Dealing with Taxotere

Hi deb:

I'm sorry to hear of your problems with Taxotere.
I never had this drug so cannot share any personal experiences. Just a few questions and some food for thought:

Since you're having severe reactions, then you must try to determine if any permanent nerve damage or anything else is likely, etc. even if the pain can be brought under control.

Getting a 2nd opinion, should be helpful. Also, try google.com or another good search engine and find out all you can about reactions, what happens, etc.. (I did a quick check and Google has lots of links for Taxotere) Hopefully the info there will shed some light.

Your doc left the choice up to you but what did he/she say about other patients who've had a reaction similar to your own? What happened with them re pain following completion of tx? Was the pain controlled with the person remaining functional, during treatment, etc.? What are the choices for pain control, if you do decide to continue tx? Seems that he/she should have shared some of this kind of info with you in order to help you make your best informed decision.

Good luck and please keep us posted.

Love, light and laughter,
Ink

I've read that Taxol has fewer side effects than Taxotere and yet is still one of the Taxane drugs (same class of drug). You should ask your oncologist if that would be a solution - to switch you to Taxol. Good luck.

In order to minimize reaction to taxotere, I received Dexamethasone twice the day prior to treatment, twice the day of treatment and twice the day after treatment. Deb, it is not an easy course, but it has a beginning, a middle and an end. While receiving taxotere, I did have severe aching pain in hips and low back, but my liver function tests were kerflooey, so I did not take pain medication. When LFTs were better, if the pain was bad enough to wake me up and prevent falling back to sleep, I tried a few things, and to be honest, none of them really relieved the discomfort. It is something you manage to get through. However, the greater issue may be whether or not you ought to insist on obtaining a second opinion, obtaining a pain management consultation which may be very helpful to you, and/or switching to a different physician.
Love,
Denise