Bruised and swollen arm from Calquence.

[QueenBees]

My husband started Calquence several months ago. Soon after that his left arm became swollen and turned black and blue from the wrist to the shoulder. Not painful and this was the only side effect. His white blood cells are down and his platelets are slowly coming up. His Oncologist recently changed him to Brukinsa but so far swelling and black and blue arm still there. Has anyone else had this side effect?

[mdsp7]

Make sure that the medicine is going in the right blood vessel and not pooling in the arm. This happened to a friend of mine with breast cancer, and she got an aloe leaf and rubbed her arm to help draw the pooled medicine away from the tissue it was damaging.

It also happened to my daughter when she was injected with an agent for an MRI and it all pooled in her tissue. I ran out and got her a jar of aloe vera and a cucumber and she used the cucumber to rub the aloe into her arm while holding her arm over her head grasping something like a subway strap.

That is two occurances that I know of. Oh and my sister had her blood transfusion pool in her abdomen when she was 9. The nurses could not figure out what was wrong and why whe was not recovering from open heart surgery that had gone well. My friend and my daughter were fine and sister were all fine in the end but having a liquid that is supposed to go into your vein go into your tissue is dangerous, scary, and does happen. Good luck.

[kitchengardener2]

Well I can't give a medical opinion. That is something you must check with your medical team. However, I have a friend who is being treated with Acalabrutinib and has suddenly developed a form of Lymphodema in one arm. She says no one is interested and despite doing various exercises and wearing a compression sleeve, it is no better. She is in her 80s and in addition to her CLL also has a heart problem.

[Grad99 in reply to kitchengardener2]

I have the same problem / my right hand is swollen and very different from the left one my doctor also not worried!

[QueenBees in reply to kitchengardener2]

My husband also exercises and wears a sleeve.No improvement but we are grateful it isn’t painful.As side effects go….it could be worse.😊

[jt882]

my father has this as well in his left arm. i think it started during his treatment with ibrutinib many years ago. since then he has been on various treatments but it still persists. The only time i remember it going down significantly was when he was on diuretics (prescribed for another issue) - but once he stopped those it slowly swelled up again.