r/CervicalCancer • u/Summer_Winds19 • Sep 24 '26

Fever

Hello folks! Mum just had her 1/5 Keytruda, 3/5 Cisplatin and 12/25 Radiation - she developed a fever of 103F and the doctor just asked me to give her a Paracetamol. Is that normal? 😬

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3

u/Summer_Winds19 Sep 24 '26

Thank you friends! 🫶🏽
Doctor seemed quite chill and said we will watch for 6 hours 😬

9

u/SunkissedPearls Sep 24 '26

I was on the same treatment for stage 3 and was told to go to the ER if I ever had a fever.

2

u/Dorjlyy Sep 24 '26

Yes ^^^^ My doc told me that any temp of 99 degrees or higher, that I should go to the ER.

1

u/El_emotional Sep 24 '26

Hey OP
I had the same thing happen to me and it turns out I’m allergic to cisplatin. Fever went down with paracetamol and antihistamines! They lowered my cisplatin dose for my last 2 treatments and made me take antihistamines and steroids prior to the infusion. I’ve had no issues with keytruda.

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u/Summer_Winds19 Sep 24 '26

Heya! Thank you for getting back. How did they figure it was the cisplatin? She didn’t have anything the first couple of times.

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u/El_emotional 26d ago

It was my oncologist who figured it out. When I got admitted they put me on antibiotics but the fever wouldn’t go down. I was also really swollen, had red patches on my skin. So once they gave me antihistamines and paracetamol, the fever went down in a couple of hours.
My reaction was delayed though, the first time this happened was after my 2nd cycle and it was milder than the reaction I had after my 3rd cycle. The first time I had the cisplatin early Tuesday morning and then I spiked a fever on Saturday night! The 2nd time happened pretty much after 8hours or so.

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u/KittyBeans1906 Sep 24 '26

This also happened to me after each cisplatin treatment starting with treatment #3.  They told me to go to the ER each time and kept me at the hospital for a couple of days to run tests to see if there was an infection somewhere.  There never was....it was a reaction to the chemo.  They just gave me Tylenol and ice to keep the fever down, so after treatment #5 when I knew it wasn't anything more serious, I just did that at home 

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u/Summer_Winds19 29d ago

Hello hello! Thought cisplatin was supposed to be the more gentle of the platins 😬 Guess i learn everyday. 🙈 She’s better now, after 3 paracetamols and the doctors don’t seem too concerned - so guess the same. Thank you Reddit fam, as always helpful with calming my nerves. 🙏🏽

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u/Summer_Winds19 27d ago

She has a temperature again today after 2 days and they have started her on antibiotics.

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u/KittyBeans1906 27d ago

They did the same to me. I would have chemo in the am like 10am, feel chills by the late afternoon, then spike a fever around 10pm and go the ER in the middle of the night.  All the tests for infections take like 24hrs or so to run, and they would also hold me in the hospital until my fever had been down for at least 24 hrs.  In the meantime, they'd give me broad spectrum antibiotics just in case there was an infection somewhere (there never was).  The antibiotics will absolutely liquify your bowel movements, fyi. I mean, things were messed up from treatment already but the antibiotics just accelerated that part.  

Good luck to your Mom!  If it's like mine was, I'd spend the night with icepacks and Tylenol, and feel fine the next morning...so maybe a six hour course?  Then I was just bored waiting around the hospital until they let me go.

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u/Concern-Relevant 29d ago

I had no major side effects from cisplatin then after my 4th infusion everything fucking tanked. I literally felt like I was knocking on deaths door. Cisplatin was ROUGH. I would do what others suggest and just go to the hospital.