Eprex / Procrit Question

[Caroline]

My Dad started Eprex injections last Thursday. He will get 3 – 4 shots to begin with and then we will see where we go from there. He got his first shot at his Doctor’s clinic. This second shot and perhaps a few more will be administered in his home by a nurse. I have been told that she is going to teach my Mom, my daughter and myself how to administer the shots so that we can do it ourselves every week. I have heard of Diabetics giving themselves Insulin shots. How do the rest of you get your Eprex/Procrit shots? Do you go to a doctor’s office weekly or do you do it yourself? Perhaps I have been given wrong information and the nurse will come every week.

Thank you,
Caroline

[patti]

Caroline,

My MIL has to get the shots in a doctor’s office or her insurance won’t pay for the shots. At $1000 a shot and twice a week we just go for the hour drive and get it.

I had to give myself insulin shots in the stomach when I was pregnant and I was surprised how easy it was (although baby kicked a few out!.) It doesn’t hurt (at least not in the stomach) if you go slow. Neupogen and Procrit or Aranesp can burn a little going in if you push it too fast. But as far as giving the shots, they are really easy. We are hoping in January to start giving mom hers at home. I’ll do them just because she doens’t want to. But your dad could do them himself just as easy (I guess depending on where he gets them). Mom likes to get hers in her stomach. Less painful then the arm. If he gets them in the arm then someone would have to do it for him.

Hope this helps.

Patti

[gemloyear]

Hi Caroline, My husband had his procrit shots in the infusion dept. of the hosp. clinic 2x per week. He also had his cbc once a week. He is now on aranesp another blood builder and goes to the clinic for the inj. He only has his cbc once a month and his hbg 1x a week now. Perhaps it’s because of the lab. tests that he needs to go in to the clinic.
My husbands aunt had her procrit shots at home adm. by her son and his wife an RN.Her’s were for anemia, I don’t know how often that she had labs.
It is very expensive to have them done at the clinic $10000 – 12ooo per month. Thank god for medicare & supplemental ins. I hope the gov. never cuts back on that coverage.
I’ve only had to give shots once in my life and that was for the blood clots in his leg.It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Good luck, you can do it.
Ellie

[Caroline]

Thanks Patti…Thanks Ellie.

I guess I will go over to Dad and Mom’s house bright and early tomorrow morning, expecting to learn how to give needles. It shouldn’t be too hard. Mom gives herself Insulin twice a day and she is even more squeemish than I am.

Thank you again,
Caroline

[Jimbob]

I give myself Epogen shots 3 times a week to build up my red blood cells. I use the same size needle as one would for insulin. It is no big thing.

[Terri]

Bob Gets his procrit weekly at the DRS office when we go for his weekly CBC. Today was his day, WBC are shooting up again last week 9.7 this week 14.0 no signs of infection or sickness, no fevers etc. But last time dr looked at slides he did not see any cells to be concerned that the blast were increasing, Next week is his start of Vidaza on Thurs and Friday we see the Doctor. Hope things start getting back to normal

[Sandy L]

Great news Terri. Good luck on next Friday.

[Caroline]

I’ll be praying for Bob next Friday, Terri.

Could you please tell me what kinds of vitamins and supplements Bob takes?

Also, can anyone explain to me what blasts are and how they work?

To all who answered this Eprex/Procrit question of mine…thank you….it wasn’t all that bad learing how to give a needle. It was already filled and ready to inject. Dad gets 40 000 units per week right now. He slept most of the day and then watched the hockey game in the evening. He’s glad to have hockey back again. It is his passion and since he lays down most of the time now, he will have something interesting to watch on television. I am going back next Thursday to watch again and then we will be on our own.

Caroline

[patti]

Hi Caroline,

When blood cells are new (immature) in the bone marrow they are said to be in the “blast” stage of development. A normal healthy person will have >5% blasts in their marrow at any given time. This represents the percentage of blood cells that still need to mature. When someone has too many blasts it means that they have too many immature cells. If not enough cells are maturing at the proper rate then a person doesn’t have enough blood cells for the body to function correctly. For example, my MIL at the time of her diagnosis had greater than 30% blasts in her bone marrow. Blast cells do not function as blood cells until they mature. So they either stay like that and die off or just crowd out the good cells needed for the body to function. MDS/Leukemia type diseases are determined by how many blasts someone has. The number of blast cells required to be considered as having acute leukemia seems to be greatly in question depending on which doctor you talk to. But nonetheless, if someone gets to “x” number of blasts then they are considered to have leukemia because at that point they have more blast cells then healthy blood cells. MDS is characterized by cells that won’t mature and the cells that are mature are frequently misshapen and therefore not functioning properly as well. I think the goal (depending on the type of MDS someone has, I think) is to keep the person in the MDS stage because AML is so hard to treat.

I hope that all made sense. I’m not the greatest at explaining this stuff but I know how much I wanted to understand it all when my MIL was first diagnosed.

Anyone, if I’m way off here please correct me. Thanks

Patti

[eve]

correction on the above

a normal healthy person will has <5% blasts in the blood

eve

[eve]

oops

should be have not has

[Caroline]

Patti…Eve…Thank You.

Patti…you should be in the business of writing text books. That was so simple to understand. Again, Thanks.

Caroline

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