Taxol Chemotherapy

I'm going to be doing the 12x Taxol option. Can someone tell me how long the weekly infusions take?



regards Jenn

Jenn, It really depends on the nurse and the lab and whether or not you have a doctors appt first.. Best case senario about 2.5 hours... worst case a little over 4 hours.   At my hospital they do the labs the day of, so I go in at 8 (if the nurses are there right away I go back almost right away).  They take the blood, run the labs, half hour,  then the premeds, half hour, then the taxol is an hour, then I make them finish my IV bag of saline 15min...  Sometimes there is delays with the bloodwork, the nurses are busy, the taxol is not ready from the pharmacy... ect.  My worst time has taken 4 hours though.  My fastest was 2.5.  Sorry this is so vague but it really does vary.  If you hospital does your bloodwork on a different day, then you won't have to wait for your labs or your taxol to get made   Good luck!

Hi everyone

I survived first taxol, so nervous I asked him if I was going to have blood pressure cuff to let them know if I went into cardiac arrest! Well no SE at all while I was getting it, this morning I woke up with a little sunburn on my face looks like I went to the beach yesterday. I bought b vitamins and acetyl l cartinine will be taking those so I'll let you know how it goes. There are a few of the Dec. Chemo group coming over soon!

Hi ladies. I too, had UTI like symptoms for 3 weeks after my last dose of Taxol. My oncologist treated me with antibiotics, just in case. They did subside, but we're quite bothersome.

I was treated with A/C my first dose, but had an allergic reaction to the adriamycin and he substituted epirubicin which I tolerated, with the help of Benadryl, Pepcid, and dexamethazone. I had 4 of these dense dosed and had severe neutropenia , after one of which I was hospitalized, in isolation for 4 days ( WBC of .4). And antibiotics after each of them, for neutropenia but without fever. Then the Taxol.. 4 dense dosed every other week. At first, not to bad. But by the third dose I could barely get up. Bone and muscle pain and neuropathy in my feet and legs. I finished on 9/16/11. Now the joint pain and neuropathy across my back continues. I have had bilateral mastectomy, AND, port place/removal, reconstruction, 28 radiation tx, hysterectomy/oophorectomy, and started/stopped AI. Now hoping to get back to baseline before starting another AI, aromasin! If only the joint pain and all over irritation would subside. Any suggestions?

Minimacsmom, yes chemo pause starts during Taxol. Hot flashes and amenorrhea, mood swings too. I never got my cycles back before my hyster. I started on neurontin low dose 200 mg and have increased to 300 mg each night for the hot flashes. I was having severe sweats, heart racing and weakness every 15 minutes for a month before this discovery( by my radiation oncologist). Now they are hot fluffs a few times a day.

Kelly, I am so sorry you are having Taxol pain. I spent 3 months in either the hot tub or the bath tub. Lortab and then dilaudid only barely touched it. Massage pillows, heating pads, hubby rubs all helped.

Getting a recipe for sleep helped, neurontin, Benadryl and most recently medical marijuana. Wish I would have known about this before, with the terrible pain and insomnia. Wow does it help at night, so I can sleep.

MiniMacsMom, I did Adriamycin and Cytoxan before Taxol and the A/C sent me into chemopause. I'm 42 and had been regular prior to chemo.  The flashes have not been too bad - and being bald has helped!  I just take off my hat and let the heat escape... I don't know if my periods will return or not. I do remember my last period and thinking that it might be my very last one, and it was. Kinda bittersweet.

Shore1,

I did not have skin discoloring. The derm. did a skin biopsy and said I may have to just wait for the taxol/heceptin to leave my system (about three months).  It's really awful and worse than surgery and chem.  The rash looks like a heat rash with measels added :-).  Big and small welts that itch worse than a red ant bite!  The only place I don't have the rash is on my face (thank goodness).  Good Luck and thanks for writing.  Patricia 

I'm also starting Taxol next week. My concern is the amount of steroids I have to take. 20mg's of Decadron the night before and another 20 the morning of. Anyone else taking this much?



Just finished AC and my period is gone. I have had a couple of bad hot flashes but generally not too bad. Luckily it's winter!

Hi dechi, I did #10 taxol/herceptin this week. Had 4 AC first. My onc recommended B Complex vitamin and 30g of l-glutamine a day to ward off neuropathy. So far so good. No neuropathty at all, and only after #9 taxol did I start getting bone aches & pains. My worst SE has been fatigue, but I have a lot of trouble sleeping at
Night probably from the decadron I get the day of infusion combined with all my worrying & inability to get BC off my mind. Good luck with your taxol.

Tomorrow is weekly taxol #11.  Only two left!  Cannot wait.  My hair is definitely coming back in.  Its mostly grey/white, which is weird.  It was mostly brown before.  My scalp is now completely covered. It started coming in around tx #7. My eyebrows and eyelashes are still there but barely.  Regarding those that mentioned chemo pause. I am 44, had regular periods prior to all this.  Went into chemo pause while on AC.  My Onc told me she thinks it will come back. We'll see. She did say something about even if doesn't come back right away to not assume I cant get pregnant, which would be bad since I will be going on tamoxifen.  Good luck to those stating taxol.  Hope you have few SEs.  Congrats to those finishing up. 

Starting Taxol today at noon...took 20mg last night of dexamethasone and 20 this am. Both times I took a lorazepam to sleep....feel like I drank a few glasses of wine....all this is so stressful and my husband is going in case of a reaction-could happen with first dose..then he will find a comfy place to get his work done while I have my friend with me.....I am very blessed with support! 11 more to the finish line after today! Each mile stone is a blessing!

I had a lot of bone and joint pain beginning Thursday night after my treatment on Tuesday. It lasted until Monday morning. I have been feeling good this week. I have my 2nd Taxol on Tuesday. I don't take steroids before or after these treatments. I think I have a bag given before I receive the chemo drug. I also received a bag of Benadryl that knocked me out. My treatment takes 4 hours because my nurse releases the drug slowly just in case of an allergic reaction.

I went to work for a couple of hours yesterday. I am still tired of people telling me I will be back to normal when this is over!

Hi Beth--When I read your post I started to laugh-- I get Benedryl in the bag as well but I also get Pepcid first. So the pepcid is dripping in and I start to get whoosy (is that a word??).  I wondered about that and they told me that actually pepcid is an antihistime or has that in it.  By the time Beendryl comes along I am looped. I lastly get ativan/lorazapam and I am goners for about an hour!!  Nice....  because it takes them about 4 hours to do all that--slow... I don't mind that. I take the whole day off and we kind of use it as a time to be together...HA HA

Hi Laura,

I didn't want to limit my supplements to 2x a week...but my onc's directive said to--and my naturopath said it wouldn't hurt me' she's worked with my onc before and they know each other personally (a good thing).  I guess b/c I really want taxol to do its job I don't mind. Don't want any little thing to interfere with my tx...and my RBC/WBC are solidly good so far. 

My naturopath put together a list of supplements for my AC tx (all done with those) and then my taxol tx and faxed it to my onc., who approved of the list and the days I could take them.  So they all are bundled together in one "take them these days and not others" kind of schedule.  I live in Arizona--walk two miles at least daily,and it's been a dry year so far, so I'm getting plenty of sunshine at the very least I'm getting some vit D. I figure for 2 more months I can subscribe to this plan--although typically I take multiple supplements every day and it feels strange not doing so.

Claire

My onc recommended a super B complex and Vitamin D but has never said anything about ALC or l-glutamine.  Is it too late now for it to help? 

I finished 10 of 12 Taxol last Tuesday.  Friday I was very tired and last night had trouble sleeping because my toes hurt.  Today I spent the day with Clint Eastwood westerns and ran a couple of short errands.  My toes have hurt all day and now my fingertips are bothering me. Some hurt worse than others. 

I'm so close to the end of Taxol that I was really hoping to miss the neuropathy....but maybe not.

I have random stubby hair coming back on my head but now I'm losing my eyebrows and eyelashes.  I'm assuming that I will lose the rest of that when I do the FAC after Taxol.  It's a good thing that I got to look at Clint but he couldn't see me!

 As always, thank you for listening!

Phyllis