Neupogen

[cjsam]

So the doc finally agreed to a neupogen shot, after many delayed shots of pegasys.  I was supposed to do a shot tuesday, however got bloodwork done today and anc is 620, Doc says to take neupogen tonight (I did, the neupogen is 300mcg, im ~130lbs) and get more bloodwork done on thursday, and then he'll call friday with whether or not to take the shot or not.  So here I am, waiting, again. Arggg! I was under the assumption that neupogen was fast acting, that I'd take my neupogen shot tonight, go for bloodwork tomorrow, and be good to take my shot tuesday night, guess not!  BTW I'm wondering if I even took enough neupogen to make a diff, as I have read that many take the neup 2-3X per week.  

[cjsam]

Thanks Trin,
I had the same situation, when I began treatment, I knew nothing of ANC, or rescue drugs, or the postphoning of shots, and yeah I've had my shots postphoned and missed entire weeks due to my low ANC, it took my Mother advocating for me (I introduced the idea but my mom's a nurse, she knew how to argue the point) to get the neup.  Thanks for sharing your exp w/ the neup with me, I won't take my shot tomorrow, I want to! but I won't

-cj

[Trinity4]

Whew..glad to hear your doc is finally on board with the Neup.   Neup is fast acting and usually within 24 hrs the whites are rising nicely but it took a couple of days for my whites to come back up initially. My doctor told me to postpone my interferon injection until they checked my blood again but because I'm a hard head I took my interferon shot anyway and my whites went up like I knew they would but that's me, not saying you should do the interferon shot on your scheduled day. I was on 300 mcg 1 x week but there were weeks I had to take 2 shots.  Then my whites went so high I was told to stop taking it for a couple of weeks.  It's a balancing act with lots of blood draws and if I recall I couldn't go any longer than 2 weeks without Neup before my whites started tanking again.
At least the Neup is part of your treatment now so once that ANC is within your doctor's comfort zone you shouldn't have to postpone or skip any more shots. My doc was too conservative about the ANC and I was naive when I first started treatment and he dose reduced me twice at weeks 6 & 7 with an ANC of around 700. It didn't come back up, just kept going down even with dose reductions and that's when I threw a fit in his office and got the Neup.    
I have to say, in my case it did make my bones ache and caused fevers cj.  It was most unpleasant for me but I couldn't have continued treatment without it. As with SOC there are those who say they have little adverse effects from Neup so hoping it's smooth sailing from here on out.

Trin