Calcium deficiency

After the third cycle I started feeling a gradual increase in weakness in legs with continuous pain in femur (thigh bone). I was forced to reduce my morning and evening walks inside the house from one hour in each session to about 15-20 minutes. No much attention was paid by the doctor to my complaining about this pain. I thought as I had taken 100 mg of Prednisolone, a steroid for first 5 days in each chemo cycle, it might have caused depletion in calcium level in my body. At the end of 5th cycle, I started taking a distributed dose of 3 tablets of Calmag (600 mg of calcium with 405 mg of magnesium) and alternatively Shelcal (500 mg of elemental calcium+250 IU of vitamin D), which relieved me of the pain. This was informed to the doctor, who had no objection. (serum calcium was tested on own initiative after 10 days, which was 8.4 mg/dL, 8.2 mg/dL is the lower limit), but I still had some pain in the knees. I was advised by my orthopaedic consultant after detailed investigations that I had no serious problem in the knees and as far as possible, should avoid folding the knees. This precaution worked well and pain in the knees gradually started subsiding. My capacity to walk at normal pace is now slowly returning (after about 50 days from the 5th cycle).