Question about low blood counts.

[Guest Deanna]

Hello, all. My dad is having to miss another week of chemo and radiation due to extremely low blood counts. His WBC are 0.7, his platelets are at 12,000, his RBC are at 3.28. Has anyone experienced this before? If so how long did it last and what method was used to bring your counts back up? Should we be very concerned? Thank you for your time!!!!

[Cindy RN]

Yes those are low. He needs to be on one of the meds to help the wbc increase and he could be on ptocrit for the rbc. He also needs to STAY away from anyone sick. His immune system is low right now. Check with his Dr about those meds. they are injections that can be given at the Dr office.

Love Cindy

[Mr Ry]

Deanna,

I when had low counts I gave my self injections at home. The one drug was procrit. I can not remember the drug I used for the red count. I hate needles. I can not even watch people on TV get shots. It is amazing the things you can do to save your life. It is not really to hard at all. I used very fine needles that do not hurt. Call your doctor if he gets any fever at all. I did not and ended up in the hospital for four days. Later tonight I'll ask Ry what that drug was I used for increasing red blood cells.

[bluebayou]

Deanna,

Doctor proscribed neupegen for low white blood count and eprex (epoetin alfa ) for low red blood cells. Hope it helps

God Bless us All

Francine

[Andrea]

Deanna,

My mom had all of that too. She got shots to help. She also had a blood transfusion. And with low platelets, hers went really low, like 5, she was told to be careful even brushing her teeth and no flossing b.c you bleed easily. However, these effects are so common, nothing to worry about. They will give some booster shots, get the #s back up and get going again

I am laughing at myself right now, I can tell you this is normal until I am blue in the face and it really is, but if you were like I were, you won't believe it until the #s are back up and chemo is flowing again. It is sooooo scary while going through it. I used to e-mail people each time and say "toxins are flowing"

Her #s always stabalized and they were able to do chemo. However, she went every week for blood check and sometimes every few days and got the shots, etc.

[TAnn]

Deanna,

I am also one who suffers from very low blood counts while on chemo. During my first round of chemo, taxol/carbo, I received aranesp shots for the red blood cells. It is like procrit, however you don't have to give yourself the shot everyday. You get it once every two weeks. They usually postponed my chemo until my white counts came back up. However, during my second round of chemo, taxotere with ZD-6474, my counts went so low, (wbc 0.07) they put me in the hospital and gave me nupogen shots daily. This worked great, however it caused some very bad deep bone pain for a few hours.

Hope this helps!

TAnn

[chloesmom]

I also had low blood counts during chemo. It's a common thing with certain chemo drugs and mine were good for lowering my platelets. My hemoglobin was also low from time to time, and I remember that I couldn't get the gemzar three weeks in a row like the original plan but only two weeks and then I had to take a week off to build up my counts.

They gave me Arensep shots every other week, which took care of all that. It's common, the onc's office should be monitoring that and treating it--they see this all the time.

This is also a time to eat healthy, healthy, healthy--lots of protein and fruits and vegetables and dairy if at all possible. That all helps bring the counts up, plus lots of water and plenty of rest.

A little exercise to work up an appetite doesn't hurt either, but other than taking short walks I couldn't handle that during chemo.