Has anyone had taxol and taxotere? How do they differ in terms of side effects?
I tried to be on taxol, but found the bone pain unbearable, so i am being swapped to my 1st taxotere tomorrow.
I know they are both taxanes, and one taxotere is a European brand, and taxol is an American brand. But other than that, did anyone find one more toxic than the other.
Also one other question, did anyone who had a palpable lymph node, not have a full auxillary clearance?
I did 4 cycles of Taxotere this time last year and found the joint pains unbearable; I had to take the maximum dose of Tramadol for about 5 days after every cycle. I also found the combination of Taxotere/Tramadol/Herceptin gave me very severe fatigue with some breathlessnesss and I spent most of the 4 cycles in bed completely out of it. However, I have met other ladies who were pretty much OK on it, just a bit of achiness. I did 4 x FEC and was OK on that, the nurses told me they were finding that ladies who were OK on FEC suffered on Taxotere and vice versa.
I found the best thing was just to stick to as healthy a diet as possible and just rest and sleep when necessary - with the first 2 I was sleeping about 16 hours a day on account of all the painkillers, it was the only way to ride things out and I just accepted I wasn’t going to be very well for a bit. I felt disappointed as I wasn’t really affected whilst on rads, I was one of the patients who was lucky enough to pretty much sail through that bit.
i did 3xFEC and 3xtax. I was only sick once through my chemo on FEC the rest of the time it was the tiredness and fatigue esp when i swapped to tax. Walking down the stairs took it out of me…i found this was only a couple of days after the chemo. I also had slight bone ache but never took anything for it, oh yeah the other thing was heartburn which i had never suffered from previously.
As far as diet was concerned i found i had to eat what i fancied so must admit i wasn’t always healthy but at least i was eating. not sure about anyone else but i found my appetite increased big time during chemo.
Lisa
HI Lisa and Cherub
That information really helped. I was wandering about the heartburn, because i have never had it before either. Is Tramadol a painkiller? I was also okay on fec, had quite bad sickness, and fatigue but was generally okay. The taxol pain kicked in on the second day after chemo last time, and as i had chemo with taxotere yesterday i will wait to see if the pain kicks in tomorrow. I was also sleeping the day with taxol, and painkillers, so am hoping that it won’t be as bad with the taxotere. They gave me a reduced dose aswell, although i have beginning to get very mild neuropathy today.
Thanks guys
anjiemouse
Hi anjie,
Tramadol has to be prescribed for you as it is a synthetic type of morphine, so very strong. I was given it in the hospital for the nerve pain after having my underarm cleared. However, it made me feel like a zombie, so I stopped taking it after 2 days as I hated it!
3 days after I had my first cycle of Taxotere the joint pains were so severe no over the counter painkiller helped and I was up the wall (at one point I thought I had sparks coming out of the top of my head and I spent the whole weekend crying). My OH rang the hospital on the Monday and they said the only thing that would ease the severity was Tramadol so to get on to out GP. As I had not slept for 36 hours I would have taken anything, after the first dose I was asleep within an hour.
I hope I haven’t scared you - I just had a very extreme reaction to Taxotere but I know other women who were OK on it, just a bit tired and achey like the flu. It’s just the luck of the draw I think as I know another lady who did the TACT trial and she vomitted the whole way through it, yet others she was on the trial with were fine.
Hi cherub
Thanks for giving me all that information…