Morning everyone. I am a patient who has had chemo before MX surgery which I had late Oct. Im now in my first week of Rads. All seems to be settling down apart from my white cells which remain low. I had 4 Herceptin doses with the last docetaxol chemo Sept 3rd and I need to start again. But they wont let me until the count gets higher.
My problem is they keep wanting blood test and I have no veins on the arm they can use. I am getting really upset at the thought of going to hospital now. I was there yesterday again crying for 20 mins whilst they were digging in and out. Upper arm nothing and three times in the hand. Eventually they had to use my battered IV vein that im try to save for the herceptin IV.
Sooooo worried. Anyone else had this problem with either viens or long term low counts.
I had the full treatment of chemo and Herceptin back in 2010 and 2011. I had a portacath put in after my first chemo session so after that all my chemo, herception and bloods were taken through that. Has anything like this or a PICC line been suggested.
If not, I would ask, and if necessary stamp my feet. I understood that for people having a year’s treatment of Herceptin that even though Portacaths are expensive for the NHS that they were offered.
In terms of low bloods you should find that they come back up now you have finished chemo. To my knowledge this isn’t a problem during Herceptin.
I have experienced low white blood counts while on herceptin. It is not uncommon and is listed as a side effect on some sites. Hasn’t caused me any probs. I have had ‘hunt the vein’ probs but usually the nurses manage after a few attempts.
I agree you should speak to someone-perhaps your breast care nurse as it is unfair that you are having to put up with this level of distress.
This is awful; you are being put through something that is totally avoidable. I have had a portacath from chemo cycle 2 as I also have to have Herceptin for a year; they have taken bloods tests & cultures from it as well as giving me all my treatments, antibiotics, rehydration etc through it (had a bit of a reactive time on chemo so it’s come in extrememly handy). If you can, try to see if they will put in at least a PICC line for use from now on (not sure if it’s feasible to use for Herceptin) or a portacath as you have quite a few more treatments to go. Failing that, here are three other options you could try:
There’s a cold spray usually reserved for kids that the phlebotomists used on my veins because I was so sensitive to the pain and the veins were non existent - you don’t feel a thing, it’s fab!
When they were having trouble finding veins in my mother for IV antibiotics they used a microwavable heat pad on the hand veins which brought them up sufficiently to use; your chemo/oncology ward should have a microwave and a pad to use?
The subcutaneous Herceptin has just been approved at my hospital and I am going to be one of the first to use it as IV Herceptin is causing me massive problems - perhaps you could see if you can also have the subcut version to avoid your arm veins being damaged any further?
Thank you Marie and Linda. I am going to take your advice on the picc line and see what can be done. It has been decided that I won’t be starting Herceptin again until after Rads which I finish on Dec 20th so I won’t have to have anything done before xmas.