I Start Taking Oliparib
Olaparib is a medication for BRCA-mutated cancer.
I started this treatment by taking the recommended dose of 600mg a day: two tablets in morning and two at night. OMG! I knew that there were going to be side effects, but this! OMG! This was bad. I mean really bad. Nausea. Extreme debilitation. Absolutely awful. I simply wasn’t able to function. This was worse, much worse than anything I had experienced with chemotherapy infusions. And those were no picnic. With Olaparib I was awake all night, every night. I was exhausted, but I couldn’t sleep. Just the thought of trying to swallow the tablets made me feel sick. Why are they so large? Wouldn’t it be easier to make them smaller and take eight small tablets instead of four large ones?
One evening I wept and told Rob that I couldn’t continue taking Olaparib if the cost of living longer with these drugs was feeling the way I did. I just felt so ill and drained of all energy.
The following morning, I contacted my oncologist and she told me to reduce my dosage to 450 mg, which I did. After a few days, I was still not doing well. My oncologist told me to reduce my dosage even further to 300mg. This dose I could manage, but I was worried: would the lowered does mean the medication would be less effective?
After a few days, I started to feel stronger. After a few days more, I felt well enough to increase my dosage to 450mg. So far, so good…
