Posted 9/20/2007 10:01 AM (GMT -7)
hi all! unfortunately things continued to worsen for me since my last email in regards to my blood work and i had to go in for another blood transfusion yesterday. i got all but 10 cc's of 2 units of blood. i spiked a fever of 101.1 so they discontinued the transfusion. it is normal for your temperature to go up, but not to that level. they gave me tylenol and held me until my temperature came down. i felt it truly break last night when i was sleeping as i woke in the middle of the night covered in sweat. aside from being a little tired still, i feel good this morning.
to get a better idea of how quick of a turn around i had, here are the results of my blood work from the last month:
August 14 September 4 September 14
hemoglobin 10.3 8.9 8.6
hematochrit 31 28.6 27.1
WBC 4.9 3.2 2.0
RBC 3.62 3.57 3.54
so even my GI doc is confused about this. i am still waiting for authorization from the HMO to see a hematologist. perhaps this doctor can provide some answers. kinda odd how all my numbers dropped rather dramatically in 4 weeks time except the reds. makes me wonder if being on 6-mp (purinethol) for so long (since 1995) has something to do with it seeing how it is a cancer drug. probably not the best idea to be on it long term. at least i've cut the dosage in half since this anemia problem first appeared in june of this year. or perhaps it is from long term use of remicade as well? i began taking that drug soon after it became available and only stopped taking it in december 2006 after i felt it was losing its potency and it seemed i no longer needed it since the benefits of the makers' diet was kicking in. it has only recently been released that one should not take a drug such as 6-mp concurrently with remicade due to adverse side effects. whoops. hopefully my bone marrow is not screwed up from this stuff. but then this could be doomsday thinking - who really knows what is going on and why did it start now? at least i am still feeling fine in regards to crohn's. hopefully worst case scenario is i get weekly iron infusions and b-12 shots for a while.
oh yeah, when you are anemic your b-12 levels are normally low too. i that test added to my standing order so on september 14 they were reported at 332. my GI doc told me normal is between 211 and 911. that is a huge range. i also found out that in europe the range is between 400 and 1000. so here i am considered normal but in europe i'd be considered low. well, good thing i started taking a b-12 supplement like 3 weeks ago which was prompted by my own research into vitamins.
so far i havent been to work this week. i was fine until late sunday night when it hit me all of a sudden and i knew i was in trouble. but with this latest blood transfusion perhaps i will feel up to it tomorrow. just been feeling really really fatigued these last few days.