Aftereffects: A Rash Adventure

Turns out, just because you're no longer getting taxol infusions, it doesn't mean you're done with taxol.  Now that the steroid has cleared from my system I have been "enjoying" an interesting variety of taxol side effects that the steroid had been suppressing. I'll tell you about a couple of them.

The first to emerge was a horrible itchy, burning rash that started on the backs of my hands and spread all the way up both arms to my shoulders.  I was in a mild state of panic, because rash is listed as a possible side effect of herceptin, and I could not imagine having to live with it from now to the end of September.

The nurse practitioner who looked at it was baffled and just suggested antihistamines and cortisone cream, which took the edge off enough to allow me to sleep at night but did nothing to stop the progress of the rash up my arms.  Finally I got to see my oncologist, who said it almost certainly wasn't herceptin caused (whew!), and likely was a taxol side effect showing up now because the decadron was no longer suppressing it.  The taxanes (taxol and taxotere), he said, are known for causing a dermatitis that starts at the hands and moves up the arms, whereas most drug-reaction rashes start on the face and chest and move out to the extremities.

He prescribed a short "burst" of steroid pills and heavy-duty moisturizing cream, because the rash is aggravated by dry skin.  This was all happening when we are having an extreme cold spell, which meant the furnace was running all the time and the air in the house was very dry.

He was right, thank God.  I'm now about a week past the end of the course of steroid pills and a bit over a week past another triple-strength herceptin infusion, and the rash is gone and shows no sign of returning.

Another late gift from taxol: while my scalp hair is starting to grow back, my eyebrows and eyelashes are thinning to near-nothingness.  So at last I will have the full cancer-patient look, it seems.

 

On the plus side, my energy level is definitely better than it was at the lowest point, and so far at least does not seem to have been adversely affected by the radiation treatments.  I'm two and a half weeks into the radiation, so a bit over one-third the way through.  I'm starting to have a little bit of skin reaction (redness, irritation in skinfold areas), but nothing too great or too uncomfortable.  I'm perfectly capable of driving myself to and from my appointments.

 The Greater Dayton Cancer Center,

my home away from home.

Chemo and herceptin infusions happen on the left side in the front,

radiation happens on the right side in the back.

Doctors' offices are in the middle.

The zapper machine.

The bench slides up under the zapper arm,

which rotates around to zap me

from different angles.

More good news: the heavy-duty moisturizing cream I'm using, both for my arms and for the radiation treatment field, seems to be eliminating the (taxol-caused) problem I had been having with the skin of my fingertips splitting open, so I'm thinking I will try knitting again.  I had to set it aside when my fingertips began splitting open all the time, way back early on in the chemo period.  I've got quite a backlog of work to do to finish the 2017 temperature blanket.

Finally, while I'm still reading lots of murder mysteries (a favorite escapist genre), my last post inspired me to re-read the Odyssey.  The last time I read it was when I read it aloud to my sons when they were young boys (both are now in their 40s), so it has been a while.  I highly recommend the Robert Fagles translation, new since my last reading and very readable.  Good stuff, the Odyssey.  It's fascinating how much I see in it now that I didn't see thirty-some years ago when I last read it.