I forgot to mention one thing that came up in yesterday's appointment - I got so focused on the nurses' new best practice's that everything else left my brain.
When I got my flu shot this year, it knocked me flat for days. I couldn't figure out why but then I realized that the flu shot uses the immune system to build antibodies. The denosumab/Xgeva I've been receiving every month for a while now is a monoclonal antibody and also uses the immune system to do its job. Even though I got the flu shot halfway between my denosumab shots, my immune system still ended up overloaded and couldn't handle making antibodies for both. Hence me feeling like I was run over by a truck.
I mentioned this to my oncologist yesterday because denosumab is anew product and they're still gathering side effect information. We agreed that getting the flu shot is very important because I can't afford to get sick and that being laid up like that isnt ideal. So for next year, I'll skip a month on the denosumab and get the flu shot six weeks after the last denosumab injection. That should give my immune system plenty of time to heal up.
I know this isn't a big deal but I wanted to bring it up here for others who are on the denosumab and get flu shots.
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