Kenny was only 2 years old when he was receiving G-CSF, so he was too young to understand why he needed the shots. He would cry and beg us not to hurt him—that he was sorry. My heart would break, but I would have to give him the shot. We finally developed a really good system. Right before being discharged after a round of chemo, we would put EMLA® on Kenny’s arm and then have the nurse place an insulflon. It was a small catheter that Kenny didn’t even notice was in his arm. It was good for 7 to 10 days, which was the duration of his G-CSF for the entire month. We would draw up the amount needed for injection, then place it in the insulflon and inject it very slowly. Kenny never felt it and no longer begged us not to do the G-CSF. Oh, how I wished we had done this from the beginning! Kenny’s counts would usually start to decline about 4 days after his chemo. At about Day 10 the G-CSF would kick in, and his counts would skyrocket.

Katie had no side effects from Neupogen^® that I can recall. The worst thing about it for us was giving the shots at home. They’re subcutaneous, so the needle is short, but Katie still said they hurt, even with EMLA^®.