I have just had my first session of R- CHOP, and after 11days got an infection as my neutrophils droped drastically. I am now receiving antibiotics every 6 hours intravenously, but the worst is I have acute back pain. I am on day 6 of the stomach injections to aid white cell growth and wonder has anyone else experienced this. It is excruciating?
Hi again Chemo556, Neutropenia is one of the unfortunate side effects of the treatments on our bodies and it happens to many.
I did put up an answer to your post on one of the other threads but I will put the info from that post into your new thread.
As for the back pain. I had these injections (G-CSF Injections - FILGRASTIM or similar) for 4-5 days after my 6 cycles of R-EPOCH (this was a standard part of the treatment) and daily for 4 months following my second Stem Cell Transplant as my Neutrophils were below 1 during this time so was well open to Neutropenia. These injections are indeed designed to wake up your bone marrow
One if the main side effects is indeed an all over bone pain especially down your lower back. These injections are designed to make your bone marrow work over time and produce more neutrophils (white blood cell)…… but I had no real bone pain.
I took a few Paracetamol with breakfast then did the injection. But I was also prescribed Piriton or Clarityn Antihistamine by my teams as this bizarrely stopped most of the pain developing, these were taken as per the dose instructions - worth talking your team about this as not a lot of hospitals do this.
I did not have Neutropenia during my treatments but due to the drastic effects of Stem Cell Transplant on my Bone Marrow i was Blue Lighted to hospital a 2 times with Neutropenic Sepsis so had 7 days NHS DB&B with massive m=amounts of antibiotics. This happened at about 6 and 10 months post treatment. But the meds do their job and life moves on.
You do need to watch what your eating during treatment as your body is not in a good position to fight food bugs so think a pregnant diet.
Lets look for your next treatment to be less of a problem.
Always around to chat.
I feel for you.
It’s one of the hardest issues that can come along. R-CHOP is a big hit on the immune system so it opens the doors to infections.
My clinical team were amazed that I kept away from bad infection during my R-EPOCH (a big brother if R-CHOP) and SCTs but my experiences show that at times these problems can show their ugly faces months even years post treatment.
I am allergic to Penicillin (although I have been told that zi may not be now as my brother who was my donor is not allergic to Penicillin) so it’s always hard to get the right antibiotic to do the job so it always took a good week and a few changes in drugs to do the job.
24hrs in A&E is interesting, last Sep I had a rather drunk lad creating havoc most of the night, it’s a good job I am half deaf and could switch my hearing aids off 
