Hi friends,
Last Friday saw my mom's second cycle of Irinotecan + Erbitux. X-ray showed slight reduction of remaining pleural fluid so the drug seems to be working. The cycle was meant to be done on Wednesday but my mom's WBC dropped from 4.4 to 2.0 -- scared us a bit but our onc said it's totally expected. So my mom was given filgrastim injection and it took only two days for WBC to return to around 4.
Side effects are still very manageable, at least compared to Oxaliplatin. Her hair seems to be falling though as today my mom woke up with a few strands of hair in her mouth and on the pillow. She expected the hair loss to happen around the second or third cycle but still cried a bit when it actually happened
Here is my question -- is Irinotecan-induced hair loss a gradual process, or you may lose much hair at once, like overnight? Does hair still grow during chemo?
Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences.