my Mom had breast cancer, underwent a masectomy and will be starting Taxol treatments soon. i've heard that there are some serious side effects like severe joint pain. is this true? what other side effects are there? i'm really scared because i've researched it and found that there have been fatalities due to Taxol. please, if you have ANY information, please let me know... thank you.

Exaura,
My mom is on Taxol for Ovarian Cancer. Yes, she does have sever joint pain about three days after treatment. The doctor gives her pain medication for relief. The pain only lasts a day or two. Other side effects are nausea but there is medication for that too.
Also, mom gets norapathy (spelling?) which is numbness in fingers. I think she has some medication to help with that as well. That is all I can think of right now. Write back if you have more questions.

My mom has been taking Taxol for quite a while now that apparently there is no limit on the amount you can take. It is just a matter of how much one person can tolerate.

Search for the name Cathy Hainer on the internet. She is a USAToday report who wrote a journal about her battle with breast cancer. Although she eventually lost her battle I thought the journal was very touching and helped me to understand what a breast cancer patient may go through. I think it will help you.

Good Luck and God Bless.
NIE

thank you so much NIE... it really scared me to hear about all the 'horror stories' of Taxol, but it's not as bad as it seems i guess. i will check out that USA Today report. thank you again.

your Mom is in my prayers.

God bless...

in Christ,
Exaura

I had ovarian cancer and had 6 treatments of taxol/carboplatin. You do get joint pain for 2 or 3 days after treatment and have a couple of days of feeling really tired. I didn't get sick at all. They have drugs now that help with alot of the side effects. If you are going to have any kind of bad reaction to it, it will happen within the first 10 or 15 minutes of treatment. As long as your mom lets her doctor know everything that she feels she should do ok. also constipation is a side effect but usually a stool softener or laxitive takes care of that. Everyone reacts alittle differently to it so just tell the doctor everthing and they can recommend whatever might be needed for the side effects. I wish her well!

Thank you so very much... I have shared all of this with my Mom and she is still in good spirits. She also thanks you very much for your response, it is greatly appreciated!

You are in our prayers.

Take care and God bless.

in Christ,
Exaura