Anyone having or had Paclitaxel?

[justkelly]

I just finished my 6th out of 12 weekly Taxol/Herceptin infusions and have not lost any hair at all anywhere. I haven't had many side effects at all, just an acne-form rash the second week which responded well to Clindamycin ointment. 

[LollyMum]

Hi all

Hope everyone is okay. 

I am due to have my second pacitaxel tomorrow - hoping my bloods and calcium levels are good enough to go ahead  I feel well today, after being more wiped out than I thought I would be, but obviously the liver function being poor isn't helping. 

Just wondered if anyone knows more about how pacitaxel will work on the tumour. I was hoping this was a medicine that would reduce the tumours, but the bcc leaflet says it controls. Has anyone had experience of it reducing the size of their mets? F x

[WMJ]

Morning all,

Just wanted to let you know that my bloods were extremely low this week. I suspected as much as my energy levels hit rock bottom last Sunday. They did let me have my weekly dose on Thursday but I had to give mysel the GCSF injection yesterday in order to boost my bloods and reassure tham I felt well enough. I am still feeling quite low in energy and will continue to do very little for the following week. Just beware as up until last Sunday I felt amazingly well and had probably overdone things and probably learnt the hard way. Yes do what you can when you can but also pace yourself , remember it is a lighter dose but it is chemo. I spoke to my ONC about this and she said that with weekly dose your resistance generally remains steady but lower than normal, unlike with any of the  3 weekly doses,  were your resistance goes up and down. Take care ladies.

[riversidedawn]

I was very tempted to stop cold capping during paclitax as I had 3 x 3 weekly FEC then 12 x week pac, but my BCN did some research and was very keen for me to continue as hair loss is a common side effect. My hair (the 50% I'd lost) started growing back by the time I started pax. 

[LollyMum]

Hi Tess, Yes I'm weekly from Friday. There's a slight chance I'll be put on a new drug called Cabazitaxel, but at the moment assuming Pac.  Glad the SEs are manageable.

Fi 

[Tessscott6]

LollyMum - I am doing weekly Pax and side effects are manageable! Are you weekly?

[LollyMum]

Hi, 

I'm due to start Paclitaxel this Friday.  I'm encouraged to read the side effects are not too bad.   Hated FEC when I was treated in 2014.

Fi x

[Tessscott6]

Munchkinrn1. Did you lose your hair and when? I'm nervous every day waiting for the shoe to drop. I'm on day 10 of weekly Paclitaxel.

[Tessscott6]

I started Paclitaxel on Feb 10 so today is day 10. I'll have it weekly for 12 wks then radiation. I'm HER+ so I also get Herceptin every 3rd week for a yr. ( I had 1 bout of diarrhea from the Herceptin)
So far I'm nauseated every day but the anti nausea meds usually prevent throwing up. ( Not a fan of barfing). Today is the first day I've felt like a truck hit me. Very achy and sore.
Still have hair....

[WMJ]

Morning Munchkinrn1,
How did you get on with the AC?
Hoping you are doing well. X

[WMJ]

Morning riversidedawn, I only did the cold cap the first session of my E&C, I started to shed hair before my 2nd cycle so didn't continue with it. I found the cold cap excruciating and t

as the whole process is so difficult decided not to bother. I had the mits ang gloves again yesterday and although tough better than last week until the last 20mis. Will go for it again but if I find them too difficult I will stop as we all have enough to put up with. So far I have been good on Paclitaxol, didn't come down with the awful side effects from steroids & Gcsf...had slight effect Saturday but it didn't develop. Hoping it will not happen or be less noticeable as I have had half steroids in the drip this time and next week non at all. 

Hope you are keeping well & thanks for your response. X

[riversidedawn]

I tried icing hands and feet but found it too unbearable on top of cold cap. I had no problems with neuropathy and all nails stayed intact.

[WMJ]

Thanks Riversidedawn, so far it has been fine, much better than E&C and nit had the allergic reaction I hoped to avoid. Not looking forward to the weekly cold feet & hands, they are not nice at all. I am back Thursday for round 2 then only 7 to go. 

[riversidedawn]

Weekly paclitaxol is much kinder than FEC. You shouldn't find you spike with highs and lows. My bloods stayed pretty constant. Some people get a bad reaction within minutes of the first infusion, but nurses will have antidote at the ready. Good luck

[WMJ]

Hope the AC went better than you had anticipated Munchkinrn 1.
Thanks for the info' about taxol.
ALl the best with your treatment. X

[Munchkinrn1]

WMJ, I went through weekly taxol treament x12, no vomiting at all, little nausea, just some tiredness.  It dropped my blood counts pretty good, so I had to have boosters, and blood twice.  Everyone is different.  I start AC tomorrow, and I am scared, have to admit it....

[WMJ]

Thanks for that Primmy it is reassuring. I have just finished 3 lots of EC too. It has been suggested I do weekly P to avoid the side effects I am having from either the steroids or GCSF.

[Primmy]

Hi, I had EC X 3 (once every 3 weeks) then weekly paclitaxel. I've had 8 so far and have my 9th and final one this week. I can honestly say that you really don't feel like you're having chemotherapy at all. With EC, although I didn't have any side effects I realise in hindsight that I didn't feel quite right although I couldn't really put my finger on it. However, with paclitaxel I feel completely normal. I have my chemo on a Thursday and this week when we got back I cooked dinner, Friday I did a full day's work and yesterday we met some friends for a drink and then dinner after. I do feel a bit more tired than normal but, apart from that, feel fine. My oncologist also told me to take omega 3 supplements to help with the peripheral neuropathy side effects which I have been doing and have not suffered with that either. I don't know if I'm particularly lucky but my onc nurse said that paclitaxel is generally very well tolerated.

[WMJ]

I may have to change my treatment due to some side effects of steriods/GCSF.

If I do I will have to have Paclitaxel on a weekly basis. Wanting to know if anyone has been on this on a weekly basis and what the side effects were. My main concern is that I won't have any good days as no time to recover before the next dose. 

Grateful for anyone's experiences.

Thanks.