New to HER2 Support group &Xeloda/Tykerb

[JoyceR]

Brenda,
Thanks for your words of encouragement and the info. I have been eating most of the things you suggest but everytime I eat anything else the big "D" comes raging back. I kind of had it in control before my onc took me off for a week but I ate a small cut of tomato soup and wowwie what an awful experience. It took 5 days to get over that off meds.

I read the info about skin several weeks ago but thanks for sharing it with me. I've printed it and am taking it in when I see the Dr. He's done a great job of managing all my side effects on other treatments but he doesn't seem to think that if I just wait it out the diarrhea is going to go away. The things I've done I already knew from treating diarrhea in my daughter when she was little. But it looks like these techniques aren't going to be ways of getting the diarrhea to stop but a permanent way of living. Since he says this will be an "until it doesn't work or you say you won't take it any more" treatment.

Thanks again for your response.

Joyce

[Joe]

Joyce,
Utilize our search feature on the boards. There has been a lot of discussion about Tykerb side effects the past few months.

Welcome to our group.

Regards
Joe

[Carolyns]

Hi Joyce,

I think that some of the others here have cut back on the dosage of Tykerb and then built back up over time. Perhaps they will chime in soon.

Sorry that you are suffering.

Carolyns

[Esther]

Joyce, my side effects from Tykerb were so severe that my onc said the only thing that would relieve it would be taking a break.

I didn't want to do that, so I dropped down to 3 pills a day of Tykerb, and managed better on that dosage. After about 2 months I upgraded back to 5 pills a day and was able to tolerate that dosage with little side effects.

Perhaps you can discuss with your onc if a drop in the dosage is appropriate for you.

The recommended dosage of Xeloda on the Tykerb web site is 2 pills twice a day. Check it out.