Persistent Allergy Symptoms on FOLFOX?

[rwightman]

Since the day I started FOLFOX and Avastin, I have had a stuffy and/or running nose and I sneeze the entire week after infusion. I stopped Avastin two weeks ago and symptoms are still there. I have never had allergies before, but I know we have had a bad allergy season. I have been taking Claritin and it seems to help, but I think it is too coincidental to not have a link to chemo. I can never figure out what is chemo related and what is real. Is this a side effect? My onc blows it off - I have allergies, but it is every single day for 3 months - seems weird.

[jhocno197]

My husband is on folfiri & avastin. He has runny nose/congestion/coughing a lot more now than he has in our entire married life; he wasn't like this on Folfox, either...I think it's the Avastin.

[orcasres]

Not only is runny nose and congestion common but eye discharge as well. I could barely see for a while on a number of mornings when I was on FOLFOX. My onc and eye doctor both acknowledged the condition as a side effect of FOLFOX (and other chemo) and if it did not stop after four months after I finished chemo my eye doctor was going to fix the problem with some in office surgery. It did clear but it took two months after chemo finished for it to resolve itself.

Lois

[mstults]

I had allergies years before starting chemo. I've always took an allergy medicine with a decongestant. That helped but did not completely resolve the problem. After going on chemo I got much worse. Especially the runny nose. Seems all the chemos do it. Recently my ENT put me on Azelastine, a nasal spray. It's helped a lot. And I take Zyrtec-D. All this and I still have quite a bit of postnasal drip. Hope you get some relief.

[JDinNC]

During chemo, my nose dripped continuely. It was so embarrassing because most of the time I didn't know it was running. I went through so many boxes of Kleenex I had them everywhere. Once chemo stopped, everything dried up☺️

[trbiggins]

Chemo causes that stuff. My nose drips ALL the time. It can be embarrassing because I can't tell it leaking until I see it fall. It's got to gross people out. Oh well.

Richard