One persons experience, but I went straight to procrit and never reduced tx medications.

But i know from other peoples posting that dose reductions are not uncommon

joe

I wish my doc would have dose reduced first because procrit didn't work for me. and I'm paying $708 for it - my 50% copay. I finally had to stop meds for 10 days and get a bag of blood. hgb went down to 7.4.

wow, that's low!! how did you function?

Remember the movie The Walking Dead.... I starred in it.

what are your hgb numbers at now?

when i went thru the old protocol 5 years ago i got down to 8 and was given a transfusion... now that's fast!! but spendy

My hgb is 11.6 now. But wbc, platelets, all that is messed up now.
platelets are 7.2. pegasys was reduced to 90 mcg, just got the news today to go up to 135. Beats me why. The nurse called me, not the dr. I thought I might be stopping meds again, not increasing the peg.

At 4 weeks my viral load was undetected and I was anemic, at 9.1. Did 8 injections of Procret + they lowered RIBA to 400 MBA. Hemo came up. Never reduced interferon

it's all a crap shoot, isn't it? incivek hasn't been around long enough to have any history... we're all guinea pigs.

my DR has me taking the 600mg riba-1/2 in AM and 1/2 in PM.... and down to 135 on the ribavirin

and also since i have cirrhosis she wants me to go 48 weeks... and that's a shot in the dark too.. oh well... would hate to relapse again

They reduced my doses, then started Procrit. I wish that they had just started the Procrit to begin with. And it is a crap shoot.

does the procrit make you feel better right away?

Yes within a day or two increased energy

My experience and research has been Riba redux first, along with procrit injections are solid.
Some Drs just redux Riba, some don't redux at all.
Some Drs don't offer procrit at all. I believe that is inhumane, but that's just my opinion.
When rbc goes to below 8.5, Riba use is halted for up to,
but no more than 14 days; in an effort to naturally bring you up.
If rbc goes up to 8.5, then you can restart Riba.

I went from rbc 14.6 at baseline to mid 9's in 3 weeks trp tx incivek.
1200 Riba to 600 Riba, then 6 wks later 800 Riba, 3 wks later 1000. Have not gone back to 1200.
Never reduced Inf for anemia, but did redux to 135 from 180 for physical reasons at week 40? Or so.

Call the hotlines and see what the RN's have to say.
Feel better....and stand up for what you need.
You hire the Dr, he works for you.... Something to remember......=)

My HGB got down to 9.1, and my doc cut my Ribavirin from 6 per day down to 5 (1200mg to 1000mg), and started me on Procrit. That got my HGB back up into the 10+ range, where it stayed, so we stayed at that dosing until I was done.

Sorry, Procrit takes 2-3 weeks to kick in, so it's doesn't make you feel better right away; but once it does kick in you'll be good for a while.

I started with a 15.3 base and within a week was down to 10.2. Doc reduced my Riba from 1000 to 400 since I cannot have Procrit because of having breast cancer last year. He stayed with 400 Riba for 1 month and my numbers kept coming up, so he upped it to 600 and he says that 600 seems to be the magic number, so I'll be staying there for the duration. No reduction in Interferon. I'm still at 180, but I also have a preloaded shot which would make it impossible to reduce without a new script. Now I hover between 10 7 and12.2. Why is flucuates like that, I don't know.

I know why I can't have Procrit, because hormones fed my tumor and Procrit stimulates your hormones. I think some doctors are afraid to give that to post menapausal women for that reason. 1 in 8 PM women will get breast cancer.

Hang tough jamama!
Love,
Kelly

hey kelly, glad to hear she's on track.. we're doing 600 a day... and there are markings on the syringe so you can just inject to the number.. we're trying 135 for now... hope it brings my numbers back up... i'm sick and tired of feeling sick and tired!! have a great day