I hope everyone has been able to enjoy the sunshine lately :o)
I’m now nearly 7 weeks post my last tax and still feeling achey and tired…it’s getting to me now because I thought I would feel a bit more ‘normal’ by now…this in turn is making me feel more down than I have been through the treatment.
I’m starting rads on Thurs and wanted to be going into with a bit more energy.
I would love to hear from either those on the same time frame as me as to how you are doing or ladies who are a bit further down the line post-tax to hear how long it’s taken you to resume feeling fitter.
Hi all
My last TAX was March 7th and I’m feeling dreadful, like a little old lady with all my aches, pains and stiffness!
Like the rest of you, I was just not expecting this at all and it is starting to get me down. Got rads when my mx healed enough. Also got pins and needles and numbness in arms. Just hope it starts to get better soon; people keep saying things like ‘oh, you’ve finished chemo, well done’ as if that was the end of it when I actually feel worse now!
Any hoo it’s a lovely day so I’ll stop feeling sorry for myself now and go and read outside
i am day 3 last of 6 tax, carnt get out of bed today! at one point i looked at the clock and thought it said 10 past 10,it actually said 10,to 1.
at least this was my LAST DOSE OF POISON!!!
i have been the same all the way through though the side effects have been pretty much relentless.
most of the ladies on here have said the same too, it takes quite a while after finishing tax to re gain your strength, it really takes it out of you and has an accumulative effect over the weeks or months you have been poisoned,
i have been assured, given time, it does get better, so heres hoping,
i am now waiting for my rads to start, then further surgery planned yippee, loads of good stuff ahead,
Thank you everybody. I have just started 3 x tax and although the oncologist had said to expect muscle and joint pain, I hadn’t expected it so soon. I can’t say I’m enjoying this but I can see that I’ll just have to get through it. Can I ask - does it get any easier during the week cycle? We are hoping to go away during the third week and I would like to be able to walk a bit. Also - does exercise make it better or worse? Best painkillers?
I’ve got my third and final Tax on Wednesday this week. With the first one I had really dreadful bone aches for a few days - I felt really terrible. After about 10 days my leg muscles got a bit achy and weak and that got a bit better before Tax 2 but not completely. With Tax 2 the initial bone pain was a lot less but the weakness got very bad indeed after about a week and I can’t always get up the stairs without stopping part way. Walking along the level is hard but not impossible, but slopes and steps are downright nasty.
It hasn’t got noticeably better this time so I’m really very worried about how bad I’ll get after this dose and also how long it’ll take to recover. I think I’ll need a zimmer frame! Joking aside, I am seriously thinking about getting a walking stick. Not quite what I intended to buy at age 45!
It does seem as though this SE doesn’t affect everyone, at least not to the same extent so you might be OK. The increased steroids don’t help either though as they cause increased fluid retention so cankles are also the order of the day for some of us.
I’ve got rads starting at the end of May then I’m supposed to be going back to work (I’m taking a week’s leave after rads but can’t afford to drop to half pay so need to be very careful with dates). I only work part time and they’ll reserve me a parking space next to the building so I hope I’ll be OK. Luckily although I work on the 1st floor we have a lift.
Thanks for your experiences…it seems it’s only by word of mouth from the forum that we really learn how rough Tax is…even at my Onc appt after my final Tax(when I said how tired/achey I was feeling), I was told it should go away in a week or so…famous last words!
SuzyB - thanks for your post…my Tax finished a week after yours so it has reassured me that I’m not the only one still feeling like this…please update how you’re feeling when you can…when are your rads scheduled to start? Did you have mx after chemo?
I am now just over 3 weeks since last TAX & you are describing exactly what I have been feeling & it is such a relief. I really struggle to lift my legs to get upstairs and can only walk around town for a very short while at a slow rate. also when lifting my arms up it really aches. Burning numb feet too. I seem to be living on pain killers at the moment as my back is also playing up & I have probs opening jars too - I feel worse than I did after my second dose so I assume it is the build up as you say. I also thought it might be the extra weight (I was overweight already so this really hasn’t helped!) but now think it is the TAX so will try to stop worrying so much
I love this forum - thank you so much for reassuring me
XXXXXX jo XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Hi all
Heather - yes, had mx after chemo (as I couldn’t face it at first) and rads will start as soon as this is healed. It keeps swelling, had it drained once but it will need doing again and they can’t scan me for rads until I’m a consistant size/shape.
Still aching! I’m in real old woman mode when getting out of bed in the morning and shuffling downstairs, it’s a sight to behold!
Keep fighting the TAX
xxx
Am feeling a tiny bit better today -say like a 70yr old instead of a 90 year old! - but don’t want to tempt fate too much incase its all change again tomorrow :o/
SuzyB - I had a lot of swelling (seroma) after my mx (Oct 2010) and had about 500ml fluid drained off my right about 2-3 weeks post op. It did swell again but settled down after about 5 weeks. The right side is still bigger than the left (after double mx) but drs think all ok. BTW did you have manuka honey dressings on your wounds after surgery? As the swelling burst a couple of my stitches, the Onc nurse put these on to help speed healing…really worked. Hope you’re having a better day.
Morning ladies
Also not wanting to tempt fate, but doing so anyway…my aching seems to have subsided a bit. I am still decrepit but a less so, as Heather said, 70 instead of 90, if it keeps on like this, maybe I’ll end up 20 again, here’s hoping!
xxx
SuzyB - good to hear that you’re slowly regaining your energy :o)…I’m glad to report I’m feeling about 55 today, so I’m heading in the right direction, which is good as I started Rads this morning. I’m with you on hoping to rejuvenate to my twenties - now that would be a result LOL!
Had my last Tax on Saturday 30th April and feel like about a hundred and ninety. Nice to know that it is not all my imagination. Hopefully we will all lose these horrible side effects soon. Thanks for the posts very reassuring. I hope, like you SuzyB, maybe if we go backwards long enough we’ll get back to 20!
All that is helpful. At least I know I’m (more or less) normal. For me the pain subsided after 3 days. I also got some much stronger painkillers from the GP. I do feel weak and am walking very slowly - much like Mrs. Overall, but without the joi de vivre.
Everything tastes awful - I think many of you have that, and I’m keeping on top of a sore mouth. Fluocanazole has bested the oral thrush, but sadly that didn’t affect the taste. Oh - nosebleeds now. What fun.
Well, we are off camping next week anyway. Probably not doing very much abseiling or yomping, but a gentle stroll perhaps!
I hope you all have a good weekend as we chew over the results of the elections. Cheers hotpot
Well, I had my final Tax on Wednesday and can now barely walk again. My legs had just started to get marginally better and now I’m really worried about how bad they’ll get this time. I went out for lunch today with chocciemuffin which was lovely but has completely done me in so I think that’s it for any activity for the next few days.
I don’t expect the walking to get better for quite some time but I’ve treated myself to a Flipstick (Google it!) so I hope I’ll still be able to get as far as the village shop and church without having to drive (I’m so determined not to give in to this!)
Hoping to go to the Les Deux Alps for a week in August but won’t be doing too much walking! My OH and DS will go snowboarding (summer glacier!), foster son will ride mountain bikes and DD will lounge by the pool while I ride the ski lifts up to nice cafes and eat chocolate cake whilst reading my Kindle, maybe ambling along a little way to a sunlit alpine meadow helped by my Flipstick
sorry to hear you arent feeling too good, i know exactly what you mean, i had my last tax of 6 last friday and only really felt anything like today and so thats 8 days spent mainly in bed,
hopefully you will start feeling better soon, just take your time and rest, rest and more rest,
I just wanted to say that I also had dreadful weakness in my legs after Taxotere last year. I had 4 cycles and it got progressively worse. By the end of it I could hardly lift my legs, found even a few stairs a nightmare, and they felt incredibly heavy. I am reassured that I was not alone in this.
More importantly, I wanted to reassure you all that it does fade - I realised when I climbed a flight of stairs and was at the top when it struck me that I had not needed to stop. It felt like a huge milestone and was the start of regaining my strength. Now I am swimming daily and clocking up around 7 kilometres a week, plus going to the gym three times so it does go away!
glad to hear you made a full recovery following tax, i have just finished 6 of 6 9 days ago,
the tax truck has hit me hard this time, its run me over, gone backwards and forwards a few times, and now its parked up, hopefully to move off again shortly lol,
what a nightmare!!!
just rads and further surgery to look forward to now.
anyway all the best to you and keep up the good work lots of love liz xxx
I am so glad to have found this forum and your thread. The last few days I have been so freaked out about this muscle weakness and fatigue that started 15 days after my last Docetaxel treatment. I too felt so disheartened that I seemed to be going backwards not forwards and I have never heard of this kind of side effect. This is my final chemotherapy treatment after 5 months and I just want to start living again. I have 5 weeks of radiation but that will be nothing compared to the Hell of chemotherapy. The pain from Docetaxel was the worse pain I have ever had and I had cephalitis in 2007.
About this latest and fun side effect, I live in Saskatoon SK in Canada, I was told by the Saskatoon Cancer Centre that it is a rare side effect that will get worse until it plateaus and it can last days or months then slowly get better. It is a cumulative side effect of Docetaxel chemotherapy. It can develop after the second treatment and the greater number of treatments that you have, the greater the probability that it can develop. There is s no treatment for it…
Just wanted to let you know that i had my last Tax at end of February and i feel for all of you who are going through it at the moment.
However, take heart - although it seems never ending it does get better in time. I also suffer from fibromyalgia which my Onc told me would make it even worse, and for some time i did have to use a walking stick to get out and about.
I now walk everyday (without stick) and can walk up to 5km (3 miles) and am taking part in the Twilight Race for Life in 3 weeks time.
My advice would be, a couple of weeks after treatment ends try and start doing some gentle walking every day and slowly build up, even if it means having to use a stick or hold on to somebody.
Just to make you smile (hopefully!!!), one day when i went for rads the coffee shop was closed and i went to get a chocolate bar out of vending machine - instead of bending my back to get the bar out, i bent my legs…and didn’t have the strength in them to get back up and ended up falling on my bum. I then had to turn over onto my knees with bum in air and a helping hand from my mom to get up - very ladylike:smileylol:
Anyway, good luck to you all, and remember you have come this far, and things will get better xxx
