The long-term side effects of chemotherapy.

Dear Dr.:

I had chemo therapy for breast cancer a year ago.  I am positive that I still have side effects. Occassionally, I will have the same symptoms as I had when I was on Adriamycin and Cytoxin. (4 treatments, 3 wks apart.) These symptoms are quite mild now, but they are distinctive.  I get sores in my mouth and on my tongue, and my right heal splits in exactly the same place.  I am also having a great deal of difficulty with aches and pains like those I suffered with when I was on Taxol. (4 treatments, 3 wks apart.)  As a matter of fact, I talked to another patient who had Taxol and he said it took a year and a half for the tingling in his hands a feet to go away.  I am taking 20 grams of L-Glutamine per day to couteract the effects of the Taxol.  For a short time, I stopped taking the L-Glutamine and had so much discomfort I started taking it again.  After radiation, I was placed on tamoxifen.  I could only tolerate it and its escalating side effects for 9 months.  I no longer take it.

My oncologist said it would take about 6 months for all the side effects of the chemo to go away and for the drugs to get "cleaned out" of my system.

Are some individuals more sensitive to these drugs than others?  I feel as though I am having more trouble now than when I was on the chemotherapy.  Is there a website that gives information on this subject?  Please advise.  Thank You.  Ernestine

[CCF-RN,MSN-JS]

Dear Ernestine, There are variations in individual responses and recovery from the side effects of chemotherapy.  The actual medication is long gone from the body, however the normal cells that were damaged have variations in terms of when they recover fully.  It

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A related discussion, side effects of no estrogen was started.

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A related discussion, Long term effects of chemo was started.