Re: WHAT??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

[Guest guest]

Sonya

Why the push for a transfusion? why not more iron and

a month? and sorry but...

Sorry but not sure why you are in such a panic about

the transfusions. They sure as hell beat the anemia.

I had four transfusions since the mess started to go

really sour. I had 12 units of blood that means 12

people gave me blood plus four units of pooled blood

supplies which means six to 12 people per unit.

And if I had to do it again I'd have been more

insistant about getting blood every time my hemo

dropped below 8.0. As it was I was asked to wait

until my hemo was around 6.3 or lower.

Yeah I wasn't happy about the transfusions and tried

to hold out in the begining but the truth is that that

was a mistake. My muscles were so weak from a lack of

oxygen I paid for months.

At 8.6 I was still working (I worked until my hemo was

under 7.0)and only had a small shortness of breathe

and some ringing in the ears and heartbeat in the

ears. I was tired but moving. I went into the second

myo only one point above that. And I gained that with

iron pills. I was never able to gain more than one

hemo point a month due to the volume of blood I was

losing but you said you had a month. You should have

time to get closer to where they want you.

As for the medications to build hemo levels. My

insurance would NOT cover it even at a hemo of 6.3.

And the medication was 2000 plus dollars. I had a

script for it and no way to pay for it. I stood a

Walgreens and cried when they told me. Procrit is one

but there is another. Now if you are inpatient many

insurances will cover it. But they are not as useful

if you have iron poor anemia rather than anemia caused

by other causes. My insurance company when faced with

my demand for the medicine or a transfusion opted to

hospitalize me for three days and pump in two units of

something for clotting and four units of blood.

Good Luck

e

--- sonya jennings sljcsu@...> wrote:

> hey guys...as if its not bad enough that my doctor

> wants me to get a transfusion to get my blood count

> up...I asked her were ther other options. She did

> say that there is an option where they give some

> shots or something normally to cancer patients that

> areon chem????? DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHAT THIS DOCTOR

> IS TALIKG ABOUT..IM STARTING TO RE-THINK THIS

> FIBROID ISSUE..I'VE BEEN DEALING WITH THEM FOR

> 17YEARS..IM WONDERING IF I CAN DEAL WITH THEM ABOUT

> 17 MORE!!!

[Guest guest]

Hi,

There are many kinds of anemia (including chemo related anemia) and their

treatments are different.

Here we talk about iron deficiency anemia. The shots you can take for this are

iron shots to increase your iron levels quicker. Areon and procrit are for chemo

related anemia, NOT iron deficient anemia. Areon and procrit help build red

blood cells after chemo. Iron is needed to build red blood cells, see a problem

here? These drugs are not for iron related anemia. If you get your iron counts

up then you can build your own red blood cells up.

For iron deficient anemia you can take iron supplements (Slow FE iron), iron

shots, iron infusion, transfusion and eat iron rich foods. But if you are

severely anemic diet alone will not work. A transfusion will of course have red

blood cells with iron.

Maybe You need to tell your doc what YOU want. Transfusions have risks involved.

My counts were lower than yours and the ER doc thought a transfusion would be

too risky. A transfusion makes more sense if you are just bleeding non stop and

very heavy and could die from sheer loss of blood. But to build your iron counts

up, you might have to ask for a iron shot (not the chemo related anemia drugs)

or iron infusion or prescription iron supplements (stronger than over the

counter pills). You can build low iron counts up without transfusions. You may

want to see a hhematologist

If you are a heavy bleeder (sounds like you are), then bless your heart dealing

with it for 17 years. It's a hard road. Having my myo and ending the heavy

bleeding was the best thing I did. If you can have the fibroids removed after

you get your counts up, go for it. Your other non surgical hope is menopause to

shrink your fibroids.

I'd wonder about a doc talking about procrit or areon for iron related anemia.

I'd give a lot of thought to a transfusion with HIV and hepatitis (kills more

people than AIDS) in the blood supply plus many other bad things. There are a

lot of possible bugs in blood plus windows where they can't test for them.

Try prescription iron pills, iron shots or a iron infusion before you do a

transfusion, unless of course you are bleeding to death. Then you don't have a

choice. But if you have a choice do the least invasive treatments first and I'd

skip the chemo related anemia drugs, they're for a different problem. Ask for

what you want. Your counts can go up fairly quick with iron infusion, iron shots

and prescription iron pills.

Also note that too much iron is bad (it can kill) so keep your blood levels

checked frequently.

Ku

sonya jennings sljcsu@...> wrote:

hey guys...as if its not bad enough that my doctor wants me to get a transfusion

to get my blood count up...I asked her were ther other options. She did say that

there is an option where they give some shots or something normally to cancer

patients that areon chem????? DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHAT THIS DOCTOR IS TALIKG

ABOUT..IM STARTING TO RE-THINK THIS FIBROID ISSUE..I'VE BEEN DEALING WITH THEM

FOR 17YEARS..IM WONDERING IF I CAN DEAL WITH THEM ABOUT 17 MORE!!!

[Guest guest]

I think your doctor is talking about Procrit (erythopoetin or " epo " )

> hey guys...as if its not bad enough that my doctor wants me to get

a transfusion to get my blood count up...I asked her were ther other

options. She did say that there is an option where they give some

shots or something normally to cancer patients that areon chem?????

DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHAT THIS DOCTOR IS TALIKG ABOUT..IM STARTING TO RE-

THINK THIS FIBROID ISSUE..I'VE BEEN DEALING WITH THEM FOR 17YEARS..IM

WONDERING IF I CAN DEAL WITH THEM ABOUT 17 MORE!!!