[Marlene]

Platelets were the hardest on John from the second transfusion on. Eventually, his red cells gave him hives but not as bad. I assume your Dad is taking benedryl for the itching. John had to take 25mg for red cells and up to 75 mg for platelets. He would be out of it for a good 24 - 48 hours from it though.

Also, if they ran the platelets in too fast, he would react more. One time he was covered head to toe with hives. They stopped the platelets and had to give him steroids. Once they calmed down, they started up the transfuion at slower rate.

After that episode, he would get hives off and on for no reason. To this day, he gets them when it's cold out and walking, or from friction. So I think that one bag of platelets really set him up with something. He still gets them but they seem to be better now that his own platelets are up to 54K.

He now takes 5mg of Zyrtec for the hives so we can take walks. So talk to your doc about it...you may want to try it post transfusion and see if it helps. It's now available over the counter. Claritin does not work for hives. And zyrtec won't knock you out like benedryl.