Normalizing CBC on tx?

[justme53]

Has anyone's CBC risen or normalized on tx? I know there can be fluctuations, but anyone with a steady rise? I was just wondering since a drop in blood counts is expected and preferred in early tx, does the opposite later in tx mean the meds are losing their effect with resistance building up?

Thanks for any insight......Pam

[justme53]

Leave it to me, worry when the news is good OR bad!!! Thanks for the reality check......

Pam

[Trinity4]

Week 62 and got a call the other day that hgb is low 10.  No procit or riba reduction for me.   My doctor is not concerned and neither am I but I'm back on CBC every two weeks now.  Little more tired and a bit winded but I can live with it.  Except for the first couple of months, my hgb has stayed around 12.  Can't get the ANC to stay up without Neup.
It's a numbers game with tx, CBC readings can vary greatly from one test to the next.
Why after all these months is my hgb low?   Who knows, just the nature of the beast.
Don't worry about the rise, consider yourself lucky you're not facing helper drugs.  The tx drugs are working just fine, it's how your body is reacting to them causes the fluctuations.

[newleaf09]

After about the first 2-3 mos. they shift your appts to futher apart.  My CBC was always bad and I never got to the space-out, but if they stretch out the labs, it's got to be because people's blood begins to stabilize, right?  Try not to worry.

[justme53]

Thanks guys,

I want to see it as a good thing, but with my 24 week PCR coming up next week, the worries are settng in such as a bad batch of Riba or Peg. It scary how dependent we are that the meds work just right, have been stored properly, etc. You made me think of that one pharmacist in the US a few years back that was underdosing his chemo patients to save money. I think in that case, riba rage would be justified.......

[lalapple]

oh yeah.  RBC went from 9 to 13 by wk 45 for me, and didn't need an extra Neupogen after my last shot, but WBC was still kinda low, just not low enough to need a Neupogen.  i think your body has a way of knowing how excited you are towards the end and it knows that you're about to be done.  happiness makes things better :)

[portann]

Hi Pam,

I wondered the same thing as you whenever my counts went up.

The ANC's fluctuated wildly, and I eventually stopped worrying about them. Hemoglobin seemed stabilized at low, so it really concerned me when my hemoglobin went up in the middle of treatment to just shy of normal. I worried that either I'd got a bad batch of riba or that I had somehow disabled its ability to work on me ('resistance', as you say).  

My hemoglobin plummeted in the last month of tx and that was no fun but it made me happy in my own warped way!

I have no insight to offer. I'm thirty-one days post-tx, waiting but pretending I'm not.