Triple Negative Breast Cancer / Carboplatin, Taxol, Keytruda

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Minreau
Minreau Member Posts: 3
edited December 2020 in Breast Cancer #1

Hello,

My mother was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in August this year. She has had 7 sessions of chemo (Carboplatin and Taxol) with 2 of those sessions including Keytruda. After session 6 (without Keytruda) she got a fever with chills but did not seek medical attention for it. It went away on its own by the end of the week. After the week 7 session, the same thing happened but more intense. She got home from the infusion, took Tylenol to lower her fever, and went to bed and didn't wake up on her own. Thankfully, her roommate checked on her the next day and realized something was wrong because she was in an altered state of mind. She was taken to the hospital and was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. After a little over a week at the hospital, she was transferred to a rehab center for about two weeks. They gave her broad spectrum antibiotics for 24 days between the hospital and the rehab center. Today she had her 8th chemo session, after a month of no chemo. She got the chills again, fever, and this time extreme nausea during the infusion. They gave her some anti-nausea injection which helped. I told her she should go to the hospital because from my research having a fever while on chemo is considered a medical emergency. But she said she does not feel as bad as she did after the 7th session and that she's tired and just wants to go sleep. She said if she feels worse during the night she will go to the hospital with her roommate.

Aside from being worried and terrified, I'm not sure what I can do. I live in Canada and she is in the U.S. I know chemo is a horrible experience but I feel like it shouldn't be *this* bad. Has anyone had a similar experience or know anyone that has?

The oncologist said the reaction after the 7th session was due to Keytruda but I don't know if this is the case since after session 6 and 8 she has been experiencing similar things, maybe less extreme.

Edit: My mom's fever is going up and she is feeling extreme muscle pain so she has decided to go to the hospital. Currently waiting for the ambulance.

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  • Primavera
    Primavera Member Posts: 231 Member
    edited December 2020 #2
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    I hope your mom is OK

    It must be so hard to try to help her all the way from Canada. Is she being seen at a good hospital?

    I'm in the US/NJ. And yes, I haven't had a fever while on chemo, but have been told to call if I do to see if I have to go to the hospital.

    Hope things are better by now.

  • ljsunflower
    ljsunflower Member Posts: 10 Member
    edited January 2021 #3
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    Any Update?

    I'm hoping your mom is ok. Can you give us an update?

  • Minreau
    Minreau Member Posts: 3
    edited January 2021 #4
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    ljsunflower said:

    Any Update?

    I'm hoping your mom is ok. Can you give us an update?

    Update

    My mom spent about a week in the hospital the second time. They had to give her morphine for the muscle pain because Tylenol didn't help. That came with it's own downsides (her head was in so much pain it felt like it was going to explode). Anyway, the doctors said it was an infection again and they gave her antibiotics. They said it was a direct reaction to the chemo.

    After that the oncologist changed her drugs to Adriamycin and Cytoxan. So far she has completed 2 out of 4 sessions. Her third session is on January 25th. They are also giving her meds to increase white blood cell count (once every two weeks, congruent with the chemo). No fever so far. Her severe symptoms with these drugs are extreme fatigue, digestive issues, and nausea. But she got new meds for the nausea today and they seem to be working better than the previous ones. The extreme fatigue is freaking me out a little, though. I think she was in bed for most of the day today. She said she feels better when she just lays down and does nothing. She also has to go to the bathroom often. It's not diarrhea but her stomach churns which makes her want to go to the bathroom often even though not much comes out.

    The oncologist told her to make an appointment with the breast surgeon since she is close to finishing chemo. Normally that should be good news, right? Since she's almost done with the chemo. But she told me the tumor is still there. It seems that when she was on Taxol and Carboplatin (and Keytruda twice), it was shrinking her tumor. Then after the two times she ended up in the hospital it grew again (although not to initial size) because she missed several weeks of chemo and I don't know if these new drugs are doing anything. Granted she still has 2 sessions left so maybe that will do something.

    Something else worth mentioning is that her cough came back. The first time she ended up in the hospital she developed a cough that would happen only/mostly when she talked. If she didn't talk, she didn't cough. But if she talked, sometimes she went into coughing fits. It went away for a while but the same thing started happening a couple of days ago.

    That's all the updates I have. Thanks for reading.

    Another update this morning: my mom had to go to the hospital again! This happened yesterday evening. Her roommate checked in on her before going to work and asked if she had a fever. Mom said she didn't know so she took her temperature and it was 104 F. But there were no other symptoms other than the ones she was already having (mentioned above). I spoke with her this morning - the doctor said her white blood cell count is lower than it should be Frown

  • anniemshe
    anniemshe Member Posts: 91 Member
    #5
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    Sending you and your mum

    Sending you and your mum prayers and positive thoughts. She's blessed to have you there for her. God bless you both. 

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