Oxaliplatin Reaction

Hi . That was the worst part of chemo for me and caused me to miss my only day off work. The heat pads do help but do make your arm go red. Unfortunately it got worse for me after my next infusion and I was close to tears as they removed all the sticky tape. I couldn’t stand anything touching my arm and had to walk round the supermarket with my jacket sleeve pushed up and a glove on for going in the fridge part. I asked for the infusion to be given over a longer period of time but they said it would just prolong the discomfort although I’m not sure if it was more to do with chair availability.

My saviour was a picc line - a permanent catheter in the top of my arm which stayed in throughout my chemo - treatment given through it and bloods taken out of it - happy days and happy veins.It does have to be flushed out every 7-10 days but I live near the hospital so used to pop in inbetween sessions. You can’t get it wet so you’re given a plastic sleeve to wear showering and no playing tennis or golf! 

Hope things settle down for your dad but bear this in mind for an option as I had to wait a couple of weeks for an appointment to have it fitted.

Take care

Karen x

Hello

Another vote here for a PICC line, my veins are awful so even the blood tests were a struggle. It takes about half an hour to put in but they use local anaesthetic and an ultrasound to identify the vein first. No pain at all, an xray to see if it is in the right place and it is done. I went to a local Drs surgery once a week to have it cleaned and flushed between treatments.

Nicky

Hiya I too suffered with vein pain after my second round of oxalyplatin. I put it down to the fact that they had used a much smaller vein in my wrist. For the three other rounds they used a big fat vein that I have in the crook of my elbow and they used a heat pad from start to finish and I had no vein pain.

It might be worth suggesting that if your dad has a juicier vein further up his arm that maybe they use that. I hope things improve for him.

Hi I had oxiplatin which the oncologist called the beast and it certainly was. The local reaction was unpleasant, I also had a throat reaction and was vomiting at the same time! They reduced the dosand lengthened the time it was given over. Which helped. I have since had a different chemo which was much better and have gone on to have big surgery which I am recovering from, good luck

Hi I had oxiplatin which the oncologist called the beast and it certainly was. The local reaction was unpleasant, I also had a throat reaction and was vomiting at the same time! They reduced the dosand lengthened the time it was given over. Which helped. I have since had a different chemo which was much better and have gone on to have big surgery which I am recovering from, good luck 

Definitely enquire about a PiCC line - I had one and had no issues when I had my oxaliplatin.