How to Cope with Doxorubicin Side Effects During Cancer Treatment

I did the opposite I did doxorubicin first and I got a infection in my drain. The drain balloon fell out do to my visiting nurse not being sanitary . The doxorubicin wasn’t bad. I did ask for Imodium to go home with. If you take that before the drip it will stop the diarrhea , only other side affect I got was wasabi nose . When they slowed the drip it made it less intense . Let me add not everyone gets that . I feel the taxol / carboplation was worst than Doxorubicin. But I would would suggest asking for Imodium as a pre med to make sure you can just skip the diarrhea . Hope you feel better soon. I am being treated for triple negative breast cancer

Dina, see if your oncologist will substitute Epirubicin for doxorubicin. They are equally effective, but Epi is much less toxic to the heart. Epi is used in the US, but more commonly in Canada, Europe and Australia. I didn’t want to end up with heart failure after going through all this to stay alive, so I got my oncologist to get it for me. I don’t know if the side effects are much different from doxy, but I had very little problem (besides mouth sores) until I started taxotere.

Doxorubicin can certainly bring challenging side effects, and many patients find the fatigue and overall discomfort particularly tough after already going through previous treatments. Common strategies that help include staying hydrated, eating small frequent meals, gentle movement when possible, and working closely with the care team about anti-nausea medications and other supportive care options. The community here has so much collective wisdom about managing these treatments - hopefully others will share what has worked for them during their doxorubicin cycles.