Postby B in Canada » Sun Jun 18, 2017 12:36 pm
Hi ktwmn, Sorry for the late reply. I had significant joint/athritic pain while I took Xeloda. Below is what I posted about my Xeloda experience which I started the end of Dec.2014. Because I was Colon 2A, it was up to me if I wanted to do 8 cycles Xeloda or not(I forget my dosage: 5 pills in total: ?4/3 big, 1/2 little?)- so I thought I would try. My onc said an exercise/CARDIO regimen would be very good and I thought I could do both when on Xeloda.
" First cycle went fairly well. Felt like I was getting poisoned, with occl stabbing pain in abdomen, nausea, HFS starting. (I was really hoping I would be one of the lucky ones who only has minor problems.) Second cycle: terrible knife-like stabbing pains in abdomen, nausea worse, HFS way worse (the no fingerprints thing was interesting!), nocturnal diarrhea last few nights of cycle/off, all joints of body very sore/achey,could barely function. Went to Onc after second cycle and she said she could put me on 75% dose; I asked if that would make the abdominal pains go away=she said no. (I think she said the pains were bowel spasms.) So then I said I would like to quit Xeloda as I could not function at all; barely make myself swallow the last 3 days of pills in that 2nd cycle. By April my joints were still wonky-went to a Physio and she said talk to my GP about the problem. ANA test high titre and speckled pattern. Guess I got an inflammatory immune response (like an arthritis); Rheumatologist said it is probably from Xeloda and will hopefully go away in time."
I still have arthritic'y problems but not nearly as bad as then. I don't know if I was eventually going to get arthritis in so many joints as I got old, but maybe the Xeloda "triggered" the condition.
Maia posted this when I was considering whether or not to do the Xeloda and I wonder if I had done it together with the Celebrex IF it would also have helped prevent all the joint problems:
"B, since you have decided to take capecitabine (Xeloda), I feel like mentioning two issues.
1. There is an experimental combination of Xeloda plus a NSAID (an anti-arthritic medication: celecoxib (Celebrex)) in Phase II trial, with the idea of try and keep NED status (it's tried also on Stage IV patients). Everything about it has been posted in all the pages in this thread: XCEL-ADAPT trial Phase II -OPEN viewtopic.php?f=1&t=39924 (all the pages)
2. Also, if not for the previous, there is certain literature about the fact that celecoxib (Celebrex) may help to ameliorate an usual side-effect of capecitabine (Xeloda) -hand-foot syndrome."
Also I have read about the increased folate found in flour here in Canada perhaps affecting when on Xeloda & ?5FU. I certainly ate a lot of bread, crackers, etc. when I was feeling nauseous.
Drink LOTS of water and liquids to flush it out as I think towards my last cycle that I could barely finish, I was feeling so sick I was not drinking nearly enough. Also keep active/exercise when you can!!
I hope the rest of your Xeloda/combo chemo goes smoothly with as few side-effects as possible!! Take care.
Positive FIT test Spring 2013(intermittent blood=of course thought it was hemorrhoid) & finally got appt with colo-rectal surgeon Dec.2013 & then colonoscopy Aug. 2014
Sigmoid resection (laparoscopic) Nov. 2014 T3N0M0=colon 2A Female 53 yrs. old
Choice of to take Capecitabine(Xeloda) or not: did 2 rounds and then had to quit due to
many side-effects(still have auto-immune/drug-induced arthritis problems)
Colonoscopy Fall 2015(few polyps), Jan 2017(couple polyps); all scans/CEA/monitoring good