I just finished my 7th round of chemo. I had 3 epirubicin, 3 paclitaxel and now one cyclophosphamide with two more to go. I have a pre existing peripheral nerve disease which makes it very dangerous for me to take Paclitaxel. Unfortunately, the docs gave it to me anyway. I’ve had a bad reaction with neuropathy and very weak legs. I told them i didn’t want to go through with the paclitaxel but they told me I had no choice and also that to reduce the dose would not change the side effects and would change the effectiveness of the chemo. So I’m left wondering why so many people report that their docs change the dosage when my docs said what they did. I’ve totally lost faith in my docs and am going to tell them I’m stopping chemo before I end up in a wheelchair. I’ve used the online predict tool and for my type of cancer, chemo only gives me a 6% improvement in survival rate at 5 years so even if I lose a few percentage points, it is worth it to me to keep me out of a wheelchair. Has anyone had any experience with quitting chemo?
Hi Julesstutt
Sorry to hear you are having problems with your chemo. I was on pacitaxil from backend of August last year. I was scheduled to have 12 but after 9 I started to get neopathy in my fingers. The dosage was reduced so I could have the rest. It can’t be very nice to suffer with all the time.
Linda
Hi Julestutt
I also had 12 cycles of Paclitaxal from August 18 to Dec 18, I had issues with inflammation due to predisposed condition, the paclitaxal made it worse, with added neuropathy.
I had acupuncture throughout treatments, and I still do. It’s helped me so much, 3 months after chemo and surgery I no longer have inflammation and neuropathy.
Lots of luck with future treatments.