Neulasta Shot

[Notts]

I am trying to get some feedback on treating side effects of the Neulasta shot. I take the shot the day after my Chemo treatment. The first shot, the bone pain was bad but bearable. The second shot after treatment was terrible. The bone pain was unbearable and laid me up in bed for 5 days. I was told to take Tylenol for the pain, but it did nothing. I cannot take narcotics for pain as I belong to AA. I need to know if there is some way to reduce the pain by either taking a lower dose of the Neulasta or at least some sort of pain medication I can take to ease the pain.

I am due for my third round on 1/26/09 with the shot the following day. Any help that you can give me will be greatly appreciated. I know I should continue with the shot, if possible, in order to fight off infection, but I cannot go through another session like the last one.

Will be awaiting any and all replies. Thanking you in advance, Ceedee

[recce101]

Some people (myself included) find that ibuprofen is quite helpful for this type of pain, while Tylenol seems to do nothing, as you say. Are you able to take that? I've also seen reports, backed up by a radiation oncologist, that ibuprofen can be helpful for bone mets, even more so than some of the supposedly more powerful narcotic medications.

Let's hope the next Neulasta shot will be easier to tolerate. I had 6 of them (3 weeks apart) during my Taxol/Carbo treatment a while back, and each one became a little easier, unlike some of the chemo side effects which got somewhat worse each time. Aloha,

Ned

[Ellen in PA]

Hi Ceedee.

I will second Ned's advice about ibuprofen. When I was very uncomfortable from bone mets, I was given Oxycontin and oxycodone and Percocet -- and none of them did anything for me. However, 800 mg of ibuprofen three or four times a day worked beautifully. (If you try it, you should take a healthy dose (20 mg) of famotidine (the generic name for Pepcid) with it so you don't damage your stomach.) Good luck.

Ellen

[CaroleHammett]

I don't know what your stage is but this is no time to worry about taking pain drugs because of your AA status.

What physicians know today (that they didn't know in the past) is that pain meds are not addictive unless the patient is taking more of the drug than is needed to handle the pain.

In other words, as long as you are taking morphine for pain (vs. pleasure), you will not get hooked and end up having to fight the fight again. Right now, it is far more important that your body be getting full comfort care than it is to worry about an addiction that will not even happen unless you decide to turn your treatment into a "party time" experience (Part of surviving lung cancer is having "tude" and it's hard to have good "tude" when you're hurting so bad you can't think straight!).

I would also suggest you discuss this with a mental health therapist who specializes in both drug addiction and chronic disease as s/he will have the scientific facts at hand as versus my talking out of the top of my hat without the research facts at my finger tips.

Good luck!

With love and affection,

Carole

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.--George Carlin