Dad was admitted into hospital 5 days after chemo due to Neutropenia

[Jdhanoa]

Hi all,

My dad his first chemo appointment on May 15th. He was doing well the first few days but by Thursday evening he was feeling quite a bit of pain and had a fever. Friday morning took him to ER as fever was above 38. They did blood test and chest X-rays and both came back fine and fever decreased. On Saturday evening they prescribed 7 day course of amoxicillin as a precaution. Sunday his fever went to 38.8 and we took him to the ER again. Blood work came back and confirmed he had Neutropenia (1.3). On Friday neutrophils were 12, Saturday 4 and by Sunday 1.3. He was admitted into the hospital and they started him on liquid antibiotics and gave him PMS 1 (opioid) for pain. Since yesterday he’s doing okay. But his fever goes up and down and when his fever gets high that’s when he feels the pain.

I was just wondering if this is normal and other peoples journeys with something similar. How long do people stay in the hospital for?. We are going to talking to his MO about adding in Neulasta injection for next chemo but any other suggestions? Is this something to expect for every chemo session?

thanks

[leebeth]

They usually will reduce the dose to 80% for next chemo and follow counts closely.

[Schwah]

neulasta should be standard IMHO to avoid infection. It was for me when I had chemo. Chemo reduces your blood count and makes you more susceptible to infection.

Schwah

[j-o-h-n in reply to Schwah]

Click Below:

my.clevelandclinic.org/heal....

All you need to know about Neutropenia.

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Tuesday 05/23/2023 10:15 PM DST

[OzzieJ]

I had Neulasta after all my chemo sessions. Even with that, three weeks after my last session I caught a chill with a fever of 40C and ended up in hospital for four days on IV antibiotics. Plus last week which is about 8 weeks after chemo my neutrophils were still a bit low at 0.9. Best wishes to your Dad and hope he recovers soon.

[Jdhanoa in reply to OzzieJ]

Hi OzzieJ,

Was your fever due to an infection?

Thank you

[OzzieJ in reply to Jdhanoa]

Yes. But they didn’t find anything and I didn’t even have a cough. But in the end the antibiotics cleared it up after a few days.

[Jdhanoa in reply to OzzieJ]

Similar with my dad, no cough or anything and blood cultures came back negative. Currently on antibiotics. But he’s back home today thankfully and neutrophil count went up. All the best

[HikerWife]

Hi - so sorry to hear your Dad has had a rough road. We're 2 cycles in, and husband Eric was given a Neulasta shot after the chemo as a matter of course to prevent neutropenia. Keep us posted on your dad's progress. Sending best wishes!

[Jdhanoa in reply to HikerWife]

Thank you. Goods news his neutrophil count came back up with a few days of the filgrastim injection and no fever. He did experience quite a bit of back pain that was relieved with hydromorphone. He’s now on a course of antibiotics just in case as blood cultures came back negative. He’s back home today thank god. We are going to talk to his MO about adding the filgrastim (Neulasta) injection to his chemo so we can prevent this going forward. Best wishes to your Eric!

[rsgdmd]

I didn't get Neulasta, or similar, after my first chemo and ended up severely neutropenic. Neutrophils were 0.1 and WBC was 1.0. I was very careful and didn't get sick. For the next five rounds I self injected Ziextenzo, which is bioequivelent to Neulasta. No issues, though after my last chemo, my counts were low, with WBC around low 2s. Took 5 months to get back to normal (low end of normal).

[ellie2211]

When do they expect the blood counts to return to normal? How long after

[Jdhanoa in reply to ellie2211]

Hi, we started him on filgrastim injection after each cycle of chemo. That has thankfully helped with his count. From my understanding it takes 4-6 months after last chemo to return to normal, but I would confirm this information with MO.