Paclitaxel and Carbo nearly done then EC - Nerves!

Hi Karend78 

I'm currently on a Pembro/Pac/Carbo combo for TNBC with a switch to Pembro/EC later down the line. I originally started on EC and had one single dose at the end of April before my treatment was changed to my current regime towards the end of May.

I had the dose on a Friday and rather than being on a drip, the nurse actually administered this and the infusion was quite quick. I felt a bit rough after and on the Saturday with mild fatigue and nausea, but on Sunday the fatigue peaked to the point that I stayed in bed all day, although the nausea stayed at the same level. I phoned the helpline on Monday morning as I was concerned the fatigue was excessive and spoke to a lovely lady who told me the fatigue was completely normal and not to worry if I just needed to stay in bed for now. Interestingly after this conversation, I picked up quite a bit that day, then felt much better on Tuesday and would say I felt back to normal on Wednesday and for the rest of that cycle.

If you have very persistent nausea and the anti-sickness meds you're prescribed don't help, you can ask to get these changed. A fellow patient in my chemo suite did this and it worked for her.

Hope this helps and good luck! x

Hi Karend78 

I had 4 cycles of EC as part of my treatment for tnbc. I had absolutely no nausea with it and never had any anti sickness meds other than the ones given in the unit prior to treatment. I did have bowel issues some of the time along with acid reflux. The oncology unit prescribed loperimide (the drug in Imodium) and omeprazole. I had filgrastim injections to take for 5 days from day 3 onwards. They were my pet hate as they gave me a lot of bone pain. Otherwise other than the obvious hair loss (I had EC first) and some achiness, nothing much happened. In a 3 week cycle, I found I could be back to normal in the second half of each cycle. We found it was good to book a long weekend break around the final weekend of each cycle. 

As MsC19754c mentions, the epirubicin is manually ‘pushed’ by a nurse sitting alongside you whilst fluids go in through a drip. The tubes are full of bright red liquid, as is what comes out of you afterwards! The cyclophosphamide bit goes through the drip afterwards.