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Hi all,
I haven’t posted here for several months. My teenage niece is already 10 months since ATG, and had just marginal improvement at around 5 month post and has recently declined back to pre-treatment level. I understand one has to be patient when facing AA. In the past 10 months, I kept reminding myself that ATG may take as long as 9 months to a year to work and so tried to stay positive. But now, seeing a downward trend, we have already given up our hope in this treatment. Her doctor also said it is unlikely she will improve further. My niece’s counts recently hovered around 20k+ for PLT, HGB 7 – 8, ANC around 1. My niece has been on cyclosporine of 200 mg per day (100 mg twice per day) since Aug last year and has started tapering in late April from 100 mg twice per day to 75 mg twice per day (i.e. 25% reduction). Doctor’s original plan is to reduce 25 % every 3 weeks, but as her counts are on downward trend, doctor hold the taper and her current dosage still remains at 75 mg twice per day. Doctor mentioned adding steroid if counts further deteriorate. He has also mentioned repeating ATG later. We hope but wonder whether repeating ATG will help, given her minimal response for the 1st time. We also wonder if steroid could help as my niece had tried steroid before ATG treatment.
Would appreciate any advice/views or sharing. Any body has similar experience as my niece? We are stuck now and feel rather helpless.
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