Hi all. My first post! I had my 1st EC treatment 12 days ago. The first 5 days weren’t too bad - lightheaded, queasy, tired etc, but on the 6th day I was hit by severe abdominal cramps and diarrhoea. TMI but nothing stayed in my stomach for more than 5 minutes. No sickness. After 24 hours I had to be admitted to hospital. It’s now settled and I feel ok. Has anyone else had this? The doctors seem to think that this isn’t a common reaction to EC. The tummy cramps were something else 
Im wondering if avoiding solid food from day 5 to 7 may make any difference? Today - day 12 - my scalp feels itchy. I cold capped but wonder if this itchiness means it hasn’t worked? I’m in 2 minds whether to carry on with it for the next treatment.
2 Likes
Welcome to the forum @pat . I’m so sorry you a had such a rough ride with your first chemo . Maybe you could also post in the June chemo starters thread , there will be others who’ve just been through their first chemo too and hopefully you can share experiences and tips . Hoping the second is more straightforward for you .Best wishes Jill x
@pat I can’t help with the stomach issues although I ate normally through EC and tried to eat a healthy balanced diet to make sure I was getting my nutrients and keeping my strength up. Just remember to feed everything back to your team for side effects and issues early and they can help a lot. I found my side effects were worse the first cycle and then seemed to level off a bit. Just make sure you get plenty water too as that helps.
Cold cap wise, I have cold capped through 4 ECs and kept a lot of hair. I got an itchy scalp about 3 weeks in and it was tender for a few days and lightly shedding before a big shed on day 26. Your scalp itching doesn’t mean it’s not working but you may experience it as it is a chemo effect plus with the cold cap I had it before shedding started. It stopped itching after that initial bigger shed/few days after and has been fine since. With the cold cap, no one really told me to expect a bigger shed regardless so just wanted to give you a heads up that it usually happens days 14-21 onwards. I have been continually shedding since but it has calmed down a lot and like I say, I still have a lot of hair. I have lost maybe 30% evenly across my scalp which just means it’s thinned out really but to a passer by they’d never know. I did get upset at the shed I had as it felt like an awful lot of hair and was in two minds thinking I was going to lose it but for me it did settle. Results are variable with cold caps but all you can do is try and if you found it ok I’d give it more time. You can check out cancer hair care for cold capping info or there is a Paxman Scalp Cooling Group on Facebook you could join too if you want more info
1 Like
My chemo was 5 years ago. First one i felt dreadful for about 4 days, dreadful nausea and sickness, couldn’t eat. All i could manage after 3 days was melon and rice crispies. Bit of plain fish on day5 then improved quite quickly. For subsequent treatments i was given an anti sickness pill called Emend which helped a lot, but still felt unwell for a few days. The chemo apparently upsets the whole digestive system, so awful constipation for me, and terrible mouth ulcers for about a week. The hospital prescribed stuff for both. Dont be afraid to report symptoms and ask for something.
I also had the cold cap treatment. Once I’d suffered the first one i decided I’d better carry on! I lost about 50%of hair, more so at the back, but still needed a wig. At least i didnt have to look at a bald head. I dont remember getting an itchy scalp. Did they say to take conditioner with you? They also said it can affect nails so you can have cold mitts and bootees but that was a step to far!!! However, they advised that a very dark nail polish might help protect the nails so i did that all through. At least one part of me looked ok!!
Best wishes x
Hi @pat,
I had 4 x biweekly EC and 8 out of 12 weekly paclitaxel and I am still cold capping.
I lost a third of my hair after my 2nd EC and felt discouraged but I kept going and although my hair continued to ahed a bit I still have some left and it actually stabilised after the last EC.
For scalp issues I was recommended aloe vera gel from dr organics, very unexpensive on Amazon, and it helps.
Keep going unless you can’t bear cold capping. If u have a bald patch on top of the head, which I have, ask your nurse to put gaze or use a surgery net hat it will protect your scalp and prevent ice!
Re stomach issues on EC I have had reflux and taking omeprazole but diarrohea is apparently not common. You may have caught a bug or bacteria from food. Our immune system is so weak. I
Am pretty sure you won’t have that issue again.
On the other hand constipation on EC is real!
Hope your treatment goes well
Big hugs
Marion
I had horrendous diarrhea with both EC and Docetaxal. I survived it by taking loperamide up to 8 per day and using the kiddies rehydration stuff. Some days I came close to calling to be admitted for fluids but got through it. I’d say it’s a pretty common side effect of BC chemo x
Thanks so much for that information about the cold cap. I was thinking I might not bother with it any more but now I think I’ll give it another go for my treatment next week x
1 Like
For the first cold cap they had the conditioner there already so I don’t need to take anything. I’ll give it another go for my second treatment and see how I go. Poor you with the sickness and ulcers. So odd how it affects us all so differently.
Thanks. I didn’t find the cap too bad so i will give it another go this time. Ill hope for the best with th tummy issues but will talk to them at my appointment on Tuesday.
Thanks Vibby. I’m pleased to meet someone else who has had the same problem! Not pleased for you though of course!! I was beginning to feel a bit abnormal!
Did you find it was related to food? Mine seemed to be as soon as I ate anything. If I only had fluids I was relatively ok, though still had some colicky pains but not as bad as with food. Did you take the Loperamide in response to the diarrhoea or before you ate anything?
I tried taking 1 loperamide morning and evening regardless but found I really just responded to how much diarrhoea I had and whether I needed to leave the house !!!
Mine was probably exacerbated by the fact I have a severe pancreatic insufficiency which predisposes to diarrhoea at the best of times.
The other option is to take codeine phosphate regularly but I’m a bit rubbish with codeine, pukey etc so didn’t bother trying that one.
I had most success with 6 small meals a day, especially bread and bananas.
The BRAT diet helped, banana, rice, apples and toast.
Avoid milk and anything with artificial sweetener.
Sudocrem for sore BTM !!!
Vibby, thanks very much for that. Very helpful! I shall lay in stocks of Loperamide 
and eat what you suggest.