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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Hepatitis / October 2007Update 10-25
I just got back from my (1st post-start-of-tx) liver Dr.'s appt and got one of those "You're standing here and chatting with me--how is that possible?" looks when my blood work revealed that, from 09-28 (When I started chemo) to 10-16 (when blood was last drawn) my hematocrit declined from 44 to 29 (meaning that in 18 days chemo killed about 34% of my red blood cells). Based on my fatigue levels and breathing, I'm confident that my hematocrit TODAY (10-25) is prolly in the mid-20s, making me certifiably Dracula-Victim anemic. (Yes, they're putting me on EPO, stat, and halving my chemo doses to keep me from keeling over.) Oh yes, I also have only about 1/3 the white cells I had pre-tx. They're putting me on another med whose name you know but I'm blanking on because my memory is virtually shot... >I just got back from my (1st post-start-of-tx) liver Dr.'s appt and >got one of those "You're standing here and chatting with me--how is [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] >They're putting me on another med whose name you know but I'm blanking >on because my memory is virtually shot... Probably Neupogen. fwiw, the actual Hemoglobin count is a better measure of what's going on than Hematocrit. You might also ask them to determine which drug is causing the anemia - either the IFN is suppressing your bone marrow or the Ribavirin is causing hemolysis. There's a blood test they can run that will rule in or out hemolysis. If it points to hemolysis, you might be able to resume the full dose of IFN and only reduce the Ribavirin... http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/ha/ha_diagnosis.html ...although the incipient neutropenia (the WBC drop) is likely being caused by the IFN, so you're kinda getting boxed in here. Hopefully between the Epogen and the Neupogen you can get your counts back up quickly so you can up your dosages closer to normal again. Hang in there, bub! /greyhackles > >I just got back from my (1st post-start-of-tx) liver Dr.'s appt and > >got one of those "You're standing here and chatting with me--how is [quoted text clipped - 33 lines] > > /greyhackles Thank you---much appreciated;) |
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