I have to switch to stivarga, and I can't stop crying

Gabby T said:

Stivarga

Abita, reading your message last night concerning Stivarga is what prompted me to finally become a member. I am stage 4, with mets to my lungs, and I am currently halfway through my third  cycle of Stivarga. Because it is rather new I had not heard of it prior to my oncologist telling me that this drug was next.

So10 weeks in, I have to say that my worst side effect has been issues with my feet. However, I just discovered cooling socks on Amazon and cannot recommend them enough. (You will want to  size up since they are difficult to put on with the frozen gel packs inside.) Other side effects are pretty standard.... fatigue, occasional queasy feeling and loss of appetite.

Now for the upside. My CEA has always been a good indicator for me, and it has dropped from 19.4 to 5.2 to 3.2 at 3 week  intervals. I'm hoping for stability. I haven't lost my hair... already have done that twice on chemo cocktail infusions.

I hope you will find a little comfort in my some of my experience with Stivarga so far. You are not alone.

Thank you so much! It really helps to hear from someone having an okay time on it, with some good results. Especially since you are lung mets also, which for me are so hard to get rid of whereas my liver mets responded well to other treatments. 

I guess my hair and eyelashes growing back is something to look forward to. I lost my hair rather quickly on erbuitx/irinotecan and my eyelashes thinned and are very short. My profile pic was about 4 days before my hair started falling out, and I was bald within 2 weeks.

I will be starting about where you are. My CEA jumped to 20 this last bloodwork.

End of day 1 on Stivarga.

Forgot to take my blood pressure or cream my hands and feet. Will do tomorrow. 

Fixed a nice bowl of chickpeas, rice, and tiny touch of vegan butter for my "eat with a breakfast that is no more than 30% fat" Ate half, put down to answer a work chat. Cat was chowing down on it when I was going to finish the breakfast.

Had heavy leg syndrome at one point a couple hours after taking them. Also had that feeling I used to get right after I finished an infusion bag, but that went away qucik.

Took a nap. Not sure if was stivarga or because I had been so congested from Friday to yesterday that I was coughing and throwing up and taking zyrtec.

Had a meltdown yesterday. And I do mean meltdown. I called because they sent my nausea meds to the wrong pharmacy, and casually asked when they would be scheduling the boosters. She said now. The meltdown was because I called on the 17th, mentioned that it would be great if I could get it between chemo as the chances of it working would be better. She said the doctor okayed it and they would make the appts when the software to do so was ready. Not once did she say, keep calling back though, because we don't have any paper or online notes to keep a list of those that want appts. And yes, that was my sarcasm, so Stivarga has not affected that. So, thanks to them not making a list, I now get my booster 2 days after starting chemo, and have to just hope that it worked while I am on chemo.