One of my many questions to come, so I'll try and do them one at a time. My wife Gail has finished her chemotherapy in August but still has numbness in her feet and hands as well as chronic fatigue. She received taxol, carboplatin and Erbitux once a week for 6 weeks (June & July), then had two week long cycles with pump of docetaxol, cisplatin and 5-FU. The side effects have been terrible, but manageable (the last week long treatment put her in ICU for a week) and I think we just got her mucositis under control.

She has been taking 100 mg of nuerontin 3x daily for about a month for the numbness. Just wondering how long it takes for the numbness to subside. Thanks!

Ken, my husband has battled the numbness in hands and feet since the middle of his rad txs. He had fairly severe joint problems before the cancer tx started, but nothing like during and after rad. The only thing that helped him was getting on a daily low dose of Predisone, which he is still taking. His left hand is still numb, but the right one is functional again. No one could really
offer any explainations except it might be a result of the rad. We are just hoping for the best because John loves to play the piano and build things. Good luck to your wife. Amy

I noted that you said she took cisplatin. Some of the chemo drugs cause peripheral neuropathy. Cisplatin is one of those. My 8-year-old daughter has it as an effect of the chemo. She is currently 6-months of off chemo. The Neurontin usually helps, they may need to up the dosage of it. Tylar takes 100 mg tabs also. One in the am, two at noon, and two at night for a total of 500 mg a day. Just a thought.

Kelly

My friend had 35 radiation txs and 3 rounds of chemo(cisplatin). I remember very distinctly him talking about his feet feeling tingling & numb.His doctor did say it could be a side effect of the cisplatin. It lasted several months but over that period it got to be less & less noticeable. It went away completely. I hope this helps!

Ken said his wife had Taxol, carboplatin and Erbitux as her initial treatment. One of the more serious side effects with Taxol is peripheral neuropathy, with neuropathy occuring in over 60% of patients receiving Taxol, according to the drug usage data. This problem is the major reason that our M.O. did not prescribe Taxol for my husband Barry, although usually she adds it to carbo (which he got) -- Barry has "benign essential tremor" in his hands and they were concerned that the Taxol would exacerbate this problem or that the existing neurological condition would make the Taxol impacts more pernicious.

As to whether the neuropathy will resolve, my understanding from the MO was that usually it does over time, unless there is some other underlying neurological condition.

Gail

Ken,
I too had Taxol and Carboplatin, along with another of the EGFR inhibitors, Iressa, and suffered neuropathy in both feet. It was not severe in my case and resolved itself in about 6 to 8 months as I recall. My difficulty was that as the numbness resolved it did so with frequent unpredictable shooting pains in my feet. There were times I wished the numbness back.
As I said though, it has completely resolved, and now almost two years out from treatment, I can run again, and cycle without any problems.

Good Health,
Chuck

Thank you for your replies, hopefully she will regain feeling in a few months. We just have so much going on right now - a viral infection in the mouth and HBOT to ready her for oral surgery from osteoradionecrosis. I guess like everything else we'll need to be patient!