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Anyone experienced severe lower back pain after keytruda?

Posted by ladylennie @ladylennie, Oct 24 5:58am

I finished one year of keytruda in August. Starting in September my knees swelled and we're painful. Then about 10 days ago my lower back became excruciatingly painful. My inflammatory markers are extremely high- ers 68, crp 86.6. The pain is awful. Tramadol helps a little but also makes me nauseous. My doctor ordered a pet scan for Wednesday but in the meantime I can't function. I'm thinking of the emergency room but can't imagine what they can do. Any suggestions?

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mamajite | @mamajite | Oct 24 1:26pm

@ladylennie I'm sorry you're in so much pain. If it was me, I would go to the emergency department because they can at least consult with the on call oncologist, if not your own doctor, and run any needed tests. You might have developed a secondary infection which would be important to treat as soon as possible. Ketruda can also cause kidney issues which should be ruled out. I hope you get the care you need and feel better quickly.

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ladylennie | @ladylennie | Oct 24 2:39pm

Thank you. My oncologist put me on 30 mgs prednisone for one week, tapering by 5 mg each future week. If it doesn't work over the weekend I'll go to the er altho they can't do an mri because I had an iron infusion 2 weeks ago.

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Lisa, Volunteer Mentor | @lls8000 | Nov 4 5:51pm

@ladylennie, Ouch, that sounds miserable. Has the pain subsided at all? Were you able to have the PET scan, or a CT to see if anything is out of alignment?

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ladylennie | @ladylennie | Nov 4 6:32pm

I started prednisone and the pain subsided within 6 hours. I also has my inflammatory markers, crp and esr chrcked. My crp was 87 ( normal is less than 8) and esr was 68 ( normal less than 30). So now the problem is to figure out what the massive inflammation is from. When rechecked, crp was down to 14 and esr normal. My pet-ct was good. Nothing showed up.

And to add to that, I'm anemic. I had an iron infusion last month and my iron is normal. But I'm still anemic. Again, no idea why. I'm seeing a rheumatologist Thursday.

The frustration is that I finished all treatment in August and this is all new.

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Lisa, Volunteer Mentor | @lls8000 | Nov 5 12:59pm
In reply to @ladylennie "I started prednisone and the pain subsided within 6 hours. I also has my inflammatory markers,..." + (show)
Profile picture for ladylennie @ladylennie

I started prednisone and the pain subsided within 6 hours. I also has my inflammatory markers, crp and esr chrcked. My crp was 87 ( normal is less than 8) and esr was 68 ( normal less than 30). So now the problem is to figure out what the massive inflammation is from. When rechecked, crp was down to 14 and esr normal. My pet-ct was good. Nothing showed up.

And to add to that, I'm anemic. I had an iron infusion last month and my iron is normal. But I'm still anemic. Again, no idea why. I'm seeing a rheumatologist Thursday.

The frustration is that I finished all treatment in August and this is all new.

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@ladylennie , I'm glad the PET CT looked good! And I hope they keep digging and find the source of the issues. What a mystery. Hugs.

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