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Help with Low WBC Count and Seizures
Hello Everyone, my father, 64yrs is a stage-3 pancreatic cancer patient with a history of pancreatitis and diabetes. He has had two rounds of Chemo with Folfirinox since his diagnosis in Aug-23. During his third cycle, he suffered a mild seizure due to which his chemo was discontinued. Further investigation by the medical professional did not yield any reasons for the said seizures. Post this, his WBC count were low due to which his chemotherapy has been pushed indefinitely. We tried to improve his blood count through diet but it hasn't yielded any result. Also, our oncologist and family doctor has failed to suggest any other alternative ways to boost his WBC count. His CA 19-9 score has however come down significantly from 882 to 100 recently. He recently got hospitalized now due to low blood count and is also unable to digest his food resulting in nausea. We are unable to understand his symptoms. Does anyone else have experienced this or have any advice on the best way to handle this? He is now getting really dejected with this entire experience and we are failing to communicate with him as we ourselves are failing to make any sense of his condition.
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I am not a medical expert, but there are medications (injections) that can significantly boost white blood cell count. The one I was given is Udenyca; another one is Neulasta. In my case, I had chemo (day one) and the 5FU pump disconnected (day three). On day four, I got the Udenyca injection. Per insurance rules, the injection must be given a minimum of 24 hours after the pump finishes administering the fluroruracil. (I don't know why minimum 24 hours, but we were told if the injection was given even a minute or two earlier than 24 hours, insurance would deny coverage. So we and the nurses were extremely precise about noting and recording the timing.) I haven't had the Udenyca in a couple of cycles because my WBC counts were so high that I didn't need the injections any longer.
Forgot to add: The injection really hurts going in; the med is stored cold, and that makes it sting. But after that, I had no issues with it. However, some people have bone pain due to the increased activity in bone marrow. I was told to take antihistamines (Claritin in my case) to ward off the pain.
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4 ReactionsI also did Neulasta. They applied it when they took the pump off and it automatically injected 25 hours later. My husband could remove it 26 hours later as it takes about 45 minutes to inject all medicine. I had no pain from either the injection or an any subsequent bone pain though they said it was possible. My WBC stayed very high throughout the 12 sessions I had of Folfirinox. Good luck.
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3 Reactions@thesalilsingh, I hope you saw the helpful posts from @ncteacher and @mimimmx. It is hard to raise the white blood cell count significantly enough with diet alone. Has your team suggested pegfilgrastim (Neulasta) or filgrastim (Neupogen)? These are man-made form of a protein that stimulates the growth of white blood cells in your body and are often prescribed during chemotherapy.
Here are some related discussions:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/search/discussions/?search=chemo+and+low+white+blood
This must be so hard on you to see your father lose hope. Treatment is hard and it is easy to see how he can feel dejected and lose hope. His cancer team can help with managing side effects, either with treatment and/or reducing some of the chemo drugs. It is worth a discussion. Do you accompany your father to his appointments or are you having to be a long distance caregiver?
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