Low White Blood Cell Count

[bunkywoo]

I will be taking my 4th shot of PegIntron this week. My white blood cell counts are dropping substantially each week (currently at 3.2 to 2.5 to 1.8 currently), to the point that my doctor is cutting my dosage in half. All of my other blood counts are stabilized. I wanted to know if anyone else has run into this early on in treatment and if they were able to bring the WBC back to a more acceptable level. Also, are there any foods you can eat that help generate WBC's? I have read from one of the doctors on this forum that drugs called GM-CSF or Neupogen have been prescribed to increase the WBC's. It was an older question from 1999 and I was wondering if they still prescribed this medicine. My nurse didn't mention this today when we got my blood test results back. My greatest fear is that my body isn't going to tolerate the PegIntron and I may have to stop therapy. I'm hoping that the reduction in dosage will bring things back up and they can then slowly increase the dosage again. I have genotype 3A. My nurse told me that they have seen an increase in the amount of people who's WBC counts drop significantly on the PegIntron compared to the Interferon previously used in combination therapy. Thanks for any information on your personal experience. I know this is one we all hope to put behind us with positive results. Good luck to all of us with Hep C.