Hi all
I was wondering if any of you had looked at or considered asking your Oncologist for information on Glutamine supplements with the Tax?
I have it on my question list for next appointment.
xxx
Scrapper
Morning All,
I am now day 8 post 2nd tax and my fingers are really sore this time round. Like LIF, fingertipe feel covered in glue and the fingernails are sore to touch. It doesn’t feel like pins and needles but I have googles peripheral neuropathy and it seems to be a match for me in other ways. I’d be grateful for any advice.
My right breast and nodes are affected and I now have half an eyebrow, scant eyelashes and thiining hair all on my right side. This is a pure coincidence I am sure but reassuring perhaps that the tax is working on the body and hopeffully the cancer site.
I hope everyone is finding tax a bit easier.
Sue
Well did tax 3 last Thursday on reduced dose again…now day 4 with terribly tingly fingers but nails ok…tops of fingers a bit swollen…like the rest of me!
Feel totally shattered but have found earl & lady grey tes acceptable.
Still have eyelashes, some body hair and eyebrows although thin. Hair on head about 1cm and growing but is thin and weird!
The only way has to be up…good luck everyone have a good w/end
Hi fellow Taxers
Glad to know that some side effects don’t seem too bad for you after the first bad dose. Am doing ok after my second dose on Friday (still keeping fingers crossed though) and am really taking it easy - have to travel south to family funeral on Thursday so am really pacing myself at the moment. I seem to be a bit like AvenueSue - with under arm nodes very sensitive and hair rapidly falling out (have decided to give NHS wig it’s first family outing for funeral since I can’t cope with going shopping for a suitable hat and don’t possess suitable one for this occassion that will cover head) Yes, I like it when you feel the Tax attaching the tumour site too - seem to think it took about a week to get to my liver so am hopeful those sensations return soon (how strange it is to look forward to discomfort!!)
Hope you are all eating well - taste buds don’t seem too bad this time but I am looking forward to eating some fresh pineapple that I’ve got ready just in case; it was all I felt like eating like after first dose. I have not shared before that I eat loads of mushrooms post chemo (as in David Servan-Shreiber’s book on Anti-Cancer:a new way of life p.137) as he reports that the Japanese prescribe this post-chemo - so I put portobello, oyster and shiitake mushrooms in “everything” like stir fry soup, stew, creamy sauce on toast (I get them from Tesco, Ocado and Sainsbury’s easily) Anyway it gives me something to focus on and it might be helping to rebuild my immunity…
So day to put feet up and might indulge in loosing myself in Dan Brown’s latest novel and hope energy levels return soon
take care all
Fran
Hi ladies,
I’m day 7 post tax4 and have been reading your posts with interest…I must day my 1st tax was the worst, 2 and 3 have been ok but after 4 I’m completely knackered 
I had a couple of fingers go pins and needly which worried me but they seem to be ok now, I’ve also noticed that my finger nails feel like they’ve been trapped in a door but that seems to be settling too thank god!!
As for drinking I can only drink lemonade at the moment as my mouth is pants and feels like I’ve got a burnt Tongue.
Fran, funny how you mention eating mushrooms as I craved these after tax3…
Sarah cx
Hi Reeb, Loula, LiF & other fellow ‘docetaxelers’!
Boy oh boy - 1st one really knocked me sideways - only just starting getting my energy back over last couple of days. SE’s started the day after I jabbed the Neulasta and I quickly took to my bed. Feet/legs continuously hurting (like a nerve pain), couldn’t keep 'em still, then glands ballooned up on neck/face and voila - Mrs Moonface appeared! Eyes bulgy as well (not a pretty sight) - anyone else had that? Pain in bones seemed everywhere (whereas on FEC it was only my top half). Nails feel ‘funny’ as if they are going to flip off like those sticky false ones you can get. Then on day 8, couldn’t swallow/eat, called doc. out and had thrush so they put me on Nystatin (really good stuff).
But losing taste buds is absolutely worst thing for me (I like my food)! Could only manage soups down the throat (don’t know the flavour - pollyfilla I think) and lemonade through straw. Bright side - lost nearly a stone in 9 days (mind you, on toilet for 8 of them)!
Anyway, feeling much brighter now but taste buds still YUK! Just coping with the lymphodema which seems to be coming back in arm and breast at moment (as couldn’t exercise whilst knocked out in bed).
Well, that was a shock to the system - hope 2nd dose not quite so bad. See Onc tomorrow armed with my SE list - no doubt all normal.
Any tips welcomed from fellow sufferers - hope all SE’s are over and done with in the shortest possible time for everyone. Take care of yourselves - now where’s my nail varnish…
xxxx
OMG BP…That sounds like hell!I know what you mean though…it does knock you flat.
I have had swollen everything including my face so you have my sympathy…if I painted my face orange and blacked out a few teeth I’d be a passable impression of a halloween pumpkin! my eyes look as if I have been crying all the time…which I havent…honest!
I know some folks find tax easy…I wish you did!
Exhaustion is the biggest thing I think…I walk a lot but can only manage a mile with the dogs at the moment…
LoL LiF - just picturing the pumpkin! I’ve got a big superking bed which swamps me, it’s covered in white sheets - when the doctor came into my bedroom she couldn’t see me at first. Then she saw a boiled egg peeping out from under the duvet with two bulgy eyes drawn on! x
I was rubbish for 14 days on my first tax. Dreading second one tomorrow. yuk yuk yuk. Im hoping this one will be slightly better. I have to have 4 tax so little way to go yet.
BP,
LOL i loved the boiled egg comment… I too get very puffy, and red, and buggy eyed… i look at photos of me last year and its like looking at the different person.
Sarah X
Good luck Hatty - and hoping others are on the mend. I’ve had 2 so 4 more to go but this second really has not been too bad apart from the tiredness - but have just returned from half hour walk in crisp sunny air that has made me feel perkier - now might get some good sleep!! Thrush does seem to be a problem with TAx - I’m constantly checking my tongue this time having ignored the thrush and anal ringworm for too long last time - so far so good but any sign on whiteness and the GP will have a visit - I’m finally learning when to go to GP with SEs (it’s taken a long time to get the hand of this idea…) Steroid puffiness is gradually going - interesting that some of you look like a boiled egg or pumpkin; I think I look like a beetroot!!
take care all
Fran
BP - love the image of doc trying to find you in bed. I’m 13 days post tax 1 and just starting to feel human again. Finger nails are sore, eyes watering, and taste has been completely screwed up. I’ve had problems with a dry mouth and so many minor nose bleeds my nose is really sore, it must be a collection of scabs up there but it’s all normal !!! I’ve also spent a lot more time in bed compared to the FEC and have found I’ve only been up to walking the old dog for a short potter and then when I’ve got back home had to have a sleep.
I’m really hoping that the first is the worst but each day is one less in the whole scheme of things. Just hope the the taste come back. Nothing more disappointing that eating a fav meal to find it all tastes of cardboard.
Take care all
Reeb x
Hi all
I am just back from my 4th weekly tax which I had alongside herceptin and zometa. It’s worth asking to go weekly as the SEs are not as bad. I have been relatively ok so far… watch this space as every infusion can bring its own joys! I have been plagued my minor nose bleeds and blocked up nose also. It finally clears a bit just before I am due for my next treatment! My taste buds appear to have packed their bags and wandered off somewhere. It surpises me when I can taste something now,lol. I am on permanent rintadine and difflam mouthwash.
Hope everyone is coping with Ses.I suspect that I will acquire other Ses as I get further into my treatment.
x sarah
Ah well - the thrush has come back so was straight down to GP this afternoon - making sure it does not turn into ringworm this time! Wonderful GP - he fitted me in straight away after I phoned up. Hope the Fluconazole stops it in its tracks quickly - I’ve never had thrush before having chemo so don’t know where it’s come from!!!
take care all - hope you get help with you SEs too
Fran
Hi All,
Day 11 post tax 2 and I was back in work today so it is do-able, just. Taste buds are back to normal but eyes are very sore and my nose bleeds regularly. Also, I still have sore fingers and nails.
I hope you get on with the Flucanzole, Fran. It sorted out my mouth after tax 1 so I take it daily now along with Difflam. The white cell injection didn’t give my poor bones as much trouble as the first one but the soreness has seemed to last longer.
Good luck tomorrow Hatty. I did find the second tax easier overall than the first. I hope you do too.
Sue
Thanks Sue, second tax today not looking forward to it, this is why im up so early darn steroids. Have a good day folks.
Cromercrab (Sarah)
I haven’t heard of weekly Docetaxel? I was supposed to be on accelerated EC then tax (every 2 wks), but I had a reaction to the E so am now on 3 weekly c-tax. I asked my onc if I could stl have the tax every 2 weeks but he said I couldn’t as the tax is much harsher and your body needs time to recover? What dose do you have?
Sarah x
hi sazzie
unsure about dose, will ask onc when i see him on 14th. So far I have felt that i have had more energy. I reckon that is because the FEC made me tired, and I hadnt realised it. As all these things are accumalitive I am taking each week as it comes.
x sarah
Onc says its as clinically effective as 3 weekly with the benefits of being tolerated a lot better x
Hi girls
Well it seems we are all having the same kind of se’s after tax. Fran, my thrush started on day 4 afterwards and I wasnt supposed to start the Fluconazole until day 5 (last Saturday) but when I lost my taste on Friday I looked at my tongue and it was awful! Like you, I havent had it before so I am slower picking up the signs.
Like a lot of you, I have been slightly better after Tax 2, the aching feet and ankles have been less but my insides have been jumping around a lot more and I am taking codeine over my low days to reduce the instance of runs. It seem to be working but I do go a bit woozy with them. Still waiting for the face to puff up like an egg!!! Just have the dry mouth to contend with, not too bad, considering.
Finally went up to the supermarket yesterday in my wig, felt a bit self conscious but nobody noticed I think so will be doing it again.
Hatty, hope it went okay today, and the steroids let you sleep tonight.
Sue, how are you managing at work, I work in a college so cant go in at all, except on the third week just to say hello, worried about picking something up!
Well, looking forward to getting out to see my friends this week, take care all
Anne xxx