Red Devil

I finished 4 treatments of the Red Devil.  The first treatment was the worst, felt like I was motion sick after leaving the clinic.  Then, had some nausea the next day - not horrible, more like morning sickness.   The last 3 treatments, I've really had no side effects.  The neulasta shot kicks me in the butt.  Really tired and achy the day after getting that.  I also get several anti nausea meds with each treatment.

Good luck!

I had 4AC.  The nausea (and the all night vomiting after the second dose) was my worst side effect.  I was put on progressively stronger antiemetics until I was on Kytril (ganisetron) and I knew if I had a fifth treatment, I would have been vomiting again.

The adriamycin is extremely irritating to the bladder and has apotential side effect of bladder cancer, so you need to pee it out as fast as possible. Start with water as soon as you get up, drink water on the way to chemo, and keep drinking water during the infusion, and afterwards. 

When the urine no longer has a red tint (that is why the drug is dyed red), you are home free. I would start passing the red out while I was still being infused.

AC. Like someone else said; drink, drink, drink fluids before during & after infusions. Take your anti-nausea medications exactly as ordered. I never threw up but felt like I had a slight case of the flu the whole time. That being said, I worked full time throughout my 4 rounds (dose dense with Neulasta shots), did everything I had to and most of the things I wanted to do too. I felt worst of the first three days after, and then gradually better, the second week I felt pretty good. Try to get a little exercise if you can at all. Eat whatever you can stand (strangely, I craved mashed potatoes and Mexican food....the hotter the better!). Chocolate tasted like chalk, so that kept me from gaining alot of weight! Also strangely, I didn't feel tired but instead I felt all hyped up (like an ADHD kid without her pills!) and gittery....maybe it was the steriods? One tip I got was to keep my nails (fingers & toes) polished to keep them strong and protected. I don't know if that advice has any basis in fact, but I did it and the nails came out OK. Not a fun time, but you can get through it. Best of Luck! Ruth

I had 4 cycles of the AC too, every other week.  I feel that I was blessed and very lucky with it because I didn't have any nausea at all.  The oncologist gave me a large infusion of anti-nausea meds each cycle.  Plus they gave me plenty of anti-nausea meds to take at home too.  I took each one exactly as they prescribed, and never missed a dose.  The steriods made me super hungry.  I gained some weight during this treatment, which I guess was good, because I lost it all and then some with the Taxol that followed.  Be sure to drink lots and lots of water.  It helps.

Everybody is different in how they react.  My MO promised me I would not have any nausea, and I didn't.  I was given a pill (Emend) immediately after each infusion with two to take home for the next two mornings.  Worked wonderfully well!  The main SE I got was about the time of the third infusion I began to experience fatigue except in the mornings -- I rushed to run all my errands before passing out in bed after lunch.  Hair loss is a given.  And my white blood cells went down to just a hair below the normal range on both the 3rd and 4th round and I was given precautionary Neulasta shots, with no SEs.  What might have helped was I was set up for three week intervals between rounds to relax and let my body recuperate a bit.