[Sharon01]

Extreme pain during Neupogen injections

by Sharon01 on Sun Jan 25, 2015 3:47 pm

Hi all,

I have completed day 4 of 7 days of twice daily Neupogen shots.

I woke this morning (my time) at 2 a.m. I cannot lie down sit or stand without pain. I have Endone (oxycodone) and paracetamol (Tylenol / acetaminophen) on hand. The latter has no effect.

Any suggestions?

I have been pretty much pain free til now, now it gets so bad in waves that I am nauseous and break out in a sweat.

My next shot is in a couple of hours. Will it get worse?

Cheers
Sharpn

[DallasGG]

Re: Extreme pain during Neupogen injections

by DallasGG on Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:32 pm

When it happened to me, I took Tylenol and that helped. Might be worth a try.

Here's another thread concerning this:

"Tylenol for Neupogen bone pain - dosage?", forum disc. started Jan 14, 2014.

[Sharon01]

Re: Extreme pain during Neupogen injections

by Sharon01 on Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:41 pm

Thanks for the advise GG. I will up the dose. I was hoping for some magic formula haha.

I have read through some previous posts and it seems there has been no cure yet for side effects haha

Cheers,
Sharon

[Boris Simkovich]

Re: Extreme pain during Neupogen injections

by Boris Simkovich on Sun Jan 25, 2015 7:26 pm

Hi Sharon,

Sorry about the pain you're experiencing.

In addition to Tylenol, the other medication that people have found helps with the pain associated with Neupogen is Claritin (loratadine). It's available over the counter in the U.S. and some other countries, and by prescription in other countries.

If you go the "Useful links to existing forum discussions" in this section of the forum, you'll find links to previous discussions on topics such as

• Stem cell harvesting / collection
• Neupogen
• Pain

which may be of additional help to you. As best I can recall, however, Tylenol and Claritin are the two major "tips" people have for dealing with Neupogen-related bone pain. I believe it's also not that unusual that the oxycodone isn't helping much.

On the upside, a lot of bone pain as a result of Neupogen injections is often a sign that you'll have a successful stem cell harvest.

Good luck!

[Terrij]

Re: Extreme pain during Neupogen injections

by Terrij on Sun Jan 25, 2015 8:35 pm

Claritin worked well for my daughter.

[mikeb]

Re: Extreme pain during Neupogen injections

by mikeb on Mon Jan 26, 2015 5:31 pm

Sharon,

You've gotten good advice from folks who have already replied to this thread.

However, you should also let your medical team know about this level of pain.

Mike

[stann]

Re: Extreme pain during Neupogen injections

by stann on Mon Jan 26, 2015 11:24 pm

At least you know the pain is temporary.

I got the flu a few weeks ago, and the pain was so bad in my joints that I stayed in bed for 2 days. I had a sort of deja-vu moment, but couldn't place it, until I remembered, "Oh yeah, I felt like this when preparing for the stem cell harvest".

Interesting comments about Claritin. I wonder if that would help with flu symptoms?

Good luck! You'll get through it.

A lot of this is like child birth -- you won't remember the bad parts in a few months (and I've never had a baby ... just guessing - ha).

[madison]

Re: Extreme pain during Neupogen injections

by madison on Tue Jan 27, 2015 11:06 am

I was told by my oncologist I should only take those shots once a week. Those shots have some nasty side effects. I only took them a month and I still have bone pain. Made me nauseated, no appetite, and I was losing 3 pounds a week. I quit taking them.

Madison

P.S.: FDA approved, they could be given daily. Let's look at money being made here also. There's a quitting point. Sometimes I don't think it's to our best interest.

[Eric Hofacket]

Re: Extreme pain during Neupogen injections

by Eric Hofacket on Tue Jan 27, 2015 12:03 pm

My Neupogen pain was the worst pain of my life and came out of nowhere in just a few hours when I was staying at City of Hope the night before my port was to be put in. Up until then, I had no pain from Neupogen at all. I had no idea what the cause was at the time. I could barely walk and it was painful even breathing.

I had already been taking Dilaudid (hydromorphone) and morphine ER for peripheral neuropathy and, despite overdosing some (not a smart thing to do), those drugs did nothing for the pain. The Demerol (meperidine) I was given the next morning at City of Hope helped a little bit. The oxycodone I was given after the port was put in did not help any either.

What finally did the trick was taking an anti-inflammatory, ibuprofen (Advil). The whole episode was over in less than 24 hours and never happened again.

I learned about Claritin from reading the Beacon after this was all over. If I ever have to take Neupogen again, I will be keeping ibuprofen and Claritin with me at all times.

I guess the good side to the bone pain is I have read that it is a sign that the Neupogen is working and that there will be a good stem call harvest. In my case, it was around 22 million stem cells -- the highest they had for the month.