Weekend Shots

No rest for the weekend - I've been scheduled for some neupogen shots today and tomorrow. The first one was earlier this afternoon, and the second one is scheduled for tomorrow morning.

Here's a little science. Neupogen, or what my stepmother jokingly refers to as "the $3,000 shot", is a human granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF). Essentially, it's a DNA-engineered drug that causes your body to start making many, many white blood cells. These blood cells are then collected and stored for reinsertion after the chemotherapy. I will get the shots now to assist with collection, then after the stem cell transplant to boost up the new reinforcements.

Common side-effects with this drug are bone pain all over your body, as your bones will 'burst at the seams' with white blood cells. It has been 3 hours, and I'm not having any problems so far.

I found this article online about the challenges of a 52 year-old doctor with primary amyloidosis that you might find interesting. It discusses Neupogen and the major role stem-cell transplants have in battling this disease.