docetaxel

[DeanNelson]

I start chemotherapy on Thursday, didn’t we have a list here of things to do?

[Hidden]

Dam Dean, I have followed you since your first post .. what a long strange trip it has been for you both. I pray this chemo will do the trick and put you above the pc . It has helped many here. God bless you ! 🙏

[DeanNelson in reply to Hidden]

Thank you, I’ve had a very hard time last 6 weeks…

[Hidden in reply to DeanNelson]

I’m sorry to hear that .. .. this f n disease is brutal .. I’m praying for you .🙏

[DeanNelson in reply to Hidden]

Thanks

[Hidden in reply to DeanNelson]

Hang in there !🤞

[StayPositive1]

I found this Dean. Good luck with it brother

healthunlocked.com/advanced...

[Avanat]

Dean,My husband and I read all the chemo tips on this site and others before he started treatment and we are sure they helped him avoid some of the worst side effects. I provided links to the tips below.

My husband, Steve, iced his feet and hands to avoid neuropathy. He bought chemo socks via Amazon and held frozen water bottles while wearing lightweight gloves. You could also just put ice in baggies and keep your feet on them during treatment. He’s avoided neuropathy, except for a little bit of numbness on the bottom of his feet. He did have some numbness in his fingers but it’s already gone away. We expect the numbness to go away in his feet eventually too. He also bought a chemo ice cap to avoid hair loss but 13 days after his first treatment his hair fell out so the ice cap wasn't used for his subsequent treatments. He also chewed ice chips during treatment too. Be sure to dress warmly since all that ice will make you cold. The cancer center provided warm blankets so that helped too.

He also did a modified fast before every chemo treatment too, which is to supposedly aid the effectiveness of the chemo.

He was lucky in that he didn’t experience major side effects except for fatigue. He did experience what we thought was thrush but he found out later it wasn’t thrush but something called stomatitis. Apparently it was an adverse reaction to the immunotherapy (Opdivo) he was on as part of a clinical trial. Steve, is on this site too under the name Stevana if you want to message him directly with any questions.

Steve always felt good the first few days after chemo but had a chemo crash on the 3rd or 4th day after chemo where he felt especially tired. On those days he didn’t do much but after a day or two of rest he would be well enough to work in the yard, do a light work out, etc. Hopefully you will be able to tolerate the chemo fairly well, too. Good luck and I hope this helps you keep your cancer at bay.

healthunlocked.com/advanced...

healthunlocked.com/advanced...

[DeanNelson in reply to Avanat]

Your response is sooooo what I needed

[Avanat in reply to DeanNelson]

Dean, Although having chemo wasn’t a walk in the park, it wasn’t as bad as my husband had feared. My husband has multiple mets (from skull to torso) as well as lymph node involvement. His scans after chemo showed his lymph nodes shrunk by 35%, his bone mets stable and no new cancer growth. Right now his only treatment is ADT (he started on Orgovyx in March after doing monthly Firmagon shots from April 2020 until February of this year.) He said after the scan results that chemo was worth it. I hope you also find the chemo helps you too. Good luck!

Alana

[longleaf in reply to Avanat]

If you ice or cool your hands and feet bring an electric blanket for your body.

[Woodstock82]

Chemotherapy with docetaxel was not nearly as bad as I feared when I started. The side effects do build up over time, though. Here are the notes I have from when I went through it:

1) neuropathy - tingling or even pain in feet and hands

What you can do to mitigate it: chill the feet and hands during treatment

Some go so far as to use ice in booties or mittens

2) mouth and tongue - sores, sensations, and changes in taste perception

What you can do about it: suck on ice cubes during treatment

I didn't get any sores, but my tongue would feel "scalded" for about a week

Changes to how things tasted were VERY noticeable, and thankfully temporary

3) nausea - gradual build-up as treatments progressed

What you can do about it: ginger for mild cases. I tried ginger ale, ginger tea, candied ginger, and ginger candies. All helped.

Bland foods were easier.

Later in the treatment, when the nausea was worse, I took a prescription medication "Zofran" (generic is ondansetron), and that worked very well at relieving the nausea. I probably should have taken it more often instead of trying to "tough it out."

4) fatigue - gradual build-up as treatments progressed

What you can do about it: move, exercise, get into a routine, push against limits, keep morale up, rest when needed, stay hydrated, keep up nutrition.

5) hair loss - lots of variation

I lost body hair first, then scalp hair.

Later lost nose hair, which felt odd, had to blow my nose a lot more

Later lost half my eyebrows, and most of my eyelashes

The good news is, although it took some time, much of the above was temporary for me. It took about a month after my last docetaxel treatment for me to feel normal again, and the hair did come back. I still have some lingering tingles in my feet, but it's not bad.

One other thing. Each night before a docetaxel infusion I had to take an oral prescription steroid, dexamethasone. Then again the morning of the treatment. And then more dexamethasone by IV infusion before the docetaxel infusion. The result was that I was wired the rest of the day, had insomnia that night, was wired the next day, and then energy and mood crashed the day after that. The crash lasted for a few days, rounding out the 1st week. The 2nd week was gradual improvement, then the 3rd week was pretty much back to normal -- just in time to do it all over again.

Every one is different, but be prepared for similar effects.

[larry_dammit]

Eat and drink anything you can , keep up your weight , naps are great. Do what the doctor tells you to do. 🙏🙏. Your not alone warrior 🙏🙏

[DeanNelson]

Larry……thanks bro

[j-o-h-n]

Hoping for great results....

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Monday 08/30/2021 10:24 PM DST