Xeloda

The biggest problem my wife had with Xeloda is that the skin on her feet peeled off real bad and her feet were very tender. 

I had bad hand and foot syndrome and no matter what I did it got bad. Maybe it would have been worse without moisturizing but I don't know. I had to lower the dose so I can finish the treatment. I had only minimal hairloss. 

Laz

tanda said:

hand and foot syndrome

Laz,

 

really sorry that the hand and foot syndrome was so bad...it must have come on quite suddenly.

Maybe I should have chosen the infusion of 5FU; I just thought pills would be a bit more convenient and since the latest NCCN Guidelines listed them as a choice , it seems more docs are suggeting them.

 

Yes, drs should have more bedside training, so that they can really understand the experiences of their patients.  It has often been noted, when a Dr becomes hospitalized, his perspective is greatly changed.

I didn't take Xeloda, but from the little I've read, mostly anecdotes, it causes fewer side effects than the IV meds and by itself doesn't require a medi-port insertion, of course.

I had 5-FU and Mitomycin - one or both of them caused me a great deal of trouble. With the 2nd round, I didn't have to wait 7-10 days for the nadir to arrive. Just 3 mornings later, my white count was 1.2 and dropped to 0.6 by the end of that day. My bone marrow took a week-long vacation. This was the third and last time I was hospitalized. Then in November, my platelets plummeted, probably from the mitomycin. I wasn't offered an alternative to the IV meds; I was told they were the standard protocol.

I guess it's all relative.

Regarding doctors, I'm sorry that yours are aloof. My oncologist could use an empathy transfusion, no doubt about it, but my radiation oncologist is the most super, caring man alive. He's a huge nurturing teddy bear who told me in an unguarded moment that he'd gladly take a job flipping burgers if it meant that no more people required radiation. When he watched me go through all the radiation pain, he was distressed and told me that the pelvic and head/neck areas are the worst places for people to be zapped. His empathy is very real and just radiates from him like an aura. Dr. Eanelli isn't the only empathetic MD: when my friend Jon decided to stop chemotherapy for his metastasized renal cell carcinoma, his oncologist hugged him tightly and cried along with him.

I was given the choice on my chemo and chose the Xeloda. My doctors had me use Eucerin the big tub of cream not lotion. I had to apply it to my hands and feet twice aday. I was faithful to do it and it really worked. I hope this helps