The Colon Club

Today is 2nd treatment out of 6 for 3 months. My days off was good I felt wonderful of course after the side affects wore off around 4th day.

Did anyone else experience major abdominal sharp pain that’s comes like a hurricane and then goes away, maybe 2-3 minutes? Anything to avoid it. Seems to happen only at night when I am trying to sleep.

It’s pretty scary. Makes you think something horrible is going to happen.

Also WBC was 1500 from 2700. Doc said he wants me to put in neulasta patch Friday when I take off pump to help bring it up.

Happy New Year!!

Riki

The only pain that I have had is the sharp need to urinate and I think that this is caused by the bag sitting on a ureter or my bladder if I'm not sleeping at the right angle (as in when I'm not sleeping in my own bed). Peeing relieves it immediately. I have an illeostomy so maybe that makes things a lot easier with elimination issues - I've never had any constipation or other issues outside of having to deal with the bag itself.

My WBC and RBC dropped like a rock form the Xeloda in Neo-Adjuvant and I would assume that they are lower now after my first round of Adjuvant Chemo. So we're both starting around the same time though I'm on CapeOx instead of Folfox so our cycles are different length.

It’s hard to sleep with pump and noise and overall just getting the treatment. I had a rough night last night sleeping, just couldnt sleep much. So much races through your mind at night. Not to mention the 10 times pee trip to the bathroom. Lol

The sharp pain I get is random it feels like a major shock in the entire middle body stomach and chest. Then I am fine. It’s sucks, cancer sucks.

Yeah I am doing folfox, pump home with 5fu, added avastin yesterday. I was there for 5 hours.

Keep on NHmike we got this. Rough ride 2018 but let’s get cured. Need nedville

My wife also having problems with low WBC, RBC , NEU, PLT and everything else. She started chemo on Oct 18 supposed to be every 12 days chemo then pump for 48 hrs. She had first 2 treatments then her blood counts were too low to proceed. Waited 2 weeks started again, Dr. started Neulasta and got blood levels into normal range for first time in a year. Problem was it also increased the spleen size by almost 20% and caused discomfort - Dr. stopped neulasta and now back to not being able to have chemo because of low counts about 1/2 the time. Neulasta works great but at what price? Speaking of price it is ridiculously expensive. We haven't actually heard from anyone who has encountered spleen enlargement but it is a caution by the drug company. I hope it works well for you and would be interested in your progress. My wife did experience a pain similar to yours but it was after the neulasta so probably not relevant.

Dr wants me to go to ER to get checked. So we are headed there now. Guess it’s not normal to have midsection shocks I don’t know

Rikimaroo wrote:Dr wants me to go to ER to get checked. So we are headed there now. Guess it’s not normal to have midsection shocks I don’t know

It doesn't sound normal to me. Glad you're getting it checked.

Went to ER did ct scan and everything check out fine, just the 5fu doing its thing.

Funny they did white blood cell count and I was 3.63 yesterday and today I am 8.70 which is Perfect. That happened overnight. So I guess no need for patch I will say something.

Glad everything is okay.

The pain really sucks though. Just the unfortunate side effects of fighting cancer. Ugh!!! Thanks for the well wishes my friends.

Take care, glad you got checked, at the very least for your peace of mind!

I get the neulasta shot. I call it the new nasty shot. It really makes my bones and jaw hurts, gives me a pounding headache. DR told me to take ativan and oxicodone for 3 days and try to sleep it off. And...get someone to drive me to hospital for hydration. Hydration helps everything. I like being able to blink my eyes! Neulasta sometimes gives me a quick wrap around pain, like someone is putting a heavy rock on my chest while squeezing my lower ribs very hard.

I need the shot because my WBC count plummets. But I usually get chemo every 3 weeks because so does my platlets count and there is nothing they can do about that.

And almost every chemo treatment, I get a yeast infection despite rinsing my mouth faithfully with that baking soda/salt mixture. It goes through my whole system.

BUT...I am through 7 of the 12 treatments!

Reason why my WBC went up was because of the steroid they give during the infusion. So dr wanted me to still do neulasta. I have it on now and will be taking it off tonight.

The general nausea, stomach cramps, sensitivity to cold really dampens the journey. I dread getting the pump again on the 16th LOL..., will be round 3. Half way there. CEA went down from 638 to 428...so progress

AppleTree wrote:Take care, glad you got checked, at the very least for your peace of mind!

I get the neulasta shot. I call it the new nasty shot. It really makes my bones and jaw hurts, gives me a pounding headache. DR told me to take ativan and oxicodone for 3 days and try to sleep it off. And...get someone to drive me to hospital for hydration. Hydration helps everything. I like being able to blink my eyes! Neulasta sometimes gives me a quick wrap around pain, like someone is putting a heavy rock on my chest while squeezing my lower ribs very hard.

I need the shot because my WBC count plummets. But I usually get chemo every 3 weeks because so does my platlets count and there is nothing they can do about that.

And almost every chemo treatment, I get a yeast infection despite rinsing my mouth faithfully with that baking soda/salt mixture. It goes through my whole system.

BUT...I am through 7 of the 12 treatments!

Hello. Check it out with your doc, but if it's OK with him/her take a Claritin D the day before, the day of, and the day after your chemo. My husband (different cancer) had to get tons of neulasta (up to 6 shots/day) before his stem cell transplant, and this went on for a week or so...the claritin D helped him a lot. Good luck.

Anyone else start pooping pellets vs normal poop during chemo? Not sure how long it will last into my days off. Is that normal? Should I take anything?

Ate some cherries and blew a gasket so things starting working again. Until next treatment

LOL but yeah, I pooped the pellets so I am taking that as normal. It’s funny because you can so easily swing from diarrhea to constipation. Just do your best to drink as much water/fluids as you can possibly take in each day, I suspect that was partly why I might have had some pellets in the earlier rounds , I don’t think I was drinking enough for my first four rounds. Had a nasty bout of entiritis which landed me two nights in the big house and lots of IV fluids and from that point on I was obsessed with drinking at least 64 oz of water a day. I actually maintain that practice still and I am a true believer in the benefits of drinking water, was a game changer for me. Good luck, Riki—hang in there, it may not always feel like it, but there is an end in sight.