Needle Pain

I'm stage 3 colon cancer.I started chemo today. I have questions.

I was informed about the cold. what happen to me is when I try to drink I feel like needles are in my throat. is this normal? My jaw hurt horrible, like when you suck on a a lemon. is this normal???the infusion i had today was oxaliplatin, zofran, dexamethasone.My meds are xeloda tablets, these i start tomorrow and take 5 aday.Dexamethasone tab,ondansetron tablet.I ask the cancer doc today if I could work. I work in a food processing plant that keep temp at 32 degrees. he said he thought i could work. what are your thoughts. i'm so confused because of how i am reacting to the cold. will this get better? should I go back to work?I need all the input i can get. thanks paula55

 

On 7/23/2008 paula55 wrote:

I'm stage 3 colon cancer.I started chemo today. I have questions.

I was informed about the cold. what happen to me is when I try to drink I feel like needles are in my throat. is this normal? My jaw hurt horrible, like when you suck on a a lemon. is this normal???the infusion i had today was oxaliplatin, zofran, dexamethasone.My meds are xeloda tablets, these i start tomorrow and take 5 aday.Dexamethasone tab,ondansetron tablet.I ask the cancer doc today if I could work. I work in a food processing plant that keep temp at 32 degrees. he said he thought i could work. what are your thoughts. i'm so confused because of how i am reacting to the cold. will this get better? should I go back to work?I need all the input i can get. thanks paula55

 Hi Paula,

Call your oncologist's office and tell them  about these symptoms - I mean right away.

This could be a common reaction to the chemo, or  could be adverse (undesirable) reactions to the chemo and/or meds.  Your dr certainly should be able to give you an answer, and he/she or his staff should have recommendations for how to deal with this, if indeed you do not need a change of medication.

You could possibly have enlarged lymph nodes - which would be a normal reaction, but one that needs to be minimized.  Enlarged lymph nodes could indicate infection, so your doctor needs to know about this for that reason also.

Probably least likely, you could possibly have sustained damage to your jaw and/or  throat if you had surgery and were put to sleep for your colon cancer.  If so, that may or may not be reversible.

If this is a common reaction, you may get additional responses from other people telling you so, but I still would call your oncologist's office without delay.  Everybody's body chemistry is different:  what may have been an ok or merely bothersome reaction for someone else might not be ok or just merely bothersome for you.

Wishing you the best,  Tre

Hi sorry to hear about the needle pain, but my husband has the same reaction. He is stage 4 and cannot drink anything cold . We just set out a soda or what ever on the counter for awhile before he drinks or eats. If he drinks water we make sure that it's luke warm. He gets his treatment 1week on 1off, so by the second week it's alittle better.

good luck

googie

 

On 7/23/2008 paula55 wrote:

I'm stage 3 colon cancer.I started chemo today. I have questions.

I was informed about the cold. what happen to me is when I try to drink I feel like needles are in my throat. is this normal? My jaw hurt horrible, like when you suck on a a lemon. is this normal???the infusion i had today was oxaliplatin, zofran, dexamethasone.My meds are xeloda tablets, these i start tomorrow and take 5 aday.Dexamethasone tab,ondansetron tablet.I ask the cancer doc today if I could work. I work in a food processing plant that keep temp at 32 degrees. he said he thought i could work. what are your thoughts. i'm so confused because of how i am reacting to the cold. will this get better? should I go back to work?I need all the input i can get. thanks paula55

Hi Paula55,

I had this same reaction when I had the oxyplatin. I felt like I was trying to swallow glass and I had difficulty breathing outside when it was cold. I also had trouble trying to touch anything cold. For example I couldn't take anything out of the fridge. And yes it really is severe however it does only last for a few days.

Hope this helps.

 

On 7/23/2008 trehouse60 wrote:

 

On 7/23/2008 paula55 wrote:

I'm stage 3 colon cancer.I started chemo today. I have questions.

I was informed about the cold. what happen to me is when I try to drink I feel like needles are in my throat. is this normal? My jaw hurt horrible, like when you suck on a a lemon. is this normal???the infusion i had today was oxaliplatin, zofran, dexamethasone.My meds are xeloda tablets, these i start tomorrow and take 5 aday.Dexamethasone tab,ondansetron tablet.I ask the cancer doc today if I could work. I work in a food processing plant that keep temp at 32 degrees. he said he thought i could work. what are your thoughts. i'm so confused because of how i am reacting to the cold. will this get better? should I go back to work?I need all the input i can get. thanks paula55

 Hi Paula,

Call your oncologist's office and tell them  about these symptoms - I mean right away.

This could be a common reaction to the chemo, or  could be adverse (undesirable) reactions to the chemo and/or meds.  Your dr certainly should be able to give you an answer, and he/she or his staff should have recommendations for how to deal with this, if indeed you do not need a change of medication.

You could possibly have enlarged lymph nodes - which would be a normal reaction, but one that needs to be minimized.  Enlarged lymph nodes could indicate infection, so your doctor needs to know about this for that reason also.

Probably least likely, you could possibly have sustained damage to your jaw and/or  throat if you had surgery and were put to sleep for your colon cancer.  If so, that may or may not be reversible.

If this is a common reaction, you may get additional responses from other people telling you so, but I still would call your oncologist's office without delay.  Everybody's body chemistry is different:  what may have been an ok or merely bothersome reaction for someone else might not be ok or just merely bothersome for you.

Wishing you the best,  Tre

Hi,

Since you don't seem to be familiar with this treatment there is no need to post a message that could possibly scare someone. You don't know if they are having an adverse reaction and I'm sure the doctor explained what the side effects could be. However, the problem with other people explaining the side effects is that they don't really know how it feels. So maybe their description didn't seem to be as intense as the actual side effects someone else was having. It seems irresponsible for you to go on about a patient having an adverse reaction or irreverable damage from surgery since you haven't had an occassion to take these drugs.

 

Thisis a common reaction to Oxy - I had it too as many others have. Talk to the nurses at the infusions center and they can help you with many of the side effects.  They did me.  Good Luck and God Bless.  I was stage 3 also and after the last chemo the cancer is in remission.  Hang in there!

I did call the onc and they said I will have these side effects. I was told to leave drinks out to get warm.

I went to my daughters today and was empting and filling up her icecube trays and an icecube fell. I went to pick it as , as you normally would, and man it hurt so much. i won't do that again for sure. thanks for you input.Paula

 

On 7/23/2008 googie wrote:

Hi sorry to hear about the needle pain, but my husband has the same reaction. He is stage 4 and cannot drink anything cold . We just set out a soda or what ever on the counter for awhile before he drinks or eats. If he drinks water we make sure that it's luke warm. He gets his treatment 1week on 1off, so by the second week it's alittle better.

good luck

googie

Thank you for your response, I can't tell you how scared it made me feel last night. I did call the onc and she said this is a normal response and just to leave drinks out to room temperature.I appreciate all your input this is so new to me.I have treatment once every three weeks with pills inbetween. Have anyone taken the pills. do they give you diarrea?What are the side effects I should be looking for. thanks Paula   

Thans

Oh my gosh that is exactly how I felt. It scared me to death at first. I thought maybe I was doing something wrong. I hurt like crazy in the throat. I have learned already not to touch things in the frig without a glove on first.My first food was applesause right from the frig and man did it hurt. I have them sitting on the counter now.Thanks you for your response. I am not so scared and can laugh about it now. I don't want to be a baby about all of this. Thanks again, Paula

 

On 7/24/2008 Arnold wrote:

Thisis a common reaction to Oxy - I had it too as many others have. Talk to the nurses at the infusions center and they can help you with many of the side effects.  They did me.  Good Luck and God Bless.  I was stage 3 also and after the last chemo the cancer is in remission.  Hang in there!

Arnold,

Good to hear from you. I thought I was prepared for all of this but are we ever really prepared? You have given me lots of great info and I  have learned alot from everyones info.I was given alot of info yesterday and wished I would have had it sooner. I was so cold when they gave me my infusion though and slept through it, most people were sleeping. I call my onc nurse today and she told me there was no way I would be able to return to work since my job is 32 degrees cold. So I feel like I'm not being a baby about this. I will be the second survivor in my family. Two brothers and my mom passed away from colon cancer and my oldest brother just finished his treatment. He doesn't like to talk about it though so it's great to have everyone to share. It makes me feel more positive about the cancer.How are you doing? Are you cancer free? Doyou have your port out yet? I met a lady that had breast cancer and she still has her port in after l year.That was interesting. My port doesn't hurt so much now that the swelling and bruising has gone down. Ok gonna go take a nap. thanks for responding, YOU ALL HAVE HELPED ME CONCER SOME OF MY FEARS AND I APPRECIATE MORE THAN I CAN TELL YOU.Paula