My husband is a 2 time AML survivor and an unrelated donor SCT survivor. He began experiencing PN symptoms shortly after his first chemo treatment,the pain is throughout his body including his face and teeth. He has been experienceing debilitating leg cramps and severe muscle wasting. (He eats 3500 calories a day and is unable to hold on to his current weight of 123lbs) precancerous weight was 200. Initially we thought the weight loss and leg cramps were side effects of GVHD but a second opinion has us wondering if these may actually be side effects of PN?

Welcome Imdianeg.

My husband's PN is from treatment for a bone marrow disorder. Clearly nothing as intense as a SCT but he was hospitalized for 5 months with no white count. His treatment was like a BMT without getting the transplant. They wiped out his immune system and his bone marrow had to regenerate on its own. His treatment created a whole host of issues which I'm sure are true for your husband as well.

1 -Nutritional deficiencies resulting from drugs, inability to eat and major stressor burning through what he had are one factor.

2 -The second factor is toxicity from drugs causing nerve damage and disrupting cellular mitochondria.

3 -Both probably contributed to endocrine issues, especially very low testosterone.

The cramps are usually associated with mineral imbalances like calcium, magnesium and potassium.

We spent many years figuring out all this stuff. So through nutrition, supplements, bio-identical testosterone and some alternative medicine he's doing really well and his PN is very much improved.

With SCT patients, all of this become more complicated because of the potential of GVHD. And if he's still on drugs for managing GVHD, that can contribute to it too.

I would ask for them to check his testosterone or a complete endocrine work up. If testosterone is low, fixing this can really help with energy and strength.