CBC w/dif platelet test

[callmedorothy]

good morning to all.  does anyone have any experience with white and red blood cell counts dropping on tx?  I am week 9 on peg and ribovarian. My wbc dropped to 2.2, rbc to 2.66 and neutrophils to.06. my dr. had me on 1000 mg ribo /day. he cut it back to 800 and peg to 1.35.  i weigh 130. i am stage 2, 1a. have been extremely tired. does the cutting back the ribo and peg hurt chances of clearing the virus. are these levels dangerous? i see him in two weeks. thanks all and thanks for all your informative and uplifting posts.

[frijole]

Guess you  haven't been reading this forum too long.  YES a big fat YES.   Most of our white and red blood counts dropped significantly during treatment.  The important thing is that you DO NOT WANT TO REDUCE DOSES!  There are other ways to deal with this.  

I never had a normal CBC for the whole 56 weeks of my treatment plus another month or two.  There are medications to help the white counts come up and medications to increase the hemoglobin (red counts -- the amount of oxygen in your blood).

Ask you rdoctor about NEUPOGEN and PROCRIT right away.  It is so important NOT to reduce your ribavirin or interferon.  Please ask your doctor today.  If he is unaware or unable to do this please find another doctor.  Reduing doses reduces your chances for SVR.  

See if you can get into a Hemotologist (blood doctor).  THis is not instead of your GI, but in addition to the GI who may not have much experience with blood matters.

How long have you been treating?  What was your starting HGB (hemoglobin) and ANC?  The Neupogen works pretty fast for increasing ANC but doesn't have a long-lasting effect.  At 600, you are low, but not dangerously so.  I started Neupogen when my ANC went to 400.  THe HGB is of more importance than your RBC. The PRocrit can bring that up but it takes about 2 weeks for it to help.  

Go to the archives and you can find these topics a lot.
Frijole

frijole