Neup - no problem

apollo

Hi,
Thanks to everyone who gave me input and advice, especially about neupogen. I tried it again this week and have had no problems. My onc isn't sure why I had a bad experience the first time I took it, but I'm fine now, so on with the show!

carpentert

I had Hodgkins stage 1A, and the only problem I had with Neupogen, was that my bones hurt pretty bad the first couple of times. I seemed to get used to it though. That stuff really carried me through!

wallpa

carpentert said:

I had Hodgkins stage 1A, and the only problem I had with Neupogen, was that my bones hurt pretty bad the first couple of times. I seemed to get used to it though. That stuff really carried me through!

Unfortunately, Neupogen gave me HORRIBLE lower back pain. But, I didn't need to suffer as much as I did. I'm going to tell you about my situation in case someone else is having this same odd set of circumstances so they can avoid going through what I went through.

My problem was that I had my chemo treatments on Fridays. They would check my blood count the following week and the counts would always be low. However, because they checked my counts on a Friday, they couldn't check them again until Monday. It turns out that I only need 7 helpings of Neupogen to get my blood counts up to normal. When I went in on Friday, I would have only had 6. I would then have to take THREE more Neupogen shots instead of the one I really needed. I would be in agony all weekend, go into get my blood checked, find out it was SIX TIMES the normal count because I was taking too much Neupogen. I finally figured this out (15 weeks into my chemo) when I changed my chemo from Fridays to Wednesdays. The final two rounds I had only one day of horrible bone pain instead of FOUR. One of my nurses told me that when the bone pain starts, that's when the Neupogen has done it's job and most people can stop taking it then. I wish I knew this at the beginning!