Thanks Neupogen - A Good News Update

Last week I reported that my white blood cell count was stonkingly low so I had to have a week off chemo as well as the dreaded five day course of Neupogen injections ('Ouch - Neupogen').

Day two duly delivered back ache and leg bone agony and I was dreading the remaining injections.

But I have good news to report: the next morning the pain had utterly vanished.  I had the third injection with a the glum certainty that the pain would be back by lunchtime....and it wasn't.  In fact, the rest of the course passed without incident. 

My husband did a splendid job of sticking the needles into my belly every morning and today I have been feeling much better.

I'm told that you can't tell whether your white blood cell count is up or down but I don't believe a word of it.  A few weeks ago I posted about how remarkably well  I was feeling and, hey presto, my blood test revealed my highest count yet.  And last week I was really struggling to cope - hardly surprising as my count was so magnificently low.

Today I might not exactly have as much bounce as a Tigger but I could definitely compete with a small frog.  So it was more with relief than surprise that I got my blood test results and found that my white blood cells have recovered.  They're still on the low side but they're high enough - so back on Taxol tomorrow!

Neupogen did the job and I survived a horribly low white blood cell count without catching a thing - despite the snotty kids.

On the other hand, I still have six Taxol to get through so it seems a pretty good bet that my bone marrow is going to struggle.  I asked the doctor what we could do about this and the short answer was...not much.  A low count will mean another missed week and another course of neupogen.  So I don't think I've seen the last of neutropenia and all these delays mean that chemo will end up stretching further and further into January.

But if there's one thing that chemo has taught me, it's to go with the flow.  So for now I'm just enjoying my restored white blood cells and my little frog bounce. 

Ouch - Neupogen

Ouch.

Now that I am neutropenic (with a titchy white blood cell count), I can't have chemo this week and instead I have to have a course of 5 injections of Neupogen to boost my bone marrow.

And Neupogen has put my Taxol aches in their place.  The first injection was fine but today the nurse arrived to give me the second and, soon afterwards, the bones in the base of my spine, hips and upper legs started up a major protest.  I even skipped my exercise class, thus breaking my own rule to keep moving no matter what to get through the symptoms,  but today even walking felt something of a challenge.

So I sat on a hot water bottle at home instead.

At least the pain reassures me that perhaps the injections are working. It is a little scary walking around snotty, sneezy, wintery Brussels with a white blood cell count of only 200.  Basically, my immune system can't fight off anything just now, so I'm keeping everyone at arm's length and using antiseptic gel on my hands all the time. My husband would rather that I just stayed at home but I pointed out that most days I end up in a lift with a load of sick people at the hospital anyway so I can't see the harm in making my coffee date. 

And I was an utter rebel today - I had a real, caffeinated latte!  Coffee is supposed to reduce the effectiveness of Taxol but I figured that it couldn't do much harm if I have to have a week off from Taxol anyway.  Oh my, did it taste good!

I'm not sure what to do about the pain.  The doctor told me yesterday I could take paracetamol or neurophen if I needed it.  But my oncologist warned me about taking anything which might mask a fever: if I get the slightest temperature I have to rush to A&E in case I end up with sepsis.  Anyway, this morning I felt so rough that I daringly took a paracetamol and that did take the edge of it.

At least the injection itself doesn't hurt, it goes straight into the roll of fat at my stomach and I don't feel a thing.  It is annoying to wait at home for the nurse though, and I'm too much of a wimp to stick a needle into myself.  So the nurse showed my husband how to do it and tomorrow he will become my nurse.

My husband is a highly talented person who could turn his hand to most careers.  But being a nurse is definitely not an obvious choice for him.  And yet he has already surprised me: after my mastectomy he had to change the dressings and clean my newly scarred boy-chest.  Not, I am sure, what he imagined when I swept down that aisle in my white princess dress and he looked me in the eye and said, 'In sickness or in health.'  

I love him more than ever for it.

But I'm still rather nervous about him sticking a needle in me tomorrow.

A third of the way through Taxol...and severely neutropenic

I'm on a downer today.

I feel as if I've done the tearful drive home from the hospital too many times.  And it always seems to be raining...  I went for my routine blood test this morning and my white blood cell count is super low;  severely neutroprenic at only 200.  So there's no question of having my weekly Taxol tomorrow and instead I need to have five once-a-day injections of Neupogen to boost my bone marrow.

It's not a big deal.  I guess I'm just not very good at coping with changes of plan.  It's another week's delay, so  it looks as if I'll be on chemo into the new year.  That's a bummer when I'd hoped to be done before Christmas.

And I'm a bit scared of this injection as I've read reports of people suffering severe bone pains - oh, I so shouldn't have Googled! 

On a more positive note, I've been coping well with Taxol.  The worst thing has been the lack of sleep: first of all I'm steroid-jittery for a couple of nights.  Then come the hot flashes that have me throwing off the duvet one minute, then pulling it back on when I'm all shivery again the next minute.  Then come the muscle aches. 

But none of the symptoms have been too severe.  I've been able to get on with life as usual, with just the occasional afternoon nap (though I did fall asleep in front of the computer once and woke up dribbling on the keyboard...). 

And I haven't been on a downward slope in quite the way I expected when they told me the symptoms were 'cumulative'.  Week two was my toughest so far with painful aches and lots of tingling in finger and toes.  Here we go, I thought.  Already this bad and still seven sessions ahead of me...  But Week Three has gone rather well with barely a tingle in my toes.  Perhaps my lovely friends who took me on a spa day made all the difference.  That sounds like a splendid excuse for a weekly spa date.

So it's only those pesky white blood cells causing the problem and there's not a lot I can do about that.  I just need to pull myself together and be grateful that it's not been worse.  And now I have tomorrow morning unexpectedly free.  Hmmm, perhaps I could fit in another spa?