New to board and want advice on headaches

smiths29
smiths29 Member Posts: 5
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
Hi I am new to the boards.
I have had my first round of chemo on May 29th and have had a headache off and on ever since. The doctor said he didn't think it was the chemo, maybe the zofran. I would not think the zofran would be it since I haven't had it for the last week. Anyone else have headaches, if so what did you do for them.
4 treatments of AC, 4 treatments of Taxol, followed by tamoxifin for 5 years. Had a 2.1 tumor with a smaller one starting and 7 involved nodes. All test prior to lump removal had come back negative. We were caught completely off gaurd by this.

Comments

  • jeancmici
    jeancmici Member Posts: 665 Member
    #2
    Hi!

    I'm up to approaching taxol #3 June22. I had headaches off and on with the first AC but not the rest. The thing that makes AC so INTERESTING (JOKE!) is that I had a different predominant side-effect with each treatment.

    Maybe it's the Zofran - some people like Tigan better but no one writing here has mentioned it. I know someone in my area who switched to that because she thought Zofran gave her headaches.

    Headaches as you know come from tension and stress - and certainly chemo is stressful!

    Good Luck. Jean
    Welcome to the group here.
  • cherdaetwyler
    cherdaetwyler Member Posts: 156
    #3
    Hi,
    I didn't really notice headaches with the zofran but then my system is used to SSRI's which is what zofran is (although it supposedly affects serotonin to the vagus nerve). Zofran has a long systemic effect...the full amount is sstill in your system (especially women) 55 hours after the last dosage and it may not clear out of the system completely before the next treatment.
    (I realized that I was getting too much of a buildup when I accidentally gagged myself while scrubbing my toungue about 3 days before second chemo and couldn't throw up even though the impulse was there.

    best wishes for your health through your treatments.

    cher
  • dawnpawn
    dawnpawn Member Posts: 5
    #4
    I have gotten headaches from Zofran. It isn't a normal headache nothing seems to releive them, only sleeping them off. Ask the doctor to give you something stronger than over the counter stuff.
  • dawnpawn
    dawnpawn Member Posts: 5
    #5
    dawnpawn said:

    I have gotten headaches from Zofran. It isn't a normal headache nothing seems to releive them, only sleeping them off. Ask the doctor to give you something stronger than over the counter stuff.

    I am new at this sorry. You might want to see if any other medications you are on will cause headaches. I know when you are going through such hard times doctors like to put you on an antidepresant. Some of them cause headaches.
  • lauramarie
    lauramarie Member Posts: 39
    #6
    Hello Smiths,
    I am a four year survivor. I have to tell you I'd had terrible headaches for almost 9 months during and after my treatments. I had 4 treatmens of AC and yes the headaches were due to the cytoxon. Halfway thourgh the dosage I'd get a terrible migrane and it would last for a week. I took a lot of tylonal, ice packs to the eyes and then a prescription for headaches. Caffine also helped but then I was hooked after the treatments were over. Breaking that addiction was terrible too. Good luck with your treatments.
    Laura
  • gayleyr
    gayleyr Member Posts: 51
    #7
    Following my first AC treatment I also had a severe headache at the base of my skull - so much so that I called the dr. at 2:00 a.m -Zofran was the culprit - switched to phenagran and it worked great ever after. The nurse also told me that if the Cytoxan is pumped too quickly you will get a "Cytoxan" headache - might want to ask about that. They gave mine very slowly after that.

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