Side affects of Bleomycin

[Mat]

Im on day 8 of cycle 1 tomorrow of BEP. I will be receiving a 10-15 min injection of Bleomycin. Just wondering what kind of side affects i should expect and roughly how this will make me feel or does it not have that much of an effect on its own?

Thanks

[Davie]

Take a look at this link.

http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/default.asp?page=4192

But it's horses for courses, as I didn't get any of these symptoms.

[Margaret]

Mat,

Boyce got high fevers with bleo and the shakes. They gave him Benedryle (not sure how to spell that) to help. He also got short of breath.

[mercyriver]

My husband got high fevers and violent chills that made him shake (sounds like Boyce). He took Benadryl and Tylenol every time he did Bleo and he would fall asleep for several hours and wake up like nothing ever happened.

Scared us the first dose and they had us come down to check to make sure it was a severe allergic reaction. His blood pressure was fine and they sent us home and told us to use the benadryl and tylenol each Bleo day.

Best of luck and I hope you come through it without any of the side effects!

Becki

[Moriarty]

I also got a fever and chills the 1st time, i mentioned it to my nurse where I was getting my treatment done and she started giving me Benadryl and Tylenol before treatment began. It helped and eliminated those two problems for me.

[boyce]

Let me put it this way....

I FREAKIN HATE (#$#*@+ Bleo!!!!

Now, Docs said I was especially sensitive (as is my way) to it. And the good news is that the effects only lasted a few hours.

Basically for me it caused a chemical fever. Temp would run as high as the 103-104+ range. So my body would spasm ucontrollably and my temp would spike.

If this happens, know that it is OK. (Sadly...even normal) Sleep helps a lot and then the effects wear off. It's scary! But temporary... (Hey, that rhymes!)

Please feel free to ask any ???s and IM if you prefer. My Bleo reaction was substantially more severe than most, so please look at mine as a worst-case scenario.

And ..at the end of the day....I am cancer free...and Bleo helped me get better......so I now Officially ^@%#(@ LOOOVVVEEEE Bleo!

[Mat]

Ive already had one injection of Bleo during my stay at hospital in between Etoposide and Cisplatin. Cant say it made much difference (i hope) well ive had no fever or chill during or since.

Apparently my injection of bleo tomorrow only lasts about 10 mins and should be out of hospital in about 1hr. Is this the same way everyone else has had it?

Thanks

[greg_oz]

Apparently my injection of bleo tomorrow only lasts about 10 mins and should be out of hospital in about 1hr. Is this the same way everyone else has had it?

Thanks
That's my recollection also. They started a saline IV drip for a few minutes, then gave me the shot... I was out of there in under an hour for sure. I do not recall any immediate the side effects of the bleo, such as fever... but it was a while ago now!

[David1969]

I was very lucky, I had no real side effects with Bleo at all!!!

[Davie]

Apparently my injection of bleo tomorrow only lasts about 10 mins and should be out of hospital in about 1hr. Is this the same way everyone else has had it?

If your having it in the Marsden like me, it can take up to 2-3 hours, but can be much quicker than that.

The reason it can take a long time is that the pharmacy have to prepare the bleomycin shot, along with all the other cytotoxic drugs thery're preparing for all the other cancer patients they are treating that day. Depending on how long the queue is, will influence the time it takes.

So you will turn up, and they'll put a cannula in you, then they'll give you a virbrating bleeper, and alert you to come back when the bleo turned up from the pharmacy.

The shot itself takes all of 30 seconds, and then your off home.

[a12curlyq]

When Paul had Bleo during his "off" week it wouldn't take long at all. He'd go in and they'd do blood work to check his counts, and then he'd get the Bleo injection. It took about a half an hour. He would take a tylenol before he went which helped prevent a fever. He felt kind of yucky after having the bleo, but it was not as bad as the other days of chemo. By the next day, during the "off" weeks, he was just about back to his normal self. He only did two rounds, though.