I've been meaning to post for weeks now...finally I'm actually taking the time to do it. It's a good day as well since I just saw my doctor this afternoon.
The good news is that my count is STILL at 10.1!!! It's been since April 8th that I've had my transfusion and it has held since then. I'm SO happy! My retic count is up from basically 0 to 2.4 (which is normal and means that I'm producing red blood cells). My doc is extremely happy. He was hoping for a higher blood count but we'll take what we can get.
I'm handling the steriods pretty well. I'm still on 40mg/day as he thinks it is too soon to start weaning me. I do notice that when I get a little depressed - it can spiral into MAJOR depressed very fast. So I am keeping an eye on myself. I go to my internal medicine doc next week and I'm going to have him run blood glucose, cholesterol and a liver panel on me - just to see where I am. I'm having to urinate A LOT - sign of diabetes - but I'm also drinking tons because of weight watchers.
I've also managed to lose 11lbs!!! My doc is pretty astounded.
Got some good news from Novartis this week: They have submitted "Exjade" for approval by the FDA. This is an oral chelator - used to flush excess iron out of patients that require lots of transfusions. Hopefully will be much less expensive than the subcutaneous Desferal. WhoooHoooo!
Categories: prednisone
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
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