79ShRoya85

I've been on Mekinist/Tafinlar for 17 months and it worked great to put down my brain mets in 4 wks on 1x Mekinist/day & 4x 150 mg Tafinlar/day.  It did come with those awful chills, often with incapacitating shakes and fever as high as 103 F.  I reduced Tafinlar dosage by 25% after 8 months and chills/fever severity reduced but still hit every couple weeks for a couple days at a time.  I reduced Tafinlar by 50% after that which again reduced chills/fever but still severe.  Through my own experiments, I found that two things really helped:

1)  As soon as you feel chills coming on, take 2 Tylenol and 2 Benadryl.  If taken within 30 minutes of first feeling the chills it will reduce severity and length.

2)  Stay hydrated.  As long as I drank a lot of water the chills and fever were greatly reduced.  I drank electrolyte water but regular water would probably work as well.

I hope this works for you.  As Kate said, never lose hope. 

CD–Santa Rosa CA

I've been on Mekinist/Tafinlar for 17 months and it worked great to put down my brain mets in 4 wks on 1x Mekinist/day & 4x 150 mg Tafinlar/day.  It did come with those awful chills, often with incapacitating shakes and fever as high as 103 F.  I reduced Tafinlar dosage by 25% after 8 months and chills/fever severity reduced but still hit every couple weeks for a couple days at a time.  I reduced Tafinlar by 50% after that which again reduced chills/fever but still severe.  Through my own experiments, I found that two things really helped:

1)  As soon as you feel chills coming on, take 2 Tylenol and 2 Benadryl.  If taken within 30 minutes of first feeling the chills it will reduce severity and length.

2)  Stay hydrated.  As long as I drank a lot of water the chills and fever were greatly reduced.  I drank electrolyte water but regular water would probably work as well.

I hope this works for you.  As Kate said, never lose hope. 

CD–Santa Rosa CA

I've been on Mekinist/Tafinlar for 17 months and it worked great to put down my brain mets in 4 wks on 1x Mekinist/day & 4x 150 mg Tafinlar/day.  It did come with those awful chills, often with incapacitating shakes and fever as high as 103 F.  I reduced Tafinlar dosage by 25% after 8 months and chills/fever severity reduced but still hit every couple weeks for a couple days at a time.  I reduced Tafinlar by 50% after that which again reduced chills/fever but still severe.  Through my own experiments, I found that two things really helped:

1)  As soon as you feel chills coming on, take 2 Tylenol and 2 Benadryl.  If taken within 30 minutes of first feeling the chills it will reduce severity and length.

2)  Stay hydrated.  As long as I drank a lot of water the chills and fever were greatly reduced.  I drank electrolyte water but regular water would probably work as well.

I hope this works for you.  As Kate said, never lose hope. 

CD–Santa Rosa CA