white cells

[misschelle7]

I took my first shot of interfeon almost 3 weeks ago, full dose, my doc called on the night I was to give myself the 2nd shot and told me to stop ribovarin and interferon immediatley, my white cells went from normal to 1.2, my red cells  turned critical another  week later also. I developed an upper repatory infection and a viral infection, so docs are waiting to see me when I am over all this, but still plan on putting me of 1/2 dose with neupogen to raise the whites. I'm thinking my bone marrow doesnt like interferon and I have remained symptom free and on herbs for 6 years wit diet changes, has me feeling very healthy, as I NEVER get sick! Why bother? I am 55, 1A, any thoughts would be appreciated.

[misschelle7]

Susan and Hector, want to say thank you and good luck to you Susan. I am currently in a drug study to raise platelets, they stay around 48, and they raised to 200 in just 2 weeks, started interferon and riba and they dropped back to 75, stopped TX and they were back up to 149 in 10 days. Red cells dropped  during Tx to 3.88, 10 days later they were at 3.12, white went from normal to 1.2 and 10 days after Tx, to 1.7, they would love to try to start x again, but only if I can afford to buy the Neupogen, and want to try again. I just cant decide........

[HectorSF]

Good news. There is a big difference between Stages 3 and 4. Your chances of SVR go way down as your liver becomes cirrhotic.

There are things you can do to raise WBC and RBC if they become problematic on treatment. Interferon is going to be around for many years to come so no way around that. But to have a better chance of SVR it makes it worth dealing with the sides of the interferon. Likely your platelet count is okay because interferon knocks those down also and there is no helper drug to raise them at the current time.

As long as you treat before Stage 4 you should be okay as far as your odds of success.

Good luck.
Hector

[misschelle7]

Thanks everyone. My biopsy showed grade 3. That was after initial diagnosis by 4 docs that I had cirrhosis, so its hard to say. They did tell me Vertex was on the fast track for approval and its somewhere close to 80 percent for 1's. Still have to tolerate the interferon. Newest drug is the one developed for parasites (in the new liver mag) and it will not include ribavarin. Such a tough call to make.......

[orleans]

Hey, Have you had a bx, what were the results? jerry

[susan400]

I'd get a 2nd opinion, if I were you.  A lot of hepatologists won't dose reduce or add the Neupogen until you hit .5.    I've been troubled with the white blood cell drop for many of my treatments.  After I was in the 5 wks of the VX trial last year, my white cells dropped.  After ending TX when I was pulled from the study, they came back up, but never made it to where they stayed in the normal range.  They were constantly hovering barely below the normal cut-off.  Now on in another trial and going into I had low white cells.  When I was treated at Mayo, the nurse researched for me to find out if there was anything I could do to help build the Neut's back up.  The rescue drugs were not allow on the VX trial.  She found some articles that referred to eating shitake mushrooms that they may help to stabilize the drop.  I started eating a whole bunch of them since there were no restrictions from eating them on the trial.  It did help to stabilize the drop.  I started eating them again when I started up on my current treatment since I was going into with low white/neut.'s right before I even started the infergen.  Neut.s came up by a few points from screening labs to day 1 labs.  They've still be low, but not to the .5 cutoff yet and they're holding there own.  I do not want to dose reduce because I feel like that will just hurt my chances even more and I've already got alot of odds stacked against me.  I am also praying alot because I know that I need more than just TX drugs to get me rid of this virus, I need a miracle of GOD!  Now of my other 9 treatments have given me the SVR that I needed.  So, my hope is first in GOD and 2nd in the TX drugs.  I don't do alternative meds, but I will eat the shitakes (even though I really am not wild about the taste), because it was okayed by the TX people.   No grapefruit or grapefruit juice though, at all!

Susan400

[misschelle7]

Thank you for writing me! I am still not realy sur what I am going to do, and my job is suffering with all the ill health of late, so... maybe  there is someone else out there that ha the same thing happen?
Take care,
Michelle

[Marcia2202]

First, welcome to the forum. I'm sure you will be able to find a lot of good support here. I'm sorry to hear that treatment i s messing around with your white blood cells. I think it would be wise to follow your doctor's advice and see how it goes. If your body still cannot take the drugs, then obviously you will have to stop. Then you can go back to the alternative maintenance treatment, wait for the newer drugs and try again. Maybe you will react differently to the drugs another time around.

Could there be any underlying reason than the drugs are causing your whites to drop that fast?

I wish you all the best,

Marcia