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Anyone allergic to paclitaxel (Taxol)?
Has anybody experienced a severe reaction to taxol? Yesterday my husband was getting his first chemo treatment of carboplatin and taxol. Within minutes of starting the infusion of taxol he became very flushed, felt nauseous and his blood pressure spiked to 245/115. The nurse immediately stopped the infusion. They gave him a high dose of bennadryl which stopped the allergic reaction. Any suggestions as far as an alternative treatment? We meet with his oncologist on Friday.
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I want to share our good news my husband has been declared “cancer free”. He did well on Folfax, and had 25 radiation treatments plus eight iron infusions. I would appreciate any suggestion as far as follow-up care. He will have another CT scan in three months.
What stage was he? Were these his first line treatments... Folfox and concurrent radiation... or was the radiation done after the chemo? How many Folfox treatments did he have? No esophagectomy? Isn't his oncologist still taking care of him and advising what's next? I am hopeful he is NED... but cancer free? None of us think that way... unless it's been at least 5 years. But I love the good news so far. No immunotherapy?
I just wanted to share our good news, I’m very aware that he’s not cancer free, I should have said no evidence of disease. Yes he has an oncologist, I wanted to hear other patients follow-up after chemo/ radiation.
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2 ReactionsI did. I was given nab-paclitaxol instead after that and tolerated it. The allergy is the carrier of the chemo drug. It comes from the yew tree.
I just had a similar experience with taxol within minutes of the infusion beginning: jittery in infusion arm, flushed, then super dizzy rush to my head, heart rate escalated. I thought I was going to have a heart attack.
Given Benadryl.
Took me a long time to decide whether to proceed as I wasn't assured that Benadryl would be the solution to the allergic reaction. And why was I given Zyrtec in premeds instead of Benadryl.
I took so long thinking I wanted to quit since my body was sending me clear signals not to proceed.
The med oncologist finally called and I felt she "ordered" me to have anti anxiety meds. She insisted without it, the same reaction would occur and I'd be better off asleep.
I said I needed to think about it with my son and hung up. Finally decided to try it. It worked and I stayed awake the whole time to make sure I'd know what was going on.
Yesterday sucked basically, after two failed sticks and finally a successful IV line established. Not a good way to begin what I feared the most to begin with.
@mtstack
Is this your first-line treatment... and your very first infusion of Taxol? Did you also get Carboplatin? Any radiation coming? I did the CROSS protocol over 5 years ago. Worked fine... got me to surgery... then I did a year of adjuvant immunotherapy.
EC Zoom call in 30 minutes, if you'd like to pop on. Special guest today on our call... a famous cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr Shanda Blackmon (she used to be at Mayo Rochester).
Be well.
Gary
Southern California
@mrgvw
I had a complete hysterectomy first but was stage IIIC1 not early stages as hoped.
So yes first infusion, followed by carboplatin.
Tumor board recommended referral to EBRT. My gyn oncologist said chemo only. The med oncologist said radiation to follow. I will follow my gyn oncologists advice.