Stomach pains

Not abraxane but taxol, which is just a different form of paclitaxel. It trashed my gastrointestinal system. I was fine for the first 2 months of weekly infusions but then I started having an atypical response - excruciating stomach cramps and non-stop diarrhea that lasted for days after every infusion. I started weekly taxol in September of last year, and the first time I had the severe abdominal pain and diarrhea was in December. At first we thought I picked up some kind of bug or virus because my immune system was compromised and my MO insisted that paclitaxel didn't cause that SE. Did a 10-day course of heavy antibiotics coinciding with my week off, it seemed to resolve, but then it started right up again after my next infusion, and it got worse and lasted longer after each subsequent infusion. Stomach pain was so bad that I spent several days each week curled in a fetal position and crying - when I wasn't running to the bathroom, I was on fentanyl and morphine at the time but they didn't put a dent in the abdominal pain. Diarrhea become uncontrollable and explosive lasting for days. Immodium etc did nothing to slow it down. I couldn't leave the house because I didn't dare step more than a few feet away from the bathroom and the pain was so bad.

After several weeks of the symptoms getting progressively worse I was convinced the taxol was causing it because of the timing - just when I started feeling better, it was time for my next infusion and then it started all over again. My MO kept insisting it wasn't a side effect of paclitaxel and we continued to look for other causes while I toughed it out. When I switched from weekly to 3-week dosage it damn near killed me - I couldn't eat or even take a tiny sip of water for 8 days straight, explosive diarrhea every 15-20 minutes for over a week (and then only 20x a day for the next two weeks), stomach pain was so intense that I wanted to die. My life was pure hell. I finally told my MO that I'd rather die than live that way. He finally believed that it might be from the taxol and agreed to let me try skipping a dose. Said he had never heard of anyone having that kind of reaction to paclitaxel. I don't know why I tolerated it so well in the beginning, but I guess one day my body decided it had enough. When I finally started improving after skipping a dose, he took me off it completely. Took me over two months to get back to "normal" after my last infusion.

I'm not really much help to you because we never found anything that would relieve any of my symptoms, just wanted you to know that you're not alone in getting intense stomach pain from paclitaxel, though yours may be due to a different reason. My MO kept telling me that paclitaxel doesn't cause that kind of reaction and I was getting so frustrated. The only thing that worked me was stopping paclitaxel. I tried to tough it out best I could but when I couldn't eat or drink for 8 days straight I knew the next round would land me in the hospital. Nothing we tried was helping and it was only getting drastically worse each time, I had to draw the line after being on it for 5 months.

Everyone will tell you that it's not due to the abraxane because it doesn't cause that SE and you definitely do need to rule out other causes, but in my case it most certainly was from the taxol, and both are paclitaxel. At first my symptoms didn't start until a couple days after my infusion so it was hard to pin down the cause, but after several more infusions it was starting within hours and eventually it never let up. I never had the problem again once I stopped taxol.