My chemo experience Gezmar/Cisplatin
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Kathy…..I have been informed for Claritin (yes, an antihistame) to be helpful with bone pain caused by Neulasta. You might want to take a look at this.
Best wishes,
MarionChemo with Gemzar and Citsplatin when fine on the 8th. Had the usual up and down phase with the steriods.
Chemo last Wed. also went good. Just had Gemzar, but they did give me Emend and the steroids since I got so sick last time without them. Those steroids got me up at 3:30am first night, 2:30 am second night, and even earlier on Friday night. I go to bed around 9:30 and when I’m up, I’m up for the day. Now I’m crashing – very tired, downer attitude, etc. My judgment doesn’t seem to be the best when I’m coming down. I love salsa and had a big bowl full, not caring what it might do (on Prilosec during this treatment). Had a lot of burping but not the stomach upset the other time I did this.
The Neulasta shot was on Thursday. I felt so confident that I wouldn’t have any troubles since I had absolutely non for the first shot. Felt even more confidant after two days had past. Last night was horrible. Intense bone pain in my hip area that made it so I couldn’t walk. It seemed to go away in the early morning hours. Today it’s just bone ache and pain, but I can walk. This will pass.
Kathy
I too had Gemzar and cisplatin but I was fortunate to have a Power Port so I did not have an IV in my arm. I had Emend an hour before starting chemo plus two other drugs to prevent nausea. I pretty much sailed through the whole process without one bit of nausea. Fatigue was more of a problem and a drop in my white cells for which I received shots to bring my white count back up. I was told that might cause bone pain but I did not experience any. The only thing I had trouble with was the steroid which caused my blood glucose to go to 276 (should have been around 120). I am a diet controlled diabetic so I wasn’t surprised but it took several days to bring it back down to normal. After discussing with my oncologist he dropped my dose to less than half. That made blood glucose control much easier. I don’t want the complications of diabetes added to anything I might experience with my cancer.
I am currently on no treatment, just watch and wait, but I feel great so I keep enjoying my life as I usually do. I wish all of you the best with your own journeys and hope that some of the things on this discussion string helps you cope with your own issues.It’s been a week since my Neulasta shot. No bone pain so I am very lucky. My neutrophils (part of the white blood count) level went up to 9.6. It has to be 1.5 for chemo. My platelets went down to 45 (need to be 100 for chemo), but my oncologist thinks they will come back up before scheduled chemo next Wed.
How are you doing Theresa?
Drinking 64 oz every day? I’ll have to work on that harder
Kim,
Thanks for the reminder….I remember now that the nurses mentioned the water when I first got Gemzar / Cisplatin. I would also get an hour of fluids by IV before the chemo IV. Xeloda gave me a red face, but the others didn’t affect me that way. I did get headaches, and chose to drink coffee (for the caffeine) which did help. I remember the Neupogen shots did make my joints ache like I had worked out a lot, but it didn’t last more than a couple days.
Linda
If I remember right, cisplatin is pretty rough on the kidneys, so the gave my mom lots of IV fluids at each chemo (she also got gemzar) and told her to drink 64oz of water a day all throughout the chemo portion of her treatment to flush the kidneys. I also remember her cheeks becoming red at every chemo, not sure if she ever had a fever though. Always had a headache that first night. The neupogen made her joints and bones sore, almost flu-like feelings, especially her legs and spine. They recommended Claritin to help with that, I don’t know why but it did help.
Theresa,
I wanted to mention that the chemo. nurses would also stress that we should drink at least 64 ounces of water each day, not just the 2 days you mentioned. They said it helped to flush the chemo. meds through your kidneys so it wouldn’t cause any damage. Now maybe that depended on what type of chemo. we were on at the time, but I don’t remember that. I just remember that I carried a 16 or 20 oz. water bottle with me and seemed to always be drinking. It didn’t leave much room for other drinks for sure.
Linda
My chemo yesterday went fine except it did hurt at first while going into the vein. It was just Gemzar. Then I ran a temp between 102 and 103. The oncologist on call said Gemzar can cause a fever on any cycle and my labs where great just a few hours before so he thought it was a side effect from Gemzar. He had me take Tylenol, the temp went down and I felt so much better. After I went back to bed I got a constricting/moving feeling all the way across the whole area right underneath the ribs. It was hard to breath and sort of scared me as I have not had pain with this before. Then came vomiting and diarrhea. Not fun.
Today I had my first neulasta shot which wasn’t bad at all. The hospital were I had it gives it in the upper arm (I was expecting the stomach). The needle was very small. I think the shot would be ok either in the stomach or the arm. Did all that dreading for nothing.
My oncologist called me this morning to see how I was doing. He did not know what the constricting incident was about and did remind me that when dealing with a temperature things can change really fast. I told him I thought the constricting ordeal was the tumor dying. He said he would go with that. He’s the kind of oncologist I like
Kathy
Kathy
Hi, Kathy,
I hope things goes as planned tomorrow. Like others on the board, I had to skip my chemo today because of the low white blood cells. I was a little surprised that since I had just started chemo the week before that they didn’t just go ahead and give me a lower dose instead of putting it off for another week. I thought I would get the results from the CA-19 test today, but when I called they told me it was not ordered this time. The doctors have always ordered one to be done each time, but the nurse faxed in a new order and did not order one. I will make sure it is on the order when I get another one next week. I have never been told about watching the neutrophils, but I see that it is low, too. I learn so much more from this board than I do from the nurses and doctors. No one has ever told me to drink a lot of water the day before and the day of chemo. I have to make myself drink water so I will pay particular attention, especially those days.I sure wish there was some pill that we could take to get the WBC up without the hassle of the shots, but I guess that would make it too easy.
Good luck, tomorrow.
TheresaWHB went up on Wed so Chemo was scheduled for Thursday with a 20% reduction in both Gemzar and Cisplatin. All is going fine so far. I’m having a steroid “up” day today, Friday. More energy than usual
The plan is to have chemo next Thursday and then a Neulasta shot locally on Friday. This is to be given 24 hours after chemo.I am glad you are enjoying my sisters blog – it is an easy way to communicate with all our siblings and family memebers who live out of state and in other countries.
It is a shame that you have to run around getting prescriptions from local doctors. You would think having something from your doctor from Mayo would be like an automatic “OK.”
Good luck with your future treatments. I will keep you posted. She will get her results today.
BigSister, I so enjoyed reading Jessie’s blog. Hope she can figure out her new cell phone easily. I always have trouble with that
It’s always heartwarming to see/hear/read about families who are close. I’m fortunate that way, too.White blood count is back up and chemo is scheduled for tomorrow. The following Thursday I will have chemo again and then have a neulasta shot 24 hrs after chemo. I’ll do that locally, but what a deal. One cancer center will not do it unless I’m treated by a doctor there (my oncologist is at Mayo). Most of the other places are only open until 4 or 4:30 M-F (what if I have chemo on a Fri. and need the shot on Sat?). We do have one hospital that will make special arrangements for the shot to be given anytime but the order has to be from a local doctor. I don’t understand why they won’t take an order from my Mayo doctor. So, I’m trying to get a hold of my local doctor so my Mayo doctor can send him the order and he can make one up for the hospital.
Good news is my insurance will pay for this. I think it’s around $3500 per shot! My insurance co told me I could order it myself with a prescription from two different specialty pharmacies, but if I did that there would be a 25% copay. If I go to a place where they have it on hand, there is no copay.
Kathy
Hi, Kathy, thanks for replying. I am not sure what nausea meds she is on but she is still eating; she is an eater. She just says her stomach feels fuller quicker but she still has an appetite.
If you go to her blog: http://bubbasez.blogspot.com, she is very thorough about her treatments. She is all about educating people regardins this cancer. She also throughs in a lot of humor to help her and others geth through the day. I talk to her everyday but I look forward to reading her blogs every morning.
She spoke to one of her nurses and they have her going in tomorrow for another CT and then she has a meeting with a ca surgeon on Thursday. I have another sister who is a nurse and she mentioned ascites as well. With my dad being a pathologist, my sister Jessica being a nurse and I have another sister who is a nurse, these terms seem to roll off their tongues so easily that I have to ask them to give it to me in simpler terms.
Thank you agin for your support and I will keep you posted on her results.
Hi BigSister,
I’m sorry your sister was diagnosed with advanced cc. I was diagnosed with stage 4 a little over a year ago.
My platelets came back up, but now my white blood count is too low so I’m waiting again for chemo.
I am not aware that chemo is unable to shrink a tumor. From what I’ve read on the board, chemo has been able to shrink tumors to the point where some people have resection. My tumor size has been the same size since chemo and radiation last fall. I was told last fall it could be dying from the inside out because of a color change (but there was no way they could know that without surgery – I am inoperable). I’ve chosen to think it’s dead. I’m having Gemzar/Cisplatin now to keep it from coming alive again (that probably doesn’t make sense with what I just said) and hoping to slow down the appearance of new tumors.
My stomach has gotten bigger but it’s from all the food I’m eating. I’m on steroids 4 days a week during my chemo weeks. I just eat, eat, eat. Have you been told it’s from the tumor? I’ve read on the board about some people having ascites and they look pregnant. Hopefully someone else will tell you more about this. I would definitely ask the doctor or chemo nurse – whoever you see first. Or call the doctor because it may be very uncomfortable for her.
Also, they should be able to give her medicine to control the nausea pretty good. What is she taking for nausea?
Hope this will be a good weekend.
Kathy
Hi Kathy, I am new to the chemotherapy discussion board. My sister was diagnosed with advanced cc with the cancer spreading to her liver and lymph nodes.
She started her Gemzar/Cisplatin on July 8th. The first treatment was the combo but the following week her platelets were low and could not have treatment. The following week she had a double dose and the week after that her platelets were low again and was sent home. This past week she was able to get treatment but only Gemzar. They decided to have a week off between the double dose and the single dose.
For the most part she experiences nausea and a little dizziness. Her appetite is still good.
My biggest concern is that her tumor has gotten bigger to the point where she looks pregnant. We are aware that the chemo is unable to shrink the tumor but to slow down the progression. Any idea how quickly the chemo takes to work or is this a question I should ask the doctor?
Any advice from anyone would be a great help.
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