Blood clots during treatment??

[jpinthekeys]

I am treating with triple therapy. I am a 1a prior relapser, I have about 9 weeks to go, I had to stop Invicek 10 days early after being hospitalized for major rash, during that visit they blew an IV in my arm and after 5 days i was released but had to return 2 days later with pain and swelling in my arm. I was diagnosed with DVT in that arm and also MERSA that I almost certainly picked up on the first visit which they treated with vanvomicin for 7 days in the hospital then for 2 weeks out patient until I developed blood clots in the arm that they put in the pic line, this is the right arm, the left arm was the one with the blown IV. I had to go back yet again to the hospital and was treated  with heparin. for 5 days.The drs want me to stop treatment they think it is the Interferon causing the blood clots.
I think as the clots i both arms followed the blown IV in the left arm and the clots in the right arm were on the outside of the PIC line that it may not be directly related to the interferon,
                        I was UND at 5 weeks and have 9 weeks to go and am going to finish treatment against the drs advise, as long as I am still UND on the pcr that was done last week, results in 1 or 2 days.
                       Has anyone had and problem with clots, I did take interferon and riba for 44 weeks in 2007 and had no problemo.

      thanks John

[CoWriter]

Procrit can cause blood clots.

Co

[locomotive75]

I am in my last month of tx, geno-2b 24wk int/riba..  Was digging in yard, and ankle got sore and swollen, that night.  Am on procrit, for anemia, and undetx, since week 4.  Had blood test, for ankle,  and leg scan d dimer came back pretty high.  Wan't badly to finish Tx, and haven't got scan results back yet.  Is it possible to finish Tx, while on thinners?  My hgn is rising, and want to raise my Ribavirin back up, ASAP.  Can I finish the month, with blood thinner?  Locomotive#75

[Ironpony]

When I was hospitalized on tx with chest pains (mostly due to anemia) my D dimer had been positive which can sometimes indicate a blood clot ...so they scanned my legs and chest but did not see anything...I still don't know why the test was so elevated..they did mention tx as a cause,.. but they did not seem all that sure. I was just relieved the scans were clear and never thought much more about it.

I am so sorry you are dealing with clots and MRSA on top of tx..both are very scary. My son battled MRSA for the first 4 years of his life..we had to use safegaurd soap and bleach everything for a few years after every bath to stop it from recurring.

I hope the heparin busted the clot out and the antibiotics took care of your staph infection quickly and you can finish treatment with no other health problems and will go on to achieve SVR.:)

best to you
Laura

[pooh55811]

Sorry to hear you are having these added complications.

I had no blood clots but I did look up a bunch of stuff tonight and I did see that Interferon can cause blood clots. Normally it causes the potential for platelet problems and bleeding, but one potential,  although uncommon, side effect is blood clots. Do you know what your labs (the ones related to clotting) were when you had the clots?

Here are the blood labs related to clotting:

PT and INR (Prothrombin Time and International Normalized Ratio)
Activated Clotting Time (ACT); Partial Thromboplastin Time (PTT); Prothrombin Consumption Time (PCT); Fibrinogen; Coagulation Factors; Platelet Count; Platelet Function Tests; Thrombin Time;

My experience has been that IVs and IV sites can definitely cause infections and thromboses. The longer they are in the vein, the higher the potential for problems. I would agree with you also that the MERSA most likely came from the hospital.

I am wondering what type of doctors you are seeing. Which ones want you to stop Interferon? I would think seeing a hepatologist, and an infectious disease doc, and a hematologist would be beneficial and then they could confer with each other and figure it out.

I wish you the best of luck and hope you can finish Tx and attain SVR. Hopefully, also, no more clots.

[PJ1966]

No clots in my current or previous treatments so I can't help you. but I'm sympathetic to your issues.  This must be very difficult for you.  I'm so sorry.  I wish you the best of luck.