Question
Has anyone had chills after chemo? If so, any suggestions to have them stop? How long after chemo have they lasted?
— Caring.com Community Member, MARK
Answer
Expert Bonnie Bajorek Daneker wrote The Compassionate Caregiver's Guide to Caring for Someone With Cancer.
Symptoms like chills, shaking and fever are the body?s way of trying to increase temperature through muscular activity. These are seen during chemotherapy and may continue for hours or even days afterwards. Chills are particularly common with certain cancer drugs such as interferon, interleukin-2, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF), but they can occur after treatment with most chemotherapy agents.
Unless your doctor has advised against it, you should be able to keep the chills under control with ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or aspirin. However, if the chills persist or don't respond to treatment with common painkillers, talk to your doctor about other medications. There's no need to suffer chills while undergoing chemotherapy.
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