TCH - what to expect? and THANK YOU!

I just started TCH.. no side effects as of yet but I’ll be keeping an eye out for the days to come.

I’m on the same boat as you as to what to expect in the weeks to come. I have 3 more treatments of chemo and continue with 25 rounds of radiation and hercepton for a year.

I think the worst side effect of all is the hair lost as well. Im trying to be positive I will maybe like it as the fuzz starts to grow like amber rose I mean it’s a big trend these days lol. I have some wigs in case. It will be a change but will be for a better outcome.

The best of luck to you in your treatment!! I will keep you in my thoughts. Have a good night

roots - what are the T and C in your TCH? Am I remembering correctly that there was some confusion about the regimen? In your post you say TCH over six weeks, my TCH (Taxotere/Carboplatin/Herceptin) was six infusions over 3-4 months. I am hesitant to advise not knowing your drugs for sure, but I would wait to cut your hair - I did not lose mine until day 24 - 3 days after my second infusion, which is longer than most, but I was glad to have hair for those 24 days. I had long hair which I cut off and had made into a hairpiece for myself - made by this company: Best money I spent on prep.

http://chemodiva.com/

If your TCH is the same as mine, I felt ok day of infusion, mostly OK next day, kind of mildly flu-ish for a couple of following days, fatigued but not sick, and the last 10 days before the next infusion felt totally normal. If you are to receive Neulasta I would advise taking a regular Claritin (10mg loratadine) starting the day prior and every day for several days - helps with bone pain. Discuss that with your oncologist. Everyone is indeed different with side effects - ranging from just feeling a little tired to flat out in bed - doesn't appear to be age/strength/health dependent. I would advise you to hydrate - a lot, take the anti-nausea meds even if you don't feel like you need them - better to prevent it than chase it. I stuck to blander food, stayed away from acidic and spicy, cold things tasted good, ate a lot of soup, yogurt, fruit, toast, and potatoes in any and every form! I found it hard to read books, but could concentrate long enough on magazine articles. I did a lot of binge-watching of TV shows via Netflix. I did not require a lot of help around the house - I could still do chores, grocery shop, cook, clean, I had no problem keeping track of and paying bills, etc. The last 10 days before the next infusion I went to lunch, shopped, met up with friends, etc., pretty much normal stuff. I was off work at this time because I had 5 surgeries prior to starting chemo, 4 were unanticipated after the BMX, and my job was in a bio-hazardous area of the hospital so my oncologist requested that I take leave.

Edited to add - I did cut my hair prior to chemo to make my hairpiece, but I didn't shave my head until after day 24.

I had TCHP x 6 rounds, once every 3 weeks. The day of each infusion was okay, maybe a little extra tired in the evening but that may have been stress as well. Days 3-4 were the worst in terms of body aches, exhaustion. I never really had nausea, but I took the nausea meds as ordered to prevent it. I would usually have constipation for the first few days after followed by diarrhea. The diarrhea got worse in the later rounds and I had to take medication to help with that. Pretty much everything tasted bad to me, but I ate because I was hungry. I had some mouth sores after the first round, but that one was also too much and put me in the hospital with febrile neutropenia. My hair started to really fall out by around 20 days after the first round. I had Neulasta with the second and third rounds but felt worse (with Claritin) and ended up switching to Neupogen. I also had pretty severe gastritis but that was corrected with Omeprazole and Carafate.

I would advise going ahead with the hair donation if you think you want to do that. Once it starts to come out, it will be too difficult to do.

mine was taxotere, carboplatin , herceptin and perjeta. Are you sure about cyclophospamide??? I see you haven't been prescribed perjeta, perhaps this is not yet standard of care in Canada. But would be worth to check with the MO nevertheless.

My first TCH was yesterday. 4/24/18 I also will not be receiving Perjeta. According to my oncologist my 1.9cm is just shy of the 2cm required for Perjeta. Or at least I thought that was the reasoning. I also was borderline HER2+ IHC came back negative but FISH was positive by a small margin so maybe that also played into the standard of care. I split my time between London, Ontario and Michigan but am receiving treatment in Michigan because I had previous cancer treatment there 7.5 years ago.

All in first round went well. Slight problem with port (nurse's guess is scar tissue from previous chemo) so I had to use a pump this time. So 7 hours at cancer center yesterday added some to fatigue. I started Zofran 12 hours post premeds just to be safe. Recalling last chemo I woke in the night very ill and vomiting. Once again I woke at 2am nauseous so I added the Compazine. I plan to continue alternating the two until my Neulasta OnPro infusion this afternoon because I had it placed on my belly and worry vomiting could interfere with that.

Also, to share from my experience: I did intermittent fasting during chemo. Basically all food intake was between noon to 4 or 5 pm. The diet was plant based: vegetable soup, brocoli, mushrooms, cabbage etc. all cooked daily by my guardian angel (mom). I never had nausea or vomiting, nor constipation or diarrhea. However, I did have acid reflux. And I was fatigued and my hair and period was gone. But other than this I had no side effects from chemo.

Neulesta instead gave me horrendous bone pain, and I had to change to Neupogen. However, my wbc were below normal, and I had to be on antibiotics to prevent infections several times. Actually, I believe the acid reflux was due more to antibiotics than chemo, as it started as I finished my first round of antibiotics.

Also, I didn't take any prescription for nausea. I did take some pills after coming home after the first infusion because I was scared about what could happen. But then I became more courageous and decided to wait and see. After that, the only pills I took during chemo were the steroids.

I wouldn't say that the SE's were minimal. I had pretty much every SE known to occur - and a bunch that had my doctors scratching their heads. It was a haul.

That said - I don't really have any permanent SE's. The very slight neuropathy in my fingerstips is still improving. My heart function only dropped 5-10% and is still well within normal (and should improve). Nails are still a bit of a problem.

Everyone is different. I hope that you have very few problems. Just listen to your body. Taking daily notes helped me to be prepared for subsequent rounds.

Thanks DATNY SE unfortunately hit right before weekend but I was able with the power of Imodium and Zofran to enjoy the graduation.

I'm guessing Days 4 - 7 will be the bad days. Anyone else have opinion.?

Thanks BellasMom for the advice. I'm going to definitely look into the Gas-X since I've now had two episodes of bowel incontinence and am almost afraid to leave the house. I've been on Imodium for 4 days and still diarrhea. Today I'm going to try and stick to the BART diet and see if that helps.

Anyone with advice on the bowel incontinence ? I'm seriously considering getting some adult diapers or pads.

Robyn-

My first two rounds felt way worst than a flu. To be honest, I felt like I was dying. But I hadn’t educated myself on how to minimize SE’s. The third time around my husband and I did a lot of research on what to do and take even before chemo day and the 3rd time around was different. The worst thing I feel so far third time around (I’m day 10 after the third chemo), is my mouth became EXTREMELY dry this time, not even biotene was working. My husband can see white dryness on the roof of my mouth. And the taste in my mouth this time around was way worse, also. Due to all this, my gag reflex was heightened and I puked twice on Saturday. I also haven’t been been able to eat or drink properly since Friday. Buthopefully today all this is subsiding. I also can’t sleep night. I sleep more in the daytime.

But all in all, keep up with all the possible side effects medications even if you don’t have the SE’s and that should help. I’m thinking that because I took so much medication, that may have caused the bad dry mouth.