After getting 93 units of packed red blood cells over 2+ years, the ferritin (iron) level in my body increased to unhealthy levels. The Dr has finally decided to address this and ordered phlebotomies every two weeks for the near future. We are not sure how long that will be seeing how long it was accumulating. I had my first one this morning. It is just like giving blood, except that they have to discard it. Seems like a paraphrase of an old joke is appropriate: It is better to have a lateral phlebotomy than a frontal lobotomy. (The original joke referred to a "bottle in front of me".
Interestingly, my phlebotomy was in the Apherisis lab where my brother donated his stem cells last May. In fact, I sat in the same chair next to the machine which filtered stem cells out of his blood over two days. It will be a full year on May 9th since that grand contribution to extending my life on this earth.
I also saw the Dr on Tuesday. My INR was down within range so my current level of warfarin will continue (2.5mg on Monday and 1.25mg every other day. Also I will continue my taper of prednisone (now 40mg per day tapering to 40mg every other day over the next month). My next Dr appt is on April 22nd though I will have another INR test on April 9 and another phlebotomy on April 10.
1 comment:
It seems ironic that you needed transfusions to stay alive and now your are having blood taken out to stay at a healthy iron level. We continue to pray for you that your health will continue to improve.
Your little sister
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