traceva side effects

I just wanted to say thank you for the positive responses that I received to my last posting.  My mom has been on traceva now for the last 6 weeks. She did develope a slight rash nothing terrible.  What she has been complaining about the most and what has been really making her so uncomfort and not able to leave the house is the trouble that she is having with her head.  She says that her head hurts to touch, that it feels so heavy sometimes that she can not keep it up(heaviness in the head)or get it off the pillow. Her eyes are itching her terribly and also are tearing more then before.  She has very little appettie and also all she wants to do is sleep all day because she is so tired.  I was just wondering has anyone experienced any of these side effects with traceva.  Her doctor says that this has nothing to do with the traceva and that these problems are from a preexisting  neurological disorder that she had(she had shingles in her ear several years ago)  My Mom says that these problems have gotten worse since she started traceva and she doesn't know if she wants to stay on it.  I know that she needs to be on it for at least three months before we can tell if it is working.  She is having an Brain MRI wednesday to rule out cancer or anything else involving her brain.  She is just so miserable that I really don't know what we can do for her.

 

On 3/16/2009 jls91978 wrote:

I just wanted to say thank you for the positive responses that I received to my last posting.  My mom has been on traceva now for the last 6 weeks. She did develope a slight rash nothing terrible.  What she has been complaining about the most and what has been really making her so uncomfort and not able to leave the house is the trouble that she is having with her head.  She says that her head hurts to touch, that it feels so heavy sometimes that she can not keep it up(heaviness in the head)or get it off the pillow. Her eyes are itching her terribly and also are tearing more then before.  She has very little appettie and also all she wants to do is sleep all day because she is so tired.  I was just wondering has anyone experienced any of these side effects with traceva.  Her doctor says that this has nothing to do with the traceva and that these problems are from a preexisting  neurological disorder that she had(she had shingles in her ear several years ago)  My Mom says that these problems have gotten worse since she started traceva and she doesn't know if she wants to stay on it.  I know that she needs to be on it for at least three months before we can tell if it is working.  She is having an Brain MRI wednesday to rule out cancer or anything else involving her brain.  She is just so miserable that I really don't know what we can do for her.

 

Hi! My mom had problems with really itchy and dry eyes, w/cracking of the skin, etc. We got her Genteal eye gel. You can get it in individual packets at CostCo. It helped a lot. Also, the head thing. She didn't feel the heaviness, but got a bad rash on her head that made her hair fall out. She is through the worst of it though. The first 2-3 months is really hard, but she is doing so well with the Tarceva now that I am so happy she didn't give up. Good luck with your mom and I hope that her scans turn out okay. Tell her about all the people who have gotten through this and it's just a matter of time before the worst of the side effects either go away or your body just gets used to it.

Don't quit the Tarceva!  My sister has been on it for 2 years and has had the same side effects.  Rash on her scalp, she says it "hurts to touch it".  She is diligent and puts lotions on her head every night before going to bed and her Dr. Rx antibiotics when it becomes really irritated and sore.  If I may drop back, she had headaches and went to the Dr. only to find out via CT Scan that she had 2 lesions on her brain stem.  A ches CT revealed a spot in her left upper lobe of her lung.  In Fall of 2007 she had a Gamma knife to her 2 in her brain and had her lobe removed.  Since then she has been on the Tarceva and has been getting good reports!!  This stuff is a miracle drug; it just has crappy side effects.  She currently is also experiencing some blistering but this was because she did not wear sunscreen on her feet while wearing sandals.  Also, she recently has a blister on her chest that popped and is going to speak to her Dr. about this, but from what I have read, it is another side effect of Tarceva but needs to be addressed.  He has taken her off of it for a couple weeks at a time to help things clear up, but then she goes back on it until it worsens again.  It is still better than the alternative, so we just take it a day at a time.  I guess also that it effects everybody different ways to??  Hope this has helped you in some way.