Dexamethasone (first Taxol yesterday)

Good morning, I had my first dose of Taxol yesterday and have been given Dexamethasone 2mg to take for sickness this morning with a recommendation to take it at breakfast becuase it may cause insomnia. 

The thing is that I don’t feel sick (actually feel no different than usual and have already done an exercise DVD for an hour) and now having had a look at some other forums and the other side effects it can cause feel reluctant to take it unnecessarily. 

I didn’t think to ask if I have to take it, after 2 1/2 hours under the ‘ice cap’ my brain was well and truly frozen. I have also been given Metoclopramide 10mg which is for anti-sickness and am inclined to think I will take that if absolutely necessary instead.

Bit of a long way of asking if anyone else has been given this and not taken it because they didn’t need to.

I’m not on any other medication.

Wishing you all well. Liesa.

Hi Leisa and welcome to the forum. I was going to write that this is the secondary part of the forum as I assumed you were talking from a primary BC point of view but see you have already been on trearment for secondary BC so you are probably aware of some areas where treatments can differ between the stages of BC. Anyway, back to your initial question. I was told whilst on Docetaxel (Taxotere) that you definitely needed the steroid, Dexamethasone as it was a v strong chemo and the steroid would counter the side effects. However with Taxol (Pacitaxel) I’m not sure. You will hopefully get some answers from some of the secondary ladies who have had it but you could also post the same question in the main section of the forum as the side effects/dosage/take home meds are the same at whatever stage your BC is and there are probably more primary ladies on Taxol at present than secondary ladies. Sorry I can’t be of more help but please post any other questions you have or come back for support as having secondary BC can be a very lonely thing and we do all understand on here. The Bone Mets please join in thread is the most populated one whether you have bone mets it not and most of us tend to read it so you can a,ways post on there if you don’t get many replies.

Nicky x

Ive just done 6 months on Taxol and had dexamethasone through infushion just before the taxol. I think this helped me sail through the taxol, never really had any problems, changing chemo now because taxol had stopped working for me.
All the best x

Leisa, I am also on Taxol. Would be glad to hear how it’s going for you…have just started a kick up the backside thread on it.

 

Mx