Daily transfusions

[GoingOcean]

Hi all -

Steve is now on daily platelets and whole blood transfusions - also tested positive for bacteria in his blood and chest scan shows pneumonia again - currently getting the antibiotics MEROPENEM and Synercid (the Synercid is for VRE reactivation due to the MEROPENEM).

He ran a fever last night/early morning of 102, but it's back down this morning.

Has anyone on the boards ever had to have daily transfusions?

Steve is having another bone marrow biopsy tomorrow, if he's at 10% blasts or less, we're going for the bmt as there's a 10/10 mud that's been waiting till this last round of chemo results.

Any input is appreciated.

Kat

[Birgitta-A]

Hi Kat,
It is not uncommon to get platelets very often because they don't last many days. Daily blood txs are not common but now it is important that Steve has less than 10% blast cells - as you wrote - so he can get the SCT. We hope that he can fight the infections!
Kind regards
Birgitta-A

[GoingOcean]

Thanks, Birgitta-A!

He's holding his own so far - I've been doing a lot of reading and I'm not finding any information about daily blood transfusions, so I'd guess you're right it's not a common occurrence.

The BMB is tomorrow afternoon, but Doc told us this morning that even if we're at the right blast count, the bmt/sct is 4 weeks out because of all the testing - I'm even more concerned now than I was because I'm not convinced we HAVE 4 weeks.

This is really freaking me out.

Kat

[Hopeful]

Hi Kat,

Fevers will burn through platelets and RBCs. For example, after ATG, patients will spike high fevers and require daily transfusions. When the fevers subside, so do the heavy transfusion requirements.

Does he see a bump in his platelet count after a transfusion?

Is he getting HLA matched blood products?