Indigestion and head pain

[Shanetheson]

Hello, all.

So, my father was diagnosed back in November time. He's currently in the watch and wait stage and is not due more bloods until May. He has also recently (also November) been diagnosed with kidney disease, fairly advanced.

He had some bloods done a week or two ago, in an effort to monitor his kidneys, his numbers are good there and show no drastic change. Great.

Anyway, my mum says a few times over the last few weeks he's had sleepless nights, due to a "pain in his head" and what he describes as "indigestion".

I got a call from her not long ago to say that he's currently gone to bed (11am) due to not feeling well.

Only other change to report is that he had the covid vaccine 16 days ago.

I know I'm a worrier, but from what I've read, I've not been able to find anybody describing indigestion or headaches as symptoms. Do these sound like anything anyone else has experienced with CLL? Could it be covid? Vaccine side effects?

[lankisterguy Volunteer]

Hi Shanetheson,-

I see that you are in the UK, and so getting medical advice from the NHS may be a challenge due to COVID. But to dig into the causes of your father's symptoms will require help from his GP to sort out what is CLL related, what may be related to his kidney issues, and what comes from other causes.

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I will offer some non medical opinions that you can consider:

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Headaches and indigestion are common side effects from some of the newer drugs used to treat CLL, but not mentioned often by untreated patients.

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Fatigue and frequent infections (bacterial, viral or fungal) are common symptoms among untreated patients. CLL depresses the immune system and allows many different infections that are not seen in people with normal immune systems.

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Whether the vaccine could cause those side effects over two weeks after the injection would be something to ask his GP.

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If you want to read more, please see these two Pinned Posts

healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...

healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...

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Len

[SofiaDeo]

I don't know how recently he has had to adjust his diet because of his kidney status, but I can report that I recently went on a low-phosphorus diet to manage my high PO4 levels from rapid breakdown of CLL cells (mild TLS) due to Venclexta initiation. Eating much more veggies (including an increase of apples, asparagus, and broccoli which are gas producing) without the protein & fats of chicken, meat, dairy, or fibers of oatmeal, beans etc. has made me extremely gaseous, with indigestion. And dealing with CLL plus kidney disease on top of his body trying to make extra immune globulins from the Covid vaccine will burn some energy, possibly contributing to fatigue. That little extra bit of energy expenditure related to attempts to make immune globulins in his system might be pushing him into fatigue. If his RBC production/Hg/Hct are lowered because of a reduced protein intake often required of a kidney disease diet, that may also contribute. This is all speculation, of course the thing to do is monitor symptoms & discuss with doctor.