randired Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 my mom is on a chemo regiment. Its actually not gemzar (according to my father) but its her first round and its a carbo platinum and something else (she has had 3 treatments). This past treatment has had her in bed for 3 whole weeks. She has low hemoglobin and is going for a transfusuion tomorrow of 2-3 units. I have been seeing that transfusions are common with chemo, but is it normal for your hemeglobin to continuously go down and down? her numbers are around 6 now..and the doc said it was a lot lower than last week. is this normal? also, i have the same blood type as my mom. should i offer to give blood for her? i have never given blood before (severe fear of needles) but anything to help, know what i mean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ry Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 Unfortunately chemo takes the good cells with the bad. Most people will get a drop in their counts and get shots to raise either the white or red counts (like Procrit). She should ask about the shots. She should not be in bed for 3 weeks from chemo. There will be fatique but that is extreme. I would say yes, donate blood for your mom if they will let you do a directed donation. That would be nice. I wish your mom the best. Let us know how she does after the transfusion. Most people feel a lot better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrea Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 My mom's hemoglobin went up and down too. Sometimes she had to get shots, she also had transfusions. It apparently is very n ormal and the reason they keep testing the blood when on chemo. Keep us posted with how she is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimblanchard Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 The meds she is on may be carboplatin and taxol, they use them together a lot. That is what my husband is on right now. When he was on Taxotere and again now with this, his Hemoglobin dropped and he had a Procrit shot. Any time it got below 12, the doctor ordered a shot. Low normal starts at 13something. She might be having a transfusion since it is all the way down to 6. Just a thought - he doesn't do the whole dose every three weeks. He takes part of a dose each week for three weeks, so it isn't as hard on his system. It's the best we can do right now. A divided dose might be an option for her if the chemo is too hard on her. Full strength is probably better though. Donating blood is a nice thing to do but in my opinion, it is a gesture - but a very nice gesture. You wouldn't be obliged to do it unless she had some rare type. As an altermative, you could bake them a pie, if you know what I mean. I feel for you, Randi. I really understand some of the things that you post about. Margaret Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randired Posted January 11, 2005 Author Share Posted January 11, 2005 mom has had one shot for the white blood count a week after chemo and so far she had 3 shots for the hemoglobin. She does have a great doctor and she is ontop of all this. I think she has been in bed because of the hemoglobin, but also, my mom is very depressed and refuses to 'try' so that all contributes to her feeling so lousy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted January 11, 2005 Share Posted January 11, 2005 my mom is on a chemo regiment. Its actually not gemzar (according to my father) but its her first round and its a carbo platinum and something else (she has had 3 treatments). This past treatment has had her in bed for 3 whole weeks. She has low hemoglobin and is going for a transfusuion tomorrow of 2-3 units.I have been seeing that transfusions are common with chemo, but is it normal for your hemeglobin to continuously go down and down? her numbers are around 6 now..and the doc said it was a lot lower than last week. is this normal? quote] /////////////////////// IMO once the blood values tank the only way to get the RBCs, hemoglobin, hematocrit, etc. up pronto is via blood transfusions. IMO Procrit helps but it doesn't live up to the hype. My wife has been on weekly Procrit ( currently 60K units ) since starting chemo ( Gemzar / Carboplatin ) in June. Her weekly hematology results have been good enough to continue chemo but not by much. Saturday's CBC results were the worst to date. Her CBC #s aren't low enough to warrant a blood transfusion but it won't surprise me if her oncologist suspends chemo when he sees these results. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treebywater Posted January 11, 2005 Share Posted January 11, 2005 I don't know much about the technical stuff... but I can tell you about giving blood. It's really NOT as scary as it sounds at first. I was terrified to do it until I was in college, and then somebody drug me to a drive and I found out it was really no big deal. Actually the part that hurts the most is the little prick they do on your finger to check your iron levels (and it's really not that bad). I always brought along someone to hold my hand and keep my attention elsewhere when I was first getting used to the idea of donating. Then I graduated to bringing "happy places." Yes, I would actually bring in little pictures to look at during the parts I didn't want to think about or look at. And now, I just bring a book to read. So... give it a try. You might find it's not as scary as you think. And what a gift that would be for your mom!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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