Hey, you survived.  And, you're shooting par.  I think the weekend effects that you mentioned are fairly typical, they are for me. The headaches (backaches and joint crunchies too) are typical for me also.  You've read here that people use different pain remedies. During shot weekend the recipe that seems to work best for me is sort of alternating aspirin and tylenol with an Ambien nightcap Fridays and Sat night.  Sunday night I try to go without the ambien so I'm not 'shaded' for work on Monday.  I went into the weekend as a write-off anyway so I accomplished what I expeted.

Yup my brilliant pal above said it all :)

If you are prone to migraines or back conditions...they will most likely be exaggerated. Unfortunately.

I take my Ambien CR every single night - otherwise 75% of the time...I wake up at 2am and never go back to bed. I just make sure I take It REALLY early (8pm) so it's worn off by the next day pretty much.

The only thing I took was Aleve. Dr said it was ok. Worked for a while. The injection site is a little black/blue. I tried eating saltines for the upset stomach. Didn;t work. No desire to eat today. Otherwise I am ok. I know I can do this as long as these headaches don;t get any worse. Working on the computer is killing me today. I feel kind of speedy today.

Don't avoid eating. The riba rebels in an empty stomach.  Although the nutrition folks my correct me, at least try to get some toast or a bagel inside you as a welcoming committee for the AM riba (you're taking 3 in the am).  So, did the kids notice anything amiss from your 'usual' weekend?  Where did you do that first shot? (no, not the room - where on your body).  I had an interesting challenge.  This weekend was 'science fair project weekend' for my daughter.  All the stuff was due today. She and I worked on it a lot of the weekend (peppered by rests and naps). But we managed to get it done and her head is still attached to her neck.  Glad that's over!

Horray, you are on your way! I had issues with those headaches in he beginning. Now only occasionally. I use a pain med. because the over the counter things did not work. Even thepain meds didn't alleviate it but it helped keep it bearable.

DRINK LOS OF WATER! Try to remember to keep up the water intake, I find if you forget the water, sides get worse.
I have a very hard time having any desire to eat also, one rememdy is to get yourself some whey protein powder you can mix up with milk, they have a variety of flavors. That way you are getting the protein you need at least. Add a bananna and take it with your Riba. I agree with FLGuy, don't take the riba on an empty stomach, at least get some milk down.
Also fruit smoothies can be a big help. Make sure to take some fat with the Riba, maybe you could handle a bowl of cereal or yogurt. Anything you can get down. I fight nausea consantly, see if your doctor can give you something for the nausea. Also maybe he can give yo a pain med for those headaches to take on an as needed basis. I use Vicoprophen and it works well to reduce pain symptoms post shot days.
Hang in there! Sounds like you have done really well for your first shot. Sorry about the headaches.

it is important to take the riba with food - that is one of the things that should help you be less nauseaus.

I wasn't really 'sick sick' from any of it but did lose 20 pounds right away (which I didn't have to lose) because I didn't WANT to eat. Finally when I was truly emaciated I realized eating ANYTHING I could (ice cream, fudgeicles, cookies) ANYTHING was better than NOTHING.

I have trouble eating in the morning so I would drink a yogurt shake or take a piece of toast or a bagel - something.

Eventually it will subside and you will be feeling much stronger. Remember the first week for most is one of the hardest.

Most food on chemotherapy just doesn't taste right - for some reason you can taste ingredients you never noticed before. But you can find some things that DO work well.  It just comes in time what works for YOU.

For example I am not much of a soda drinker but when I am nauseaus...having a bit of pepsi with the bubbles stirred out seems to help me alot. So now...I drink all I want of the stuff.

During treatment - all "diet" type bets are OFF.

Hey did you start your shots? How's it going on the Riba so far?

I did manage to get down half a bagel w/the Riba. My friend Funky's mother-in-law own a health food store so she brought me over lots of goodies. Beetmax, protein drink. I did drink  gallons of herb tea. Thats another thing. I spend quite a bit of time running to the bathroom. I did the shot in my stomach.FLGuy, how are you feeling? How did the shot affect you?I did think about you as my friend was injecting. I didn't feel it but I made such a big deal over it!

I wonder how fast that Hgb will take to drop? Did it drop before with 800 Riba? Are you doing weight based.

I kind of struggled with the twice a week or double on the same day. Although the doc is ok with it, he doesn't have a lot of experience in the 'novel' approaches.  But I noticed that both Jim and Rattiss both did theirs on one day.  The overriding deciding point was that I need to be mostly work-functional and Having a tx saturday on a Thursday morning wouldn't work. I'm willing to take extra lumps on the weekends for a while.  It was my intention to re-check the pegasys half life today.  Think it was something like 36-48 hours, but need to check.

I am going to see what happens after next shot. I still don;t feel like eating. I managed to get down half a bagel with cream cheese w. my Riba. Been drinking a lot of tea & juice. I love chocolate and always keep a candy dish on my desk. I tried a piece this morning and almost lost it!!!! But I know the sx could have been worse. Its Monday and I am here at work and am pretty much ok. If this is the most I have to deal with I am lucky. But after reading here how sx's change, intesify etc etc I am going to just take it one shot at a time.

I was wondering if they is a way/calculation to estimate the effect of riba on hgb. Or, if there is any correlation to the impact after one week - don't know but probably not. Didn't require procrit on 800, but baseline is lower starting with 1200.  With those unknowns, that's why I'm assuming impacts before procrit kick-in like most procrit users experience.  And, if hgb doesn't drop enough, means not enough riba.  The themes for tx part 2 : longer and stronger and riba til it hurts.

It was the "half life" info that made me decide to do it twice a week BUT, and this is a big BUT, I did not have to go and perform at work. Had I had to work, I would probably have doubled up on one day a week to try to bank some recovery time on the weekend. I honestly couldn't have worked a 9 to 5 on tx due to the fainting/nausea problems I have.

I would say those CBC's would do a pretty good job of letting you know how the Hgb is effected by the Riba. I do my CBC's at least once a week ever since that anemia hit me early on. I was shocked to find out how quickly it dropped. That is why I think 10 days is too long to wait to find out. If you need Procrit, you will want to take it when you go below 12, as per your dr., not when it goes 5 pts. in a week. Then you will REALLY suffer. Do you take your CBC's at the Dr's? If so, I guess you will only get them with your appt.

The cbc's are at a hematologist office and they put the vial in a magic machine which spits out the lab report within 2 minutes of the blood draw.  Since I go in early, before the doc arrives, the tech compares the anc and hgb to the doc's standing orders. If at the prescribed levels, tech will administer what ever is necessary.  Since I don't see the doc on all these vists there is some flexibility in the frequency of the cbc's.  Also, if/when get to procrit time will also have to figure out frequency and dosage to maintain that delicate balance too.  Right now, it's not my intention to get an rx for procrit/neup but to have it all administered (including any insurance pitfalls) by the hemo's office.  If it gets too complicated I may opt for an rx and self-administration, but will see how this plays out first. Same hemo office, different doc this time.  But he has his poop together with hcv - most of their patients are oncology.

I never had any problems with the Aranesp, instead of Procrit. It lasts longer. You may want to try it when/if (hopefully!) your Hgb goes down.

The headaches are definently hard to cope with. I do notice when I am drinking a lot of water all day(whether I am thirsty or not) the headaches are a lot easier to deal with.If I don't drink water, I feel my eyeballs in the back of my head.

Started Friday night. Riba started a week earlier.  Double-dosed the peg (same time-different targets) and will do so again, at least for week 2.  Then a pcr before week 3 shot(s)decision.  Was interested to read in another thread that your peg dd was 2 different days - apparently 3-4 days apart?  Saturday was pretty rugged. Since it's pegasys this time will be interested to see what the weekends will be like when I go to singles. The effects were somewhat worse than a single pegintron.  Just don't want to use a half tank of gas in the first 10 miles of a hundred mile trip.

Tell me about the headache, the location, the onset etc. and a general description. "Headaches" were my worst sx, I quoted headaches because they turned out to be not headaches but a facial neuralgia; that is a problem facial nerves. Calling it a headache to a doctor does not do it justice who will tend to minimize it. A facial neuralgia is more of a medical issue and holds more weight.

Welcome back to the Jumanji game!

Merlino; Sorry to hear about the headaches. I have an extremely hard time with them. Thought I was over migraines with menopause. They're back!!! I take Fiornal w/ codiene and it does take the edge off. Even Oxycodone (stronger) did not work. Fiorcet has tylenol and is made for headaches. Hopefully they won't be a problem after your first shot. The first seems to be the worst for many.

My appetite was/is nil a lot of the time. I ate ice cream for breakfast and dinner to get that fat for the Riba. Like NY says, whatever you can get down! I didn't gain weight for a while either. Of course, if you can eat something healthy all the better. I drink Ensure to get the vitamins when I can't eat anything. The protein powder Kalio mentions would be good.

Double dosing Flguy? Wow! Gonna make sure it works this time, huh? Do you have your Neup set up? How often are you getting a CBC?

What is facial neuralga? How does it feel? Curious b/c I am the poster child for headaches/migraines. I know I have two types of migraine, but sometimes on tx the headache I have is different. It is constant and all over my head. Light, noise bother me. Lots of irritability.

In fact, Jumanji was on tv this weekend and thought of your appropriate comparison to it.  Turned it off just before the monkeys.  CBC's every 10 days. Had one after the first week of riba pre-dosing and hgb already went down .5  Hematologist and I have agreed to levels for both hgb (when it drops below 12 - baseline 15.8) and ANC (somewhere) below 500 - and no 'lasta - only Neup.  Goal is to get to und by week 4.  If so it's 48 weeks, if not - who knows right now.

Water, Water, Water. I found that when I was treating my headaches were worst when I didn't drink enough water. From the beginning my doctor told me that if I didn't drink water I would get migraines or very bad headaches. As time went on, I learned that most times, as soon as I felt a headache coming on I could stop or lessen the pain by drinking water.

From what I understand, a facial neuralga is a swelling of a facial nerve usually the trigeminal nerve. With me, it caused severe pain surrounding my right eye socket, the worst being the right side of my nose. It came on like an electric shock, and with me, I had three hours or so of severe pain after which it disapate until the next bolt of lightning would hit. This lasted 3 1/2 months, which is typical of facial neuralgas, which are episodic. I tried everything heat cold etc., nothing worked very well.