Possible side effects
Xeloda (aka capecitabine) is the oral chemo I take during the two weeks following my 2 1/2 hour chemo infusions (capecitabine plus oxaliplatin) at the hospital. Taken in the morning and in the evening. I have my iPhone set to remind me at 10am and 10pm to take my pills. And I really really really hate this stuff. I mean, check out the possible side effects. BUT, as long as I can handle it I’m going to continue. I’ve heard that the symptoms get worse as you go – last summer I just had three sessions so I didn’t get to the breaking point some people I know have reached. And who knows, maybe I won’t because everyone responds differently to meds. But I gag every time I have to swallow these fuckers because I know they are doing terrible things to me. Let’s just hope they are also doing terrible things to the cancer cells so that going through all this ends up being worth it.
Round three of chemo today. Bleh.
casa azahar 
I have just stared to read your blog and I would like to say I wish you all the best in your fight against cancer.
I lost both my father and grandfather to cancer so I will say a prayer that you will win this fight and kick the big to the kerb.
Peace
Trojan
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I sure hope it goes well, with few if any side effects!
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Good luck, Az, I hope this round isn’t too awful. At least you have the port. I have no idea what kind of encouraging words to give you, but I’m thinking about you.
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This must be the stuff they gave my neighbor who died of colon cancer. I remember her complaining about the blistering of her hands and feet. I hope you don’t have that as a side effect.
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After all of the other stuff they list “discouragement”?
That’s got to be some kind of new low in dark humor. “Passing less gas” is also one of those things that would be hard to gauge, wouldn’t you think?
“No, this discussion is closed! If you haven’t farted by morning I’m calling the doctor, and that’s all there is to it!”
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Holy CRAP! That is a long list and it is hard to figure out which you should actually worry about.
“Passing less gas”?
I once saw a commercial for a certain over-the-counter allergy medication which stated their “side effects” in the negative rather than in the positive… Not that their side effects were positives. However, instead of saying something like “85% of women reported menstrual cramps” they said “15% of women did not get menstrual cramps”. If you actually read what the side effects were, it cause 85% of users to experience heavy menstrual-like cramping.
Of course, they were listed like this to downplay the side effects and to sound to the average person as though the product would, if taken, stop you from getting menstrual cramps.
I called the company to complain and the woman didn’t see the point of my complaint. “Well, it doesn’t SAY that it stops menstrual cramps.”
“No”, I said, “but is is designed to be misleading and WILL mislead the uneducated consumer into buying the product to use it for what it is not intended to be used for.”
I argued for a long time with her before finally saying that I would like it known that I was going to lodge a complaint.
I DID make a complaint to Consumer and Corporate Affairs and a couple of advertising-awareness groups. Shortly thereafter the commercial disappeared from the airways. I would like to think that it wasn’t just me who saw through this little effort to dupe consumers.
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I’m with you, sledpress; “Discouragement” ????
I got to about the “t”s and thought “Holy craphammer with a side of galloping Bejezuz on a well greased slide bare butt down a giant rhinoceros shaped razor blade, this shit is MEAN!”
I’m still waiting for the flying cars but I’ll settle for something that does what that is supposed to do and has the side effects label “May cause fragrant flowers to appear in peripheral vision and cause faint violin concertos in your ear holes.”
Hang on and be well, I can only imagine- but you are strong.
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And the name…. I hear an old Yorkshire fella saying “Ta Doctor tolt my dis stuff ‘ill cure me but I tink Xeloda crap if ya as’ my!”
😉
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btw, my da told me that women don’t pass gas so at least you don’t have to worry about that one.
Unless you stop blaming it on the cats and Nog ……
😛
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Thank you, thank you- I’ll be here all week, try the chef’s special!
🙂
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“I tink xeloda crap”
You finally did it zoomer. Huge belly laugh at 4.30 in the morning – congratulations. 🙂
Yes I know I should be sleeping bit I’ve got the pre-chemo jitters. Am hoping that small black cat in my arms (purring away and making it very difficult to use the iPhone) will help soothe me back to sleep soon…
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I also note that if you go into a coma you should consult your doctor immediately.
Sound advice.
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Oooh, you beat me to that one, Nog. 🙂
Also, how does one tell if there are a large amount of triglycerides in their blood?
Up and having coffee now. Gotta leave in about half an hour.
It turned out that Flor wasn’t able to make such an early appointment – I had told her it would probably be around 11 o’clock as the last two were around that time. So I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. Luckily (and unfortunately) Nog’s new student called yesterday to say she’d changed her mind about starting classes, so he was suddenly free for this morning (I really hadn’t wanted him to miss the first class with a new student). But he has another class at 12.00, so we are doing the changing of the guard thing again. Nog will stay with me until 11.30 and Flor will take over from there.
The main symptoms I get include quite bad diarrhea, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, fatigue, low level nausea/queasiness, and this awful feeling like I’ve always got something stuck in my throat. From the oxaliplatin (in the infusion) I get the horrible “cold thing” whereby I can’t touch, eat or drink anything cold for about ten days. It also makes my voice change for a couple of days and probably adds to the general fatigue.
I am way more tired on the chemo this time round, but at least I shouldn’t get the awful depression this cycle as my onc agreed that I not take the dexametasona.
Well, off to shower and then make a snack for elevenses.
Oh, and hello and welcome, Trojan! Will check out your blog when I get home.
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why can’t they at least give these drugs more pronounceable names? Why do they ALL have to have x’s in them and myriads of unnecessary syllables??
That list of side effects makes the list for the Roaccutane that I now have to take for the rest of my life (unless I ever want to get pregnant) sound a lot less horrendous by comparison.
Jeez. It gives me several of those side effects just reading that list…
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Don’t blame side effects 🙂 The side effects from a lot of substances is what’s get me going. For me the intended effects of those substances are side effects that I could do without…
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I was wondering about the ‘discouragement’ too.
I guess the x’s in medication names come from the time when doctors were always handwriting the prescriptions, so it looked like lots of x’s anyway
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Coming to you from Chemo Central. Nog & I have been playing word games on the iPhone and I’ve just checked my “tweets”. This iPhone really was the best Christmas present ever.
Had egg salad sandwiches for elevenses – have saved a ham sandwich for Flor. Who has just arrived, so I’d better go!
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The main reason for all these “x-names” are marketing.
Some 2o years ago when I started you write prescriptions all new meds that came out on the market was “z-names”. Somebody had figured out they “z-names” would promote selling.
After 7-10 years or so, the market was full of “z-names” and nobody responded as expected, so the Marketing Gurus had to figure out something else.
Then came the Era of “x-names”. Presumingly that one is about to end pretty soon. Probably there will be “c-names” “y-names” or something else that will trouble or minds and ability to spell correctly in the not far away future.
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I thought it was because it’s easy to find trademarkable names beginning with weird letters like ‘x’ and ‘z’ because not many words start with them?
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Watch this:
http://www.medications.com/videos/drug/zoloft-commercial
and then this:
http://www.peekvids.com/play.php?vid=450
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http://www.metacafe.com/watch/204664/ambilex_new_sleep_aid_with_strange_side_effects/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7tyYTc4WQQ
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Woah! THAT I didn’t expect!
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Are any of those x words allowable Scrabble words?
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Will check out the vids tomorrow, Mudhooks.
Had a serious reaction to the infusion today. I felt okay until I got out of the chemo chair, then on my way to the pain clinic (had to ask the guys there a couple of questions about my port) I got all woozy, my tongue swelled up, fingertips started throbbing, eyelids were twitching like mad, and it took a lot of effort to breathe and speak.
So Flor and I caught a taxi home. Barely made it up the stairs and then just flopped into bed for a few hours, which made the cats happy. Anyhow, managed to get up a couple of hours ago, caught Leverage on tv and had something to eat. Now I think I’ll pop a lorazepam and head back to bed.
What a day!
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Yikes!
With those eyelids twitching, I hope no one thought you were trying to pick them up.
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I just want an icon shaking my head. It’s all so unbelievable to me. You know, strangely enough, a lot of it I don’t remember. I mean, I remember being curled up in a ball on my bed, and I remember wishing someone would shoot me, and I remember the pain, but it’s all so hazy and other-worldly now and feels like it was only seconds, like it didn’t really happen. I hope that occurs for you.
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It did happen to me while you were on chemo and I was following your blog posts about it, Kim. I found it hard to remember exactly how awful it was, though I had similar hazy memories of feeling like shit. At the moment I can’t even look at these pills without feeling my gorge rise, but it should all be over in a couple of weeks. Hopefully for a long, long time…
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