Taxotere, Carboplatin and Herceptin
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Oh yeah let me know how you like the Buff! I ordered 6 of them and wear them every day. Love them!
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I just picked up the meds last night. Lucky for me, they were available in generic, so cheap for both. I have compazine and zofran. Need to read the info before I start so I will know what the heck to do.
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Vicki, one thing, take your meds as soon as you feel quesy so stay ahead of it. I tried to tough it out and ended puking my guts out, as well as having diarrhea, getting dehydrated and ending up in the hospital. I don't mean to scare you but things so change fast, so, drink lots of fluids, take the meds as soon as you need them. I used my compazine fairly regularly two to three days after tx, when I seemed to be nauseous the most. Good luck, you can do this.
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Okay ladies,
It is 2 days past my first tch treatment and I feel great. Sno side effects, as of yet. When should I expect them? Praying that I won't have too many, but I really want to prepare myself, and my family . Thank you.0 -
My worst days tend to be days 4, 5, and 6. Here's wishing minimal SE for you!!!!
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Started day 3 heartburn and back pain from nuelasta. Other than that the 1st TX wasn't bad. I got chemo on a Tuesday and my "bad days" were over by Sunday. I never got too bad but towards the end some of the SE didn't go away like the drippy & twitching eyes, stiffness, nueropathy (only in left heel), nail issues, water retention etc. I never got the intense fatigue. I had to keep ahead of constipation.
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For me days 4-10 were the worst.
Also you should take the anti-nausea meds BEFORE you feel any kind of queasiness or nausea - it is much easier for the meds to work if you allow them to stay ahead of the SE's as opposed to chasing them once they have already started. Waiting until you actually feel lousy can translate to the meds not working as well. So take them anyway when you get up in the morning, even if you aren't feeling sick.
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Relda I never got nausea so I never took any of those pills. I think I would wait till the first sign of nausea but don't wait till it gets bad. Seriously I have every single nausea pill other than the emmend they made me take before and the day of and the day after chemo.0
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Waiting til the first sign of nausea can be a HUGE mistake. For a lot of people waiting and then taking something when you first start feeling sick translates into the meds not working as well. I made this mistake and have heard from lots of other women who made the same mistake as well. Hard to understand it if you never had any nausea but trust me, if you DO have it? It is almost impossible to try and chase it with the meds once it starts.
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I had plenty of nausea from anesthesia, trust me and they didn't give me anything for it the first time. Second time they gave me one of those stupid patched that didn't do much either. Nausea sucks. One of the reasons why I was happy I didn't have to take any narcotics because they make me nauseous too.
Thing is how will someone know if they don't need the drugs if they take them right away? I'm glad I waited. I think the issue is people don't take them at the first sign they wait till they feel really awful and pukey.
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mom24boysz - You may have mild symptoms only! Let's hope for that, everyone is different.0
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All I can tell you is that after my first chemo I waited until the first sign - I was queasy for maybe 5 minutes before I took the first Kytril pill and it did nothing to help alleviate the queasy. For days. The second chemo I took the Kytril when I first woke up, before I felt anything, and the queasy never came. So I can only speak from my experience. Your mileage may vary.
Of course this was during my first go round 6 years ago. This time I was queasy 24/7 for 10 days after chemo, with no relief from any of the anti-nausea drugs. And I tried them all. One of the many reasons I am glad to have stopped after 4 tx
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I know I don't like the way narcotics make me feel; fuzzy in the head and a little nauseous. I will take the meds when I realize the icky is more than just typical. I always try to avoid meds as much as possible. Just having to take sleep aids these days bugs the heck out of me, but it seems the only way to sleep for more than 4 hours at a time.
Count down is on: 12 days till first infusion. Yippee...
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How exciting is this??? http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/03/health/breast-cancer-drug/index.html
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Relda, I've been reading about this for a few days and it is exciting. Let's hope that the results continue to astound aand will actually become what we are hoping it is!
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Wow, Relda, that is indeed exciting!
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vicki - my experience with anti-nausea meds was this. I was given 3 drugs to take in order - Zofran, Compazine, then Ativan. Instructions were to take the Zofran first, if it didn't work go to Compazine, etc. I was to start at 9 p.m. the day of chemo, then every 12 hrs. for the next 72 hours, whether I was experiencing nausea or not. The Zofran did not work for me and I woke up at 3:00 a.m. already heaving, literally before I could sit up, and I had no warning at all. I switched to Compazine which did work for me and that did not happen again.
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Thanks for the info specialK. I keep hoping my SE's will be minimal. Of course, everyone hopes that.
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Relda they have been testing this for a while. They tried to get early approval back in Jan. 2011 from the FDA but they were turned down. My onc is part of this trial too. What's really nice is you don't get all the SE you get from chemo because it is targeted to the cancer and doesn't go through your entire blood stream.0
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That article is exciting indeed. One thing I noticed that I never knew is that it said that Herceptin strengthens the immune system. Does anyone know what that means, exactly? It was news to me.
Interesting to me that the Her2+ cancers seem to be the ones where the most treatment advances are being made (including the discovery of Herceptin). And they're only 20% of bc patients. On the day I was diagnosed, my surgeon said that I was 'lucky' to be her2+, whereas previously it was the worst dx to get, now it was considered the best since they had more tools to fight it. It didn't sink in to me at the time (seeing that I was sobbing hysterically), but since then I have reflected on her words. I thought of them again reading the article.
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I think HER2+ is getting so much attention because the research is spun off the research for Herceptin and it's really the newest thing in breast cancer. The pharmacuitical companies see $$$.
I do believe triple negatives are getting researched as well.
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Vicki - another experience if you are interested - I was given Zofran and Compazine for home also. I took the Compazine and it made me dizzy. The first 2 infusions I started the Zofran the day after tx and took for several days after even though I had no nausea.....my MO suggested it. After the first 2 I started taking 1/2 a Zofran. By tx #5 I didn't take anything for nausea because I realized at that point that I was not experiencing that SE. I would take is proactively but keep in mind that Compazine can cause dizziness and Zofran can cause headaches. Good luck!
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mom24boyz, Everyone's experience is so different but I also found it best to take meds as soon as I felt a SE, and not a second sooner or later. First time around I took SE meds proactively and ended up having unnecessary SEs from the meds themselves. But it's true that controlling nausea is hard once it starts. Both oncs I saw told me to take my nausea meds AS SOON as I started feeling even the slightest bit of nausea, and that worked extremely well for me, I never progressed to even moderate nausea. My bad days were days four through seven, although I am on day nine from my last TCH (#6) and my stomach is hurting really bad still. My SE meds that worked so well on previous rounds (carafate + protonix) are not so helpful this last time around. Good luck on your treatment; it can feel so overwhelming at times but you will get through it. As hard as it has been I am so grateful for it.
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christina - I had breakthrough heartburn sx on double protonix, double pepcid, carafate, and zofran. The GI doc prescribed "Green Cocktail" which tastes really nasty, but does give instant relief b/c it has lidocaine that numbs your esophagus. Of course, the relief doesn't last long, so I had to take it every couple of hours when my sx were at their worst. Just sharing in case you are looking for more relief options.0
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See breakthrough research announcement today for triple negatives
! vjm0 -
Kelloggs, thanks for the suggestion. One of the issues I am having is when my sister went through all this, her doc's/nurse's gave her a specific regimen to follow: take anti nausea meds the day before, day of and day after, then as needed. She took her steroids for one week, starting two days before (she needed those for other health issues). I guess my team is more of a here is what might happen, here is what you should do kind of team. I am in better health than she was when she went through all this though. I do know that I will take meds as soon as I think I need them though.
Thanks Kelloggs, for letting me know about the possible SE's for the meds. It's always something, right?
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Iago
I just wanted to say that I really appreciate your wise, funny, sparkling posts.
As someone currently going through chemo (FEC over, on to Taxotere and Herceptin), a big thank you!
Alice
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Alicethecat glad I can make you smile. I was in rare form when I was going through treatment. The "wise" stuff I just fake. You know us women our so good at faking it.
Seriously thank you for the compliments. 0 -
Vicki - you are welcome, and here's hoping you don't need any of those meds!
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Anyone experience eye twitching? It has gotten alot more frequent, I had last TCH on Monday ( knock on wood)! And right eye is twitching uncontrollably !!
Also read somewhere some people there hair does not grow back??0
