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Bone pain with chemo: What helps?
Pancreatic Cancer | Last Active: 23 hours ago | Replies (25)Comment receiving replies
My bone pain didn't hit until day 5, unfortunately I'd completely forgotten about my DR recommending Claritin and I'd forgot they'd mentioned the bone pain at all .. I was in HELL as the pain kept radiating worse and worse through my pelvis, hips, and back. I seriously thought I had a slipped disk in my back or something and would need to go to the hospital... when it got worse I thought "wow. This almost feels worse than contractions during labor..." then googled "chemotherapy and lower back pain" and felt retarded when it'd mentioned neulasta and the bone pain side effects as I INSTANTLY remembered my doctor telling me that...🤦‍♀️it was a bit too late for Claritin at that point, but I tried to remember it everyday afterward... I'm hoping it'll be better next time, if not I will DEFINITELY be trying the DM version of claritin. @loribmt
Replies to "My bone pain didn't hit until day 5, unfortunately I'd completely forgotten about my DR recommending..."
Claritin (generic loratadine) from the day my husband received his Neulasta shot and the 4 days following prevented bone pain.
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Hi @jenniferk007 Oh gurl…you had me cringing this morning. I can absolutely empathize with you…the bone pain from Neulasta was the worst pain I’d ever experience. Way worse than childbirth for me.
I bet you won’t forget to take the Claritin again! My instructions were to begin taking 1 Claritin capsule the day of the injection and continue one daily for 7 to 10 days. It works really well! ( Only 1 pill every 24 hours
There is no need to take Claritin-D. The D is a decongestant which you won’t require.)
Neulasta is used to help people with low neutrophils to encourage the rapid regrowth of those white blood cells. Especially after chemo. Low neutrophils leave people vulnerable to illness and infections. So it’s important to build those white blood cells up quickly. This takes place in the bone marrow. As the cells proliferate, the large amounts of cells put pressure on the inside of the bone (hence the pain!) until the cells finally spill out into the blood stream. The antihistamine in the Claritin helps with the bone pain.
Here’s a link to a good article with the explanation: https://www.oncologynurseadvisor.com/features/bone-pain-due-to-white-blood-cell-growth-factors/
By the way, welcome to Connect! It sounds like you just started chemo treatments, having completed the first round. If you don’t mind sharing, what type of cancer do you have?