Weekly Taxol group
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I feel chills usually on day 2-3.And then sweats...
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Even before chemo, I would get headaches from dehydration, not enough sleep, allergies, and stress. With chemo, I still have them, but I'm trying to drink and sleep more. I stopped working during AC so that I could get more rest.
In other news, some of my fingernails darkened after AC #3. I switched to a thick black nail polish and started putting vitamin E oil on my nails. Happy to report that my nails look much better. The areas that had darkened are lighter, and the new growth is normal. I had Taxol #7 last week.
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Had #8 yesterday. Iced. Still awake. Reduced Benadryl (12.5 mg) still knocks me out. Reduced steroids (8mg) still keep me up. How low are these doses? Each infusion nurse keeps asking about the dose. I haven't had the same nurse more than twice in 12 treatments.
I had some pain in one toenail on Sunday for maybe a few hours. I put vitamin E oil on my nails. Pain went away and hasn't returned. Haven't taken any B complex pills. I actually don't like it. Giant horse pill that makes my urine really yellow. Been eating more b12 foods.
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Thank You LoveMyVizsla for the fatigue tips!I'm savoring the get out n go with breaks days...way better than being sick in bed!
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Glad I could be of some help!
Last weekly taxol for me tomorrow(Thursday)!! I can't wait to start feeling better.
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Congratulations LoveMyVizsla! Celebrate Huge! Friday will be the last one for me and sure enough the sounds of a bell ringing will be music of praise
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Two Taxol left, these are the worst weeks for me by far. Forced Menopause has now kicked in which gives me a whole new subset of issues to deal with. Anyone else dealing with this currently? I am considering Lexapro to help with symptoms. Been eating so healthy and exercising, now all I want to do is sleep & eat bread and ice cream, nothing else even sounds good. Eye brows are now going, thought I would keep them. Is it over yet?#! Thanks for listening...
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hello, new to the group. Have just finished last AC treatment last week and feeling bad again this week as usual. I am supposed to start 12 weekly taxol treatments at the end of the month and am wondering if I will be as wiped out as I am with the AC. I have been working 4 days each week but this last two treatments wiped me out on days5 and 6 to where I can't get out of bed. What can I expect from the taxol and what is the best day to go so I can work all week. I currently get treatments on Fridays and have the weekend to recuperate. I'm stage 2 with lymph involvement, underwent bilateral mastectomy and lymph node removal. Had papillary carcinoma and two types of invasive adenocarcinoma, all triple negative but they feel they got it all and my treatments are considered curative.
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Slapp, you can do it! It's the final push! I felt worse (weak) after week 10 than I did after 11. I'm so happy to have done my last one today that I don't think anything can bring me down. But yes, I slept most of the way home.
Leamari, I could predict my bad days on AC, but I can't really say which days were worse for me on taxol. I did mine on Thursdays and was grateful to have Friday to call the nurse if something was wrong. Feel free to join our TN board
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Leamari, welcome! We hope you find these forums to be a source of information and support as you begin your Taxol treatment. We're all here for you!
The Mods
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Hi Leamarie,
I do Taxol on Thursday, Friday is my best day (steroids I guess), Sat not bad, but Sun/Mon/Tues not great. Wed is OK. So, Days 2,3, 7 are good, Days 4.5.6.crappy (fatigue and aches). Day 1 is chemo day. Chemo on Wed might work? But be sure you can sleep Wed and Thurs night! Best of luck!
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Hi Slapp! My eyebrows and eyelashes came out with Taxol. The American Cancer Society hosted a Look Good Feel Better ladies night and that really helped me with the changes and how to apply make up. In the make up kit was a Brow Power by IT Cosmetics, it makes the eyebrows look so natural! There are eye brow applications but haven't tried them. Hope you find relief. Take Care!
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On AC my side effects were so predictable, I almost knew to the hour when what was going to happen.
Taxol has been much less predictable. Day 1 is chemo day, and I feel reasonably good all day, and day 2 I feel good as well. Tired, but well enough to carry on an ordinary day. Halfway through day 3 things go downhill, day 4 I can barely move I am so tired, days 5, 6 and 7 could be anything. Sometimes I'm achy, sometimes not. Some days I have little appetite, but need to eat so I don't feel sick.0 -
LEAMARI - I had 3 ACs and found them very tough. I could not get out f the bed for 8 days on the 3rd one and ended up in hospital for 3 nights. So my 4th one was cancelled altogether and I went straight on to Taxol for the next infusion and I have to say I never looked back. So far I have had a very easy time. For the first 2 taxols I had a mini crash on the 3rd day but nothing I couldn't cope with, all down to the steroid withdrawal. As the steroids kept going down each week I have had no crash since and just had my 6th infusion today. So I am having little or no side effects so far. I will admit I would be more tired than if I wasn't have chemo at all but I can function every single day with no bother. I am on 12 weekly taxols. I have no pain, no neuropathy and I can enjoy every single day. I do pray a lot and I am putting my easy time on Taxol down to this. I am also triple negative. Wishing you an easy time on taxol.
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Victoryak, I finished Taxol on May 26th and I've just finally started to lose weight. I gained a little over 20lbs with this whole treatment from beginning to end (the better part of a year) and so far I'm about 6lbs down. I exercise regularly and am eating well, but I don't deprive myself of treats. The weight is slow to come off, but it's definitely coming. The puffiness has been much better in my face, too. I'm much less round. I'd say you'll probably start seeing results about 4 weeks after you finish. I'm getting close to 8 weeks and can definitely tell!
The nerve pain down my arm continues. It doesn't feel like neuropathy, as I have that in my toes and it's different. This feels like it starts in my armpit and travels down to my middle, ring, and pinky finger. It burns and feels like someone is pulling from the inside. Today I was trying to write notes for my students and my hand hurt so much I had to quit writing. My OT said it's likely all related to the neck tightness I've been experiencing so I'm trying to stretch it, but I'm not sure it's helping yet.
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Leamari: My Taxol weeks has been exactly like Blue Koala: Good Day 1 infusion day, Good Day 2, crash 1/2 way through day 3 , feel horrible Day 4, and usually much better days 5 and 6. That said, I am one who has had a harder time with Taxol than most: allergies and a rare side effect of hand/foot syndrome (it's different than the neuropathy, and I don't have that, as I ice my hands and feet and also take B-vitamin and L-glutimate supplements). In the end i think it is just how your body individually will handle this drug. And some people fly through it...I really did soar for about 5 weeks....! Good luck!
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Leamari
I finished taxol 2 weeks ago. I had it done on Fridays and I found Monday's were my crash days. I would wake up in the morning get the kids off to school and then have a nap and have another nap in the afternoon. I still slept all night but felt extremely exhausted on Mondays. I found taxol much easier then the AC
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Miss Bee, Your symptoms sound like cording. Is it in the arm where you have the SNB? I got cording shortly after surgery, I'm not sure if it can start at a later time. A PT will massage it to get rid of it. Hope you find relief whatever is causing it. MJS
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I just had my 6th of 12 weekly taxol infusions and my white blood counts have been steadily decreasing. From 2.8 3 weeks ago to 1.6 last week to 1.28 this week! She said they will do treatment as long as it's above 1. Now I'm panicking because I can't afford a treatment delay. I though taxol wasn't supposed to have this effect. Anyone else with this experience?? Did it continue or slow
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RUBYSLIPS - I have done 6 Taxols too, the 6th one last Friday, and my white blood counts are starting to go down. They were 3.8 last Friday and 4.1 the Friday before. I am also getting anxious that if they keep going down I may have to postpone an infusion in a couple of weeks. My Radiographer was reluctant to set a date for my radiotherapy as he said that it is very common to have to postpone a week due to low white cells. I can't imagine the white cell count going up by next Friday, so just hoping I don't run out of white cell counts in the next 6 weeks. Interested in hearing if this happened to anyone else too.
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I have an auto immune condition that has me with chronically low white counts. My MO let me get treated as low as .75. BUT, I had to do 3 neupogen injections per week, allllll through taxol. Ugh. So glad that is over. If your counts drop too low, ask about neupogen shots.
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I just did my fifth Taxol last week. In my previous post I always have body aches and fever 100.5 after the fourth Taxol. My WBC went up to 4.9 before the fifth Taxol, ironically, I didn't have any body aches this past weekend. Hopefully it stays the same with coming sixth Taxol.
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That's good Houston, at least it is not unheard of for the wbc to go up.
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I am taking turkey tail mushroom which has been shown to stimulate the immune system. NIH did a five year study with this and breast cancer. You should look into it.
Kelly
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That IS good to hear, Houston!
Numb, I guess we'll just have to hope for the same! What day of the week is your infusion? Mine is on Mondays. I'll be looking forward to hearing how your numbers look next week if you care to share
Kelly I've never heard of turkey tail mushroom. Do you think it's working for you? I'll have to check into that.
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RUBYSLIPS - my infusion day is Friday. I will be getting my 7th infusion day after tomorrow all going well. I have now developed a very sore tongue ulcer and nothing seems to be curing it. So now I have he extra worry that they might postpone the chemo until it gets better. I was doing great with my mouth up to last week. The hospital gave me a magic mouthwash but it is not curing it. I will ask to see a Dr. next Friday.
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Numb, I have not heard of them delaying due to mouth sores, so here's to hoping they don't and you get some relief from it!
Anyone else had a delay to mouth sores? Actually, what have your delays been due to and have the issues resolved? Maybe it's somewhere in this post already but it would be interesting to get a summary of things that could sabotage us!
My one delay was on week three and was due to facial numbness. It seems to have subsided since postponing one week and reducing to 85% each subsequent week.
If you haven't had any delays that would be great to hear too. Gives more hope that it can be done!
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I skipped a week because I broke out in hives. My husband was out of town, and I had taken a benedryl. There was no way I could drive myself the two hours to my treatment center, so I called and told them I wasn't coming in. The MO agreed.
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RUBYSLIPS - I have had no chemo postponed so far. I had my 4th AC cancelled altogether due to being very sick after the 3rd one, but my Taxols have been no bother, so far. I did google mouth sores and read that the chemo could be postponed if your mouth gets unbearable, because each chemo is cumulative and you don't get time to recover from any ailments, then you have another one and I am afraid that whatever chance I have of my tongue getting better it will get worse after the next chemo. It has not improved during the week at all. I have had no other ailments that would warrant the chemo being postponed. So fingers crossed I will get some kind of a prescription that heals my tongue when I go up on Friday.
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RubySlips - While on AC, I had chemo delayed due to low neutrophils. My only symptom was a mouth sore on the day my blood was tested. It only lasted that day. I needed to give myself Neupogen shots after the remaining AC treatments to prevent future delays.
Haven't had any delays on Taxol so far. I just had #9 yesterday. My WBC has fluctuated above normal range, and my neutrophil count has stayed in the normal range without Neupogen. Minor victory.
Unfortunately, I'm experiencing some neuropathy. I noticed last week one painful toenail. I put vitamin E oil, and the pain went away soon after. But yesterday before chemo even started, the bottoms of both feet started getting itchy and then really tingly. I had walked around the hospital for over 30 mins between getting blood drawn and chemo. I sat down and the pain went away within 10 mins.
Today I was doing some light exercise, and the pain came back. It's coming back more frequently now. I've started the B complex and l-glutamine this afternoon. I increased my Lyrica dose last night. I've asked my husband to pick up a separate B12 supplement since the B complex has a low dose. I have been icing, but I've been careless about the start and end times. Will be more careful.
The nurse said that intermittent neuropathy won't affect chemo treatment. I only have 3 more and don't want further delays. Hope I can keep it away permanently.
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