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Hi Helen,
John is in a stable, partial remission from SAA. He did High Dose Cytoxan at Johns Hopkins in 2002. He had well over 200 units of Red cells so his iron was real high. He's done Desferral.....never got to a full dose and had lots of nausea and bruising from the needles. He also did phlebotomies for a while but that got to be to taxing for his bone marrow. So now he's on Exjade, 750 mg. His doc at Hopkins told him that for the first few months on Exjade, he wanted a cbc and chem panel done weekly to monitor white cells, liver function and kidneys. I hear of so many patients starting off at the "standard dose" from the start and don't have a follow up with their doc for one to three months. Exjade is too new and combined with the other drugs people are on, you just don't know it's effect. I bevieve it's wise to proceed slowly.
The other thing that enters into it is how well your liver detoxification processes work. And that process is never assessed. If you know up front, then you can tailor dosages better. Genetically, there can be differences which impact the efficiency of the liver. Also age should be taken into consideration. Some people can handle drugs better than others and clear them from their system quicker.
Marlene
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