[Matthew42]

@ mola-tecta:

My mother's neutrophils have been over 1000 for 6-7 weeks. Today, unfortunately, they dropped to 600. I think it's because she has the Omicron variant. I read that any covid strain will suppress neutrophil counts. It could be the antibiotic acylovir that I put her back on, too. Who knows?

After 16 days after her last blood transfusion, her hemoglobin is back at 7.6 (not too bad; she's usually at 7.0 or below by then). The cut-off for a transfusion for her is 7.7. She had a much steadier decline this time and one rise in between (7.5 to 8.2). Her hemoglobin might shoot back up to around 8.0 tomorrow, but we won't get the luxury of finding out, as we can't test her hemoglobin every day. She will just have to be transfused.

By the way, we were told that aplastic anemic patients can gain or lose a whole point in hemoglobin in a single day. This might not happen really to your mother. But with mine, it is quite frequent. In fact, we've been wondering why my mother's hemoglobin goes up to the low or middle 9's after a transfusion at around 7.0. The reason: she's getting natural rises in her hemoglobin on top of the transfusion. Her hematologist said that 1 unit of blood should only bring you up a around a 1 point or so (if that). We've just discovered last week that her blood has been rising way more frequently that we have been realizing. But, she always ends up dropping back down, of course. So, it looks like her marrow is starting to work very, very slowly in terms of red blood cell production. The ups and downs are way better after a transfusion than a steady decline to below 7.0. We have some improvement for sure. We're almost 8 months out from ATG (neutrophils were holding steady at 1000-1300 for 7 weeks until today). I just hope things her blood and neutrophils stay up. The platelets will probably a while before they start to rise.

About your mother: give her my sincere wishes for good health. And really try to get her off prednisone, if possible. This is your mother's health - not the doctor's.

By the way, my mother only takes:

Cyclosporine: 200 mg/day
Promacta: 150 mg/day

Synthroid and a pill to dissolve gallstones ( I forgot an asthma inhaler)....

Well...I forgot to add that I put her back on Acyclovir because she has Omicron.

That's it!


Health and happiness to you, your mother and everyone else on here.