My Saga with Leukemia

Growth Shots

To help me recover as quickly as possible from the effects of the chemo, "growth shots" were begun shortly after my chemo ended. There is a delayed reaction to the chemo in the blood, thus the all important white blood cells, platelettes, and hemoglobin don't respond to it for about a week. When they do, however, those numbers fall as if tumbling off a mountain!

Within days of their decline my white cells plunged to an almost non-existant 0.3 and an injection of Nutrogen was begun...one each day until the counts recovered. While I had always been quite squeamish about shots, by this time I was so used to being poked and prodded on that I just shrugged and went with the program. These shots are given in the belly and for the first time in my life, I was glad I had a little mound of belly fat. Many of the nurses told me that most patients think they are rough shots...with extreme burning, to a point that some patients insisted they be given through their IV line.

I enjoyed chuckling and telling them I nary felt a thing! I'm sure if I had a bikini thin abdomen then perhaps it might have been painful, but my little belly made them painless for me!