HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - Taxotere Carboplatin Herceptin Side Effects

rondo · 02-15-2011, 02:54 PM

Yogi,
Get a port! Also, you can wear specially made gel-filled frozen gloves and socks just during the taxotere portion of your infusions to prevent peeling, painful hands, feet and nails called 'hand-foot syndrome'. Ask your onco nurse about this or search online; there was a scientific paper published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in 2004. Well worth the effort and it spared me a lot of problems.
One thing I had an unexpected and huge problem with was severe acid reflux all night for several days following each chemo. (I normally never have this problem) my onc had me take Prevacid or Protonix starting the night before each chemo for a total of 10 days each cycle. Worked like a charm.
Nurses aren't very forthcoming about side effects because they don't want to scare you and everyone's experience is different anyway. You have to be very specific in your questions.
I will say that in my case at least it was not NEARLY as bad as I thought it would be. I felt good or even great through most of my treatment. My side effects were very predictible and consistent; once I figured out what they would be I was able to plan around them very well and kept almost a full work and activity schedule. Now a couple of years after, I realize that the chemo, which I had feared the most of all the treatments I received, has had the least impact on me in terms of long-term effects. In fact, I'm not aware that I have suffered ANY long-term effects from it. Don't let them scare you. Just work on staying as healthy as you can. Eat your veggies.

02-15-2011, 02:54 PM	#13
rondo Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Monterey County, CA Posts: 37	Re: Taxotere Carboplatin Herceptin Side Effects Yogi, Get a port! Also, you can wear specially made gel-filled frozen gloves and socks just during the taxotere portion of your infusions to prevent peeling, painful hands, feet and nails called 'hand-foot syndrome'. Ask your onco nurse about this or search online; there was a scientific paper published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in 2004. Well worth the effort and it spared me a lot of problems. One thing I had an unexpected and huge problem with was severe acid reflux all night for several days following each chemo. (I normally never have this problem) my onc had me take Prevacid or Protonix starting the night before each chemo for a total of 10 days each cycle. Worked like a charm. Nurses aren't very forthcoming about side effects because they don't want to scare you and everyone's experience is different anyway. You have to be very specific in your questions. I will say that in my case at least it was not NEARLY as bad as I thought it would be. I felt good or even great through most of my treatment. My side effects were very predictible and consistent; once I figured out what they would be I was able to plan around them very well and kept almost a full work and activity schedule. Now a couple of years after, I realize that the chemo, which I had feared the most of all the treatments I received, has had the least impact on me in terms of long-term effects. In fact, I'm not aware that I have suffered ANY long-term effects from it. Don't let them scare you. Just work on staying as healthy as you can. Eat your veggies. __________________ IDC 6 mm l.b. 3/08 age 49; ER <1%+; PR -; KI67 40%; HER2 +++by FISH; lumpectomy/snb 4/08; extensive dcis found at surgery (didn't show in bx or mammo); micromet in sn; MRI breasts and chest 4/08-NED; re-excision l.b. 5/08; refused axillary node dissection; no ca found in re-excision tissue. TCH q 3 wk x 6 finished 10/08; whole breast rad x 7 wk finished 12/08; refused axillary and supraclavicular rad. Herceptin thru 6/09. Refused tamoxifen & aromatase inhibitors. 1/13 so far so good:-) have vestibular hypofunction from chemo but its all good since now officially on borrowed time!