In Isolation with neutropenia in TCH Chemo Cycle 1
I apologise to those I was chatting with last week: I just vanished off the face of the earth for the past week, but my white blood cell count became severely neutripenic, and then dropped very scarily low, ie down to 0.11 which means I have only 110 neutrophils where healthy people have about 4000. I was told to avoid any possible sources of information including telephones and my dirty laptop and to avoid sharing air with anyone who might have a cold or other infection. My throat and mouth have been tender and mildly sore so I could not even skype people, and I have had a temp of 37.1, and keep ringing the lovely oncology nurses in Mount Chemo lounge for info and guidance.
I understand that if my neutrophil was 0.5 last Sat, and 0.11 on Tuesday, it well may be a problem at least until today or even longer. I just hope it has come back up, and wish I had some way to check. I was told they trial us all to see how we cope, and because I got severe neutropenia, I will now get the Neulasta injection 24 hours after my next round of Chemotherapy and herceptin. This in turn causes severe bone pain, and they recommend NSAIDs like ibrufen for it, but I cannot take NSAIDs. I have also read a lot of people in the USA said the NSAIDs did not help much, but that Claritin, also known as Loratidine, a tricyclic antihistamine, does a really great job of minimising the bone pain.
I have also heard of the oncologist delaying the next Chemo cycle by a week or more if I don't come right up to the healthy level in time.
Does anyone have any helpful experience/comments to offer about Neulasta and non NSAID remedies, and about neutropenia, etc? Your help much appreciated.
