red lines under your nails?

[duga35]

A few days after my 3rd treatment I started getting blood red lines under my fingernails. I also have a small dark red splotch that us a bit raised and painless on the back of the same hand. Each day the lines seem to be getting bigger and darker. They run in the same direction of the nail growth.

Has anyone else ever had this happen?

My fingertips are also very sensitive. If I scratch, or try to write it sends a bit of pain down into my nail beds.

Thanks!

[dhealey]

They are called splinter hemorrahges. They are caused by the chemo. They will go away a few months after you stop the chemo. The fingertips being sore are also from the chemo. Nueropathy usually goes away also after finishing treatment. My took about 3-4 months to go away. Best of luck.

[duga35]

Phew! Thank you!

I did a google on it and I found all kinds of things that said it was related to congestive heart failure, or heart valve damage, or or or....and I knew that Herceptin can cause heart problems....

[sassy]

Doug,

I didn't have the red lines, but the nueropahy in fingers and also feet was a small problem. Bottoms of feet got very sensitive. It may get worse before it gets better, but don't worry, it will get better after chemo ends.

[chrisy]

Hey Doug,
The neuropathy is very common as a side effect. I had this with TCH and now have it a bit on the T-DM1 study. You do want to keep on top of it, make sure your doctor knows about this. My doctor recommended several supplements to help this, and it never got any worse. He had me on B complex, plus more B6 and B12, L-glutamine, Acetyl L carnitine and a few others.

On the other one - the splinter hemorrages, I had a little of that while on something. It was weird - I actually thought it was splinters as they were near the tips of my nails. They never hurt, it just looked odd.

I'd say, definitely mention all of these "little" things to your doctor!

[Cristina19]

Hi Doug,

I did 6 rounds of TCH and somewhere in there (round 2 or 3) my fingernails became VERY sensitive. I didn't have "lines" but a reddish area, like a bruise, under the most sensitive nails.

I tried tea tree oil as recommended by some of the women on this site, but I don't know if it helped. I also took a pretty heavy dose of Glutamine (available in a powder form, not capsules). I think it was something like 10 GRAMS per day (5 in the am; 5 in the pm; which basically amounted to a teaspoon morning and night) for the 4 days after chemo. There have been some studies that have shown that Glutamine helps prevent neuropathy.

see: http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/full/7/5/1192

So, after I got myself on that routine, the soreness of the nails stopped.

I got lazy at my 6th infusion and I didn't take my Glutamine. I don't know if it was stopping the Glutamine or simply the cummulative effect of the Taxotere on my body, but after round 6, my nails went into total rebellion!! They got extremely sore, nails lifted, one finger on each hand started to ooze lymph (so then I had to worry about avoiding infection under the nail). My toenails behaved the same way, especially on my left foot. Where the blood/bruise didn't drain, I ended up with a scab under the nail (big black spot and raised nail) that is growing out slowly.

I am now 5 months after the end of chemo. The nails are growing in, but some are still 1/3 lifted. The toenails grow back more slowly. I keep them very short to avoid snagging them on anything. The good news is that they are growing back, even if they look pretty ugly.

Sigh....

They DO grow back!

Hang in there!
Cristina

[CPA]

Jill's nails looked like tree rings during chemo. They took a few months to grow out.