I had my monthly appointment with hematologist today. My hemoglobin was 7.4 so I am scheduled for another blood transfusion on Friday. Since it seems like this may be a biweekly thing, we agreed that the threshold for transfusions would be raised to 9 rather than 8. This in effect will keep my hgb between 8 and 10, rather than 7 and 9. Like it doesn't cost any more to keep your gas tank full rather than empty, except in this case I will have more power.
My platelets were down to 186 from 397 two weeks ago. Factor 2 relative to blood clotting was down to 13 from 17. My blood pressure was higher as well. Summary, we are making a change in medications, cutting AG in half (affects platelets and maybe hgb), reduce coumadin (just tonight, affects Factor 2), taper off Prednisone over next two weeks (which did not seem to reduce anemia and may be responsible for high blood pressure) and stop Procrit after 2 weeks. Procrit has not seemed to improve hgb. I will have a blood test in two weeks and check with Dr.
We discussed the possibility of a BMT further. Dr feels that it is still not warranted yet; the risk is too high versus complications of continued blood transfusions. My spleen seems to have increased in size from cleaning up RBCs and my ferritin (iron) levels are going up as well. I may need some iron chelation treatment which is now available as another pill instead of a blood filtration process.
I am a little disappointed since I thought a BMT might be the magic pill to cure this, but with my age and blood clotting problems, the risk is elevated. There are also BMT complications of Graft versus Host Disease (GVHD) that could take several years to clear up. But it is certainly good to have an option if the blood counts drop even more.
Prayers are appreciated.
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