Modern pharmacology is quite remarkable, isn’t it? It seems you can pop a pill to alleviate many physical ailments and nearly any complaint. What will take pharmaceuticals from remarkable to amazing to absolutely astounding is when they have zero side effects and cost a lot less. Not sure that can all come together in my lifetime or a 1-year old’s, but we should always hope for the best.
When it comes to drug side effects, I have been mostly spared, which is quite remarkable for a 3rd round of breast cancer (initial diagnosis, local recurrence, distant recurrence) and my fifth line of treatment for metastatic breast cancer. I know some cancer patients who deal with debilitating fatigue, neuropathy, nausea, and other unpleasant side effects.
Now I am experiencing one of them myself–diarrhea–and it’s testing my patience. Diarrhea is a symptom and side effect related to many drugs and conditions, so you probably have shared my pain at some point. I hope it was in the privacy of your own home and bathroom.
Oncology care teams routinely warn their patients about the most common side effects of a particular cancer drug. When my oncologist told me about Verzenio, her spiel was less a warning and more of a matter-of-fact proclamation that I would get diarrhea and that she hoped it would be mild.
I’m unhappy to report that she was so very right.
My embarrassing experience
It did start out being mild and manageable for the first couple of weeks, before causing the most unpleasant, embarrassing reaction I’ve ever had to, well, anything in my life. It was during my normal morning constitutional when I went for my walk, the last step of my routine. It was not a particularly long or rigorous walk, but as I rounded the last corner of my loop, I could feel it coming with an urgency I couldn’t hold back. Thankfully I was on the home stretch and nobody was around. Also thankfully my 2-story townhouse has a half-bath on the main floor, because ascending the stairs would have been the final insult on top of insult.
The miracle cure for diarrhea
Imodium is an easily attainable OTC (over the counter) drug that I would give 5 stars to in an online review. If anything it works too well, as it can take you from diarrhea to constipation in 0-60 minutes. I followed the package directions, which recommended two caplets (for a total of 4 mg) for the first dosage. I didn’t poop for three days. My recommendation is to start with one, and because it works fast, if one pill doesn’t provide the relief you need, take another. You may take up to eight capsules a day, according to package instructions. They say improvement is observed within 48 hours, but it worked much faster for me.
For anyone starting a Verzenio treatment regimen, if your oncologist doesn’t recommend it, I suggest having some Imodium on hand. A variety of formulations are available, including liquid and generic.
Side effects, the price we pay
The Verzenio / Imodium combo shows how most drugs come with a counterpart for improving their most common side effect, and the counterpart comes with its own side effects, and so on, and so on. I guess side effects are the price we pay to fight cancer. To those of us in the ring, though, it feels like fighting with one hand tied behind our back or like being thrown in the ring after first getting beaten up in the alley.
The holy grain in the pharma industry may be the next blockbuster drug. I hope they realize that for the people who will be taking that drug, all we want is to get better without having to shoulder the burden of side effects during the process.