What safety measures should you take when your child is using mechlorethamine?
Your child will receive other medicine to prevent upset stomach and throwing up caused by mechlorethamine.
Mechlorethamine may leave an unpleasant, metallic taste in your child's mouth. Chewing sugarless gum or sucking sugarless candy may help.
Your child may lose their hair. It will grow back once your child is no longer receiving mechlorethamine. Its colour and texture may change. Use a gentle shampoo and a soft brush.
Your child's skin may darken along the vein that mechlorethamine is given through. If this happens, it will slowly fade over time.
Mechlorethamine can lower the number of white blood cells in the blood temporarily, which increases your child's chances of getting an infection. Your child can take the following precautions to prevent infections, especially when the blood count is low:
- Avoid people with infections, such as a cold or the flu.
- Avoid places that are very crowded with large groups of people.
- Be careful when brushing or flossing your child's teeth. Your doctor, nurse or dentist may suggest different ways to clean your child's mouth and teeth.
- You and your child shouldn't touch your child's eyes or inside the nose without washing hands first.
- Your child's nurse will review with you what to do in case of fever.
Your child should not receive any immunizations (vaccines) without your child's doctor's approval. Your child or anyone else in your household should not get oral polio vaccine while your child is being treated for cancer. Tell your child's doctor if anyone in your household has recently received oral polio vaccine. Your child should avoid contact with anyone who has recently received this vaccine. Other live vaccines that your child should not get include measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and chickenpox vaccine.
Mechlorethamine can lower the number of platelets in the blood, which increases your child's risk of bleeding. You can take the following precautions:
- Be careful not to cut your child when using a razor, fingernail scissors, or toenail clippers.
- Be careful when shaving or waxing.
- Your child should avoid contact sports where bruising or injury could occur.
- Your child should not receive a permanent tattoo or any kind of body piercing.
- Before your child has surgery, including dental surgery, inform the doctor or dentist that your child is taking mechlorethamine.
There is a chance that mechlorethamine may cause birth defects if it is taken at the time of conception or if it is taken during pregnancy. If your child is sexually active, it is best that they use some kind of birth control while receiving mechlorethamine. Tell the doctor right away if your child may be pregnant.
After receiving mechlorethamine your child may not be able to have children or have more difficulty having children. Your child's doctor will discuss this in more detail with you/your child.
After your child stops receiving mechlorethamine it may still cause side effects. These delayed effects may include certain types of cancer. Your child's doctor will be able to give you more details about this.
Check with your child's doctor or pharmacist before giving your child any other medicines (prescription, non-prescription, herbal, or natural products).
