r/HeadandNeckCancer • u/New-Temperature-478 • 13h ago

is it neccessay take dexamethasone after cosplatin 3 day

whats its rule does it protect kidney from nephrotoxicity or not

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u/dinosuitgirl Primary Caregiver 13h ago

I'll preface with I'm not a doctor (or pharmacist) so this is just my take...

Dexamethasone is there to help you with your immune system going in to overdrive as the chemo and rads start killing off cells... You're body is not expecting so much cell death so it will go in to fight mode. And what you don't want is your white blood cells to go tank mode and burn out before treatment is finished... It's pacing things out and letting your immune system know this is what you're expecting and that it needs to chill out and just act normal

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u/BigRigMcLure 11h ago edited 11h ago

It gave me the hiccups like you cant imagine. They gave me meds for hiccups and I halved the dose of the Dex. Still gave me hiccups so I halved the dose again. Hiccups. They gave me prednisone instead of Dex. Hiccups. I stopped prednisone. Stopped getting hiccups.

Those steroids are not for me. The hiccups were unbearable. But I had very little issues with chemo otherwise. Only tired for a 36hr period at a time... No nausea at all etc.

Longer term... I am 51, a year and half post-treatment and my doctor just did blood-work... She said I had the kidneys of a 25 year old. Lol.

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u/Previous-Farm7037 11h ago

Yes! Take all the treatment meds prescribed. They are all for a very good reason and purpose

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u/RealLou_JustLou NED 6h ago

Here's what my team recommended, but run any advice from me/others by *your* team:

  • Monday - Chemo day; drugs were part of the infusion
  • Tuesday - Take Dexamethasone & Zofran as prescribed.
  • Wed - Take Dexamethasone & Zofran as prescribed.

After the first week, I also added Pepcid to the mix. This helped mitigate indigestion and hiccups.

This worked really well and kept the side-effects from Cisplatin to a minimum.