Another voice saying do not fear taxotere

Hi All
I know the general consensus is that Taxotere is pretty well-tolerated, as chemo drugs go, but I also know how nervous we were before starting, so I still thought it'd be worth posting.

My husband just had his fifth chemo infusion today, and it has been an incredibly easy path for him. He was a bit more fatigued than usual a couple of days after his first treatment, but I'm not even sure I can attribute that to the chemo. He was also in a lot more pain at that point. No nausea or vomiting, no neuropathy (yet), no rashes or other allergic reaction. He is losing his hair, though. Honestly, "Almost a 10" is right -- treatment days are darn close to spa days! And we aren't even loaded up on lavender products :). But the pain meds and Benadryl infused for the half hour before the chemo starts make it a pretty relaxing, feel-good ride for him.

The nurses are also incredible, so you just feel you're surrounded by positive energy and genuine caring (if anyone affiliated with Dr. Leming's Mason office are readers, know that you are amazing!).

It's too early to tell how well it'll work. His PSA still went up at the last reading (after the first 3 infusions), but much less than it had been climbing (+40% over the month before, vs. the 220% it had been climbing every month). As mentioned, he's also in a lot less pain, which I'm guessing is a mix of chemo making a difference and improving the pain regimen.

Which come to think of it is a hidden benefit. Because he's in the office 3 weeks out of every 4, they made much more progress on adjusting his pain meds.

So if you have Taxotere in your near future, worry a little less. There's a really good chance you'll find yourself with very few side effects.

Finally -- Dr. Myers recommends alpha lipoic acid (Jarrow Sustain brand -- available on amazon) and L-glutamine for minimizing the risk of neuropathy (the ALA) and tissue repair/healing (the L-glutamine), which will help him tolerate the chemo better. So if you're a believer, or at least willing to hope, you might want to try those.

Good luck to anyone considering it, and happy Friday!

Thanks for the update. As I've said, I'm starting my taxotere on Monday, so very encouraging news.

Infohound- thanks for posting this. I think I will need this treatment at some point, but not yet!

Hello !

Yes --- I went through the six Taxotere chemotherapy treatments last year and had very few side effects.

I was able to go to work, each and every day, and I felt very fortunate.

Going into the whole thing, I also had the "fear of chemo" that most people do --- some of it was based on the experiences my grandparents had with chemo back in the 1970s. Things have come a LONG way since then --- so a lot of my own fears and misconceptions were erased, once I got started with the treatments. They've done a lot to blend in steroids that help with energy level and also anti-nausea additives to alleviate or eliminate nausea.

Granted, chemo can be a rough road --- and you need to have some people supporting you along the way. Since going through chemo, I have "coached" a couple friends of mine through their entire series of chemo treatments and that is really helpful to find a chemo "buddy" if you can ...

I continue to say that the Taxotere treatments brought my PSA down even lower than the ADT shots alone had been able to do --- it's important to remember that Taxotere can kill some cancer cells that the ADT shots can't kill --- I felt that adding the chemo treatments helped combat my cancer in a new way --- so I have to consider myself an advocate for pursuing early chemo treatments, based on your doctor's recommendation and your own individual health situation.

Sent with my best,
Cyclone

Post Edited (ISU-CycloneFan) : 10/4/2015 11:41:00 AM (GMT-6)