Chemo Side Effects

[purfekt10]

I was diagnosed with primary peritoneal carcinoma in January 2018. I had four chemos consisting of carboplatin and taxol. Then, I had debulking surgery followed by four more chemos. My CA 125 had dropped to between 3 and 6 for almost five years. However, this past October, the cancer returned and was deemed metastatic. I began chemo again in December with carboplatin and taxol at a reduced dose because that regimen almost decimated my platelets five years ago. I began experiencing a lot of leg pain at the beginning of March and was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and began a blood thinner called Eliquis. Two weeks later I had a resurgence of severe leg pain and was diagnosed with more DVTs along with a pulmonary embolism. The doctor told me to discontinue the Eliquis because it was obviously not preventing blood clot formation. He put me on another blood thinner called Lovenox and I give myself daily injections which I will be on the rest of my life. He also commented that these clots were due to chemo. I began experiencing breathlessness in January of this year. It took until the end of March for a cardiologist to diagnose me with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome which he said was also due to chemo. This causes my heart rate to suddenly rise 40-50 points within 3 minutes of standing. This results in feeling as if I'm going to faint and I break out in a cold sweat. My cardiologist also said this is due to chemo. I did NOT have any of these problems the first time, so I am at a loss to understand why all of this is happening now. On a positive note, my oncologist is working with a new company called Signatera to keep track of my cancer. He sent a sample of one of my tumors to the company to analyze its DNA. I have blood draws every six weeks to see if there is any of the cancer's DNA in my blood. As of February, I do not have any of the cancer's DNA in my body which was also confirmed by CT scans. While this is great news, my oncologist says I will continue having recurrences due to the nature of this cancer. However, with Signatera we can catch it much earlier than with CA 125 tests and CT scans. That means treatment can commence much sooner.

[Lyndy]

I can only sympathise regarding the adverse effects of chemo. It just reminds us that it is toxic stuff!

The blood testing regime is interesting, especially if it makes diagnosis of recurrence more accurate.

Personally I wouldn’t want to have treatment early or before absolutely necessary but I guess it’s personal choice xx