Rallying after a phlebotomy

[Ryan Jay]

Hi everyone,

So things have continues to go well for me exactly one year post ATG!

I have gone from using a chelator to phlebotomies in order to chip away at my iron levels. Fine with me because I HATE desferral!!! 8 hours in the hospital every Friday, my pee looks like it was stained with an orange highlighter and all the other effects...yuck.

Anyway, I've gone from 3,800 SF down to 1,600. However my counts drop after a phlebotomy and tend to stay down for a while.

For example, I was at an all time high in mid July: HGB: 12.4, Plt: 103, WBC: 4.2, ANC: 3,000.

Had a phlebotomy about 2 1/2 weeks ago and today my counts were: HGB: 11.7, Plt: 90, WBC: 3.5, ANC: 2,200.

Does this sound typical? I was expecting my counts to pop back up again.

In any case, those phlebotomies really help knock out that iron by 100+ points a shot.

[Neil Cuadra]

Ryan Jay,

I'm glad to hear things are still going well.

I wouldn't worry about counts bouncing back in a couple of weeks as long as they bounce back within a month or two.

It takes me 2 months to get back to normal after a blood donation and I haven't been through what you have!

[Marlene]

John too had a problem with full phlebotomies. Monthly, 500 ml phlebotomies were too much for his bone marrow. Each month, it would take longer to get back up to his starting HGB to the point he had to stop. He now does every other month and only gets 250 ml removed. His HGB is around 12 and as long as it doesn't drop below 10, they'll remove blood from him.

So it's not unusual for those with BM disorder to take longer to restore red cells. You may have to find your threshold. Maybe it's 500 ml or less every other month.