Stomach pain from taxol

Hi,

Yes yes -I had a similar problem. When i started taxol the pai. Was mild ,but each week it was worse. To the point on round 5 the pain during chemo was excruciating they gave me more meds then you coukd imagine. i decided to do research and found that taxol has a form of castor oil component in it which causes pai. And discomfort. !! If this is happening to you DO NOT SETTLE. Stop the taxol. Do you know there is a new cousi. To taxol called abraxane. The difference is there is no castor oil instead albumin is in it. There are less to minimla side effects. The Doctors are not allowed to offer it because most insurances dont want to pay because it is triple the amount of taxol. Studies also show the survival rate to be higher with it.

I am on it - minimal side effects no pain! I am thinking of starting a site to let everyone know about it. Ask your doc. They have to tell your Insurance carrier you are suffering terrible side effects from The taxol then it will be covered. Hope this helps.

Robin

The only things that helped with my stomach pain and general malaise from taxol was 1) staying ahead of the constipation with collace stool softeners and 2) GREATLY increasing my water intake. After the first three cycles I figured this out and did better when i took two collace in the morning and two in the evening, plus drinking SO much water. My daily goal was 100 ounces, though I always hit a minimum of 70 or 75 ounces. I dreaded drinking all that water and it never tasted good, but it helped my numbers stay in a good range and it helped me feel much better than the first three cycles when I wasn't taking so much collace and water. Best of luck.