Has anyone had carboplatin and taxol treatment for uterine carcinosarcoma? Please share with me!

Auntie Shelly said:

treatment
Hello. I am on the carbo/taxol course right now. My schedule has been 3 times a month for six months with the first week including the carboplatin. After the carboplatin week I always have horrible constipation so try to get ahead of it with stool softeners.....yucky subject, I know but the nurses always tell me to be proactive. The carbo also is worse on my taste buds! The 2nd week is Taxol only for me but with the added bonus : ( of the shot for white blood cells (starts with a N and I always forget the name). My chemo nurse told me to take 1 Claritin and 1 Tylenol that night after getting the shot to try to lessen the bone discomfort. I do it every time but I seem to have a delayed reaction to the shot and don't feel the bone discomfort (mostly in the hips and legs) for a few days and then I take Motrin. The 3rd week is Taxol only and then WOO HOO a week off! Compare notes with the people in chemo....it really helps to talk to other people who are going through the same thing, although I only found 2 other people at my "chemo lounge" who have the same schedule as me. Most others are on a 1 time every 21 day routine and some with a combination of chemo and radiation. I have had a lot of problems with UTI s and have had to have 2 blood transfusions but this week is my last week of my 6 months! HOORAY! If my scans go well I will get to go on the 1 time every 21 day schedule for the next 9 months which still feels like a long time but should be much easier to deal with and it will be Taxol only. You can get through this! My fellow chemo loungers and this great group really helped me through my low times.....
I wish you only good days!

kansasgal said:

We are all there holding your hand
I'm so glad my daughter has been with me at my chemo treatments. The first time I was very scared. Although I think I asked pertinent questions and appeared to be as much in control as possible, the fact is that I can actually remember very little. My daughter is truly the one who has been on top of things the day of my infusion treatments!

At my first treatment the nurse also showed me how to clean and flush my chest catheter. A few days later I realized that I had been TOLD about it and had been SHOWN what to do. I had a white paper bag of supplies, but I could REMEMBER NOTHING about specifically what I should do. I called my daughter and she came over to show me what to do.

Each time I fall asleep for about the last hour or so of the infusion. I have had NO PROBLEMS during the infusion treatments themselves. The nurse checks on me with great frequency and is only a "call-button" away. We have never needed to call her. The last two times I have picked my daughter up on the way to the appointments. I am "out of it" enough afterward that I would feel unsafe driving myself home. The "out of it" feeling is due to the benedryl-type medication given at the beginning of the infusion. I sit in a comfortable recliner in a room of my own at my doctor's office. A warm blanket is available if I want to use it. My infusion treatments are always in the morning. It takes about 3.5 hours. Back at home I eat a light lunch with a big glass of water and then lie down for a nap. I sleep a lot the rest of that day. By the next day I am less sleepy but I am still tired.

Please do not hesitate to ask us questions. We'll be thinking of you today.

HUGS FROM EVERYONE.

Sally

kansasgal said:

Hi, Glenda!
Hi, Glenda!

Therapy: I am near the end of my third round of carbo/taxol. Like most of the others in our “group” I have one infusion every 3 weeks of both drugs, first one is infused, then the other. At the very beginning I receive benadryl and I think another medication to ease the whole process. Then I have a prescription for three days of Ondansetron 8 mg for nausea and one for three days of the corticosteroid Dexamethasone 4 mg. I also have filled but not taken a prescription for Promethazine 25 mg for nausea and vomiting. I have taken the first two medications for the 3 days following the infusion. I have experienced a bit of nausea after the 3 days, but it was not severe enough to take the third medication. For me (remember, each of our bodies is different) I am at the edge of constipation by about the third day. I am already on a high fiber diet to control my diverticular disease. Then suddenly on about the fifth day I have extreme diarrhea lasting 2 or 3 days. For the first time in my life I bought and use Loperamide (generic for Imodium) and find that it works very well for me. I take it for the duration of the diarrhea.

Fatigue: Day by day I become less tired. I go outside every day and remove the spent blooms from my 12 flower gardens. Then I come inside and sit and sweat for about 30 minutes. Then I go out and take photos of my favorite blooms of the day. Then I come in and sit and sweat for another 30 minutes. Then I go out with my clipboard and chart to count the blooms. Then I come in and sit and sweat for 30 minutes! I try to do all of this before 10 am when the temperature usually hits 80. I find that I have a greatly reduced tolerance for heat. I am hoping to clean up my flowerbeds in September or October (maybe November) when the weather moderates. My gardens are still filled with hundreds of dried iris stalks and lots of large brown and spotted iris leaves. Some weeds have turned into trees or bushes! Now that the daylily bloom season is ending, there are many dead daylily bloom stalks and leaves. There is still an area around my navel that hurts (post-hysterectomy) if I bend forward. I hope that pain will be gone within the next month or so. Due to some prior knee surgery I am unable to squat, so I rely on being able to bend over to garden.

Mental Fog: The mental fog is the worst the first week. By the second week I am thinking more clearly but still not clearly enough to do my job at the office. It helps if I just try to stay focused on one task at a time. It is impossible for me to prepare a meal with more than one dish that has ingredients added one by one. I can’t, for instance, check on laundry while I am cooking because I lose track of the fact that I’m cooking. When I do any kind of cooking, I stay on task until the entire project is completed. When I try to work at the office I do things like write the checks, make photocopies, put them into envelopes, then forget to mail them. When new bills come I can see that the checks were written. So I have to figure out what I did with them. This kind of thing is a problem at home, too. I have said, “I’m sorry. I forgot.” more times in the past two months than in all of the rest of my life up to June of this year. I keep a clipboard on the kitchen table. I used to misplace it regularly until I decided on the rule that it stays on the table and information is brought to it. On the left side I have a TO DO list. This includes chemo appointments, telephone calls to make, and so forth. On the right I have an ongoing shopping list. My husband does all the grocery shopping now to keep me from being exposed to people with infections. Before my chemo started I tried to stock up on staple items I knew he would have difficulty locating at the store. My daughter or son-in-law pick up birdseeds and swimming pool supplies for me. MOST OF THE PEOPLE IN OUR GROUP DO NOT SEEM TO HAVE EXPERIENCED THIS LEVEL OF MENTAL FOGGINESS. By the third week I feel that I am ABOUT ready mentally to return to work. Then it’s time for the next round of chemo!

Appetite: No problems! My weight has stayed about the same, though I may have gained a pound or so this round. My gyn/onc has encouraged me to eat more protein.

Supplements: I take a multivitamin/multimineral for seniors, calcium 600 mg +D, Selenium 200 mcg, B-complex which includes 400 mcg folic acid.

YOUR THERAPY: I am interested to learn why you are receiving one infusion every week with a week off after three. I wonder if it is easier on your body that way or if it might be better to help maintain a certain level of medication in your body. You may feel too nervous to ask questions this round, but after you are not so frightened, I would be interested in knowing reasons it might be preferable to have weekly chemotherapy. Will you be given both drugs at the same session or only one of the two at each session? Do you have some kind of chest port/catheter? I do. How often will labs be done to check how your body chemistry is doing?

Well, I better start getting ready for my visit with the rad/onc this afternoon. I think he will be doing an internal exam (yuck) so I need to have a shower!

Please keep us posted! HUGS, HUGS!

Sally