Starting chemo August 2017 - would love some moral support!

rdeesides- I didn't have any mouth sores thru 4 AC doses. I did develop mouth sores (2) during Taxol after I got lazy rinsing with water, salt, baking soda after eating.

I definitely took Claritin during AC and lucked out as I escaped bone pain from Neulasta

Keeping hydrated is important during chemo. Be sure to really push liquids the day of chemo. Also, take any prescribed anti-nausea meds as dosed. It is much easier to stay ahead of nausea than it is to keep a pill down while vomiting. With AC, for me, I was good until Saturday (chemo on Wednesday) when pre-meds had worn off. I got queasy pretty often over the weekends and found that eating (even chicken noodle soup) every 2-3 hours helped. I drank ginger tea, diet ginger ale, and peppermint tea to calm my tummy. Also wore Sea Bands on both wrists a ciypke of times. By Monday, I felt better and continued to feel better til next AC treatment.

Best of luck to you

DodgersGirl- how are you doing with your taxol??? All the reading I read I'm getting scared.

Paulette,

I just finished my 6th Taxol today. It is so much easier than AC. My only complaint is a little tingling in my hands and feet which comes and goes. I've been doing acupuncture for that. On day three I get a little bone pain but nothing crazy, it's bearable. No mouth sores as of yet. I did have an allergic reaction the last three times including today. It lasted less than 5 minutes. MO keeps upping Benadryl and more steroids each time. It comes on 7 minutes after they start the Taxol and then they give me more Benadryl wait 20 minutes and restart and then it goes smoothly. The reaction is that my heart starts to palmitate and I feel a rush of heat come on. It's not scary because the nurse has been sitting with me to watch for it.

Hope this helps. Also, love your hat

Angie

Angie,

Thank you for the information, I have only few SE from AC they are bearable my MO always said the taxol it is milder than the AC. I was hoping he didn't lie / tunedown about SE.

Many thanks and good luck to your remaining treatments.

PK

1 a day is what they told me R (claritin)

Thanks Paulette and SweetP, I just took one. Maybe starting a bit early but better early than late I hope

Paulettek- Taxol 12 is tomorrow for me and I can't wait to be finished. AC was harsher but there was also a break between infusions. My Taxol is weekly so the " feel normal" days are fewer with Taxol.

My SE are completely different with Taxol First few treatments I had bone/joint pain that were mitigated by Aleve. Bone pain diminished the last few Taxols. Taxol is very drying to the body. It really dried out my sinuses and leaves them feeling swollen, hard to breath through my nose, especially at night and so my mouth dries out. I use Ocean saline spray to help moisturize sinuses and Ayr Gel to keep inside my nose moist. And with Taxol 11, my nails are quite sore to the point it is hard to do some things No discoloration or breaking of nails just nail bed pain. And I did develop 2 mouth sores with Taxol. But found Kank-A from Blistex helped along with consistently remembering to rinse after eating with salt, water, baking soda. No nausea with Taxol. Some weeks I had to take a chocolate x-lax and some infusions I had to take an Imodium and some required neither. The Benadryl in my pre-meds gives me restless leg feelings during chemo and the steroid keeps me wide awake the night of the infusion. I have adapted to these and don't think much about the SE other than the nail pain but won't miss the SE after chemo

Each of us is different so hopefully your Taxol will be a breeze.

Clearpath- love the sentiment about doing something fun because I feel like I lost a spring and summer and it saddens me when I stop and think about it (which isn't often as I find myself living in the moment m, day by day, right now)

DodgersGirl- thank you for the info I have the same schedule as you 4 AC every other week then 12 Taxol weekly. I was worry the right taxol schedule my body won't have enough time to bound back. Good luck to your last Taxol then you are done 🙌🙌🙌

Clearpath- since I started chemo my life and body turned upside down. I'm trying to enjoy on my good days don't think about the bad days. But it is hard to do because now I don't sleep well on good days unless I take Ativan.

Teaspoon- good luck with your second infusion many of us found the same SE. I will have my third on this Friday.

Have a good days ladies .... I actually get used to My scarves wrapping now

VL22 - What are you getting for Nausea? I got a prescription for Ativan and also something else. Both things cause drowsiness. I am not very happy about that. For some reason I don't remember now, she wasn't on the Zofran train. She did say if I needed something else to let her know. I guess I can take the Ativan as soon as I get home from the infusion? And I have already started Claritin and drinking tons of SmartWater. I hope I'm on top of this.

R

R - I was prescribed Zofran and Compazine initially. I don't think the Zofran worked for me. When I was still feeling nauseous he added the ativan for before bed and a steroid twice a day - this seemed to work for me. His suggestion for next round is to start that first night with the steroid and use through day 5, compazine and ativan as needed. I do think the anti nausea drugs made me foggy and headachey

I started the Claritin the day of my infusion and took four days and had no bone pain.

So weird, I only have Ativan and Prochlorperazine. They both cause drowsiness so I won't take before infusion, but will wait till right when I get home. I will take an Ativan the night before.

I wonder why I didn't get Compazine or Zofran.

R

EDIT: I now see that Compazine is the same as Prochlorperazine....

So frustrating, I don't want to have to be drowsy in order to not be nauseous. Will see how it goes and ask for something else if needed.

rdeesides, Prochlorperazine is the actual drug name of compazine. Compazine is just a brand name. It makes me ridiculously sleepy, like can't keep my eyes open sleepy. I took one at bedtime a couple of times on AC when my stomach was iffy. They gave it to me at my first taxol infusion and I asked them to switch me to something else the next time, so they gave me zofran instead. My MO did say that it is excellent at controlling nausea, though

Thank you!

I had my first infusion of CT. Not too bad in terms of 5-6 hours staying the recliner since most time I was drowsy under the drug. After the infusion, my head wa foggy and my body was tires thati had to go direct to throw myself into bed!