Tag: Neupogen

Break

Dearest Liver,

I was given a small break from my chemo last week. Despite my two neupogen shots, my blood counts were too low for chemo. I also suspect that the addition of the neuropathy helped my case for a break. I have been feeling like I never fully bounce back lately as well. The exhaustion is overwhelming. Granted I probably don’t sleep enough hours, but having to be at work at 7:30 am doesn’t make it easy.

Instead of chemo I had my 3 cycle CT and found out that the tumor in you was a little smaller again! Not the 50% decrease that I had the last time, but still, smaller is smaller! Now I’m waiting to see what my doc wants to do next time. I’m being tested for a new study and there are some other options on the table. I have a feeling I’ll be back on chemo for a little bit next week, but at least I got a tiny break. Read more

Skele-gro or what my doctors call Neupogen

Dearest Liver,

You’ve probably noticed me complaining about my Neupogen shots (or Skele-gro as I like to think of it), but I don’t know if I’ve ever explained it. The chemotherapy treatments that I get have the known side effect of lowering white blood counts. White blood cells are what help fight off infections in your body, and neutrophils, a type of white blood cells, fight infection by destroying harmful bacteria in the body. When your neutrophils get too low, your chances of getting an infection become a lot higher. If they become too low you can even be at risk for an infection from eating fresh fruit or veggies or from even being around fresh cut flowers.

In order to try and avoid all of that mess and to make sure that my neutrophils are high enough for my next treatment, I get shots of Neupogen. Neupogen is used to stimulate the growth of bone marrow, the place where your white blood cells and neutrophils are made. This hurts like hell. Bones that I didn’t even know existed in me start to hurt. Hence my name for it: Skele-gro. Read more

It’s the little things in life, like cucumber gimlets.

Dearest Liver,

I’m not having such a great day today. My bones hurt from my neupogen shot yesterday, I’m exhausted, and just generally feeling stressed out and a little sad today. Sometimes I have these sorts of days. My general stance on this is to allow myself to wallow in whatever I’m feeling for no more than 24 hrs and then I move on. I don’t know if this is the healthiest way to deal with things or not, but it has gotten me through the last year and a half of this cancer BS pretty well, so I think it’s working for me.

Today I’m going to try and drag myself out of my funk and think about the little things in life that make me happy. Like the fact that my tumors in you are down by 50%! FIVE ZERO! That’s pretty awesome. And I got to celebrate this on Monday with some of the best UCSF staff ever! After 6 months of not being allowed to have any alcohol at all, I was rewarded by being taken out for a cucumber gimlet at Bourbon and Branch. It was the perfect cocktail choice and the one we have been talking about for months. Read more

There’s a hole in my gum, dear Liza…

Dearest Liver,

Why is that that the good news always comes with the bad? My tumor markers are even lower than they were at my last post (163!) BUT my jaw is a mess.

When I was first diagnosed with metastatic cancer my bones were the biggest issue. I was put on a shot called xgeva to strengthen my bones and help kill my bone mets, but was told to go to the dentist and watch out for osteonecrosis of the jaw. Don’t google it unless you want to be traumatized by the pictures for life, but it basically causes your jaw bones to die and to look like you’re an extra from the Walking Dead. Instead, I like to call it zombie jaw. Read more

You Ruin Everything

Dearest Liver,

Thanks to you I had the worst week/weekend. I had a large dose of chemo and a stupid flu shot on Tuesday, the first of 2 Neupogen shots on Wed, a fever resulting in a 7 hr stay in the worst ER ever Thursday night into Friday morning, and then my second shot of Neupogen on Friday.  So most of my week/weekend was filled with me feeling sick, flu-like, weak, tired, painful, and nauseous. Read more