Stopping treatment

Sorry I am asking so many questions here, but things are moving fast for me concerning my treatment. The doctor here  in Thailand wants to stop treatment and wait a 2 weeks and then start again if my platelets drop below 50,000. I am thinking that is not good to stop for 2 weeks and start again in terms of the efficiency of the treatment.

I only have 67.000 going into this treatment and surely i will go below 50,000. He also said he wants to stop completely if I go below 25,000.

I am thinking just go until I hit below 20,000-25,000. If I do this thing I want to go for it all out and not mess around. Of course other complication may arise , but this 50,000 interruption does not seem right.

Anyone have similar situation or thoughts on this

Mark

[22hamilton]

Hi there.Am sure someone will be along soon to answer your questions,its always good to have a second opinion so you are doing the right thing asking lots of questions.Good luck with your answers and your treatment.

[positude]

Do you mean that your viral load is 67,000 going into treatment and the doctor wants to interrupt treatment if your viral load drops below 50,000? Sorry, I'm a little confused.

Hope you get it figured out and good luck to you.

~Pos.

[newleaf09]

I had low platelets on TX.  Talk to him about dose reduction if you go below 50,000 platelets instead of stopping you or stopping you for only 1 week to allow platelets to recover.  It's pretty obvious to me that you will drop below 50 pretty quickly if you are only starting with 67.

Don't play around with this.  Existing with only 20,000 platelets means that if you get in a car accident with that low platelet count, you will bleed out before the ambulance gets there.  You need to spend your entire TX sitting on the couch.  Get as much exercise as you can manage (helps increase platelet production).  Avoid the anti-depressants celexa and lexapro, which reduce platelet production, especially lexapro.  Good luck to you.  Be careful.

[FlGuy]

I'm with you, full-speed and full-dose until you hit a low number.  Many docs think that number is around 20,000. And, there's a reason.  With the low starting platelets you probably have a good amount of liver damage that will improve only with SVR or a manufacture's replacement part.  It's alwys preferable to keep the original equipment. So, go for the grown-up doses (to incllude weight-based riba) and go as long as you can and without dose reductions - you already have some negative factors going for you and dose reduction can't help.  Since it's on your dime, get your money's worth.  Just to make sure, stay away from knife-juggling while on treatment.

[Trinity4]

Agree wit FlGuy.  Many aggressive hep docs allow treatment to continue as long as the platelets are hanging around 20,000 with no skipping shots or dose reduction.  

Hitting the virus with the big guns first is the most effective strategy.

Trinity

[mikesimon]

I agree with the above two posters - treat. I treated with platelet count in the 20,000s without incident.
Good luck,
Mike

[can-do-man]

Agree full speed and full dose, mine was below 50,000 most of tx and got as low as 29,000 with no stoping or dose reduction. While i tried to be a little more careful i sure didn't spend my tx setting, far from it........... Good luck

[jusjames]

with a count of 20 you dont need an injury to bleed to death