Started Xeloda chemo pill today...

Hi,

I had 8 rounds of chemo and it didn't do much of anything to my tumor. I had a radical mastectomy on April 1st.

My onc said she wanted me to go on Xeloda because the tumor was 90% aggressive, and as she put it she "wants to make sure there aren't any cells trying to set up shop."

It seems I'm one of very few who take this form of chemo, so I'll try to post how it's going with me.

My onc said to start around May first. I got a free pill box from Xeloda that has the days of the week and am/pm. I have to take 3 pills in the am and 3 in the pm, so this is a nice box. The days begin on Sunday (obviously! lol) so I decided to take my first pills today, just to make it nice and even. I actually got 2 of these boxes, one from the onc and one when my pills got delivered, and since I am on it for 2 weeks, they came in handy.

Here's the weird part. Even though my onc calls it chemo, the insurance company looks at it as a prescription. These pills cost over $2000. My local pharmacy where I get all my meds from couldn't get the pills for me because of the cost, so they had to be delivered. I was really nervous on how much my copay was going to be, because I paid $30 for a bottle of that magic mouthwash stuff.

Well, luckily, the copay was only $127. I'll have to pay this 4 times, so my out of pocket for this chemo will be around $500.

Luckily, we can afford it... the strange part is that with regular chemo, the insurance paid for all that.

There are programs, and even the manufacturer of Xeloda will help out if you can't do the copay.

I just took the first course around 8:30 today. No side effects yet, although I did feel a bit of nausea after I ate lunch, but it passed quickly.

I hope what little hair I have doesn't fall out.

Sorry this is sooo long, but I'll keep you posted, in case, God forbid, anyone else has to take this.

Chris