Taxotere is a nightmare

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  • Omaz
    Omaz Member Posts: 5,497
    edited February 2011

    Big Congratulations Ellen!!!  That's great news!!

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  • marjie
    marjie Member Posts: 1,134
    edited February 2011

    YAY ELLEN!!!!

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  • Trisha-Anne
    Trisha-Anne Member Posts: 2,112
    edited February 2011

    I had my second round of Taxotere on Tuesday.  After the awful time I had last time, the dose was reduced by 10% and so far so good! :-)  Not feeling great, but certainly nowhere near as bad as last time.  Still very achy and shaky, and everything tastes awful, but so far no diaroeha - and that's wonderful, no constipation either - even better lol

    Here's hoping the next few days stay this way.

    Trish

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  • LadyinBama
    LadyinBama Member Posts: 1,132
    edited February 2011

    Hooray Ellen!

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  • coni111852
    coni111852 Member Posts: 419
    edited February 2011

    Marjie it is now available in Canada latisse but need prescription ask your onc...thanks for reminding me I called my pdn but ahe never got back

    To me about it but do ask! How are you feeling..I'm back to feeling great but tomorrow I get hit again I'm hoping second one will be easier at least that's whAt the doc and nurse said first is ways harder but we will see... :s at the same time excited to getting half way done just two more after tomorrow!



    Congrats to all of you who are done!!!

    I will defenitly try on sucking on ice while the Chemo.. Hope it helps with blisters! Not looking forward to it he only lowered the last two doses of steroids and the neaulasta shot fro

    6 to 4 ml thank God! Last time as soon last time as soon as I got it I got a

    Mild migrane...so hoping 2 3 and 4 will be a breeze!!

    as for my hair so far I still have stubble I get a few

    Tiny hair fall out when I put coconut oil on my scalp but at the same time I see hair growing the stubble I have is also growing a bit very very very slowly i hope it continues...for all of us!

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  • tracie23
    tracie23 Member Posts: 598
    edited February 2011

    Trish- I am so glad you seem to be doing a bit better than last time I will pray it stays that way. I just had my last round of chemo yestereday... still pumped on the steroides... but I am hopeing that with my new mind set I will sail through this with out to many horriable side effects.

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  • lago
    lago Member Posts: 17,186
    edited February 2011

    Yay Ellen & Tracie… your done. Happy dance.
    Sorry for the repeat. I just like this.

    Trish, glad they have managed your infusions. Although it is based on height and weight (body surface area) there are times that this formula isn't quite right. This reduction usually will solve the problem.

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  • Trisha-Anne
    Trisha-Anne Member Posts: 2,112
    edited February 2011

    Also didn't have the steroid crash this time.  I stayed on them at a reduced dose for 2 extra days, and managed to avoid that awful crash.  Intersting I didn't have a huge high this time either, only on the first day - managed to amuse all my co-workers as I was so happy - but I think that's also cause I was feeling pretty good the day before the treatment.

    I'm so happy for you Ellen and Tracie - no more Taxoterrible for you YAY!!  I can't wait to join you.

    Trish

    xox

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  • tracie23
    tracie23 Member Posts: 598
    edited February 2011

    Trisha, so glad you are doing good...what was your taper on the steroids? Do you also get the neulasta shot?

     I had a whole week with no eye twitching.. and today bam I can't keep my left eye still... you gottal love it. I look like I keep winking at people LOL... It must say I am feeling some relief knowing I don't have to go back for Chemo and I don't need radiation. The next item on my list is the Oophorectomy in a few months than in the fall I will look into getting my new set of boobs... Laughing.  Glad we have eachother.

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  • Trisha-Anne
    Trisha-Anne Member Posts: 2,112
    edited February 2011

    Tracie, I just had one steroid each day for 2 days after and that seemed to work ok for me.  No - don't get a neulasta shot - they don't seem to do that here in Australia as a matter of course - only if you need it.  So far I haven't needed it, which is good.

    I can't imagine the eye twitching - that must drive you nuts - I've also escaped that, although my eyes are pretty blurry today, reading is a bit difficult.  Still I won't complain - it could be so much worse as we both know Kiss 

    I'm also getting lots of little white hairs growing on my head too!  Everyone is starting to comment on it.  My head looks like it's got peach fluff lol

    Trish

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  • lago
    lago Member Posts: 17,186
    edited February 2011

    My eye twitching seems to be going away. I remember at one point both of them going out of sequence. Really annoying!

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  • shooshoo23
    shooshoo23 Member Posts: 96
    edited February 2011
    Hi ladies, haven't been on in awhile. My hives were just miserable and using my hands made them itch! Ellen and Tracie, YAY!!! It's such a relief when it's over! I did have the purple hands and feet and my onc put me on decadron for one round which helped with the hands and feet but my panic attacks were so bad that I didn't do the decadron again. Of course after my last tx I had horrible panic attacks AND the itchy, swollen hands and feet, ugh!! I still have pain in both of my heels....My right eye twitches so bad sometimes I just get tickled because I know I look like a freak! LOL! For all of you who are still in the middle of chemo, there is a light at the end of the tunnel! You can do it! I'm anxious to get my rads started and move forward in this journey. My set up appt. is 2/28. 
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  • thegood5
    thegood5 Member Posts: 478
    edited February 2011

    Well girls, just when I thought I was out of the woods.....I have had my nails painted for 2 weeks and I just took off my polish and yuck!  some are starting to turn black, others are a whitish that looks like they may peel.  Lovely.  As if we aren't going thru enough crap, bald, weight gain, feeling like hell, now I have black nails on the ends of my puffy fingers!  I haven't been able to look at the pics of lago's fingers yet out of fear!  But I do want to check out that ring.....!

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  • tracie23
    tracie23 Member Posts: 598
    edited February 2011

    thegood, My nails look terrible to but nothing like lagos ( sorry Lago) they have terrible ridges and the peeling looks bad.

    shooshoo: I am so sorry about your hives ... the palms of my hands and the bottom of my feet feel like they are burnt from the chemo but it usually goes away in about a week. How long do you have to do radiation? I hope you start feeling better soon. Are you taking anything for the panic attacks?

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  • shooshoo23
    shooshoo23 Member Posts: 96
    edited February 2011
    thegoodd5- Oh no! I am so sorry! I seem to have escaped the bad nails (knocks on wood)!  Tracie-Yeah, the hives are a killer. I am feeling better it just seems like the last rounds se's are lasting longer. I'm still fatigued. I will have 33 rad treatments. 5 days a week for 6 1/2 weeks. I take zoloft on a regular basis for my panic and normally that's about all I need. I do have xanax and ativant for the  attacks but after chemo nothing seemed to help! They have calmed down now. I think they were worse because of the steroids but my onc didn't seem to think so. Who knows? I thought about you today when my husband asked me why I hadn't washed his clothes that were piled on the floor. I told him if they get in the laundry room I wash them. Long story short, there was a brief disagreementYell and he told me he's gone through this whole thing too. I hope your husband is treating you well! If mine says one more time that he has gone through this too, I may just scratch his eyes out!!
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  • shooshoo23
    shooshoo23 Member Posts: 96
    edited February 2011

    Ok ladies, I have officially entered the world of hot flashes!! Omyword!! Did somebody say these might not go away?? Even without hair my head just drips! Ya know, it's bad enough to look like a puffy, bald 100 year old man. Now I look like a puff, bald, SWEATY, 100 year old man! LOL!

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  • lago
    lago Member Posts: 17,186
    edited February 2011

    I just get night flashes and I don't really get that sweaty. I sleep through most of them. Granted I will be starting generic Arimidex soon so they could get worse.

    I do hear many woman have a fan near their bed. Also many women carry one of those personal battery operated fans in their purse. The trick is to dress in layers. Start peeling off when needed. I think I would bring an extra clean shirt (and bra if you wear one) to work just in case.

    Do not be afriad to mention this issue to you onc if it's that bad. They have stuff that might help you.

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  • tracie23
    tracie23 Member Posts: 598
    edited February 2011
    hey shooshoo.... I sweat like a pig Foot in mouth And when I do get a hot flash I get so freakin mean..... all of a sudden I am fine than I am hot and ticked off...and yes the sweat just runs off my head it is so attractive....  Oh an my DH is being an ass again... I swear the minute the attention is put on someone else he shuts off... I slept most of the day but he never checked on me and when we are in the same room he just kinda ignores me... Oh well tomorrow he will be at work .
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  • Trisha-Anne
    Trisha-Anne Member Posts: 2,112
    edited February 2011

    I am finally coming out the other end of my second last Taxotere!  While it wasn't anywhere near as bad as last time, it certainly wasn't any fun.  I'm just so sick of being sick, I was healthy when I started this, and just want to be healthy again, and look like a woman, not a wrinkled dried up prune.

    Yesterday was not a great day, and my DH had taken the sheets off the bed to wash them, and I decided I needed to go to bed.  So I got into the bed in the spare room and went to sleep.  Trouble is I forgot to tell him that's where I went.  He had been outside mowing the lawn (it's summer here) and when he came in he couldn't find me.  He thought I must have gone out into the garden to pick tomatos (yeah right lol) and collapsed out there.  We are on 8.5 acres, so he did quite some searching before looking in the spare room.  Poor darling, I did feel bad when I saw how he had panicked. 

    Tracie - I really wish I could transfer some of my DH's qualities to yours - it just makes it that little bit easier when you have someone to care for you.  But I'm thinking of you - and know exactly how you are feeling.  Hopefully that will help comfort you a little.

    Trish

    xoxo

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  • Survivorwoman
    Survivorwoman Member Posts: 620
    edited February 2011

    Hi Ladies-- I haven't posted on this board yet but I hope you will let me join. I am also a Taxotere survivor.

    Tacie - I think know how you feel when you get hot and get ticked off. It just happened to me yesterday that I gave a bit of hell to a guy at a takeout place who was not too kind to me while I was fumbling with my bag and was looking for my vallet. I got so mad that I just ripped off my hat and there it was my bald and sweaty head while telling the guy: "look, I hope you never have to go through what I am going through, but would you at least be patient with me?" I think the air froze in the store for a moment.  I think I was really mean to the guy. I felt bad afterwards.

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  • lago
    lago Member Posts: 17,186
    edited February 2011

    OK here is a stress relieave for you. I suggest if you are really to click on Manic Mode at the bottom.

    Stress Relief 

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  • Survivorwoman
    Survivorwoman Member Posts: 620
    edited February 2011
    Thanks Lago , that was fun and it helps. I loved it!
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  • Char2010
    Char2010 Member Posts: 532
    edited February 2011

    Lago - I love the Happy Dance too!

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited February 2011

    Hey Tracie and all-honestly, it took about a week for the allergic reactiuon to really set in. I had only had one dose and my very first chemo after being newly diagosed-within three days my nails, including toenails turned black and fell off. I was in the ER 3 x the first week I was so ill. My onc (who I later fired) said he's never seen anything like the reaction I had, but I am finding that is not true. The onc make a ton of money on Taxotere before it went public mid year and fulll disclosure was simply not a part of my experience. Once things went downhill, my onc refused my calls and basically dropped me and i was left with noone. Noone would pick me up for fear of a lawsuit. Truly the impact of Taxotere remains today-a year later. i cannot eat most foods I cannot go in the sun, nor in heat above 75 degrees and I have fairly severe neuropathy and on it goes. Ladies, thank you all for all of the support-I am crawling out of the hole but it is a very dark place for me. Other women do Ok with it, i was just not one of them. XXOO, SV

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  • shooshoo23
    shooshoo23 Member Posts: 96
    edited February 2011

    Tracie- UGH! What is wrong with them??? That not checking on you thing must be a universal a$$ thing! I could die in my sleep and no one would know until the smell got too bad!! (ewww). When I said something about maybe seeing if I needed some water or something he said he figured I'd let him know......well I can barely move and I'm too weak to yell........

    Survivorwoman- LOL! I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to rip the hat off my head and tell some rude person "Hey I have cancer. Be nice!" I haven't had the nerve yet. I say you go girl!! 

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  • thegood5
    thegood5 Member Posts: 478
    edited February 2011

    What the heck is up with these husbands?  If this is how they act now, I would hate to see them if they had cancer.  All I can say is hang in there ladies, even though you can't go to them for support, you always have people on here that are here for you.  I know I appreciate every one of you and the advice you give and the understanding you have when we need to vent. 

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  • lago
    lago Member Posts: 17,186
    edited February 2011

    shooshoo23 have they given you anything for the hives? Usally benadryl, or some other allergy medicine should do it. I was on Zyrtec the entire time. Others have been on Claritin. This might be why we didn't get hives.

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  • shooshoo23
    shooshoo23 Member Posts: 96
    edited February 2011

    lago- I have been on zyrtec the whole time because of allergies. The first time I had hives I took benadryl every three hours. It went away after about 3 days, but I slept for 3 straight days too! The next time my onc gave me the decadron and I didn't have hives but the panic attacks were horrible. The last time I didn't have the decadron but I had hives and panic attacks anyway. I called my onc and he said to take benadryl, which I did. It took about 3 days to get better again. I was taking aveeno oatmeal baths that seemed to help too. It sounds crazy but ice packs helped too.

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  • LadyinBama
    LadyinBama Member Posts: 1,132
    edited February 2011

    Iago: Thanks for the stress reliever.

    Shooshoo: They gave me Effexor (an anti-depressant) for hot flashes. I've been on it about a month now. It helps some; not as much as I'd like it to. My gyn said to add black cohash, but I haven't done that yet because I wanted to ask my onc first if it was ok since I'm homone +.

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  • sunflowerE152
    sunflowerE152 Member Posts: 83
    edited February 2011

    I am having some mild neuropathy in my feet and very slight in my hands.  The balls of my feet actually felt numb a couple of days ago and now they just feel a little weird. My hands are not numb, but they too feel a little strange.

    I am 3/4 through  TC and just saw my onc.  He said if it was worse to let him know when I come in for chemo and he could reduce my last dosage by 20%.  I don't want permanent numbness in my feet - but on the other had I want to get full benefit out of the chemo. 

     I am taking Vitamin B - Any advice?

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