Taxotere, Carboplatin and Herceptin
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It's hard to tell what is affecting me in what ways. I don't think I noticed any side effects from the steriods... or from the 5 prophylactic neupogen shots. I think my new MO isn't doing either...
Maybe he'll give some steroids with the chemo? I guess I'll have to wait and see how he does it. He just postponed my 2nd chemo for 2 days because I still have some of my diarrhea problem which landed me in the hospital for dehydration. .
I am now able to eat more things so I'm fattening myself up in case my appetite gets killed again...
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april - I posted on your other thread with some more detail and food to eat/avoid, but you really need to eat throughout the time post-chemo even if you aren't hungry. Has your new MO suggested whether he feels that your Big D issues are from the Taxotere or the Perjeta? Perjeta has the Big D as a well documented side effect.
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I'm trying to eat as much as possible now that I feel a bit better. Also taking probiotics and pedialyte and eating bananas... D problem is better but still hanging on a bit.
MO seemed to think it was mostly due to the taxotere... which he might want to reduce....
I'm going in tomorrow for chemo. Hope it isn't delayed and that they will use my port...!
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good luck April. I hope chemo isn't delayed. I was told D can happen from perjeta so chemo plus perjeta could really do a number on your GI tract
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oncologist reduced my taxotere! He also has me on powdered glutamine with water 3 X a day. And BioK probiotic.
My port was used! Chemo went fine yesterday. Feeling ok today. Also had my first solid bm. So yay!
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Great news, april!
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Wondering if anyone else's heart function has been affected by Herceptin? If so did you stop Herceptin all together or just skipped 1 or 2 treatments? Has your heart function improved since stopping Herceptin?
My routine echocardiogram showed a pretty significant drop in function from my previous one 3 months earlier. I am now under "normal" range. I am seeing a cardiologist on Wednesday to determine if I can continue Herceptin. This crap just doesn't stop!!!
KThielen - a prophylactic hysterectomy just because you are ER+ sounds extreme....it more depends on what stage cancer and other genetic predispositions you may have. I can say it has never been recommended to me by any of the doctors I've seen (even 2nd opinion docs). However, I do have a friend that had her ovaries removed (age 40)...she was stage 3.0 -
Hello ladies, i have questions. I had mastectomy on the right breast on 12/2013 with tissue expander placement . On 5/2014 removed expander n replaced with silicone. This past November 2014, i noticed a thick straight line from my abdomen thru my rib cage. It kinda hurt when i raised my arm up. That think line feeling tight. Possible cording?
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Soriya it sounds like cording. Contact your doctor. They usually can stretch this out. I had it in my right arm.
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Lago, what caused cording on my abdomen? What did I do wrong?
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Jennliza -- a friend of mine had reduced heart function due to Herceptin. Her treatment had to be delayed until her heart function recovered enough to go on. She still has reduced function but is able to stay active.
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Sonya - that does sound like cording, but I have never heard of it happening in the abdomen since cording comes from the lymph nodes in the axilla reacting to surgery. Cording usually goes from the axilla down through the arm.
I would see your physician. It is possible it is some weird form of scar tissue forming (and I guess a weird form of cording???). Either way it isn't a normal response and should be checked out. And fixed so you aren't in pain! And BTW, you did nothing wrong. Our bodies are individual and have a mind of their own!
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soriya I don't know for sure if it's cording but it sounds like it. It's not your fault. You must stop blaming yourself when things happen. This sometimes happens to some of us after surgery. You'll probably need physically therapy to stretch it out.
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thank you dance n lago. I'm going to see my MO this Wednesday, definitely will ask him about it. It seems to get a little bigger...since November.
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i had some fat taken out around my abdomen for fat grafting for my right boob. I wonder if that causing the thick line.
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BTW cording can happen in the abdomen
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Wow, fascinating! Have you met women on here it happenned to? I know it can extend down the side of the trunk, too, (not just down the arm) - originating from the armpit where the lymph nodes are removed. But I was picturing it coming from the front of her stomach up to her ribs from the way she described it, and had never heard of cording developing that way.
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When I first had implants placed, I developed cording from the surgery site down my rib cage. There were several cords on each side. I broke them myself while in a very hot shower by using both hands and stretching the skin really tight. They make a snapping sound when they break. Not for the faint of heart.....it feels kind of creepy. Otherwise, you can go to physical therapy to have it done.I also developed cording down the inside of my arm after lymph node removal and managed to stretch and break those.
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honestly i don't really know if it starting from abdomen or my rib first. All i see one straight line from my abdomen n rib...but did not see any connection from my arm where i had my nodes removed. There were 2 lines but the first one seems to decrease in size doesn't hurt anymore but this one seems to be bigger. I went to see my nurse practitioner at my PCP office last November she said, it looks like my veins not to worry about it. Well, since one of them is getting bigger i am worried about it now. I apologize for this long post. Thank you so much ladies!
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Soriya - I'm in PT for truncal LE. After the nodes were removed from my upper chest & arm, I'm learning all the fluid has to flow down to the groin, as it can no longer move laterally. My daily LE massages includes around the implant on the side, down the front of the rib cage and down the abdomen past each side of the navel to the groin. Lymph fluid has an even harder time draining when scar tissue has grown, so my PT is working on breaking up the scar tissue too. Maybe you should ask for a referral to an LE therapist.
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Also note they say that cording might put you are higher risk for LE but in my case the arm that had cording has no LE but the other arm without has LE>
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soriya - You can develop fluid in the tunnels made by the cannula used for harvesting fat from the abdomen during fat grafting - it may be that. When was your fat grafting done and how soon after did this appear?
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specialk i had fat grafting done the end of may 2014. I noticed that thick line beginning of November.
Minustwo i will ask my MO about it.
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Jennliza, my Herceptin was stopped in September and not resumed until December due to concerns about my heart and the ejection percentage. After tests including a 3d MRI I was given the go ahead to start back on Herpeptin. I'm scheduled to continue every 3 weeks until August, with occasional echocardiagrams. I've been having a lot of tooth throbbing and just discovered through Googling this that Herceptin has been implicated in tooth throbbing, aches and tinnitus. So, the side effects are nothing like the TCHP I was getting, but the H does have some side effects that are irritating!
Does anyone know why the time period for Herceptin is a year? Does it destroy the Her2 protein for good or is it a characteristic of the cell make up for some of us for life? I've linked to the Her2 app and the illustrations of a normal cell and all the receptors Her2 adds to a cell was helpful to me in visualizing what is being shut down with Herceptin.
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Fiona, I've wondered about the timeframe for Herceptin as well. Why a year?
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CassieCat that is what they tested in the study.
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I believe they have also trialed some shorter and longer Herceptin time periods, linked below. Seems to be a mixed bag of results:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23764181
http://www.womenshealthcouncil.org.nz/Features/Hot+Topics/Herceptin.html
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Thank you for those links, SpecialK. That helps me see why 1 year persists, rather than 6 months or two years, for example.
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cassie - you are welcome. The one study that did not show a great deal of difference - at least in the short term - between 6 months and 1 year should also be helpful for those who had to delay or curtail Herceptin due to cardiotoxicity.
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I think in some other countries (I forget which, maybe Australia, Finland, come to mind) they do a much shorter protocol as standard of care.
I also read that there has been a study on administering Herceptin as an injection (after the chemo portion of treatment is done) and it was successful. Sorry no link, just something I noticed out there. Would be interesting to get a shot instead of infusion. (Preferable to me, if all things were equal.)
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