Weekly Taxol for Stage 4
Comments
-
so it looks like I'm back to chemo tomorrow. My Onc has agreed to drop my dex dose down to 4mgs as it has really disrupted my sleep over the past 8months. I didn't realise how much till I had a few weeks off and started sleeping like a baby. If that goes well he will look at dropping it altogether.
So no 34 tomorrow or do I have to start counting from 1 again?
0 -
That's great, Shazza. You keep on counting as far as I know, at least that's what they do here. Hope you're well!
0 -
You look great, Shazza. As far as I know it's #34 tomorrow!! Good luck! How are you feeling now?0 -
I'm feeling pretty good. I'm sure the good sleep I'm getting at the moment is really helping and I'm recovering well from the surgery. Guess I'm keen to get started again don't want to let those pesky mets get on the move again.
0 -
So glad to hear you are feeling well. Nothing like some rest to allow the body to repair itself
0 -
Shazza, good to hear that you have recovered enough to restart your chemo and have got over the surgery so well. Wow - number 34!
I am planning on asking my onc to reduce my dose of anti-histamine (chlorphenamine). It wipes me out the day of treatment and I can barely keep my eyes open. I regularly fall asleep in the middle of my tax infusion. The chemo nurse suggested that I might take an oral anti-histamine before I go to chemo as I have not had any allergic reactions to the treatment. I generally feel well on treatment day and am disappointed that I do not get the opportunity later in the day to do anything as I feel so 'dopey' from the chlorphenamine. I have been sleeping OK this week so I don't know if I need to look at my dex dose just yet.
Tigre, How are you doing? Last I read you were in hosp for blood transfusions.
Chris, so you were in hosp having your port checked. I posted a msg on your new thread.
Aoibheann and SyrMom, hope you are well and had a nice weekend.
I have taxol number 8 scheduled for this thurs and scans a week today to see if it is working. At least I am hoping I am going to have number 8 this week. I have a rash in on my groin for which my GP has put me on antibiotics. It was itching like mad yesterday which made me think it was fungal so I went and got some OTC fungal cream and have been rubbing that in and it is helping. I am not normally one for self medicating but it is a holiday here today and I had no option but to self treat, or scratch myself raw! It looks like "jock itch" not an infection. Who knew I could get that because of taxol?
Hugs, SW
0 -
Springwatch I got my antihistamine changed very early on as you aren't allowed to drive with the one they give here and It really wiped me out. I go to work after chemo so that doesn't work. I take an oral one before I go to chemo and it's been great.
0 -
May I ask the name of the antihistamine you are now taking, Shazza? I will ask my onc if I can possibly change to the one you are using.
0 -
Springwatch I take 10mg of loratadine
Just home from chemo. Didn't seem to be any problems with the reduced Dex dose. Lots of the staff came to say they had missed me. Hope everyone else has a problem free theme this week.
0 -
thanks Shazza. I will check it out with my onc when I see him next.
0 -
#26 taxol completed today; uneventful, thank goodness. Neuropathy continues. Continuing to take suggested supplements and ice nails during infusions.
0 -
I had chemo no. 34 (approx) today. New registrar on oncology rota and she suggested amitriptyline for neuropathy. I looked it up tonight and it is an anti-depressant which also helps with nerve pain. I'm not sure about taking it though. I already take lyrica for nerve pain and my neuropathy is more a gradual numbing of my feet and hands and tingling/ fizzing/fumbling fingertips with tightening nails which I thought I had explained to her but chemo brain may have confused me. Afraid to take more stuff which might not work but might leave me addicted to it. I tried cymbalta but wound up in hospital with temp.,headache and vomiting.
0 -
Aoibheann,
I am fortunate at the moment not to be taking anything for my neuropathy at the moment, which seems to be confined to my left hand so have no experience of the drugs you have mentioned. The nerve pain I had at the beginning of the year was relieved in a large part by radiotherapy to my spine. My big concern with starting new drugs is making sure they don't interact with anything I am already taking. I am not always confident that the doctors look at what you are already on before suggesting a change in medication. My mother had some problems with drug interactions caused by a doctor not looking carefully at her existing medication. I don't know anything about the addictive properties of the drug you mention so maybe you should check with the doctor again to be confident.
I had my chemo cancelled yesterday because my rash hasn't cleared up completely. It is much better since I worked out for myself that the problem was fungal and not infected as my GP thought. I saw another GP at my local practice who was more on the ball than my own doctor and agreed with me on the fungal diagnosis. She came up with a couple more ideas and already it is much better.
Scans on Monday, results Thurs. Please keep your fingers crossed.
0 -
Hi Springwatch, well done on working out that your rash was fungal rather than infected. I hope it continues to improve and will be gone soon and that you're back on track. I've started to get eye infections caused by taxol. It's weird how we all react so individually to both cancer and chemo.
I'll be holding you in my thoughts and keeping everything crossed that your scans turn out fine. Please let us know how you are. In the meantime be kind to yourself and don't forget to take a xanax/ativan/chocolate/glass of wine as needed ... {{hugs}}
0 -
an uneventful no 35 for me. The reduced steroid dose is making such a difference, I wish we had done it sooner. A good nights sleep changes everything.
A couple of my finger nails are starting to lift up and my toes are a disaster black and lifting with a fungal infection too boot. I've started taking olive leaf extract which is meant to be great for fungal infections. Still after 8 months of continuous taxol I can't really complain. And still no neuropathy. Even my Onc can't quite believe that.
Hope everyone else has a trouble free week. Springwatch good luck with the scans.
0 -
Wow, Shazza, that is unbelievable no neuropathy after 8 months! Good for you!! I'm fighting it myself now and have decided not to have a reduced dose as I'm afraid a lesser dose will stop keeping me stable. At the same time I'm freaked about what the neuropathy can/does do.
Completed #27 today.
0 -
Shazza, Sorry to hear that you are having problems with your nails. You mentioned olive leaf extract. Has your doctor prescribed any antifungal treatment, too? I have heard that topical tea tree oil can help but I haven't tried it. I am persevering with the Evonail. The instructions say to use it twice a day but I am having enough trouble just remembering to use it once a day. So far so good, but I have only had 7 taxol treatments so far. Who knows what they will be like in a few months time. You are lucky not to have the neuropathy, too. I suppose not everyone is affected by all the side effects.
Aoibheann, Do you get anything for your eye infections? Are they definitely being caused by the chemo?
Syrmom, Did they offer to reduce your dose? Do you know what you are getting already? I am on 162 mg weekly.
My rash is gone completely. Just some peeling skin with new skin beneath. I should be on track for chemo this week.
My scans were yesterday. I am expecting the results either tomorrow or Thurs. I hope that it has had some effect on my lung tumours. I have been having diffusion weighted MRIs which should show activity at the sight of the bone mets so we can gauge if there is a reduction in activity since my last scan. The only area where they can't measure will be at the site of my femur fracture which happened at the end of March. While it is healing, the scans in this area will show higher levels of activity for some time. This worries me a little as it still aches - some days worse than others. So I don't know if it is the cancer or the healing fracture.
I will update you when I know.
Hugs to all, SW
0 -
Yes, I was offered a reduced dose, but afraid to take it and have it not work as it has been working. Then I would be out the treatment all together if it showed progression. I get approx. 126 mg - it's weight based, I'm told. So if I go up or down a few pounds, it's adjusted. It's a hard call to make. Stable or neuropathy!
0 -
I just found out from my MO office that once on chemo the MO usually does not return to aromasin inhibitors. They are going to double check. I'm bummed. That was my goal to get stable and try another one; I've only been on femara. I've been hoping after awhile the taxol might make the liver mets disappear; I know it's a long shot, but I've read it has happened on these boards with various chemos.
0 -
SyrMom,
Ignoring for the time being that my bone biopsy said I had TNC*, my hope was that if I could get to NED I would be put back on another anti-hormonal and monitored to see that it kept me stable. I am sure there are others on BCO that have had chemo to stop the cancer after progression on an anti-hormonal which failed. Subsequently, they switched to different ant-hormonal. It is something you should definitely discuss with your MO. I hope that his office has that wrong.
*BTW, I have asked for another biopsy as I am reasonably confident (and my onc reluctantly agrees) that the bone biopsy was suboptimal for analysis and may have given a false negative.
I am running around (or should I say limping as I haven't quite got over my fractured femur) trying to keep myself from thinking about my scan results. They will be available today. I have told my onc that he can call me at home but he may want to wait until I see him tomorrow at the hospital. He has a clinic on the same day as some of us have chemo so he commonly calls in and sees us while we are getting hooked up to our IVs and having bloods done.
So today, I am finishing off my tax return which I started yesterday, meeting a friend for lunch, getting the ironing done and cleaning the bathroom my daughter uses when she is staying with me. I have my own bathroom so rarely go in there but it is clear that it hasn't been cleaned since I was diagnosed at the end of February. Yuk!
0 -
Springwatch ... I had 2 false negative bone biopsies; was told this is common, something about it takes awhile to show positive in bones.
0 -
just a quick note. Had my scan results. All positive. Lung tumours have shrunk about 50%. Excellent response to pelvic and sacral mets. Met in neck is inactive. Can't tell with the femur what is happening because of the fracture which makes things on the MRI look odd anyway. Carrying on with taxol and having number 8 as I write.
0 -
Springwatch, fabulous!! What good news. Now rest easy, till next scan!
0 -
Yay Springwatch that's fantastic news. Looks like you'll be hanging out in the taxol thread for a while
0 -
It looks as if I will be on the taxol for awhile, at least as long as we know it is working.
Shazza, I asked my onc about changing the antihistamine to a non-drowsy formulation but he doesn't want to take me off something that he knows works. It seems there was an incident with one of his colleagues a few years ago who changed the anti-histamine for a patient and it came back to bite her as the patient had a serious reaction to the taxol. The patient was alright in the end but it has made my onc ultra cautious. I wish doctors would not base their practice on one off incidents but there seems little I can do to convince him otherwise.
Very achy when I got up this morning then remembered I had bone juice yesterday, too. I hope it doesn't slow me up too much as I have my daughter and grandson coming for a week's visit tomorrow. Really looking forward to their visit. Not so much to cleaning up the dirty finger prints all over the windows and furniture after they go.
0 -
Hi all, this is my first posting to this board or any board, hard to talk about everything that is going on, my husband insists that I need to reach our and talk to ladies that are dealing with the same issues. I was diagnosed in Nov. 2009 with breast cancer, lumpectomy in Dec & chose to do radiation and not chemo at that time. Breast cancer came back in Jan. 2014 Stage 4 lung & bones. started chemo in Feb. 2014 Taxol weekly. Any advise you ladies can lend would be greatly appreciated. I completed 16 weeks (Onc. stopped for 2 weeks due to having major issues with my finger and toes and major fatigue) I didn't want to stop but I kept telling myself the doctor knows best. I go back on June 9th and I am hoping they start me up again.
thanks for listening !
0 -
Hi lovelife, and welcome to our community. So sorry to hear about all you are going through, but hoping that the support and encouragement you find here with provide you with comfort and information. As for your doctors stopping the treatment, did you ask them about other alternatives? How is your finger and your toes now?
0 -
Hi Thanks for replying !
Doctors are going to reevaluate me on Monday and if they think I am adjusting well they will start me back on weekly chemo. As for my fingers and toes the pain I had in them are gone, just a bit tingly but nothing like they were. I do believe I am going to loose my nails they look so bad and are so week. Doctors did say if they do not want me to restart chemo then we will discuss other alternatives.
0 -
Hi Terri/Lovelife,
Welcome to our community. I wish it was in happier circumstances but you will find a great group of ladies on these forums who support each other anyway they can do.
I am stage IV bones and lungs, also. Just had the good news that after 7 infusions and radiotherapy to my bone mets that there has been marked improvement in my overall status so am carrying on with the taxol.
Lots of questions. Are you having herceptin or did they switch you to taxol because the herceptin stopped working? Just curious because you say you were HER2 +. I am assuming that you were getting good results with the taxol and that is why you have been on it for 16 cycles. How did it effect your lung tumours? Did you get shrinkage or are they stable?
I am sorry about the nails and neuropathy. My nails are holding out but I am beginning to develop neuropathy, especially in my left hand. I am trying a product called Evonail to see if that stops my nails becoming really bad. It is French and I have to import it. It's also hellishly expensive so I don't know if I will carry on when this bottle runs out. You can get it from Amazon in the US if you want to give it a try. See if your doctor can suggest something, too. I have heard that some people chill their toes and fingers during treatment to stop the taxol getting to them. A bit like wearing a cold cap, but on your extremities.
Let us know what you doctors say on Monday and have a good weekend.
Hugs,
SW
0 -
I'm on my second time on Abraxane. It worked very well for me in 2011 and nearly made me NED. Then some of my lymph nodes lit up and some spots in my spine, so my MO put me on Abraxane again in March of this year as of 3 cycles. I am very pleased to report that my last scan shows me totally NED. This is the best scan I've ever had!
It seemed easier the second time through than the first. Now, though after 3 cycles, the fatigue and neuropathy are catching up. Also these blamed bloody snotty nose bleeds. That's almost the worst.
0
