neulasta

after my second treatment of folfox, i must now start taking a neulasta shot after my 2 day pump.  what are peoples experience with this drug and its side effects?  

any advice?  i have to get the first shot on 12/24. 

Is it the one for your white cells... I can't remember. If so it can cause body aches, in me it was bad enough for pain meds at times. But, it will do the job... did for me anyway.

Margaret

After the Neulasta shot I felt as if I had a bad case of flu ( very achey bones especially shoulders & joints), overall body aches & extremely fatigued for a day or 2).

For whatever it's worth,  I take Celebrex (yes, my oncologist said it was OK for me to continue this med for my arthritis). I stopped briefly when I ran out of pills, but when I started  again it was my week for chemo/Neulasta & I really noticed a big difference in the anount of bone/joint pain.

On 12/23/2007 helpfulinfo wrote:

what type of pain meds did you take?  i had a different shot last week for white cell counts and tylenol helped alot.

I have taken tylenol also darvocet when it was really rough. Also took an arthritis med. like Angela did.... when I was in such terrible pain the doc did a MRI to check for cancer in my bones..... found none but, lots of arthritis!

Margaret

well, i took the shot the morning of christmas and by 3:00 i could not even find the strenght to get out of bed.  shoulder ache, back pain and feeling like i have the flu.  i struggle with understanding why i have to feel so crappy in a hope to feel better someday.  right now, i am more miserable after taking this shot than i was from getting the folfox treatment.

i will talk to my dr. about this pain and extreme fatigue from a shot that is supposed to help me.

My Mom gets this shot as well.  Sometimes she has nagging pain and sometimes it is excruciating.  You are taking the shot to "rev up" the bone marrow production of white cells and therefore you do get bone pain.

My Mom sometimes does well with Advil, but there are Percocet times as well.

Hope you find what you need to keep the pain down.  You have enough other things to worry about, right?

GOD bless you and give you peace.

Beth

I had substantial side effects from folfox but none from neulasta.  It seems everyone is different.  I finished treatment a year ago and still have numbness in feet, but it has improved.  Good luck.

Lynn

I had my first shot of Neulasta a week ago today. My oncologist told me it might cause bone pain. He also told me to start taking the allergy medicine Claritin the day I got the shot. He said take it twice daily for 5 to 7 days after the shot. He said the generic Claritin works fine.. just make sure not to get the Claritin D. So I did just as he said. Yesterday which was the 6th day I stopped taking it. Last night I noticed a strange pain in my neck. I have had a lot of neck pain in the last few years but it hasnt acted up for some time now. When I went to bed I noticed some pain in the middle of my back. It was a strange pain like nothing I have ever felt before. I keep thinking it feels like my body core is hurting. I finally took 2 Lortabs and 2 hours later it had helped very little. Finally as I lay there in pain it occured to me about the Neulasta side effect and that it was the first day i hadn't taken the Claritin. So I got up and took one. This morning I wake up and the pain is worse.... I took another Claritin this morning and will continue to take it. I truly believe it kept me from getting the pain to start with. And now that the pain has started it is having trouble getting it under control. My doc said they found by accident that this worked and they didn't understand exactly why it worked. He said he believes the claritin blocks histamines and somehow that stops the effects from the Neulasta.

 I came here to see if anyone had had the same experiences and I see nothing about the Claritin so i thought I would let you know so maybe it can help you as well. I assumed that by now most docs would know about this but I guess it's not necessarily so. So try it the next time you get your Neulasta shot. Take it the same day you get the shot one in the morning and one in the evening.

Please let me know if it helps. I'm curious to see if this was just a coincidence or if it really works.

 Thanks

Anita

Thanks Anita.  Next time I get this shot I am going to try your suggestion.  It really gets to me.