Side Effects of Halaven (Eribulin)

I took this shot in Racine, Wisconsin last week.....I was just taking pictures of the architecture and laughed when I saw that I had captured my reflection in the window.  It was a wet, grey day.

I have completed my third cycle on Halaven (eribulin) and started my fourth...I have found that every other treatment just hammers me.  Because it drops my red blood cell count so low, I am often out of breath and I spend the third through 5 day sleeping  A lot.  Like 15 hours...and even then I'm not able to do much when I'm up.

The first treatment I received, I got a shot of  filgrastin (Neupogen) to elevate my white blood cell count.  My red was depressed as well..but they let it go.  After one dose of that, my counts were good.  The second series, I had to skip the second injection (which is put into an IV line) because my counts were low.  Still, I have been dropping tumor markers at a good rate.  I won't be allowed a PET scan until Sept. to see if it is really working...if then...per my insurance....although by then I will have run out of insurance.

Other side effects have been do-able.  I have lost my hair, although I'm told by  a lot of people that it often comes back before you finish, and that is only supposed to happen in 48 percent of the people on it.  I have increased neuropathy (in my case just numbness) in my hands and feet....always a problem.  I have increased lacrimation....in other words my eyes tear up and drip...which also causes a drippy nose.

I have nausea (which goes away pretty much after my week off and comes back again just before I get my second dose in a cycle), heart burn (which is handled by omeprozole--aka Prilosec), periodic hiccups, and burping (oh joy).  I also have severe cramping of some muscles, particularly my hands and jaw, which we are trying to figure out.

I also have lost my sense of taste, yet again, that starts coming back after my week off....only to lose it again.  The lack of taste and nausea has meant that I have been losing weight, which isn't a bad thing. It isn't a problem yet....until I put on the new pair of smaller pants I bought and discovered I can no longer wear them without a belt...That's OK.

I'd like to be able to do some more exercise...I am going to have to concentrate on going back to qi gong, which for lack of a better explanation is a form of Tai Chi...very slow, controlled movements which seem to do a lot of good for me....only I'm embarrassed to do them when Carlos is around.....so he really really does need to find a job and soon!

All in all....except for the severe sleepiness, I am able to do quite well on this.  I doubt I could get a regular job as I don't think I could handle it...with all the fatigue and weekly doctor's visits, but I have to say other than anoyances, I'm doing OK on this drug.

Down the Badger Hole

Ok...so I don't have any images of a rabbit hole.  Yesterday, I experienced a first....my blood counts were too low to get my second dose of Halaven in the second cycle.  I was stunned.  This had never happened before.

All sorts of odd feelings came rushing in....Will the cancer grow since I won't get any chemo until my oncologist sees me on April 17 and figures out a reduced dosage?  What does this mean for my overall survival?  Will a reduced dosage work? After all, the reduced dosage of Xeloda was only marginally better for my body and wasn't enough to control the cancer.

On top of it all, I obtained a copy of my last PET scan.....and the results were more dire than my oncologist had led me to believe.  All of this is downright scary.  However, I am trying to take a deep breath.  Since my first blood test indicated that the Halaven was working better than the oncologist anticipated, perhaps a reduced dosage will do as well.  Perhaps the fact that I got one cycle and one dose in will mean that I will have a residual effect while I am waiting to get the reduced dosage.

Other questions are in my head....can someone with extensive bone mets like I have manage to get to a level of stability or even better yet No Evidence of Disease again? Or am I fooling myself.  And in the mean time, what can I do to improve my health so that I am doing everything I can to make it work?  Hopefully, I will be able to start walking again...although I am very slow and the neuropathy (from previous drugs as well as Halaven) make my walking pretty dicey...it's like I have dropped feet.

I do know that I cannot be mired in the "what ifs."  However, I do recognize that I am having a period where it seems daunting indeed....That's one of the tough things about this disease.  It is in some ways unpredictable....but it does have one predictable thing....it can't be cured.  I will once again work to wrap my head around this....and not let the Cancer steal away my good days.....