Liver transplant survivor

[Anne_transplant_survivor]

I was diagnosed with stage 4 Hep C in April 2007 and since then I have had a liver transplant and I'm on my 6th month of interferon treatment. I have had little or no side effects from the interferon, but recently started injecting procrit. That first injection of procrit made me feel worse than the interferon ever has. Tomorrow I'm supposed to start Neupogen injections. I'm scared of that! What kind of side effects can I expect from that? Will I have to take these new drugs long?

[orphanedhawk]

Hi Anne,
I had a live liver transplant 5 months ago and am really happy to see you on the forum.

I txed in 2007 and relapsed. Personally, I hated neupogen, which I did twice weekly for 3months.  My bones started to ache after a while.
A few months after stopping tx I broke my arm. I'm convinced my bones were weakened from treatment. ( My family doesn't break. My 90 year old mother falls out of bed and nothing).

I don't mean to scare you.  Tx was hard for me but my liver was a mess. You have a healthy new one. Hopefully you won't be on neupogen long.

best of luck, OH

[newleaf09]

They both list possible bone pain as side effects.  I did not have any with either procrit or Neulasta (pegylated version of neupogen).  The most important thing is that without the neupogen, they will be forced to reduce your interferon dose to allow your neutrophils to rise again.  If you have been clear for a while, interferon reductions are not disastrous, but I always felt a lot more comfortable using the rescue drugs than dose reduction to fix hemo side effects.

Every drug label lists every possible side effect ever reported.  Does not mean that you will have that side effect.  Try it.

[JennyPenny]

I didn't have any sides from Procrit. The neupogen gave me a slight fever and bone pain in my legs. It really wasn't too bad at all. And it got better with time. You may have to take these drugs for the entire length of treatment although I hope not. You're lucky you're not having sides from interferon. Feel better soon.