Low white blood cell count - Filgrastim - any experiences?

I had 6 rounds of Chemo and had filgrastim injections for 5 days of every cycle. Chemo on a Wednesday, injections Thursday - Monday. My oncologist advised me to do them just before bed as they are 'unpleasant' and she said I'd sleep off the side effects that way. My boyfriend injected me and I can't explain this but I hated them. I'm not scared of needles but they 'hurt' me. I don't know if it was psychological or not, I was terrified of the side effects but the truth is, they never came. I didn't have any pain or anything but I did find my wrists a bit weaker, struggled a bit to open jars and bottles. Other than that, no problem but they definitely did creep me out. 

I had the injections throughout chemo from the start as it was during chemo and had no side effects from them at all. I did get bone pain once I switched from EC to docetaxel, but not from the filgrastim.

Even with the injections, i only just scraped through to my final round of chemo without a delay - final reading was just at 1. 

If your blood count is already that low, then it makes sense to have the injections and try and not delay your treatment further. You may not get any side effects like me, but keep some paracetemol around just in case. I was surprised at how much that helped my bone pain from chemo.

Thank you all for experiences and thoughts. Im coming around to the idea of the injection now. It’s been really helpful to hear different experiences and helped me be less anxious overall about it. Some things just have to be done don’t they?

Hi Jan 

Sorry the. previous post should have read white blood count not wife, and follow up not fool. 

Fingers crossed for you. 

S