Struggling to complete both AC and T... anyone else?
My journey with neoadjuvant chemo has been a rough one and I’m starting to really worry about how to proceed. It’s a long story, sorry!
I began chemo in November of 2020, and completed 3 cycles of taxol + carboplatin with no issues. I also received pembrolizumab on my 1st and 4th treatments. A few hours after my 4th treatment I developed a fever and was hospitalized for 2 days to rule out infection. During that hospital stay my liver enzymes were elevated. The same thing happened after my 5th treatment as well, but the liver looked much worse so I started a high dose steroid regimen (doctors thought it was hepatitis caused by the pembro). For my 6th treatment we tried carboplatin alone thinking maybe I was reacting to the taxol, but I still developed a fever and heightened liver response, along with dangerously low sodium levels. After that we decided to switch to doxorubicin and cytoxan. I have completed 3 cycles, but it has really done a number on my immune system and my tumor is growing (slowly, but still not good).
I just found out the tumor is growing today, so we’ll be deciding how to proceed tomorrow. We have discussed many times going back on carbo-taxol because it was really effective, so I think that’s probably the plan. For as long as I can handle it anyway.
I’m not even sure what I’m looking for here, support? Someone who’s been through something similar? Ideas? My tumor was shrinking so quickly at the beginning of all this and now it’s growing and I just don’t know how to handle the possibility that it may not be gone at the time of surgery. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read and respond