How are you ? The Cetuximab is an inhibitor drug that can be used along side chemotherapy . When my mum started treatment it was just coming into the NHS . The research was good . It has a different role to chemo but the results showed improvement for some .
Flofox is widely used . I think you have the Oxaliplatin administered in hospital with an infusion but go home with a pump for a few days . I think , my mum did Xeloda so had chemo tablets to take for two weeks instead of the pump .
Is this the plan for you ?
Hopefully someone else with experience will pop on and give you more insight . I think the side effects are more or less the same .
Hi Court, Thank-you for your reply,im feeling ok , i had a choice of the 3 treatments, talked it over with my partner ,and i think im going to try the version with the tube by my chest, its daunting to think about it,but i will know more when i see the Dr next week, last time i saw him ,he said they would be starting the treatment as soon as i knew which 1 i chose, but i will talk it over with him again to make sure, i know you and your mum are an inspiration on here, and always have the answers, im pleased she is doing so well, hope you are keeping well also,
I am having folfox at the moment. I have had 4 out of 12 cycles and so far I am feeling great with hardly any side effects. It is a 2 week cycle, on Monday I have a blood test and my picc line flushed out, get weighed, temperature and BP taken and I also have a covid 19 test. Then on the Wednesday I go to hospital and have the Oxaliplatin intravenously through my picc line. This takes about 2 hours, then I come home with a little pump with the 5fu which I have for 48 hours then go back to the hospital on the Friday to have the pump removed. I then have the whole of the next week off until the cycle starts again.
For the first couple of days after the treatment I am extremely tired and just rest all day. I have had a little bit of tingling fingers and toes when I touch anything cold or walk on the wooden floors with bare feet and if I forget and drink something like juice straight from the fridge my mouth and lips tingle too. By the Sunday I am feeling better but am still very weary and have to rest a lot.
I haven't suffered from nausea and I haven't lost my appetite. I have tablets to take for the first couple of days to make sure I don't feel sick and different tablets here at home just in case. I think there is a steroid injection that you can have with the treatment to stop the nausea but I cannot have this as I am diabetic.
I have an ileostomy and my output is quite loose and liquidy anyway but it is worse for a couple of days immediately afterwards. This isn't a problem as I am just at home and can empty frequently.
I had a blood test before I started the chemotherapy to check for a enzyme deficiency. I am not sure what it is called but I don't think it is offered at every hospital. If you are deficient your symptoms can be worse so if they know about this they can adjust the medication. I don't know the name of this test but has lots of good info about this.
I feel I have been lucky so far, my oncologist thinks I am tolerating it well but I realise other people have different reactions.
