IGIV has anyone ever heard of this

[Kathy7964]

My Dad has been in the hospital for four weeks now after his first round of Dacogen. He is not responding to Nuepogen and his platelets are 3. They are going to give him the IGIV Immune Globin IV and are also considering blood dialysis. Has anyone ever had this IGIV or gone through blood dialysis. This board has helped with so much information. I am hoping someone may know about this IGIV.

Thanks,
Kathy

[Neil]

Hi Kathy,
Here is a link you can click on for more info.
Think there are lots of questions for the doc

http://www.providence.org/healthlibrary/ contentViewer.aspx?hwid=d01133a1

Type IGIV Immune Globulin in the search box

[sdrake]

Kathy,

My middle son had ITP when he was 2 years old (talk about a scared mom). His platelets got down to 6,000. He was admitted to Children’s Hospital in Omaha, NE and received an IGIV. It took several hours – in fact over night. I really don’t know too much more about it except it was what they felt was the best course of treatment for my son. By the next day his platelets were up to around 20,000. The doctors said typically it is a temporary fix for ITP until the platelets come back on their own. Most often it takes two or more IVIG’s before the platelet recover. We were very fortunate in my son’s case. His platelets continued to rise, were soon in the normal range, and never dropped again.
This information is probably not very helpful in your case, but it brought back a flood of memories for me!

Shari

[Kathy7964]

Thank you both for your info on this. We got a little scared because they told us first they were going to do dialysis and when I got to hospital yesterday and spoke with the nurse she told me that he was going to have this instead. There is so much miscommunication between us and the doctors. My Dad is very quiet and doesn’t complain. My parents both listen to whatever the doctors tell them and don’t question them to much either.

They are going to do another bone marrow biopsy on friday. He just wants to come home. Even though the Dacogen brought his blasts down from 15% to 3% he is considering not taking another round due to infections he got and the long hospital stay. I have to support whatever decision he makes.

Thanks again and take care.

Kathy

[SusanJ]

Kathy,

What kind of infection does your dad have? My dad came home from the hospital last Friday. He has always dealt with gout but now he has tophaceous gout (?) and I don’t think he will ever get rid of it. He has to walk with a walker because he is in so much pain. He is so depressed that he’s not getting better and he cries a lot. It just breaks my heart.

[Bkwits]

Kathy.

My husband had IGIV for low platelets. He had itseveral times, but it didn’t improve his platelets enough to warrant continuing it.

Did your Dad’s kidney’s shut down? Joe had dialysis for kidney failure. The dialysis cleans the blood of the impurities or toxins, which is usually done by the kidneys.

Take care, and hang in there for your dad. My positive thoughts and prayers are going your way.
Barb

[Kathy7964]

Barb & Susan–My Dad had what they never really said for sure but was sweets syndrome. He had these huge sores on both of his thighs and underneath on his upper arms. He also had a high fever for 7 days, was going in and out of delirum for days. He has every kind of doctor for each problem. They said at first he showed some signs of kidney failure (a high level of creatine) but then it went down to normal and his kidneys are fine. He was on huge doses of Prednisone which caused him to swell and they are still giving him antibiotics intravenously. It will be 49 days tomorrow that he has been in the hospital. His wbc’s won’t go higher then 0.6 after almost 2 weeks of neupogen. His platelets won’t go up either so they sent out his blood to find a good donor match and try the IGIV.

I’ve only seen him cry a couple of times and I haven’t missed a day yet of spending time with him at the hospital. He never complains and doesn’t talk to much about his disease. After a couple days of these IGIV IV’S the are going to do another bone marrow biopsy. I guess after the BMB we will know more. It breaks my heart to see him have to suffer like this when he was always so strong. I keep praying but I’m starting to give up hope.

Thank you both for taking the time out to help me with this. My prayers are with both of you.

Kathy

[Russ]

I went through infections and gout a year ago after a few rounds of Vidaza. (The gout – in wrist was diagnosed as pseudogout by a rheumatologist and went away after prednisone and immobilizing my wrist). My blasts shot up to 18% after my BMB on 8/9/06 and went on Dacogen 8/21. It has knocked my WBC and PLTs way down but hoping they will build back up. It’s encouraging to note that Dacogen reduced the blasts. May God Bless you all and sustain you and your loved ones through these trials.

[SusanJ]

Thanks Russ,

I am so depressed today about my dad. He doesn’t want to eat anymore and he just sits with his head in his hands and cries. He is taking Prednisone 4 times a day and up to 8 Colchechine a day for his gout, but nothing is helping. The colchechine is causing diarrhea, and I am wondering if all the medicine is what’s making him feel so bad. I am afraid that he is giving up.

[Kathy7964]

Susan,

They tried to give my Dad something for depression but he wouldn’t take it. Have you thought about that for him? My Dad has been in the hospital for over 40 days now. I honestly don’t know how he is holding up. We really didn’t think he was going to make it through this but somehow he is managing to stay strong–it must be really hard seeing your Dad sad on top of everything else. They did another BMB on him today so we will have the preliminary results tomorrow to see whats going on. The doctor suggested Vidaza for him if the blasts haven’t gone up.

Russ, I’m praying for you too.

Kathy

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