suggestions needed please

ppurdin
ppurdin Member Posts: 1,181 Member
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
hi everyone.it has been 13 days since my Chemo,my first one.Where they put the Iv in my arm has broke out in red and white bumps and looks swelled.Should i be concerned to call the dr. tomorrow.Has anyone of you had this happen.Thank you.(Pat).

Comments

  • outdoorgirl
    outdoorgirl Member Posts: 1,565
    #2
    Yes,ppurdin,
    I would definately call your onc tomorrow!!
  • Cat64
    Cat64 Member Posts: 1,192
    #3
    Pat
    Yes you should definetely call the Oncologist tomorrow 1st thing! Let us know what he says. Will be interested in what that may be.
    Hugz,
    Cathy
  • karen0423
    karen0423 Member Posts: 67
    #4
    I would call your oncologist
    I would call your oncologist right away, even page him/her tonight. You need to make sure it isn't a reaction to the chemo. I hope that it isn't anything but just in case you should call them. I had my oncologist on speed dial during my year of treament, that is what they are there for. Can't even count how many times I paged him!
  • meena1
    meena1 Member Posts: 1,003
    #5
    Pat, I am wondering why they
    Pat, I am wondering why they put the IV in your arm. Did you have a port put in? I have a port put in my chest and that is where they deliver the chemo. Just wondering.
  • tgf
    tgf Member Posts: 950 Member
    #6
    meena1 said:

    Pat, I am wondering why they
    Pat, I am wondering why they put the IV in your arm. Did you have a port put in? I have a port put in my chest and that is where they deliver the chemo. Just wondering.

    me too
    Like Meena ... I'm wondering if you have a port ... and if not ... did the doctor give you that as an option?

    I don't think I could have made it through chemo if they'd have to put the IVs in my arm and draw blood that way. I think I would have spent the entire hysterical and/or passed out on the floor. I'm such a chicken!

    In my opinion ... the person who invented the port is an absolute genius!

    hugs.
    teena
  • mimivac
    mimivac Member Posts: 2,143 Member
    #7
    How did it go, Pat?
    Are you still having the reaction? It could be a localized reaction at the IV site, or something more systemic, I guess. Best to ask your doctor. Let us know.

    Mimi
  • BunnyJane
    BunnyJane Member Posts: 213
    #8
    Chemo reaction_bumps at injection point
    I'm not sure what chemo cocktail you are receiving, but I just completed four rounds of Taxotere and Cytoxan. I took steroids before all treatments. However, I had severe skin burns at the injection point (I didn't have a port)including red and white bumps (it looked like poisin ivy to me) following treatments #2 and #3. These reactions started on day 8 or so following treatment. According to the literature that I found on chemocare, this reaction is unusual. The infusion room nurse indicated that she had never seen anything like it. The burn area was large (2 inches by 5 inches) red, hot and itchy, so I applied Benadryl gel and kept the area clean and dry and eventually applied Neosporin. After six weeks, I still have quite a mark at the #3 location.

    I probably should have clalled my onc., but I didn't. She was startled by the burn and thought that I should have let her know about it and the nurses were concerned too. So, to answer your question, call you onc. soon.

    For treatment #4, the nurse diluted the Taxotere into a 1-liter bag, and 12 days later, I haven't had a reaction at the inject point. Best of luck! Jane
  • Cat64
    Cat64 Member Posts: 1,192
    #9
    BunnyJane said:

    Chemo reaction_bumps at injection point
    I'm not sure what chemo cocktail you are receiving, but I just completed four rounds of Taxotere and Cytoxan. I took steroids before all treatments. However, I had severe skin burns at the injection point (I didn't have a port)including red and white bumps (it looked like poisin ivy to me) following treatments #2 and #3. These reactions started on day 8 or so following treatment. According to the literature that I found on chemocare, this reaction is unusual. The infusion room nurse indicated that she had never seen anything like it. The burn area was large (2 inches by 5 inches) red, hot and itchy, so I applied Benadryl gel and kept the area clean and dry and eventually applied Neosporin. After six weeks, I still have quite a mark at the #3 location.

    I probably should have clalled my onc., but I didn't. She was startled by the burn and thought that I should have let her know about it and the nurses were concerned too. So, to answer your question, call you onc. soon.

    For treatment #4, the nurse diluted the Taxotere into a 1-liter bag, and 12 days later, I haven't had a reaction at the inject point. Best of luck! Jane

    Pat
    Did you call? Did you find out what those bumps are? What did they tell you to do? Been thinking about all you all day.
    Hugz,
    Cathy
  • ppurdin
    ppurdin Member Posts: 1,181 Member
    #10
    BunnyJane said:

    Chemo reaction_bumps at injection point
    I'm not sure what chemo cocktail you are receiving, but I just completed four rounds of Taxotere and Cytoxan. I took steroids before all treatments. However, I had severe skin burns at the injection point (I didn't have a port)including red and white bumps (it looked like poisin ivy to me) following treatments #2 and #3. These reactions started on day 8 or so following treatment. According to the literature that I found on chemocare, this reaction is unusual. The infusion room nurse indicated that she had never seen anything like it. The burn area was large (2 inches by 5 inches) red, hot and itchy, so I applied Benadryl gel and kept the area clean and dry and eventually applied Neosporin. After six weeks, I still have quite a mark at the #3 location.

    I probably should have clalled my onc., but I didn't. She was startled by the burn and thought that I should have let her know about it and the nurses were concerned too. So, to answer your question, call you onc. soon.

    For treatment #4, the nurse diluted the Taxotere into a 1-liter bag, and 12 days later, I haven't had a reaction at the inject point. Best of luck! Jane

    Jane
    I am having the same Chemo drugs that you are having.And you exsplained it exactley like mine.I didn,t call the dr. either.I put a antibiolic on it. And it helped a little.I will tell my dr. when I go next week.I know the horible headach i had for 2 days after treatments was not good.i told the nurse and she said they gave the Chemo to fast.And no I don,t have a port.I felt like a pin cushion when i left from the first chemo.They stuck me in my hand,my finger and arm.I hate the blood draw in the finger the most.It really hurts.The dr. didn,t give me the opion for the port.She said i had healthy vains and wouldn,t need it.Thanks everyone.God Bless you.(Pat).
  • chenheart
    chenheart Member Posts: 5,159 Member
    #11
    ppurdin said:

    Jane
    I am having the same Chemo drugs that you are having.And you exsplained it exactley like mine.I didn,t call the dr. either.I put a antibiolic on it. And it helped a little.I will tell my dr. when I go next week.I know the horible headach i had for 2 days after treatments was not good.i told the nurse and she said they gave the Chemo to fast.And no I don,t have a port.I felt like a pin cushion when i left from the first chemo.They stuck me in my hand,my finger and arm.I hate the blood draw in the finger the most.It really hurts.The dr. didn,t give me the opion for the port.She said i had healthy vains and wouldn,t need it.Thanks everyone.God Bless you.(Pat).

    For the record, I had ( and
    For the record, I had ( and still have) good veins too, but my Dr put a port in after my first chemo to make things easier on me, and to make sure there would be no problems down the road. You might want to ask, especially as they made you feel like a pin cushion!

    And the bottom line for me was: I was fighting cancer! Nothing that was happening in or to my body was normal or usual~ AND I was paying exorbitant health isurance premiums fighting for my life. So I called my Dr about EVERYTHING which was even the tiniest bit odd! From a temperature spike of 2 degrees, to a can of dog food falling on my bare toe (was wearing flip-flops)at the supermarket, to being constipated, to someones cat scratching me on my "affected side" arm to if I should get a flu shot to when I could color my newly growing in hair...they were all questions for my health care team! No questions were too silly or too frivolous...and it didn't even matter what time of day or night it was. Someone was going to be on call~ maybe it would be my Dr, maybe it wouldn't~ but I was going to get a call back from a qualified oncologist, even at 3 AM! They would tell me if I needed to come to an ER and get looked at, or they would call a prescription in for me, or tell me to take Milk of Magnesia. I highly recommend calling our Drs when, during the course of having poison pumped through our veins which is indeed killing the Beast, we have a reaction!

    I would have been on the phone in the proverbial NY minute if I had red bumps at the IV site! LOL

    Hope whatever it is gets better soon...
    Hugs,
    Chen♥
  • outdoorgirl
    outdoorgirl Member Posts: 1,565
    #12
    chenheart said:

    For the record, I had ( and
    For the record, I had ( and still have) good veins too, but my Dr put a port in after my first chemo to make things easier on me, and to make sure there would be no problems down the road. You might want to ask, especially as they made you feel like a pin cushion!

    And the bottom line for me was: I was fighting cancer! Nothing that was happening in or to my body was normal or usual~ AND I was paying exorbitant health isurance premiums fighting for my life. So I called my Dr about EVERYTHING which was even the tiniest bit odd! From a temperature spike of 2 degrees, to a can of dog food falling on my bare toe (was wearing flip-flops)at the supermarket, to being constipated, to someones cat scratching me on my "affected side" arm to if I should get a flu shot to when I could color my newly growing in hair...they were all questions for my health care team! No questions were too silly or too frivolous...and it didn't even matter what time of day or night it was. Someone was going to be on call~ maybe it would be my Dr, maybe it wouldn't~ but I was going to get a call back from a qualified oncologist, even at 3 AM! They would tell me if I needed to come to an ER and get looked at, or they would call a prescription in for me, or tell me to take Milk of Magnesia. I highly recommend calling our Drs when, during the course of having poison pumped through our veins which is indeed killing the Beast, we have a reaction!

    I would have been on the phone in the proverbial NY minute if I had red bumps at the IV site! LOL

    Hope whatever it is gets better soon...
    Hugs,
    Chen♥

    Chen,
    I feel the same way that you do about calling doctors,nurses-especially in between treatments!
  • chenheart
    chenheart Member Posts: 5,159 Member
    #13
    outdoorgirl said:

    Chen,
    I feel the same way that you do about calling doctors,nurses-especially in between treatments!

    Thanks, Outdoor...I almost
    Thanks, Outdoor...I almost didn't hit the Post Comment button; I felt wimpy just reading it over! LOL But so be it~ I called about EVERYTHING! I might even have had the cancer center on speed dial during treatment, but I am admitting nothing! hahahahaha

    Hugs,
    Chen♥
  • BunnyJane
    BunnyJane Member Posts: 213
    #14
    ppurdin said:

    Jane
    I am having the same Chemo drugs that you are having.And you exsplained it exactley like mine.I didn,t call the dr. either.I put a antibiolic on it. And it helped a little.I will tell my dr. when I go next week.I know the horible headach i had for 2 days after treatments was not good.i told the nurse and she said they gave the Chemo to fast.And no I don,t have a port.I felt like a pin cushion when i left from the first chemo.They stuck me in my hand,my finger and arm.I hate the blood draw in the finger the most.It really hurts.The dr. didn,t give me the opion for the port.She said i had healthy vains and wouldn,t need it.Thanks everyone.God Bless you.(Pat).

    Follow up
    I agree with the other ladies here-- please don't wait until your next appt. to tell your doctor about this problem at the injection point. I should have called and you should too. I also agree with the other ladies about the port. If I had to do chemo. over again, I'd insist on a port. I know that this is no fun--Wishing you a more comfortable experience during your next treatment.

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