Paclitaxel side effects and coping skills
Hi everyone. I start weekly paclitaxel soon and would like some advice on side effects experienced and how to manage them. Any suggestion or tips would be most appreciated thank you
Forum Discussion
Hi @Suzie82, I found the paclitaxel a lot better than A/C. You may notice that your hair will start to grow back but any lashes or brows I had left fell out right at the end - but they started growing again quite quickly. I did get reflux for the first time, but my oncologist prescribed something and I took a tablet each day and it stopped. As soon as chemo stopped, so did the reflux. The main side effect for me was just being really fatigued, so rest when you can. During your first infusion, the nurses will sit with you just to make sure you don’t have an allergic reaction, you will most likely be given steroids to start with, but once they establish that you are ok, you probably won’t have them again. My tastebuds definitely left the building, but I did love the spicy food as I could taste it. As @Afraser said, your tastebuds will come back pretty quickly.
It is really important that you tell your medical team about any side effects especially if you get any tingling. I did the ice therapy and I am happy to say that my hands and feet are good. My oncologist really stressed that it was important that I let them know if I had tingling because whilst they want to give you 12 rounds, they also don’t want you to have any permanent damage if it can be avoided. He also said that it is not uncommon to stop taxol at number 9 because of the numbing and that he would be happy if I got to 9 as that was still effective - he stressed that I should not worry if that happened. I did the 12 and I iced my hands and feet for every one of them. There is quite a bit of information on here and I definitely recommend doing it. I found that the nurses were really supportive and a couple knew quite a lot about it. Take care and best wishes.