I had adriamycin/taxol combo. Not the max dose, 4 treatments, once a month. I lost my hair (which wasn't as traumatic as I expected - I learned to get as much laughter from it as I could!), was very tired and had little energy, and had quite a bit of nausea (but no vomiting.) Sour or bitter foods - especially dill and vinegar, and very cold purple grape juice helped the nausea as well as Zophran (which is quite expensive even with medical coverage.)
The extreme fatigue may have been due to the fact that I had 3 major surgeries in 4 months. I had really bad hallucinations with steroids - both prednisone and decadron. I didn't take any steroids with the last two treatments - and felt much better. The nausea seemed worse after I took my Neupogen shots - I didn't take any Neupogen with the last treatment, and the nausea was much less severe.
I was diagnosed with metastasis 5 years after my lumpectomy. The cancer was already stage II when I found the tumor in my breast, so who knows if I had received a higher dose or more treatments whether the cancer would have spread more or not?
I can say that I worked as a nurse for 16 years - took care of many cancer patients who got chemo. I know I wasn't anywhere near as sick with the adriamycin/taxol as were the patients I cared for that had gotten other types of chemo.
Sincerely,
Tre