taxotere side effects

Hi Ladies - I am now 11 weeks post chemo, and pop in every so often to see if I can help with some of your questions

Emilylaugh - you darling girl. Your Mom is so lucky to have you, and the best thing you can do for her is show her how much you care. Your Mom will feel really tired after she finishes her steroids. The pain in the chest and throbbing is fairly normal,you can feel your blood coursing around your body. It is just a horrible SE. If she has a temperature then you need to worry. If it goes over 37.5, take it again in an hour just to make sure. If it continues to rise you need to see a Dr. Don't let her drink a hot or cold drink during this time, as it will give a false reading.

Jeanieb- I think if I was you I would want to carry on and finish as soon as possible. Having said that you are one strong woman to have had so many. I don't know if i could have handled 9!! Super Woman!!

Some of you asked about neuropathy and the pruning of the feet and hands. They are two different SE's I think. I didn't really find anything to help with the pitting and wrinkling of the fingers and toes. I used cream, and still do but I did not find it particularly helpful. I still have pitting of the fingers and wrinkled fingers and toes 11 weeks post chemo. My Onc says it is early days!! The neuropathy is a whole other ball game. Your fingers and toes tingle and ache. Tell your Onc if it is bad. They may be able to reduce your dose, as neuropathy can be permanent if left. I took vitamin B6 and 12 - don't know if it helped. The neuropathy improves after you finish chemo, and slowly gets better. I still have a problem with one foot, but this is also much improved. A lot of ladies have recommended taking Glucamin for neuropathy, and said it helped. I never took it myself.

Re the hair and eyebrows. The hair,nether regions, legs and armpits slowly start growing back. At 11 weeks I have had to shave  very fine hair off my legs twice. You will only have a very fine covering of head hair at about 11 weeks. I still have to wear a wig or scarf, but I think I will be able to leave it off at about 14 weeks post chemo. It should be about 1cm long then. Unfortunately the eyebrows and lashes are another story entirely. I still had thin eyebrows, and lashes when I finished chemo, and thought I would keep the remainder. Alas the eyebrows continued thinning until 7 weeks post chemo, and I developed large bald patches which I had to fill in with a pencil. Last week the bald patches suddenly started filling in and growing. The eyelashes continued falling out. I have only a few on the top lids, and none on the bottom lid. They have not started growing again yet, but I think they have stopped falling out. Jeanieb - a few ladies have reported that their hair did start slowly growing after the 4th Tax treatment even though they continued chemo- you may be lucky!

Re herceptin. It is the only infusion I have now. The SE's are a walk in the park compared to Tax. I get really, really tired for about 5 days,and my nose still runs, but that is all. Hang in there ladies!!!

charlotte14 - Kelly gave you good advice. I had FEC before I had Taxotere/Herceptin. I lost my hair with the FEC and most of the eyebrows/eyelashes - the Taxotere finished them off. The ice caps for the hair aren't covered here and very expensive so I didn't try them. I had my hair buzzed off at 14 days after my first chemo, it had been coming out for a few days and my scalp was very tender. Buzzing it really helped with the scalp tenderness.



As Kelly said, by my last Taxotere my fingernails were changing and experiencing peripheral neuropathy. It looks like I may lose a couple of fingernails. If I had to do that over I would request icing of fingers and toes, it wasn't offered by my nurses. Someone else will be able to tell you when and how long for the icing.



Lots for you to be thinking about. Know that after the first one you will have a better idea of what to expect for how your body reacts to the chemo. keep asking questions, you sound like you will be well prepared and do well. Sending hugs.

Just wanted to add that I missed a page when I answered Charlotte, didn't see all the other wonderful advice given until after I posted

Hey all, as a nurse I can tell you that with many different types of central IV access there may be difficulty drawing blood if the patient is dehydrated and/or the catheter opening in the vein is up against the wall of the vessel. That is why the bending over and moving your arms etc. can sometimes happen. Patients may have trouble drawing blood from the port one time and then not the next.

Sheryl

Thanks, Sheryl, for the port information.  I'm hoping tomorrow will be the day that it works and I won't have to wait for the cathflo.

Fight4two: For what its worth: I get a Neulasta injection every three weeks, always the day after a chemo infusion. My wbc's have remained high from the start. Chemo #5 next Wednesday.
Now if I could only boost my rbc's. Next blood draw Monday. Good luck!

I did 6 TCH every three weeks, then continued H for another 11 tx every three weeks.  I received Neulasta 24 hours after each of the TCH tx.  Never had a problem with WBC, and responded well to the Neulasta.  There is nothing you can do or eat to raise your WBC on your own.  Many MO do a "wait and see" with WBC and do not give the Neulasta (or Neupogen) until there is a problem - this is both for insurance reasons, and also because some people don't have as much of an issue with WBC and the docs do not want to introduce another drug with unpleasant SEs.  After each Taxotere tx your WBC nadir (low point) is at about the 9 day mark.  Potentially the problem with the two week interval is that there is not enough time to bounce back before the next tx.  The three week interval offers more of a cushion.  Dropping RBC can be affected to a certain degree by diet, but the number docs look at for blood transfusion purposes is not your RBC - it is your hemoglobin.  One affects the other, but the hemoglobin is what oxygenates your blood and that number is what the decison is based on.  Consumption of red meat and leafy greens may help keep your hemoglobin high enough to avoid a blood transfusion.  By tx #4 my hemoglobin had dropped to the 9 mark, most docs will transfuse at 8 or below, or a higher number if you are symptomatic (extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, confusion, dizziness) and I managed to keep my number high enough by eating a LOT of red meat in the last 10 days prior to the next tx. Also, protein is helpful in repairing the body.  I also got weekly CBC to monitor WBC, RBC hemoglobin and platelet count during the time I was receiving TCH.  After completing chemo and moving to Herceptin only every three weeks I got a CBC on the day of Herceptin only.

Emilylaughed: I am glad it sounds like the doc is tweaking your mom's regimen to ease her symptoms. Those steroids are nasty too. I started out taking 16 mg the day before and the day after chemo, plus 10 mg with the chemotherapy. The steroids were giving me horrible stomach pain so I have dropped my pre- and post- chemo dose down to 4 mg - with doc's permission of course! Since I don't have any edema or other problems that the steroids are supposed to prevent, I don't need so much. I do miss that steroid high, going out and gardening, shopping, cleaning and all like a mad woman!

SpecialK: that is interesting about the blood levels and how they change at different points in the cycle. My blood is always taken just a day or two before the next 3-week chemo round, so they are at their highest. The hemoglobin cut-off where I go is 10. Mine was 10.9 last round and if the trend continues it will probably dip below ten next time.

I heard about platelet transfusion but my MA also said something about another supplement that stimulates your body to produce the hemoglobin. She said it wasn't safe for all patients. I will be very interested to learn more, if mine does keep dropping. I sure don't like the muscle aches that keep me from exercising. I still walk and do my elliptical as much as I can, but it is very little, just 10-15 minutes at a very slow pace. And hills? Forget about it!

Dr. at the hospital said baking soda, salt and water for mouth sores....another patient said hydrogen proixide, swishing it around....also she swears about aleovera juice that here they sell at trader joes!!

Chemo today, nothing happening yet cept for the mouth sores!!!

Sandy

Emilylaughed, first let me say that I love your user name, I actually smile each time I read it.

Knowledge is scary, believe me as a nurse this journey has been scary because I know of the stuff that can go wrong. However, knowledge is power, use the power and call the doctors you trust for the advice. I need to research nuelasta more and it may cause a temporary increase in WBC's but still 50 is thru the roof.

Never be afraid to ask questions and never be afraid to ask again. When I first started working as a RN in ICU's I would ask 1,2 and even 3 other nurses the same question. One asked my why I bothered asking if I was going to ask others. My answer was that the more opinions I got on the same subject the more credibility to the answer. Works for me.

Take care, Sheryl

Blondie, salt and soda rinses work great. After every meal, brush teeth and tongue and rinse with warm salt & soda water. No other mouthwash. I have done it from the start and have only had very minor sores that disappear within hours. My oncologist says this is the most effective remedy. Works for me!

I think that you loose your hair on most chemo regimes for breast cancer.....I lost most of my hair on Taxotere alone.....I still have to wear a wig but I still have hair bits everywhere which I'm amazed...I only had x3 Taxoteres

Special K: Thanks for responding! Good information to know. I will ask about the risks of anemia vs transfusion. Maybe what the MA meant was 10 was the number for the Procrit, but that sounds risky too. I feel constant ringing in my head and ache every time I stretch my arms or legs, but I'm not as incapacitated as I remember being when I once lost a lot of blood all at one time. I was unable to walk from one end of the house to the other without resting. My count at that time was 8, and they did nothing. I just ate a lot of iron-rich foods and took an iron supplement.  Then again, when my grandmother was bleeding internally she got to the point where she would pass out every time her count got low. I don't ever want to get that bad. Scary for me and for my kids. It also bothers me that I can't exercise very much and I know that affects my energy level.

I get my next blood work in 2 days and will find out how it's looking on Wednesday. I'll be interested to see how quickly it's dropping. I'll ask about iron supplements too.

MsW - what you may see is a stairstep pattern, but may not be that noticeable without weekly CBC.  I found that my hemoglobin would drop, then improve slightly, then drop again.  The ringing sensation - is it in your head or your ears?  Carboplatin has tinnitus as a SE, so that may be what you are experiencing.  If you are symptomatic - lethargy, confusion, dizziness or shortness of breath, by all means, pursue a blood transfusion, but with a HgB of 10 you should not be experiencing that degree of anemia symptoms.  I definitely had burning large muscles, fatigue upon exertion (like a walk up stairs or across a parking lot), and general tiredness from tx#4 through #6.  Also, don't forget to take into account having had surgery less than a month before starting chemo - anesthesia SE last a while as well. 

Hi all, I finished chemo in Sept but stop by and check on all you taxotere ladies once in a while, as I had a love/hate relationship with it myself. I just wanted to let Powermom know that I had some port problems too. The one nurse who never had a problem with getting blood always accessed the port with me lying back all the way in the recliner. Several times when others would try and draw when I was sitting up I would end up needing heparin and a half hour "time out" before things would flow. Hope this helps. Minimal ses to you all.