Light headed, nausea, diarrhea

[Cali69]

Just finishing week 2 on imbruvica. No issues until today. Woke up lightheaded, nauseous, and diarrhea. Is this common?

[lankisterguy Volunteer]

Hi Cali69

-

In general most patients don't experience these, but about 30% do have one or more. Most are not serious and tend to decrease over time.

-

Side Effects

Upset stomach, diarrhea, nausea , vomiting, decreased appetite, headache, joint/muscle pain, swelling of ankles/legs/feet, numbness/tingling of arms/legs, anxiety, constipation, dizziness , or tiredness may occur. If any of these effects persist or worsen, tell your doctor or pharmacist promptly.

-

The side effect profile for Ibrutinib can be found on these sites:

mayoclinic.org/drugs-supple...

rxlist.com/imbruvica-side-e...

cllsociety.org/2016/06/top-...

chemocare.com/chemotherapy/...

-

You can find a list of past postings that included similar terms by looking for the box on this page labeled: Related Posts

*Light headed and woozy - NOT alcohol related

*catastrophic diarrhea

*Fever and diarrhea with Ibrutinib

*immodium vs lomotil for diarrhea

*ACUTE DIARRHEA on IBRUTINIB

-

Len

[Zia2]

I have a lot of side effects currently. I've been on it a month now. Hopeful the side effects will decrease as times goes by. I no longer have any bowel issues, but do have loss of appetite, (struggle to keep my weight at 115 no matter what I eat), heavy bruising (platelets at 77), some joint pain now, (ice my wrists) sleep disruption, headaches, (coffee in the am helps), heart palipitations w moderate exercise, BUT my labs are looking very good overall and I will see what my three month labs and side effects look like. Hope you are able to talk to your doc and pharmacist often as needed.

[Canuck901 in reply to Zia2]

The side effects are sometimes tough to deal with but the drug does a great job and keeping your blood normal

Hopefully more results come in for Ibruntnib and Venetoclax combo to make it standard therapy

[Zia2 in reply to Canuck901]

Hope so too!

[Lisa-1959]

I dealt with tummy distress (aka diarrhea) for most of the 45 days I was on Imbruvica, and it started 3 or 4 days after I began taking the medicine. The tummy distress even continued for several months after I stopped taking it...yikes!

[Canuck901 in reply to Lisa-1959]

How’s the Venetoclax going ? Are you still getting the Rituximab as well ?

[Lisa-1959 in reply to Canuck901]

The Venetoclax has been wonderful, and no, I am no longer getting the Rituxin infusions. (I had 6 infusions (1/month) and then stopped.) My neutrophils have dropped but never dangerously low, so I have remained on the 400 mg since my ramp up in February 2019. Initially I had some mild tummy distress, but after a couple of months, that subsided...and I gained back the 15 pounds I lost while on Ibrutinib! Oh well...the Venetoclax has been much kinder to my body, so I am glad to be on it.

In December 2018 (after I had stopped the Ibrutinib), my bone marrow involvement was 80%...in September 2019, it was down to 0.24%. I was supposed to go back to MD Anderson last month for another bone marrow biopsy to check my MRD, but Covid has bumped it out to October. We'll have to wait a few months longer!

[Canuck901 in reply to Lisa-1959]

Wow that’s fantastic lhow long were yuh on the Ibruntnib?

[Lisa-1959 in reply to Canuck901]

About 6 weeks...my local oncologist didn't like the side effects I was dealing with.

[Canuck901 in reply to Lisa-1959]

Wow , good to hear they found a therapy to treat you effectively . Any side effects from the Rituximab infusions

? How long did it take to recover after each one ?

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences.

[Lisa-1959 in reply to Canuck901]

I realize that EVERYONE responds differently to these treatments...have talked with some who had zero side effects on Ibrutinib which is absolutely wonderful...I didn't happen to fall into that category. With that said, the Rituximab wasn't bad. I broke out in hives during the first infusion, so I was given a mega dose of Benadryl which wiped me out for a couple of days. Because of that initial reaction, I was given larger doses of Benadryl (IV doses) the next couple of infusions, but they were able to drop back to pills after I didn't have any more trouble. I did have one strange reaction after the first infusion...it was like a PMS (Premenstrual syndrome) reaction, and it didn't subside for several months. My doctor (local & at MD Anderson), the pharmacist, nor the med manufacturer had ever heard of it before, but it was very real. My oncologist wound up taking me off HRT (hormone replacement therapy) thinking that would help...not sure if it did, but it did set off miserable hot flashes!