Terri – Vit. K warning

[patti]

Hi Terri,

I’m glad to see that Bob is doing better with his spleen. Praise God! I wanted to share something with you that we discussed with mom’s naturopath today.

Moms been getting platelets every 10-12 days now but she’s continued to take the 18mg of Vit. K daily. My concern was that with her platelets being bumped to 50K – 70K that the K might cause excess clotting. We had mom stop taking her Vit. K for right now. We are going to see how much more bleeding she experiences in the three days prior to a platelet transfusion (when she’s normally below 8K). If there isn’t anything more then there was with the K then she’ll stop the K altogether. If there’s more, then she’s going to take the K after 7 days have passed since the last platelet transfusion.

With Bob’s platelets going up some I wanted to let you know that you (and maybe the nutritionist) should consider if changes are in order.

Hang in there and take care,

patti

[Terri]

Bob only takes one tab A day so far and He also has been taking Potassium they found out in the hospital potassium levels low. If his plts get over the 40’s we will consider dropping the K doseage after discussing with the DR
Thanks for the info

[lynette]

Hi Patti
You might want to consider having a “clotting time” blood test done before altering Vit. K. This test will tell you the time it takes for the person to clot blood. The test is usually done to determine whether or not Vit. K is in order.
Regards,
Lynette

[patti]

Lynette,

Is this a test I can ask the hemo to do with her regular CBC?

We’ve been using Vit. K for a couple of years and mom has never really had petichaie to speak of(literally like 3-4 spots at a time). The doctor always figured it was because of the K because mom’s platelets were certainly low enough that she “should” have been covered. The naturopath didn’t worry about clotting until just recently when she started getting platelet transfusions regularly.

Thanks for the info.

patti

[Terri]

Patti, Our Dr does not tx platelets unless Bob gets down in the 20’s. If you get too many plt tx after a while they stop working. We had more then one Hemotologist tell us this. Thats why They did the radiation for Bob’s spleen to see if this would increase his plts and reduce the bleeds he was having.

[willie]

Patti The clotting time test is to verfy the INR. Dark green vegetables and salads also effect the clotting time. They will shorten the time. That is why those who have had clots need to stick to a regular amount of greens so the amount of coumadin can be stable. The normal range for INR is 0.9-1.2. Willie

[patti]

Hi Terri,

Yep, I know what ya mean about having to be careful with the platelet transfusions. Mom was very discouraged when her platelets dumped. She had maintained 8K platelets for over a year. The picc line procedure she had done did a lot of damage to her body and her platelets dumped to 3000. As best the doctor can tell she was bleeding internally at that point. That started her first platelet transfusion. And, unfortunately, she’s not been able to hold them since. We wait until she hits about 5-6K (depending on what day of the week it is – weekend coming we’re more cautious) and she transfuses. We are making note of which donors she doesn’t have trouble with in case we need to direct donor in the future. It’s good if Bob’s been able to avoid this. I know it’s hard on both mom and our family because platelets don’t last that long and it seems like we’re constantly gone for one thing or another. I’m so glad they’ve been able to get Bob’s spleen to respond. The aspect of bleeding out is a scary one – and one I think of a lot when mom’s low. It keeps me from sleeping on those nights.

So far, Dr.Kou has been right on the money. He told us fixing mom’s red cells would be the easiest and that in fact has been where we’ve seen the biggest improvement. He said whites are next and platelets can take years to be back in the normal range (although he said they can get to 60K-70K and hold for awhile). So, I guess we can’t complain. He’s been right so far. He won’t do acupuncture on mom anymore until her platelets are higher because she tends to bleed like a stuck pig now. She never did that before – even at 8K.

Take care. Keep the faith.

patti

[Terri]

Hi Patti, The bleed thing is scary and I am glad they have gotten Bob’s under control but I worry where will it show up next time. Dr indicated the Brain and gastro are the primary places of bleeding for people with Low plts and this disease. He has had them both, I just pray it does not start up again.
Hope your MIL responds to the plt transfusions.

[Author]

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