet and exercise improvments that it will, flax tea is meant to be very good but have not tried it yet, i hated tea while on chemo. 

once the chemo finishes the avastin was way easier and i hope it is the same for the herceptin girls, you get rid of that constant bad hang over feeling, the sinuses were and still is another thing altogether though. 

take care.