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low wbc


alexan

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well my boyfriend, who has colon cancer, when his counts are low they give him some sort of a shot for two days in a row?

he goes for chemo one week, the next week they test and then give him some shots?

sorry can't help anymore than that

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The shot they gave Joel for his low WBC was Neulasta. You should ask the doctor about that as that is what brought Joel's counts up after he had his chemo.

If he gets the shot make sure your insurance covers it as it is a $3000.00 one.

http://www.neulasta.com/patient/howcanh ... anhelp.jsp

I hope this helps. Not sure about what exactly to eat. I know when he was on chemo the nutristionist wanted him to eat, bananas, red grapes, dry roasted peanuts with the skin and red baked potatoes an to eat the skin which I think was for his potassium.

He got a shot the day after his chemo. He had a problem with it, and they waited for 2 days after and that helped him. But everyone is different, some people get the shot and have no side effects.

Maybe there is food out there that can help. Hopefully you will hear from people who know what kind.

Good Luck,

Maryanne

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Neulasta or Neupogen are needles that you can get for low white cell counts. They might take a couple of weeks to kick in but once they do and you get on a schedule it works great. Best to start sooner than later so you stay on schedule with your treatments. Best of luck, Heather

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THe biggest problem with Low white blood cell counts is the risk of an infection. oyur immune systewm is greatly compromised

food wise try these ideas

The best choices are the deep green and orange ones like spinach and carrots, melon and oranges

yogurt that contains live active cultures of Lactobacillus Bulgaricus and Strepococcus thermophilus. Some other specific foods to include are garlic, foods high in zinc such as oysters, pot roast, dark meat turkey and pumpkin and squash seeds (or make sure her multi vitamin contains zinc), and shitake mushrooms. These mushrooms may not be to appealing to your daughter, so try pureeing them to add to spaghetti sauce, or chop them fine and add to a meatloaf. Other immune boosting foods are fruits and vegetables. They may not increase her white cell count, but they will make the white cells she has stronger

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Bill was also told, no fresh fruits or vegetables unless you they have thick rind. Watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas ok but mostly just don't eat out. Too risky. Bill also gets Neupogen and it gets it right back up. I'm surprised they didn't offer it to your Mom. You might want to ask why. Bill's WBC was 2.2 on Wednesday. Platelets were 45.

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Echinacea is known to increase WBC. But it has to be in liqued form and should be taken in large doses (not the ones they tell you in health stores). My mother took it during chemo for breast cancer and it worked. I do not remember the dosage but it probably can be found on medline (search "echinacea cancer wbc" or something similar)

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