I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and struggling to take in the information following my appointment with my consultant yesterday. I've been on carbo and taxel, I'm supposed to have 6 rounds 3 weeks apart. I've been suffering really bad side effects which have got worse with each round. I made it to 3 rounds but then got really ill, I was admitted to hospital with febrile neutrapenia then after I was discharged my pre chemo blood test showed I was anaemic low platelets and my liver and kidneys not coping and im too ill to have chemo. I had a blood transfusion, which made me feel so much better, and an ultrasound on my liver and kidneys. Yesterday I saw my consultant who told me my liver has recovered but my kidneys are scarred and thin. My kidney function was fine before chemo so it's the chemo that's damaged them. She said it is a rare side effect and I'm pretty unlucky to get it. She's referring me to renal consultant, giving me another 2 weeks off to recover more and then if pre chemo bloods show levels improved or at least stable, I'm just going to have carboplatin for a round and see how that goes.
My questions for you lovely lot are who has had carboplatin on its own and what side effects did you get? I'm hoping I'll be less ill with this? Also I'm a bit confused as I've read that it's the carboplatin that is most likely to have caused the kidney damage so unsure why we are continuing with that? I know paclitaxel is the most toxic of the 2. Its all just going around in my head. My kidney function us not critical currently but any more damage and it could be.
Just looking for advice really.
Good Morning Tina23
I am sorry to see that you have been so unwell on your chemotherapy. I had the same chemo drugs. I also had a hospital admission due to an infection that triggered sepsis alert and had to go in to have lots of tests. My bloods were not right. I also was neutropenic and had problems with magnesium levels and haemoglobin. Like you I felt a lot better after a blood transfusion. I did have an issue with the kidney bloods on my first cycle but it was not enough to stop the 2nd cycle starting and they must have recovered enough as they were not mentioned again. I was told it was the paclitaxel and to drink a lot more.
I had a lot of side effects from the chemo but the nerve effects- tingling hands and feet and the pain in my hips (where bone marrow is made) meant that the consultant reduced my paclitaxel dose on each cycle. By the last cycle I was on 50% of the original dose of paclitaxel. With carboplatin I was on the same original dose each time.
My consultant explained to me that paclitaxel was causing the issues. She described it like carboplatin was the cake and doing all the hard work but paclitaxel was like the icing on the cake. She said it was the paclitaxel that causes the most unpleasant side effects.
With carboplatin on its own I would hope that your side effects will be milder. My chemo regime was to have paclitaxel over 3 hours or so and then the carboplatin was an hour- so I think that your day at the hospital will also be shorter. When my paclitaxel was reduced a lot of the more severe side effects went for me or at least reduced to make it manageable- I hope that this will be the same for you.
I hope this helps a bit- I thought it was a good way that the consultant described it for me.
Jane
A short day will be much better and hopefully you will tolerate the carboplatin on it's own better. People who were having the carboplatin treatment on my chemo days used to be in and out within a couple of hours maximum and had much less hair loss- just thinning. They tended to look better whereas the people on the paclitaxel who were in with me seemed to feel rougher. Am not medically trained but this is just my experience from spending hours on the chemo unit and having a good oncologist who was able to explain things well in understandable terms. I hope that you will recover enough to try the carboplatin in a couple of weeks. Let us know how it goes
