Hello,
My name is Hasnae 38yo. I have IDC HER2 positive and I will start chemotherapy Docetaxel and Carboplatin on the 27th, scared as I don’t know how my body will react and hit Sad as it’s the Eid week and I may not be able to celebrate it with Family and I being waiting for my driving test for 6months and it’s on the first of April which 6th day after my chemotherapy do you think guys I will be able to do it ??? If not do you think they will change my chemotherapy day ??? As I don’t want to delayed it too, being diagnosed on the 18th of February any advices please.
2 Likes
Morning
I delayed my first chemo by a week - it happened to be one of son’s birthday
I was not doing that lol
Maybe ask your team if you can start a week later
My team agreed so hopefully yours will too
Xx
1 Like
Hi @hasnae87 ,
I have finished 6x chemo of docetaxel and carboplatin and I found it manageable but the side effects are different for everyone. The first two days, i felt ok, then i got a sore throat on day 4. Then from days 5-15 i had bowel issues and as the chemo sessions went on, i felt more fatigued, lacking energy. Days 16-21, i felt ok but this is when they put your next appointments. I used this pattern to plan what to do.
I asked the oncologist to delay one treatment so i could attend a wedding and they were so understanding. Talk to your care team and see what they can do amd advise.
Enjoy celebrating Eid and all the best for when your treatment starts.
1 Like
Hello
I am sure you can delay it a week. It won’t make any difference to your overall plan and outcome.
I had to delay a couple of times during chemo due to tummy issues landing me in hospital. My oncologist reassured me that this was usual practice and didn’t create any risk to the efficiency of the treatment.
Wishing you the best. X
1 Like
@hasnae87 I agree with everyone else. I had the same treatment as you, the earlier cycles are much kinder than the later ones with fatigue increasing each time.
I found the first 10 days harder and got stomach issues around day 7 and 8 for a couple of days. I also lost my taste each cycle for around a week towards the first 4 ish days. Sleep was tricky for me when I was on the steroids which was also the first five days. Try and plan around the last week for important things as I seemed to be as close as I could to “normal” during the last week of each cycle.
Make sure you drink plenty of water and make sure to get out and walk everyday if you feel up to it as this really helps with the side effects.
Enjoy Eid and stay in touch with us all on here. Everyone is such a great sense of support. The treatment is really taxing on our bodies but has really good outcomes
1 Like
I called my nurse and she said it’s not advisable to delayed anymore your chemo as it’s getting late, I will try and go to my test if I will be able to if not I will just cancel it and send them an email to refund me based on my medical situation.
I will have my port insertion on the 25th and chemo on 27th.
I will try to stay hydrated and walk at least 30min each morning.
As my first round you don’t know what side effect will hit first.
I will take advise and try to go to work even 1 day on the last cycle.
I am already feeling like am catching cold better now than after chemotherapy.
Many thanks to everyone for their responses.
3 Likes
Something I wish someone had told me, because it turned out my body couldn’t handle docetaxel, if (and that’s a big IF) you are going to have a reaction to it it is more likely to happen on the SECOND cycle.
I assumed because my first cycle was event free that I tolerated it fine. My second cycle I had a severe reaction and it was stopped on my third cycle when they realised reducing it wasn’t the solution (I couldn’t tolerate it AT ALL).
Keep that emergency button in your hand (I had it close by but stupidly put it down) and when my reaction hit, it hit fast and I couldn’t grab it in time, it was scary.
If ANYTHING feels different please tell the nurse immediately, don’t wait, even if it feels stupid (the reaction on my third cycle was literally just feeling a patch of very warm air near my face without a cause, not a heater or anything, like suddenly someone was blowing hot air in my face).
Hopefully you won’t have anything like this but if you do they’ll change the medication to something more tolerable (I got put on Nab-paclitaxel and tolerated it so much better and the side effects were nicer too, I was so grateful I got switched, the latter three cycles were so much more tolerable).
Try not to stress too much but just be prepared that second cycle. I wish I’d been warned to be more observant, instead I was blasé and it bit me in the butt.