Hi, not sure if my experiences will help you. I was diagnosed in Feb 2013 and had a rt mastectomy op in March. I was prescribed preventative FEC-T but because I was getting married and honeymooning in July, they decided to do the Taxotere first and cycle 3 was combined with my whole radiotherapy treatment. Cycle 1 was not too bad - aching legs and joints, lost toe and fingernails, numness in toes, soles of feet and fingertips,  sore mouth (had to eat and drink through a straw) and nausea. For cycle 2 I used a great mouthwash - Difflam and have had no sore mouth problems since. So would recommend this. I took nausea tabs even when I wasn't nausaus, but it made little difference. Worst effect in Cycle 2 and 3 was in lack of taste and the awful chemical tast in my mouth at all times. Drank gallons of water to try and flush it out. the feet problems still continues now and I have now lost all toenails and most fingernails - bu the important thing is that they looked great with fuschia Shellac for my wedding day and honeymoon! Had tummy issues mostly diarrhoea but managed to get a good stopper tablet.

I took Oestrogen suppressing tablets over July and August and restarted chem beginning of September with the FEC.

Have had one cycle of that and have the second next week.

It is so much easier than the taxotere, virtually no side effects at all. A little morning nausea for first week, a few headaches and sore lips.  And that's it!  Hopefully this will continue for the last 2 cycles.

It really helped me that there was a gap between the two sets of chemo cycles, gave me a chance to recover a bit from the taxotere before starting the treatments again.

I spent a week in hospital after the 3rd Taxotere + radiotherapy.

So I am sorry to confirm what you already know - the Taxotere is s*** and much more agressive than the FEC but you will get to the end of it. Try to get up and about rather than stay in bed - it was better for me to keep as active as I could and just didn't do anything at all on the really low days. However on week 3 of the cycle got more or less back to normal before the next onslaught.

Pineapple is good for helping the nasty taste and I know someone who sucked frozen pineapple cubes and this helped her a lot.

All the very best for the next treatment, I will think about you when I have mine next Friday.

Take care and chin up!

Roz x