Chemo Reaction

Hi i am interested to know if anyone has experienced an reaction to Taxotere which prevented them from carrying on I went for my first course last week and after a few minutes my back went into painful spasms The nurses stopped the treatment and after consulting the onclogist told me they could not continue on I was to receive 6 taxotere before starting on Herceptin and i am now left wondering if they will be able to follow this I would appreciate any thoughts on this Thanks Ella

Dear Ella- I don't know if your drug is the same as taxol- but when I took that drug I got waves of pain all over especially in my legs. I felt as if they were rubbery and I actually laughed because I felt like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. The doc gave me a good pain killer that really helped me sleep too and it took all the pain away. I stayed on the drug for the full allotted time. God Bless- Cathy

[ggweber]

I received Taxotere the beginning of 2004. My first round they started it out at 50cc and then increased the flow. After about 5 minutes I had a severe reaction to it, difficulty breathing and a severe pain in the chest, the nurses pumped me full of meds to counteract the medication. It wasn't really the Taxotere but the delivery agent. I then developed burns on my hand. The second round of it they gave it to me piggyback with a bag of normal saline and ran it in over a 6 hour period. They thought it would be fine, however the next day I had a burn on my hand about 1 3/4" by 2 1/2" long. It burned from the inside out. I had blisters. My oncologist wanted to stop the Taxotere but I fought for it. They then put a pic line into me and delivered the last 4 rounds piggy back over a longer time. All I have left is the scars.

[janet/FL]

Just a note that I just finished Taxotere and Herceptin on a weekly schedule and had few side effects--certainly compared to others! It had to be run slowly due to "red man syndrome" --the reaction I had during the first infusion, but if run slowly I had no reaction during chemo. Had some afterwards, but tolerable. See if you can have a weekly schedule and have slowed way down.
Why are you not scheduled to take Herceptin along with the Taxotere?
Perhaps Taxol will work for you if Taxotere does not.

all of these drugs have a delivery agent many of them similar to turpentine and lacquer thinner, and often it is that agent which is more dose limiting than the drug itself. That's why they reformulated taxol into abraxatane (sp?), having a water-soluble base and not needing pre-meds with doseages far greater and fewer side effects than its evil twin. This may be a drug to run past your onc.

waiting for a plane............