docetaxel - bloody noses, pain; Neulasta - pain - deep depression

scorpio6

I am taking docetaxel for my 4, 5, 6th chemos. I had my 4th chemo on Dec. 20/07 and on Dec. 25 I woke up and had a stuffy nose and blew my nose and there blood. I thought oops I had blown to hard, but is still like that and it is now Jan 7th, and I have my next chemo - #5 on Friday, Jan 11th. I was wondering if any of you have had that problem the whole time you were on the docetaxel? I have to blow my nose a lot of times during the day and it is always bloody. My first 3 chemos were FEC. Three different drugs together then the last 3 chemos are with docetaxel alone. I also had the aches in the hands and fingers and that was at the time I was trying to open up my Christmas presents. I had to get help the pain caused my hands and fingers to feel like someone slammed them in a door. Fortunately this did not last long a day I think, but then came the Mack truck sensation. I was told that my body would feel like a Mack truck had hit me. They didn't lie. On Christmas day after celebrating Reveillon with my family I woke up to pain in every bone/muscle in my body. I had been taking the steroid called Dexamethasone faithfully as had been prescribed and was finished what I had so I thought that this pain would subside. IT did not. It lasted until I was put on more of the Dexamethasone and liquid codeine. That was unbearable pain from Christmas day to 5:30 pm, Dec. 27th when my husband got the prescription that the oncologist had ordered. Thank God for the drugs! I am a strong believer in my Sunrider Chinese Herbs and continue to take/eat them every day. I also had been suffering from brainblasting headaches and my mom would give me head massages and pressure point massages and that seemed to help. I used to be very cold. Chilled to the bones and just before my 4th chemo I started taking three new herbs (new to me trying them that is) called EVERGREEN, ELECTROSPORT, SUNNY FRESH. I was also taking Liqui-five (Quinary) for a five systems. I must tell you that I had been taking other Sunrider products that were keeping me strong and giving me energy, but they hadn't done anything to boost my neutriphils or white blood count and I was always at risk to not being able to have my chemo. I was put on Neulasta and felt nothing except for going into major depression (mortality thoughts were rampant. I cried everyday for long periods. I had been so strong, nothing like this had happened with my other two same FEC chemos, so I knew it had to be the Neulasta. I searched on the net and found that that has happened to others so I knew that I was not alone. BUT a very interesting thing happened to me when I started to take the EVERGREEN, ELECTROSPORT - I got warm. toasty warm. no more chills. no more wearing hats in the house and big huge sweaters! I had energy. I felt great. AND the big thing was that on the Thursday Chemo #4 my neutriphils were 17.1 and my white blood count was 20.7! I know that the herbs were the reason for that. I am still taking these herbs along with the other Sunrider herbs I had been taking and I feel great. I have my days where I don't and those are very few. My breast cancer is stage IIIA and my recurrence of cancer is also very high so I take/eat these herbs as a big part of my fight against cancer and to be a long term stage IIIA breast cancer surviver. Just a little bit about me. Vicki

seof

Thanks for sharing. I was on Taxol and Herceptin for 6 months...very effective in reducing the size of my tumor with very mild side effects, but I did experience some blood from my nose when I blew my nose. The Oncologist said it is common with chemo, and the nurses in the infusion lab said not to worry unless it started a nosebleed that would not stop. Doc. said to use a saline nasal spray (like Ocean Spray). I did not notice much change with it one way or another. both the frequent blowing of the nose and the bloody tissues have stopped since I have been off the drugs. Once sufficient healing has taken place from the double mastectomy, I will be doing radiation, then some different chemo drugs....we'll see what happens at that point. I may be looking for some of the herbs you used...sounds like they were very helpful.

Thanks again, seof

3cbrca

Hi scorpio

I had a bloody nose and clogged sinuses for 5 months - it started when I was doing Adrymiacin/Cytoxin (8 weeks) and continued for the 12 weeks of Taxol. It wasn't as bad during the TAX but it was bad enough. I took sudafed at first, but that caused me to loose my voice. I kept 2 humidifiers running in the bedroom and used saline nasal spray.

My nose now runs all the time and I finished chemo back at the end of March!!

Kind of a pain, but still better than the alternative. Best of luck - it will eventually get better!!
She

MadelynJoe

Dear Scorpio:

Just a word to the wise, let your oncologist know of any herbal supplements you are taking; some supplements can alter the effectiveness of certain chemos.

I will pray for your speedy recovery.

All the best,

Madelyn