Pins And Needles????

Hello Everyone,

A quick update and then onto another one of my many questions :)

My dad was hospitalized for 6 days after his 1st chemo treatment (cisplatin and irinotecan) due to severe nausea and vomiting resulting in dehydration. While he was there he had diarrhea for 2-3 days. He skipped the next week's chemo because he was so sick and got his 2nd treatment a week ago tomorrow. Thank goodness that he has not had the severe nausea/vomiting/diarrhea this time that he experienced before. He is, however, having that "pins and needles" feeling all over his body. I know that it is neuropathy but I haven't been able to find a lot about the treatment for it.

Does anyone have any suggestions? He goes to the MD tomorrow for labs and Dr appt and will ask then.

Has anyone had success with other cancer drugs that are less likely to cause neuropathy?

Thanks for your help!

Hi-Wondered how you were doing with your Dad. Would call Dr. about neuropathy rather than wait, even though it can be side effect. I posted a clip a few days back with mention about Vitamin E and neuropathy. The study revealed 300mg per day of Vitamin E reduced the incidence of neuropathy significantly with cisplatin use (86% down to 31% when taking E). It also may boost chemo agents, but clearly did not interefere in any way. You could ask if they object to you adding a Vitamin E daily (I always prefer to tell Dr what we are doing although in this case I would probably just give it and add it to med list when we went to treatment).  Glad you made 2nd treatment without diarrhea. Every time Pat had irenotecan the diarrhea would hit 2-3 days later, and go on endlessly. We had two hospitalizations on the off chemo week from the irenotecan diarrhea's severity before I recognized we were getting to critical and would get him in for hydration. Have thought of you each day in my prayers.  

Hi-Wondered how you were doing with your Dad. Would call Dr. about neuropathy rather than wait, even though it can be side effect. I posted a clip a few days back with mention about Vitamin E and neuropathy. The study revealed 300mg per day of Vitamin E reduced the incidence of neuropathy significantly with cisplatin use (86% down to 31% when taking E). It also may boost chemo agents, but clearly did not interefere in any way. You could ask if they object to you adding a Vitamin E daily (I always prefer to tell Dr what we are doing although in this case I would probably just give it and add it to med list when we went to treatment).  Glad you made 2nd treatment without diarrhea. Every time Pat had irenotecan the diarrhea would hit 2-3 days later, and go on endlessly. We had two hospitalizations on the off chemo week from the irenotecan diarrhea's severity before I recognized we were getting to critical and would get him in for hydration. Have thought of you each day in my prayers.  

This was daddy's week off so he only had to do labs and see the dr. They made a note about it but were not too concerned because right now it's happening on and off. His labs looked good and I hope that a week off will help him to become stronger. Thank for the info about vitamin E. I think we' ll give it a try.

How are you doing? Is school still going ok? Let me know what's the latest with your husband. Every night when I pray for Daddy I pray for you as well.

Take care and and let me know how things are going.

 

Hi-We're doing okay. School is going welI. I transfer my anxiety there. Had new A&P2 professor. Very laidback after intense perfectionist last time. Want massive knowledge from the last one, but know this one suits what's happening in life now. Allowed myself to feel sad and depressed over it for a day then realized how inflexible the last professor was, and how miserable and stressed I'd be and it all became perfect. I won't allow myself that luxury with the EC. PET was Tues and see oncologist Tues to talk it over. I'm sad we're caught in this place again, and feel partly responsible even though I know I'm really not. Have always made sure I had all CT and PET reports, and only got the early December CT a few days ago. They never sent it to his primary care and if I had followed through to be sure she had it (which isn't my job) he probably would have been able to be fixed up with a smaller surgery instead of what became a large Christmas emergency. He was doing so well. I'm encouraged because he's hungry again and slowly putting weight on, so I hope to regain the 10 lbs he lost with surgery. He made the shift after tongren class Saturday evening. Also started doing noon cancer conference call on Wed and I saw he had a lot more energy afterwards, so he'll do it again today. Just wish I had a few weeks of time to work with him like this because I feel he would be okay if the surgery hadn't knocked his immune system down. My prayer is that PET shows no metabolic activity and spots shrank in the week or two after CT. I know it sounds crazy, but if the tests showed that I could convince oncologist to give me a few weeks to do tongren before chemo because I don't want to go there again, but want him to have every chance at survival. So many spots in so few weeks, after months of clean scans...and I know that's where she will be coming from. I can see he is really on the mend right now, and becoming himself again (or the new himself). His attitude is really good and he is enjoying that he is feeling better each day. In this moment everything is fine.