transfusion

[mliver]

My husband had to get a transfusion last week He is in his 31st week of pegasys/copegus treatment and my question is Is this common to transfuse? that is how he got Hep C in the first place but that was 30 years ago.Anybody else had this problem? T hanks

[nygirl7]

My insurance didn't want to pay for procrit either. The pharmacy believe it or not (small local pharmacy competing with the big brands that I've been going to for years) ended up helping me....they submitted it as epogen (generic name) and then changed the way the doctor wrote it a few times so it was not by week but by month (or vice versa). Once they figured out how it would go through all we had to do was get the doctor to change it.

with a hemo of 8 insurance really should have paid for it. Most times they won't until you are under ten but at 8 jez the poor guy must have been just MISERABLE. I'd take the transfusion if I had to, even at 9 he should be getting some help. I know it's very expensive ($6,000 for a box of 10 which I was using every five weeks at 2x a week 40,000) but....

See if the doctors office has someone who specializes in insurance billing and stuff and maybe they can call and find out WHY they refused it and then can rewrite it or something. It's not right, just not right at all.

He's very lucky to have you most people dont even understand how absolutely dreadful a hemo that low can really be. We look OK but just cant stand or breathe (I kept fainting) and having that dreadful ringing....I forgot a lot about when I treated but that - never.

Keep an eye on him on stairs and don't let him drive if possible....it's really nothing to mess around with.

I hope you get some results this is NUTS.

[mliver]

hgb was 8 hematocrit was 26 For some reason insurance will not pay for procrit injections transfusion didnt help much hgb still low at 9 now

[nygirl7]

Most of us are able to avoid transfusions by starting on procrit as soon as we realize our hemoglobin is taking.  If a doctor is not on top of the CBC testing or the anemia is that drastic it certainly is something that is done.

Do you know what the story was? What his HGB number was? If it's very low (which obviously it had to be duh!) then transfusion will help but if it's an ongoing problem he needs to start Procrit (Epogen) as well. It can take from 2- 6 weeks to work, its not a quick fix but it works brilliantly. I never would have made it through treatment without it.