neutropenic

[Guest user]

Hi ladies,
I have just come out of hospital after a 1 night stay due to being neutropenic. Had a sore throat which developed into a cold with temp of 38 so hosp admitted me as had white blood cell count of zero. Was told probably be in for a week as blood count takes a while to recover, but after having i/v antibiotis and saline, plus the gcsf injection blood count recovered and i went home.
Still have horrendous dry cough and the district nurse has been in to give me another gcsf injection so hope to be better soon.
Hospital advised that i must now follow the Neutropenice diet and they have given me a leaflet about what i can/cannot have but it is rather vague, so after some tips please about what i can eat/drink. I know i can only eat fruit if its peeled but what about juice drinks of dried fruit like you get in cerels??
Suz x

[Guest user]

Hope you don't mind me joing this thread
Sharon - hope all goes well with your first chemo. It is such a daunting thing as everyone copes differently. It makes you very tired so make sure you rest and don't fight it. My white blood count is always are 0.3 Sometimes it 0.00and have to be hospitalised for antibiotic drip. Eventually got Nealasta injections which were great. Travel insurance is hard to get but say thread on this recently. Try that or contact Breast Cancer Care for advice.
Good luck - hope you get your hen weekend!!!!!

[Guest user]

Thanks chick!
Im not too bad thanks,bit tired and got to see the oncologist tomorrow,start my first taxotere (hopefully) nxt tuesday.Im a bit mithered by the fact im waking up with headaches every morning lasting approx 1 hour,and ive a sore spot on top of my head right next to my skull bone.It just kind of hurts if i press it,only noticed it when i was smoothing over my bald head,love that (in a weirdo way haha)
Hope you are well.
Sharon
xxx

[kittenkat]

hi smallstar - hope you're doing well there kiddo!! mary x

[Guest user]

Thank you so much everyone.
They let me out on Thursday evening ! woo hooooo !!! might of had something to do with the constant stream of visitors and birthday cards and prezzies 🙂
My neutrophyls stayed at .5 but they said as my obs were ok i cud go home unless i felt unwell i was to go straight back.Ive felt ok thankfully since.Its a scarey place to be all this unknown business !!
I start my first taxotere 23rd june another unknown,but all this is becoming second nature now as i suppose it is to you all,overcoming the fear of the first,then living with it.
I write a column for my local newspaper and its proving to be hugely successful as im getting emails from ladies that wouldnt of gone to the doctors without it,this week i will be including all the help from this website as half the time i dont know where i would be without it !!
Hoping i can go away to spain 10th july for my 'hen weekend' even though we got married back in april after the diagnosis.Does anybody know if you can get medical insurance whilst on chemo??? and how expensive it is !!
suns got its hat on yayyyyyyyyyyyy !!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[aliceblue]

Hi, I posted some of this on the chemo end of May thread. Have just got out of 7 night hospital stint. Mine dropped to 0.0 for days (Friday to Wednesday). Finally it was the 3 days of gcsf that made the shift. I was allowed home last night. I didn't feel really ill at all. Will call to check things in future as explained away things like getting puffed walking up stairs. Will have gcsf after next chemo - on Tuesday! Very worried now that portacath will cause problems as will be having this fitted on Monday. Didn't even think about getting infections from it! Hospital says everything will be fine, but both my portacath and chemo was on/off all week.

Glad I was in hospital and being really looked after -loads of obs, loads of checking blood and doctors round regularly through out the day and night. Having read something since came out can see why they made a fuss.

Hope your birthday wasn't too bad.

Alice xxx

[kittenkat]

hi smallstar - think I sent message on your other post about hickman - I hate mine!! And I've just come home from hospt too - yesterday - admitted on tues with high temp but this time neuts were ok, had i/v antibiotics and sent home next day - but after last admission they gave me gcsf injections after the chemo - same as neulasta but 1 per day and cheaper - hence why you get them instead of neulasta mostly I think - its basically a marrow boosting drug given as a little jab in tummy - they always seem to suspect the hickman as the source and I think infections in the lines are pretty common...take care, mary x

[lizcat]

Hi smallstar,

Happy Birthday to you !! Get them all to run round after you and be extra nice to you. You can have a 2nd birthday when you escape from the hospital...

I had to go in hospital after my first chemo dose at about day 10 in the 3 week cycle when neutrophils were at low point. To give you an idea, the day before chemo mine were 5.3 and by day 10 they were 0.3. I felt really well but thought I was getting a sore throat which I'd been warned about and at risk of appearing a hypochondriac, I saw an out of hours GP (it was midnight on a Sat) who sent me straight up to hospital for checks. I had never been in hospital before so was a bit worried when I also had a chest X-ray and ended up in a bed on the oncology ward. Anyway, after being put on an IV antibiotic and saline drip, it recovered enough to just over 1 on the Tues afternoon and I escaped.

After that episode, I was given the neulasta injection after each dose of chemo and was fine. They didn't reduce my chemo doses either. I was given the jab routinely but understand that this is not always the case and think it may be down to the inevitable funding (read somewhere it can cost £1000 a time!!!!) - mind you this may work out cheaper than having to hospitalise someone and give them more drugs !!

[Guest user]

Hi smallstar

Sorry you're in hospital on your birthday but have as happy as birthday as you can anyway!

I was in hospital two weeks ago with neutropenia. Rang the hospital because my temperature went over 38 and I had a hacking cough and sore throat. My neutrophils were 0.5 when I went in but having been in an isolation room for two days, they dropped to 0.2 and I was starting to panic a bit! Then all of a sudden they jumped back up to 0.4 on day three and then up to 0.9 on day four and I was released. The dr told me it's quite common for the levels to drop right down and then bounce back up really fast - I hope this happens for you and you can get home quickly.

I was ok to have my chemo less than a week later - although I was given a slightly reduced dose to ensure (hopefully) this doesn't happen again.

Hope your levels come bouncing back up too and that you're back home soon.

Lesley xx

[Guest user]

Hi there,
couldn't pass your posts without saying happy birthday (its mine too today - 35...) and I do hope you're feeling better. All the very best, diane x

[Guest user]

Thanks ruby,
Well on a plus side my bloods just been taken so early,they must be actualy taking this seriously now ! im in a ward with elderly pleurosy,dysentry,pneumonia patients,however i am in a side room but i feel so vulnerable.Im on a waiting list to be transferred...since monday ! its my birthday today 39 woo hooooooooooo happy birthday to me !
Ive never felt comfortable with my hickman line its always felt like its stabbing me in my back...i think its caused by this !
sharon

[Ruby1]

Hi Smallstar - I'm really pleased to hear that what I have said has made you feel better. From what you have said, you certainly don't have blood poisoning so please don't worry about that. I was admitted as I had been told that if I had a temperature and/or didn't feel well then I was to go to hospital immediately. I was feeling really cold and shivery on a hot day and just unwell so took my temperature and it was over 38 degrees so called the hospital and they said to come in immediately. I apparently had an infection in the line (portacath) I had put in which is a more permanent line than a hickman and is placed under the skin. The wound never properly closed and kept becoming infected hence I had 3 hospital admissions before they finally took it out. The skin around the area where the port was placed was weeping and red too. I also had a kidney infection at one point at a later date. You are suspectible to all kinds of infections whilst on chemotherapy so it's important to keep away from people who are unwell as your body's defences do not work as well during the treatment and you can become unwell quickly. The pain you have could be from your line or it could be from a chest infection but I guess your doctors will tell you when they eventually find out.

Please let me know how you get on.
Best wishes and hugs
Ruby xx

[Guest user]

ruby you have made me feel so much better,thank you.i googled it and somehow got into my head id got blood poisoning !!
If yours were zero and u got better then thats good enough to make me sleep tonite !what symptoms did you have to get u admitted ? im wondering if the chest pain is comin from the hickman as its never ever felt right! xxx

[Ruby1]

Dear Smallstar
Sorry to hear that you're not so well right now and are neutropenic. I and many others suffered from neutropenia during treatment and were hospitalised and put on intravenous antibiotics. I have not had breathing difficulties or chest pain and maybe you have some kind of chest infection which is causing this. When you are neutropenic, your neutrophils (which make up part of your white blood cells) are destroyed by the chemotherapy making you more suspectible to infection for this period of time before your body recovers and starts producing more neutrophils and it's quite normal for your neutrophils to go down before they start going up. My neutrophils were zero (0) the first time I was admitted and took a week before they began recovering and this was helped by an injection called neulasta which i was then given with the rest of my chemotherapy infusions to make sure this didn't happen again.

I hope you get better quickly.
Ruby xx

[Guest user]

please someone help !!
i was bought in by ambulance monday,i had breathing difficulties and chest pain..only symptoms. They have done blood tests,and when i was admitted my neutrophils were .9 so they kept me in,poss blood clot on lung,poss infection so they started treating me straight away for both.
However yesterdday my neutrophils went down to .6 and today theyre .5 has this ever happened to anyone ?? whats happening to my body ???
i have had ct scan on my chest and mri on my chest today which they havent rushed back with the results but the doc seems to think that no news is good news! and to be honest the radiologist just commented that it looked ok wen i walked out...
im so scared..its all beyond my control..i had my third epi 11 days ago..anybody shed any light on this ??