Oral Chemo
Anyone been on Oral Chemo?
I have been on it for 2 days, and would really like to talk to someone who has been or currently on Oral Chemo?
Any advice would be much appreciated. x
Forum Discussion
One of the very rare side effects of this oral chemotherapy is listed as weight gain. I've noticed this, probably not as a side effect in my case but because I feel so well and am enjoying food again! Watch this in your case, there's a wedding dress to fit into!! No nausea or tiredness, back to my normal state.
Regarding the drug not working if you don't have side effects, think this is a common concern and seems to be universal across all cancer chatrooms.
Even though I have had minimal side effects from all chemotherapies, scans have shown that they have worked for me. I felt awful at the chemo day ward for my lack of symptoms doing FEC while others were laid low for two weeks, the same for Taxotere, others calling it Taxoterrible. From these initial chemos I have very minor neuropathy that is slowly reducing.
I was on Arimidex and then Aromasin (AI's) for a few weeks but I developed skin mets while on them - a very visible rapid progression so I was switched to Xeloda as a biopsy of skin mets showed that I was now "hormone refractory" and no longer responding to hormone treatments. My feet are still peeling and my fingertips are still sensitive and starting to peel but I no longer go around saying Ouch Ouch with every step. This was cumulative, only tingling during first cycle, getting slightly worse in cycles 2 and 3 and hopefully stopping with reduced dose for cycle 4.
A CT scan after cycle 3 has shown a swollen lymph node that we were concerned about has much reduced in size and my tumor markers are demonstrating a slight rise that is usual when cancer cells are being killed and dead cells are in the blood stream. Everyone is happy that the treatment is working despite minimal side effects.
With love
Joy K