I had awful bone pain when I was on Neupogen. I've always contended for me, the side effects from Neupogen were as bad if not worse than those from antiviral therapy. It stimulates the colonies of white stem cells within the bone marrow causing the level of neutrophils in the blood to rise. It is common to have aching bones and joints for 2-3 days duration starting 1-2 days after the start of the injections.
I believe that your pain complaints are valid and this may be a side effect of neupogen shots (this bone pain can be part of the usual 'flu like' side effects associated with the drug). If you are experiencing pain from this treatment, then I believe it is inhuman to withhold pain medications for you, though I agree there can also be side effects from the chronic intake of pain medications (such as dependence or kidney problems).
This bone pain was generally reported to be of mild-to-moderate severity‚ and could be controlled in most patients with non-narcotic analgesics; infrequently‚ bone pain was severe enough to require narcotic analgesics. Bone pain was reported more frequently in patients treated with higher doses (20 to 100 mcg/kg/day) administered IV‚ and less frequently in patients treated with lower SC doses of Neupogen® (3 to 10 mcg/kg/day).
My Mom is in hospital and after completing CHOP for Lymphoma, she is also receiving daily Nupogen shots for 5 days. WBC is at .01 (that's 100 not 1000) on the 4th day. They say it drops lower after chemo before it will climb. Still praying. Anyway, one of the chemo nurses said that Claritin helps with the bone pain from the Nupogen. She has been on it since the start and hasn't had any pain. Now looking at a possible platelet transfusion tomorrow.
im starting to realize im not alone with the pain from neupogen shots however the last 2 sets of shots put me in the hospital even after i took about 400mg of morph for the pain , the hosp then gave me more pain killer and admitted me im feelin wimpy and teary eyed im tired of being sick and alone cancer that is in my bones and hep c fractures in my hip im asuming from the meds from what ive read im trying to keep my pain meds down but 500mgsof morph a day and my 30mgs of instant release every
from completely unnoticeable to significant discomfort, particularly from bone pain. Many docotrs are over cautions and recomment Neup when they are still at a fairly high level. Others let Neutrophils drop to the neighborhood of 300. So you have a copy of hubby's recent lab report? Try to get you hands on the most recent if you can.
s suggestion about vitamin D is not bad. I had bone loss on TX due to lack of vitamin D. Bone loss can cause bone pain. Your family doctor or an endocrinologist could order a vitamin D test and a bone density scan to be sure that your bones are okay and could start correcting things if they are not.
Some people get bone pain and some don't. I think procrit may be the same way. I didn't have that side effect with either but perhaps we can hear from someone else. It would be a good thing to know how long the pain lasts after a shot.
How low is your WBC? Has it come up any after ending treatment? Usually
the WBC starts to increase. You have taken lots of treatment drugs. It does take awhile to come back up sometimes. I have never heard that someone
has been required to have a bone marrow biopsy after treatment. But if it doesn't normalize I sure your doctor would be concerned. Its my understanding that hasn't happened. So how long did your doctor say to wait before a bone marrow biopsy?
I required 3 injections one 24 hours after chemo and then 1 each day after fora total of 3
With that said they can cause severe bone pain.. Just ask your oncologist for a pain reliever and you can get through it.. NOthing is ever as bad as it appears before you do it... I go through it and my white blood cell count remained stable enough I could fly home to visit my kids...
ve had very little nausea but have dealt with bone pain and mouth sores and as always, fatigue. But everyone reacts differently. As Donna said, these two hit your blood counts pretty hard. I am having an especially difficult time because I went almost straight from carbo/taxotere to carbo/gemzar so my bone marrow did not have any real recovery time. I get neulasta each cycle, but my onc has pulled his patients off procrit and aranesp due to current controversy about those drugs.
I too am a little surprised that you got Neupogen when you were at .9. My ANC is also at .9 but my doctor hasn't even mentioned that the number is low, let alone doing something about it. Of course I had to beg for Procrit, so....
The symptoms you are sharing are exactly what happened to me when I had my first shot of Interferon. I was literally in a fetal position, chills like I've never had before, bad headache, fever, and bone pain.
I don't remember seeing too many problems aside from the common bone pain from Neupogen to tell you the truth - most longer term problems from my recollection seem to stem from the SOC itself. It's pretty common for blood levels to go off a cliff on treatment and I just thank God that we had the available rescue meds to continue onwards and get to SVR. Whether it be the reds or the whites......I think in the end it pays off.
Some folks aren't even allowed rescue meds....
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