starting weekly Taxol & Herceptin - hair loss?
 

Hi Ladies,

Some of you may remember my recent posts about different treatment options, ect.

I have decided! I will start weekly Taxol and Herceptin as my only chemo next week. It's for 12 weeks and then continue Herceptin for another 3 mos or more.

I had heard that weekly might have less side effects than every 3 weeks or less intense. My dr feels that I'll do very well. I have concerns about being "down" all the time. I have two young children.

I've picked out a wig, but not sure when it order it. I don't see many people just do Taxol (w/o A-C before) so I'm not sure if all my hair will go or what.

Thanks!!

I was on Herceptin, Taxol and Carboplatin. I think that Taxol and Carbo both contribute to hair loss. Happens around the 3-week mark usually.

Legos
I did Taxotere and Herceptin, only.--No AC--on a weekly schedule.
My doc was originally going to do Taxol, but he read studies that showed Taxotere was the better choice with Herceptin. Perhaps someone here can give you information on these studies.

And with my combo, you won't lose all of your hair at once. Male pattern baldness is the first to appear. You can still wear hats and the hair around your neck and ears will make it look like you have more hair than you do. Wash and rinse your hair very gently so as not to pull out hair that would stick around awhile. Or, shave it off and go for the bald look. It certainly is in style!

Hi!

I lost my hair with Taxotere and Adriamycin, but not with Taxol, Carboplatin and herceptin. The weird thing is that I didn't lose my hair with Taxol and Carboplatin (non returned much though), but I lost my eyelashes and eyebrows almost totally! Didn't cry over my hair but have to admit that I shed lots of tears when those eyebrows and eyelashes went! Maybe if you buy a wig, it won't fall out at all!!! Best wishes!

I was on Taxotere/Herceptin weekly for 6 months. I didn't lose my hair, it thinned a lot but noone else noticed except me. I missed quite a few weeks of Taxotere because of low white blood count so don't know if that helped keep my hair. My hair went very dry on the treatment so I left it as long as I could between washes hoping that would help, don't know that it made any difference but I felt better not getting handfuls after washing.

My hair thinned on taxol,carbo,herceptin
 

My hair got very baby fine thin (like a 10 mth ) old, with 6 months of taxol, carbo and herceptin. I did every week x 3 then off 1 week herceptin only. I take care of special needs kids fulltime, so I did my chemo on Friday mornings, slept most of Friday, felt good the first part of Saturday, Made it to Church on Sunday with naps after, Mon nausea was pretty yucky By Tues/Wed was ready for pizza. Get good nausea meds (if you are younger and more active the nausea can tend to take you out more) Because it interferes with your keeping up. Make sure you take nap and body quite activities, (my one little guy likes to lay by me while we play quite games on the bed) it helps conserve your energy. I had other people do my store errands so I could save my energy and spend with my family time also. There is a web site called chemochicks.com I bought a beaded head covering from, most people look at it and don't think twice I live in AZ and it is cool your head breathes and even my teens will go out in public with me!! I am not a wig person, I just lost 99.9% of my hair this morning from brain radiation and I wore my beads to church and my 6 year old wants to "paint my head". My hair was 10 in long I had it cut very short prior to chemo, and I finished chemo in Aug and by Sept I went to work at the school as a nurse with thin but hair. Good luck to you, and your little people in your life. Darita

TH-my "magic" cocktail~
 

I have a strange LOVE & FONDNESS for Taxol+Herceptinhttp://www.her2support.org/vbulletin...ilies/wink.gif
I was on the dose-dense (qweekly) dosage too. I had been on other chemo combos for 8 mos prior, but it's the TH combo that got me to NED the 1st time, Then w/each recurrence, it was TH again, that led me back to NED again & again.
The side effects were very tolerable, but I did lose my hair. Very predictably, on day 21 after the 1st dose. And it hurt! I know a lot of the other ladies here can corroborate on this lesser known fact. My scalp was so sore & sting-y right before my hair fell out. It was sore right when it started to grow back too, but that was a welcomed soreness! I was pretty consumed & preoccupied with the threat of my hair falling out, but once it was gone, I just embraced my wigs. Shopping for wigs replaced shopping for shoeshttp://www.her2support.org/vbulletin...lies/smile.gif
Otherwise, I tolerated treatment really well. I continued to teach Pilates throughout, never struggled w/nausea, but eventually did need some help w/Procrit & Neupogen.
I wish you the very best too.
(I did do a short course with Taxol/Carboplatin/Herceptin-q3week dose-& felt significantly worse on that combo...TH much preferred)
Keep us posted...
Keep the Faith~

I had only two rounds of taxol, carboplatin, and herceptin, and sorry to report but I did lose my hair, although not all of it. I had a few longish strands left but with lots of bald spots. In case you're one of the lucky ones, you can probably hold off buying the wig for a few weeks. Or you might consider one of those cool caps. I did some research on them and apparently they do work. I wish you the very best!

Hi LL,
Lost all to AC. During 12wks T & H, hair started growing back around my ears and the back of my head. By the time I had 12 wks T & H, enough hair had grown around the sides to make me look like I had male pattern baldness. I think the top took 3 months post T & H treatment to start growing back. I was worried it was permanent.

It sounds like you'll either slightly thin on top, bald on top, or less likely, lose more. I think it would be a good idea to at least pick out a wig. If the hair loss looks like it's going to be too much, you could wait to order it then and wear hats for the week or so it takes to come in.

Hope you'll get lucky and not lose too much. BB

LittleLegos (cute name)

I wish you the best with your choice of treatment!! I had taxol/Herceptin first and I was getting every three weeks.... after the first dose right before the next one...my hair was gone...it started thinning really bad and then within two days it was coming out in clumps....and was gone. My husband and I said a prayer and then he shaved it off... I had wigs already purchased and my friends gave me a hat and scarf party... and I really thought I was going to struggle with being bald..... But the losing it was the roughest part.... and I rarely even wear my wigs now... I am beautifully bald... wink wink. As for side affects... I had a tiny bit of nausea VERY DOABLE..... and then my Onc went to a Meeting at UCLA and took me as a case study since I was only 31 with stage 3b and no family history....they suggested Carboplatin/Herceptin/Taxotere and it about kills me for the first 7-10 days after treatment... But I can't feel the tumor anymore and it was 7cm wrapped around my rib cage and into my chest wall..... so bad when they went to do a lumpectomy it was everywhere and so they closed me up and said that they couldnt do anything else except do pre-op chemo to try to shrink it to give me the best chance at clear margins. So I have taken more advice from the ladies here than anywhere.... I do they yucky TCH and I take all the meds to help me get through and I write and read on here and I make it one day at a time.... and Now which is amazing to me...I only have one more chemo March 26..... that is my last pre-op chemo and then surgery in mid/late April. SO good luck and God bless and KNOW you can do it. God gives us so much. Cancer has changed my life and honestly in a lot of good ways.... No one wants it and no one deserves it but we as strong women find the strength, courage and the heart to fight on...and be there for the ones that come after us.

Hi lego

I had 6 cycles of weekly taxol/carboplatin/herceptin for 3 weeks then 1 week herceptin only.

Almost all my hair fell out around the 2-3rd week. That was the bad news. I was "lucky" enough that it was winter, so I could just wear hats all day long! Never was much of a hat gal before that...

Other than that, I did very well with this combo. I had no nausea (probably thanks to the premeds!) and pretty much was able to work full time throughout this treatment. Although I think towards the end I must have been quite "dull".

I was also lucky with my blood counts and actually felt pretty good most of the time, a little tired but not unable to function and carry on life as usual.

Everyone reacts differently, but I found the weekly T/C/H pretty tolerable; I hope this happens for you, too!

Hi - I am currently on Taxol/Herceptin every 3 weeks. I have been since August 06. I will be until the cows come home. It is keeping my tumor markers stable and seems to be keeping my 3 little chest nodes and my little bone spot at C2 stable.

I started to lose my hair at 14 days EXACTLY. I then lost my eyebrows and eyelashes in due course (about a month later, totally bald head and face).
My hair started to grow back after 2 months, but not the kind of hair that you want to wear out in public, I promise. I have the hair line, density, texture and color of a 95 year old man! HA! I wear my gypsy scarves every day (and I do have a bad-scarf day from time to time, LOL) and when I am feeling like being a little dressier, I don a wig.

My eyelashes and eyebrows have not budged an inch. No re-growth at all.

You will find that it's not the hair on your head that you will miss the most, it is the eyelashes and eyebrows!!

Boy, do I agree about the eyelashes and eyebrows! I have lost mine (between chemo and herceptin) three times. I think losing them bothered me so much because it made me LOOK like a cancer patient - something I tried so hard to avoid. I found that eye shadow, eye liner, and eyebrow pencil worked wonders. No one at work even knew I was "bald" on my face. The good thing is, that once they start growing back they come in rather quickly.

I started losing my hair on day 18 of my AC treatments. Once it started coming out I shaved it all off and started wearing my wig. I had great hair pre-BC, but got even more compliments on my wig (even from people I didn't know) than I ever got on my hair - that helped tremendously. It is now growing in slowly but very thick, a bit curly and NO GRAY!! I actually like it short and will probably wear it this way for a while.

Best of luck to you Little Legos on this journey.

Attitude IS everything!

I agree about eyeliner, pencil and shadow. I have become quite the expert at "approximating" natural eyelashes and brows. Most people are none the wiser...
but you have to get good at NOT rubbing your face too much, even when it
itches from allergies, etc... or you risk "wiping your face off" !! LOL!

We should start a thread here with make-up tricks, ideas, successes, trials and errors!

I know I have a few up my sleeve, and some products that have proven pretty
helpful.

I began losing hair on A/C treatments at about day 17 -- it was falling out to the point I just had my husband shave it off. I had some growth before the last of those treatments, but it was funny feeling, almost sore and it fell out again anyway. I have 5 treatments of Taxol/Herceptin remaining and just now have a little hair growth (about a 1/2 in of white down feeling hair). Maybe it will hang on and continue to grow ???
Have almost totally lost lashes (gone on bottom, few remain on top) and very thinning eyebrows. I can pretty much draw in the brows and fade them out with a brush. They were such a light color anyway, losing them hasn't been that noticable. But I sure miss my lashes and they look pretty pitiful trying to put mascara on them when you can almost count them individually !! Thank God for eyeliner. Uncle Fester anyone ???
I am ready to have my hair back ...... 3 months of being bald is longer than I would have ever imagined it could be.
I switch it up -- some days its a wig, some days its a hat, some days a scarf ... I am all for making a fashion statement, and I am thankful for the most part its been winter, but now that spring is here, I would really like to have hair !!!

I am on my second round of Taxol. First was in 2005 after A/C. I was hoping that I wouldn't lose my hair this time because it seemed to start coming back during Taxol last time. No such luck! I have done 3 treatments and I had really thick hair and it was coming out like crazy. I finally decided that since I still had my wigs from last time to go ahead and let my husband shave my head. I now get to save 30 minutes every morning not having to do my hair!! Last time my hair came back thicker and wavy - maybe this time I will have more curl! :)

Just keep your chin up. The wigs they have these days are great and look like your real hair and you can sleep in. The American Cancer Society has a great site for wigs, hats, bras, bathing suits etc. tlcdirect.com. Also look into your local American Cancer Society to see if the offer the "Look Good, Feel Better" Class. They offer great tips and makeup and eyebrows and also have free wigs and hats.

Good luck

Stephanie

Hey Ladies,

Thanks for all your replies! I wasn't getting email updates, so I just checked. It will be interesting to see how the hair thing works out. I wish I could just know...but I guess I will soon enough. It does look like a good amount of hair loss is a guarentee. My family thinks a wig is a good idea and the one I have picked out looks pretty good. I worked with a local stylist who specializes in wigs. She had a bunch I could touch and look at. I chose a human hair wig that feels like my hair. The color match is pretty good too, I'm a red hed and it's really close. Another thing is both my kids LOVE to touch and play with my hair. I even have thoughts of cutting my hair in pony tails to salvage as much as possible for the kids... I will wait a little to see how the loss goes though.

I just had my second infusion today and feel pretty good. Last week was good. I just had some tired days, a bit of intestional discomfort, and minor hip pain. I was able to do my regular schedule except for the day after treatment. I layed around most of that day.

Thanks again and I'll visit you all more frequently now!

LittleLegos,
First good luck to you. Doesn't it feel good to have the second infusion done. I first had A/C every three weeks x 4. Hair started coming out 14 days later. I used hats and had really thin bangs combed from the back to the front. I will never make fun of another man with a comb over again. My blood levels dropped and I needed nuelasta. Not sure if it was A/C, Nuelasta or the combination but the hair on my head all disappeared . I started Taxol and Herceptin every 3 weeks x 4 in Jan. I lost most of my eyebrows, eyelashes and all other hair on my body, but not on my head. I have thin peach fuzz which is growing very slowly and it is white.

I did get into intestinal issues on my third round of Taxol and Herceptin. If you get into similar problems don't try and brave it out. Talk to your onc or primary.

The wig you picked out sounds very nice. I got one close to my hair color and did it short. Then when my hair is back I can ditch the wig ASAP. My husbands insurance did cover the wig (we had met our deductable).

Hi, I lost my hair on A/C. However, I did NOT loose any hair while on Taxol/Herceptin. I had 3months 1x's weekly of both and continued on Herceptin alone for 9 months. Had to stop due to progression.

Best of luck and keep us posted. Remember, it's only hair and better than the alternative...

God Bless.
Betty

Hi!I lost my hair on the 14 day after starting taxol and herceptin I am now bald and on my 15 treatment no sign of it coming back yet.Still have eyebrows and few lashes.