Neupogen/Neulasta and Bone Pain

Wow I thought I’d had bone pain before, but today has left me completely in awe of just what bone pain can be. The point of my daily double shots of neupogen/neulasta is to get my bone marrow to produce so many new stem cells that they burst from my bones into my blood stream. Apparently that takes somewhere between 5 and 7 days after you begin the shots, and mine has started, and it does feel a lot like my bones are bursting.

I had to go to the clinic today to have my incision checked for possible infection (no signs of infection… yippee!), I’d been in a lot of pain through the night; a kind of throbbing/pounding in my lower back, thighs and ribcage… like someone was hammering on those areas every time my heart beat, and somewhere my insane mind thought maybe a little walking would help lessen the pain. In my defense, my skull also feels like someone is tapping on it with a ball peen hammer. My husband and I get about half way from the parking lot to the clinic and all of the sudden it fells like someone has jumped out in front of me and smashed me across the shins with a baseball bat as hard as they could. I stumbled a bit and grabbed my husband’s arm and boom it feels like someone has cracked me in the thigh. At that point I stopped to catch my breath thinking wow, I am absolutely full of crap ideas . The good news is it’s actually a good thing that I’m in such intense pain. It’s a sign the neupogen is working, and the stem cell harvest should go well. The bad news is, pain killers don’t even come close to touching this pain. I’m not generally all that big on pain killers because I don’t like to feel as though my mind has been dulled, but today I’ve tried everything I’ve been prescribed (reasonably of course, I haven’t come this far to kill myself after all). This morning I took two of the panadeine forte (tylenol with codeine) I’d been given, each with 30mg of codeine, and the pain went from being smashed full force with a bat to just being hit hard with a bat. Later, after I’d returned from the clinic (where the nurse said they’d write a script for stronger pain meds Monday if I need them… lot of good that does me on SATURDAY!), I took some of the trammal (ultracet in the States) that I’d been prescribed (and the doc had approved for bone pain earlier in my treatment); that does take the pain down to being something more like someone pummeling me with their fists and an occasional kick. I will say it again… cancer treatment is a hell of a thing. I’m counting down to four days from now, and I’m developing a real respect for my bones.