Aa
Low bloods
Can I do anything to get my blood level back up. It's at 8 and if it drops to7.5 then my treatment will be cut the dose of the injection peg interferon . And if there anything I can do could you please help. It's the combo treatment also prescribed methadone and diazepam . Don't always take my diazepam! Just if there anything I can do to raise the count, the hospital sounded hopeful that at two week going on to third that day when called on Friday that this was good news to show that the treatment was effecting me but the concerns are that if it drops just.5 then it
will be a half dose of the peg and also my levels of hemaglobin are down but okay to continue with the ribrivirian just now, I've been waiting for nine year for treatment nd it's a battle single and mother of three under 7. It's a great concern that these 6 months are going to be for nothing if the treatments cut and there no result at the end due to my low bloods causing a half dose cut . Please if there is anything to do to help keep these levels up could you please help...?
will be a half dose of the peg and also my levels of hemaglobin are down but okay to continue with the ribrivirian just now, I've been waiting for nine year for treatment nd it's a battle single and mother of three under 7. It's a great concern that these 6 months are going to be for nothing if the treatments cut and there no result at the end due to my low bloods causing a half dose cut . Please if there is anything to do to help keep these levels up could you please help...?
Im so sorry I'm not yet up to date with all the terms , I'll try explain better. It's my blood count that is 8 and my peg interferon that been cut and if it's down to 7.5 then they will cut the dose in half. My hemaglobin is dropped but still just in the safe that the ribrivirian remain the same , so sorry for not explaining proper. I'm so worried that I will not have the response needed when I'm being cut so early on., and I know the nurses reassured me that this is a good sign in there opinion that it shows I'm sensitive to the meds and it having an effect. Once again sorry for the mis understanding and thank you for all you response. That was the first I'd used this site. I'm not to clued up on the Internet and was nice to see people are actually reading like I do, so my question was is there anything I can do to get my counts back up , maybe eat something or anything? Also is there any women that have had period changes on the combo treatment. Mine is terrible it's as if I've got a constant flow and the blood makes me panic, just the thought of the blood makes my skin crawl. I was doing so well. And this past two days I've really struggled with having my period any suggestions on how to get my blood count up would be appreciated. And if there any women out there that share this change in period for the worse it be reassure in to know I'm not alone on this . My kids have been great but it's such early days I'm so worried that if this is the reaction I've had on week two going on three that when I return to hospital on Thursday that my dose will be reduced again. I really felt like just injecting the full lot and not reducing it. But I know I got to be careful,for my babies sake I can't afford to be so I'll. Once again sorry for the misunderstanding and thanks for all you time .Dayatime
Welcome to the forum, Dayatime. Sounds like you have your work cut out for you. Monitoring your Hep C treatment with 3 kids under seven. Wow.
We are all assuming that you are talking about your hemoglobin being at 8. Is that correct - that the fgure is for your HGB - and that you are on Incevik. Is that correct?
The doctors are seeing some remarkable dangerous drops in hemoglobin really quickly with the PIs. Still, your drop is even quicker at 2 weeks. My hepatologist recommends dropping the riba to 600 to see if that will help immediately. You are pretty close to requiring a transfusion, as others have said. Don't take this lightly. Please discuss with your doctors that you do not want to reduce your interferon.
frijole
We are all assuming that you are talking about your hemoglobin being at 8. Is that correct - that the fgure is for your HGB - and that you are on Incevik. Is that correct?
The doctors are seeing some remarkable dangerous drops in hemoglobin really quickly with the PIs. Still, your drop is even quicker at 2 weeks. My hepatologist recommends dropping the riba to 600 to see if that will help immediately. You are pretty close to requiring a transfusion, as others have said. Don't take this lightly. Please discuss with your doctors that you do not want to reduce your interferon.
frijole
Well i'm not sure why they would think cutting the dose of interferon is going to help as its the Ribavirin thats the problem or if your taking Incivek its a combo of the 2 drugs. Your to early in treatment to be on Victrelis.
Stopping or reducing the ribavirin on just SOC is never a good ideal, and reducing is only suggested with the PI's if one is UND. One should not stop the Riba while taking one of the PI's... That said one cannot go on at the rate of drop your having without some sort of help. Looking into another doctor seems like a very good ideal... Hang in there.
Comparing the T12PR12 and T12P12 arms that were identical apart from the inclusion or exclusion of RBV, SVR rates were 60% in the arm with RBV and 36% in the arm without RBV. Rates of virologic breakthrough were 1% and 24%, respectively. Similarly, in PROVE 3, which was conducted in patients who had failed previous pegIFN/RBV treatment, SVR rates were 2 times lower for patients not receiving RBV in their telaprevir-based regimen: 24% in the T24P24 arm vs 53% in the T24PR48 arm (Capsule Summary). Similarly, relapse rates were 53% and 13%, respectively. Finally, in the SPRINT-1 study of boceprevir for genotype 1, treatment-naive patients, those receiving low-dose RBV achieved an SVR rate of only 36% vs 50% with standard weight-based RBV dosing, each combined with boceprevir and pegIFN (Capsule Summary). Thus, RBV remains a critical component of these new antiviral regimens.
http://www.clinicaloptions.com/Hepatitis/Annual%20Updates/2011%20Annual%20Update/Modules/DAA%20Naive/Pages/Page%206.aspx
Stopping or reducing the ribavirin on just SOC is never a good ideal, and reducing is only suggested with the PI's if one is UND. One should not stop the Riba while taking one of the PI's... That said one cannot go on at the rate of drop your having without some sort of help. Looking into another doctor seems like a very good ideal... Hang in there.
Comparing the T12PR12 and T12P12 arms that were identical apart from the inclusion or exclusion of RBV, SVR rates were 60% in the arm with RBV and 36% in the arm without RBV. Rates of virologic breakthrough were 1% and 24%, respectively. Similarly, in PROVE 3, which was conducted in patients who had failed previous pegIFN/RBV treatment, SVR rates were 2 times lower for patients not receiving RBV in their telaprevir-based regimen: 24% in the T24P24 arm vs 53% in the T24PR48 arm (Capsule Summary). Similarly, relapse rates were 53% and 13%, respectively. Finally, in the SPRINT-1 study of boceprevir for genotype 1, treatment-naive patients, those receiving low-dose RBV achieved an SVR rate of only 36% vs 50% with standard weight-based RBV dosing, each combined with boceprevir and pegIFN (Capsule Summary). Thus, RBV remains a critical component of these new antiviral regimens.
http://www.clinicaloptions.com/Hepatitis/Annual%20Updates/2011%20Annual%20Update/Modules/DAA%20Naive/Pages/Page%206.aspx
Hi,
My HGB droppd to 7.4 after 13 weeks and I went on Procrit, reduced riba (not Pegasys!) and finally stopped riba for almost 3 weeks. I am now 5 months post tx and still UND, so the elimination of riba for a short time didn't hurt. I was getting to get a transfusion when my HGB started to come back. Your Dr is way off base on this one. You will have to educate him asap. Best of luck - Fred
My HGB droppd to 7.4 after 13 weeks and I went on Procrit, reduced riba (not Pegasys!) and finally stopped riba for almost 3 weeks. I am now 5 months post tx and still UND, so the elimination of riba for a short time didn't hurt. I was getting to get a transfusion when my HGB started to come back. Your Dr is way off base on this one. You will have to educate him asap. Best of luck - Fred
Dr told me to reduce peg to 60% of dose and riba from 1200 to 800 at week 4 due to low hemoglobin. I'm on triple tx and was concerned about loss of effectiveness but saw in the incivek studies that riba reduction had been used to control anemia. I'm now on week 10, und, and my hemoglobin has risen from 8.7 to 11.3. Don't be frightened of failure, if this drug works for you it works incredibly well IMHO. Talk to your doctor and help decide what works best for you.
I agree with Pooh, somethings amiss here and it sounds like it's your doctors.
You should definitely being having weekly cbcs, complete blood counts.
Are you seeing a hepatologist, a specialist in liver disease ? You need someone with experience treating hep C.
The first time I did treatment I saw a GI who wanted me to stop because of low platelets. Instead I switched to a more experienced hepatologist.
You can look at this link for a list of doctors recommended by forum members:
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/Who-is-your-good-doctor-/show/1715783
You should definitely being having weekly cbcs, complete blood counts.
Are you seeing a hepatologist, a specialist in liver disease ? You need someone with experience treating hep C.
The first time I did treatment I saw a GI who wanted me to stop because of low platelets. Instead I switched to a more experienced hepatologist.
You can look at this link for a list of doctors recommended by forum members:
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/Who-is-your-good-doctor-/show/1715783
Where on earth do you live that the hospital thinks it is good news at week two+ of treatment that your hemoglobin is at 8. If your hemoglobin has dropped to 8 in 2 weeks, your doctor needs to get on the ball and treat you.
I am not the expert on this subject, but dropping to 8 in 2 weeks is not good news. What was your starting hemoglobin? Are you on triple medication treatment or are you on just Interferon and Ribavirin?
Here is a thread that discusses anemia and its treatment during Hep C treatment. Read the entire thread because there are some good answers on that thread.
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/Treatment-for-Anemia-Dose-reduction-or-Procrit/show/1731118
You can see that it is Ribavirin reduction that is done first (but the amount is not spelled out). Also, many get Procrit at the same time. The problem is, you are only 2 weeks into treatment, already at 8, and probably not Undetectable yet. I don't know if reducing Riba when one is still detectable will affect SVR rates. Hopefully one of the experts will respond concerning that aspect.
If I were you, I would call your doc Monday morning and ask him/her to get the ball rolling for Procrit. Even if they reduce the Riba, you may need Procrit to keep your hemoglobin up. You may need a transfusion in the meantime.
You should be getting blood counts no less than weekly.
The drugs cause hemolytic anemia so there is nothing you can eat to get that hemoglobin up. It is not iron deficiency anemia. You need Riba reduction, Procrit, and/or transfusion to get it up.
I wish you the best of luck.
I am not the expert on this subject, but dropping to 8 in 2 weeks is not good news. What was your starting hemoglobin? Are you on triple medication treatment or are you on just Interferon and Ribavirin?
Here is a thread that discusses anemia and its treatment during Hep C treatment. Read the entire thread because there are some good answers on that thread.
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/Treatment-for-Anemia-Dose-reduction-or-Procrit/show/1731118
You can see that it is Ribavirin reduction that is done first (but the amount is not spelled out). Also, many get Procrit at the same time. The problem is, you are only 2 weeks into treatment, already at 8, and probably not Undetectable yet. I don't know if reducing Riba when one is still detectable will affect SVR rates. Hopefully one of the experts will respond concerning that aspect.
If I were you, I would call your doc Monday morning and ask him/her to get the ball rolling for Procrit. Even if they reduce the Riba, you may need Procrit to keep your hemoglobin up. You may need a transfusion in the meantime.
You should be getting blood counts no less than weekly.
The drugs cause hemolytic anemia so there is nothing you can eat to get that hemoglobin up. It is not iron deficiency anemia. You need Riba reduction, Procrit, and/or transfusion to get it up.
I wish you the best of luck.
Pls hang on there and talk to your MD although it seems that each MD is doing their own thing. I think that nobody should be left to fall till their HG is so low. I was that low too and felt horrible. My MD would not listen I kept insisting on starting Procrit which he finally ordered .Meanwhile I felt worse and worse while waitingfor the Procrit to work. Depends on you but I would go for transfusion while you wait for Procrit. That way you will feel better fast and don't have to cut Peg.Good luck, most of these doctors have no idea how we feel and that we also have a life.Be assertive,do notgive up..,get better.
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