Taxotere side effects?
I just finished my 4th (and final) round of Taxotere two weeks ago. I am still experiencing muscle aches -- is that normal? I also have a lot of tearing in my eyes as well as a twitching in one eye. Is all of this normal? I see my onc in two weeks for a follow-up, but I would like to hear from those of you who have had Taxotere. Did you experience any of this? Thanks
Comments
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Congrats on being done with the Taxotere!!!
I had horrible eye problems, with the constant tearing oddly enough caused by dry eye. Actually, I still suffer from the tearing two years later, although it's much better than it was. It took a very long time for the symptom to diminish for me. -
Kim,
I gotta say Taxotere was pure hell for me.I honestly thought I was dying.I did 4 DD AC and then 4 DD Taxotere.Everybody told me it was much easier than AC, not for me.I told my Onc I would do 4 extra AC to skip last 2 tx.I hurt in every joint and muscle in my body.And my twitches are in my legs,arms,neck and eyes.My eyes watered so bad I thought I was going blind.I got very weak and my legs hurt so bad that I had to use a cane.I was so short of breath I couldn't walk more than a few feet without feeling like I was gonna pass out.I fell 3 times and hurt my left knee really bad.My Onc never took my complaints seriuosly.
I am 5 months out now and I am in Pain Management and take Oxycontin,Percocet,Lyrica and Motrin and still hurt.I have Neuropathy in my legs.Pain Dr thinks I have widespread nerve damage.My knee is still horrble and I have to have MRI,she said knee replacement was a very real possibility.I have arthitis in my lower and upper spine.My fingernails and toenails turned black and fell off.I don't think I will ever recover from it.If I had known then what I know now I would have refused the Taxotere.It is a great drug,very effective but geez I thought it was gonna kill me.
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\ Lisa -
Agreed Taxotere is NASTY. I did it 2 years ago and still remember all of the pain in my joints and tenderness in my feet. I had to take time off of work because of evil taxotere. I would get cramps all over my body. Also had eye infection for almost 2 months. Could not wear my contacts. Oncolo told me eye infections were rare. Taxo did shrink my tumor though.
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I was one of the lucky ones and had hardly no side effects at all with taxotere, but I do remember the eye twitching and it did last for several weeks after treatment stopped. I have mentioned on this board before that my experience with tax was so easy that after my 2nd treatment onc increased my dose to 100% and still I had no se's...no pain or anything except that my wbc went too low and I had to be hospitalized for 4 days. But, I FELT great, even in the hospital!
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I found taxotere a very difficult drug also. The muscle ache continued for me for a few months after, as did the tearing. Both did eventually go away. It took about 5 months before the feeling of being an old lady, with sore and fragile joints, went away. Now, finally, when I do my yoga everything isn't aching and creaking.
I'm starting to see how gentle you have to be with yourself after this treatment. Somehow I expected to bounce back immediately - but I'm finding that's not the case. -
Hi,
I had an allergic reaction to the 2nd TX of Taxotere.
I also had eye twitches in one eye for awhile afterwards and still feel slight joint aches a couple of months out from the treatment.
It apprears to be a strong, effective drug, but not right for everyone. -
all normal...everything everyone has said.
i've had 17 taxotere treatments (so far) and have experienced some of what you all mentioned (tears, twitching, pain). my fingernails just recently started goofing up, after almost a year on this crap it thought i'd gotten lucky on at least that. guess not! -
I had all of the se that you had kim and now, 8 mo out, I ahve no side effects. All gone thank goodness.
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I had 6 cycles of TCH and the tearing finally went away about 3 months after chemo. Good luck on yours finally going away too.
Janet -
Hi girls,
Just had my second chemo of FEC and my oncologist told me that I'm going to have 3 FEC and 3 Taxotere so I'm scared of the side affect muscle ache and eyes thing. Is there something I should prepare for before. I'm walkng 30 min a day now but then I won't be able to,that's crappy. Is there some feedback somewhere?????? -
Nadola-
I will also be taking 3 FEC treatments and 3 Taxotere, I start my first treatment this Thursday. How do you feel after your treatments, and are you receiving a booster shot as well? I work with a lady who had breast cancer and when it came to the Taxotere, it tore her up as well. I had to watch what she went through, and not I will be having to experience the drug. I will just pray we are one of the lucky one without to bad a side effect.
Jennine -
I had 4 rounds of A/C. One round of Taxol - which I couldnt tolerate. Then 3 rounds of taxotere. I pretty much could predict the bone and muscle aches. Always kicked in the 3rd day post chemo and lasted for about 3 days. I would start taking pain pills the second day post chemo just to stay ahead of things. It was hard, but I was able to do it and still worked pretty much full time. Planned my chemo for Wednesdays - which gave me the weekend to get through the achiness.
I never had any problems with my eyes.
I got constipated but I found eating fig newtons fixed that problem.
I got indigestion and was given Protonix and Reglan - that did the trick.
I think the hardest thing for me was the fatigue.
Nadola: its not going to be as bad as you are imagining. Just remember to treat the symptoms you develop. Before you know it, it will be all over.
Good luck to you.
Nicki -
Hi jenninerena,
After my treatment I'm sick with vomiting and all just for the same night,the day after I'm just in the fog and nauseated and it goes for 8 days after the 8th day I'm back to myself for 2 weeks. But my freind is not sick at all not even nauseated.
Every person different hope you are not going to be like me.
Hope everything went good today for you, and I'm not getting boosters after my blood has been good and didn't need them yet.
Good luck with this one and take the pills that they gave you it's the best to take them believe me.
Let me know how it went...
IDC,3.2cm,ER/PR+,19 nodes-,stage1,grade2,margin clear,her/2-
Nadine ~~~~~ New Brunswick -
Hi Chemosabi1
Thanks for the advises I will calm down hopefully by then, but everywhere you read about that taxotere everything is scary. I'm not going to get to nervous about it now it's only til the 2 of July that I'll go for that one.
Nadine ~~~~ New Brunswick -
I've already had my 4 dose dense of AC which were not fun but doable. I've been give 3 weeks off and am starting my taxotere next week. I'm getting 13 weekly doses. The onoc. said the AC is much worse than the Tax. Has anybody done it weekly instead of every 2 or 3 weeks? It ends up being the same total dose but hopefully not as hard as it's a smaller amount each week. He's got me premedicating with decadron before treatment.
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Hey girls,
I've been looking up Taxotere issues on the site today and came across this thread.
How is everyone doing????
I'm ok right now, had my first treatment of 3 on 7/5, but boy there for awhile....the body pain was bad.
Hope everyone is ok.
Traci -
I'm due for my 4th and last Taxotere treatment next week (had 4 rounds of A/C first).
For me, the side effects are delayed 4-5 days after treatment (I think due to the steriods I get the first two days). Overall, Taxotere has been much easier to deal with than the A/C, but with more of the smaller, annoying side effects. My worst side effect from Taxotere is abdominal cramping (with diarrhea). With the first round, it was as bad as labor pains for about 3 days. I was given a prescriptions for Bentyl after the second round, which took the edge off the cramps, but they were still there. I also have one day of all over achiness and pain from muscle and bone effects - feels like the flu. All this lasts for about 3-4 days, then I'm okay. It doesn't knock me down like the A/C did.
The small stuff includes blurred vision, weird tingling in my feet, irritation of the skin on my face and around my eyes, dry eyes, minor sores in my mouth (one time) and around my nose, runny nose, and I'm sure a few other little gifts I'm forgetting. I've avoided nail and mouth problems by chewing ice and holding an ice pack during the infusion (per my onc's recommendation).
I started chemo in February and I'm so ready to be finished - ONE MORE, YEA!!
DX 12/06,IDC,stage IIb,3cm,3 of 27 nodes pos, ER/PR+, HER2+ -
I finished Taxotere on May 24th (4 DD, preceded by 4 DD AC). While I was going through Taxotere, I had a few minor SEs...fatigue, tingly extremities, watery eyes, eyelashes and eyebrows fell out (might have been from AC but my hair started to grow back), thrush following 3 of 4 treatments, sore nail beds... I think that's it. Now that it's more than 2 months behind me, a few of my toenails have fallen off, my finger nails are still sensitive and discolored (yellowish) and today I noticed a large dark spot under one finger nail. I have joint pain, especially in my hands and hips when I first get up in the morning or when I'm still for awhile. Blah....can't wait for this to pass.
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Hi Twink,
I had 6 tx of TC and had similar se as you. I finished my last tx on 5/8/07. Just last week, my left big toenail started turning black..argh!
I have also been noticing that my feet and hands hurt in the morning when I wake up, but I'm thinking it's from the tamoxifen, not the taxotere...who knows. Are you on tamoxofin? -
No tamoxifen for me Lynn... my cancer was triple negative. I can only pin the se's on the Taxotere (or delayed SE from AC), unless arthritis is setting in a little early ;o( As for the discolored nails ..brown, yellow, black, whatever... I've heard other women mention this SE from taxanes. Could be worse I suppose, my hair could fall out again. Just in case I've kept wearing my wig to work (no longer feel the need outside of the office)... chemo sucks, doesn't it?
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Hi all. Don't want to be a party pooper but Taxotere is killing me! I do 3rd of 4 tommorow and to be honest I'm not sure I can make myself go. Had 4 AC prior. The cumlative effect of the chemo is full force. I feel nauseated 3 weeks out of the chemo. Don't know what to do. I've got 2 little boys and no husband so I'm trying to do this for them. But the side effects are killing me. I'm not sure how else to put it.
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I'm so sorry to hear that. What other se's are you having? What are you taking for the nausea?
I'm experiencing the cummulative effects, also, especially with regards to my blood counts. I just had my 3rd Taxotere, after 4 AC.
Best wishes,
Cynthia -
I hear you ilove... unlike most of my chemo buddies, I found Taxotere to be more difficult than AC. At least with AC I just felt spaced out and icky. With T, I had some real challenges and continue to see the effects. Fortunately extreme nausea wasn't one of them. Have you tried additional nausea meds? You're sooooo close to being done...just two more! Slug through, you can do it. Before long, you'll look back on this and wonder how you made it but it'll be over. You're doing the right thing for your boys.
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I had 6 tx of TC...after the first couple, compazine and zofran were fine, then at the 3rd and 4th, I really started to get bad nausea that lasted about a week. My onc put me on Emend for tx's 5 and 6, it made a huge difference.
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Had reaction on 1st Taxotere treatment. Then they challenged me again.....reacted again. Second day.....more premeds then they dripped it in over a 3 hour period. Six hours for full TAC treatment. On fourth TAC treatment they dripped the Taxotere in my veins in 1 hour. They never told me they were doing that. I got sick for the first time on the 4th treatment. I had a distended stomach due to fluid......emergency hospital stay with obstructed small bowel and fluid around heart. Four Taxotere treatments were the norm a few years ago (based on my research). You use to get and some still do, 4 AC and then 4 Taxotere. Then the new protocol was to get all three TAC together for 6 treatments. My oncologist said after getting released from the hospital 2 times..........."Well I think 4 TAC treatments should be enough." I COULD NOT AGREE WITH HER MORE.
Changed oncologists and Kaiser after that incident! -
I have had 7 weekly treatments and have 5 more weekly treatments to go. I was originally going to have 3 treatments, 1 week off and then 3 treatments and so on till I have 12 treatments. 3 weekly treatments equal 1 normal session. My onco. told me that dosing it this way makes the se very easy and actually gives me a 30% better chance. I'm one of the tripple negatives. I am actually doing so well that he is skipping the week off part and I'm going weekly straight thru. I only had to premedicate the first 2 treatments to make sure I didn't have a reaction and now I just get the steroids with the chemo. I drive myself to chemo and feel a little unwell that evening - not nauseated - just a little weird. By morning I'm fine and doing whatever I want. My hair is even growing back. Unfortunately, on my legs too which can be hard to shave since I've had tram flap reconstruction.
September 5 is my last treatment. That means I will have made it through a lumpectomy, radiation, and 5FU in 1995; bi-lateral mastectomy with tram flap reconstruction, 4 dose dense of AC and 12 weekly of taxotere for 2007.
Cancer at 32 and again at 44...I don't have anymore female parts left....Here's to positive thinking and no
metastatses(spelling?)!!!!!!!!!!!!! -
Thanks all for your perspective. At least I know I'm not nuts and I'm not the only one! Just got home from the chemo. I'll have the neulast tomorrow and I expect to be sick starting Saturday. My onc said that he's giving me massive doses. That's probably why I'm having such a hard time!
Twink thanks for the word of encouragement. When I read your response I knew you were right and I had to go. -
I am starting chemo with Taxotere on Tuesday, and the nurse told me today that it will cause tearing in your eyes.
You say that you are finished with your treatment? YEAH!!!
I am just starting, and I am SO SCARED!
HARLEY -
After reading all these posts, I am even more scared... Oh, how will I ever get through this chemo?!!
HARLEY -
Harley,
I have had 3 out of 4 Taxotere so far and no tearing. It doesn't happen to everyone. I read that it's more common for those on the weekly schedule.
Good luck and you'll be done before you know it!
Cynthia
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