Question About Blood Counts

[sugarwhale]

Dear Forum Friends,
My mom has MDS, as you know. Usually transfusions last her for about 3 weeks. After just two weeks, her Hemoglobin went from 8.4 to 6.8. So, she just got another transfusion. She’s OK for now. My questions is why the blood count diminished more rapidly than usual. Of course, I know that it could be the disease.
However, two things could have happened to aggravate my mom’s condition. First, she has been on penicillin for 6 days because she had root canal work. Secondly, she had a great deal of stress this week.
My question is could the round of penicillin have caused some of the drop in hemoglobin and RED blood cells (I understand the elevation in the white cells)? Could the stress have caused this?
I don’t know what I’d do without friends like I have here! Thank you, all of you, in advance.
~~~ Janet

[Suzanne]

I don’t know about the penicillin question but I beieve I remember being told that some pints of blood are “richer” then others. And that every once in a while you might get one that doesn’t have as many packed red cells as usual

[Neil]

Hi Janet,
Penicillin and stress both can have an impact on cell counts. Did her platelet count dip also. If they did would tend to think it was one or the other or both.
Counts tend to move around a bit and return to a point below where they were to begin with. At least this has been my experience. But having a HGB of 6.8 is a bit of an eye opener. Hope they will be checking her counts frequently till they get a handle om what is going on.

[CarolineG]

Janet.

I don’t know the answer for sure but in my Dad’s case 2 weeks ago when he was hospitalized, he had kidney infection and had to go on several antibiotics…one of them was a form of pennicillin. All of his blood counts went out of whack. We were told that the infection + the antibiotics + the stress of it all was what knocked everything off. Once he came home and the infection was taken care of his blood counts went back to more or less normal for him. During the height of the infection, his Creatinine went to 650 and Potassium went to 6.0. This meant certain Dialysis. One week later his Creatinine is down to 300 which is normal for him (it is still way too high but in Dad is sits at around 300 all the time) and his Potassium dropped to the low end of normal. His Hemoglobin dropped as well but came back up again on its own and with the help of Eprex. He did lose quite a bit of weight and he is now Anemic because of all the blood loss but he has been given Maternity Iron Pills to help him along for awhile until he regains his strength.

Perhaps the doctor should watch your Mom’s heart since her hemoglobin came down to 68. Our Oncologist said that we need to be careful not to let Dad’s hemoglobin drop down too far or too quickly or he could suffer a heart attack. This is where age goes against the person. Dad is 79 and since all of his organs are getting a bit worn out, the doctor wants to be extra careful not to stress any of them suddenly.

I hope this helps a bit. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t wish that I was a Doctor. It would be so much more comforting to already know all of the answers so I could be a better help.

Blessings,
Caroline

[eve]

did they rule out any internal bleeding –

eve

[sugarwhale]

Dear Suzanne, Neil, Caroline and Eve,
I just read all your replies to my mom. You all made her feel so much better (which, I might add, takes away a bit of her stress!). We were both surprised that one could occasionally get blood that wasn’t as “rich” as it should be. Also, penicillin makes my mom feel lousy. I know how it feels, because it makes ME feel the same way. Anyhow, you all made her feel better, and I thank all of you with all my heart. You all have your own problems (which are humdingers!), yet you stopped everything to help us! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
~~~ Janet

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