Hi @Trikki2, I’m sorry that you are having to prepare for this but you sound positive and that’s a great start. The unknown is daunting as everyone here can attest to. I totally agree with @melclarity, we all react differently. I had Fec-D and didn’t fair too well. I proved to be sensitive to all drugs throughout my treatment but this doesn’t mean you will be. I experienced nausea for the entire fec treatment, along with eye infections, oral thrush and severe constipation, just to name some of the side effects I still remember. I finished active treatment 8 months ago and it’s amazing how quickly our brains forget. Loosing my hair was a pretty emotional day, I didn’t have the option of using the cold cap so I can’t offer you any insight there. I did use the cold gloves for my hands (not feet) but unfortunately still lost 8 out of 10 fingernails and my two big toe nails 4 weeks after finishing treatment. After the first round however I got on top of my side effects, you learn as you go and the following rounds weren’t as bad as the first. To prepare I always had coloxol the night before with the dexmethosone. I was hospitalised for suspected pneumonia but bounced back ok. I have to say that docetaxol was much worse for me. The positive was that I didn’t have any nausea which was great. But the pain for me was unbelievable. I was hospitalised after the first round due to a reaction to it and the bone and muscle pain was intense. I had a 25% dose reduction for the following cycles. The second cylcle was not so bad but my last one was really punishing. BUT I also met another lovely lady during treatment who had absolutely no problem with the same Fec D treatment that I had. She was able to work through her treatment and found fatigue to be her biggest issue. It is so important to remember that we do all react differently. I understand from your query about cold capping that you are concerned about losing your hair (as we all are). As @melclarity says fec is a very hard hitting chemo and is pretty damaging to the hair follicles however docytaxol can do permanent damage. It was only after my second cycle of docytaxol that I found out that a VERY SMALL percentage of patients can have long term or permanent male pattern baldness after docytaxol, (not Fec). Obviously this freaked me out and wished that my onc had discussed this with me before hand as I did have the option to have paclitaxol instead which isn’t known to have permanent alopecia effects. It took quite some time for my hair to grow back but thankfully it did. My intention is not to scare but inform as I wish I had have known this information before treatment. Please remember, our treatment may be similar but our bodies will each react differently. Wishing you all the best going forward during what I know is an achingly nervous wait. You’ll do great. Sophie.
