Docetaxel symptoms - how long ?

Docetaxal really knocked me over. The first cycle, I could barely get out of bed for the first 10 days. The side effects kept coming too, I was still getting new symptoms a couple of weeks in.

Some people breeze through docetaxal though.

I found with EC, I had a bad week, an OK week and a good week.

With docetaxal, I felt pretty rough all the way through. The first couple of days were the best and then the side effects hit me.

They reduced my dose for other cycles which eased things a bit, but I still found it really tough.

Hi, yes, I had four infusions of Docetaxal, and found it to be much, much harder than EC. I had the taste thing as well. I generally felt better during the last week of the three week cycle, although during the last two infusions the lack of taste didn’t improve at all, and I had mobility issues due to extreme tiredness and pains in my muscles, and got breathless if I walked more than 20 yards or so. However, once I finished the course, I improved very quickly, and was able to have surgery exactly two weeks later (realise that you have already had surgery). A few days after that I was walking as normal. 

Just had my fourth docetaxel - it’s hard - 7-10 days of symptoms inc fatigue, diarrhoea, bone and muscle pain, random pains in shoulders, neck, chest, plus mild UTI like symptoms and periferal neuropathy. The next ten days it mostly goes away, it’s as if I’m back! Everyone reacts differently but I think it’s one of the ones with the most side effects - my oncologist happily reduced the dose after the first two because of the neuropathy in my leg which was painful - now it’s much less and does go away. Do speak with your team if you are struggling.