I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: Home Dialysis => Topic started by: Atooraya on May 21, 2012, 06:40:07 PM
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Once the Epo shot is administered, how long before an individual sees the benefit?
Is it a matter of hours or days?
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I was actually told two weeks.
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1 to 2 weeks. And you have to make sure you're having your levels checked, sometimes you have to adjust the dose to maintain the proper amount in the blood and prevent anemia.
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It does take a couple of weeks to kick in. My center called me yesterday and told me to hold off on any more shots, I guess my Hgb levels are up high enough for them to hold me for a bit. I need to discuss it with my Neph at clinic next week. Oh joy!
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Thanks for the feedback, all.
Too bad it takes so long to kick in. I want it to work right away. Lol
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I hear ya, Atooraya! It would be nice if it were an instant fix, wouldnt it? Make sure your iron levels are where they should be also!! If your iron levels are not, then all the EPO in the world will not do you a bit of good without the iron. Please ask about your iron levels too. They both work hand in hand.
God Bless,
lmunchkin :kickstart;
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Yup. My iron levels are always low. So I have to take iron supplements daily. Grrrrr, constipation....
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If they are real low, they should offer IV iron. It takes about 15min or more to give, depending on the dose recommended. And if they do offer IV iron, please make sure they give you the whole dose.
lmunchkin
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I have had Epogen (Procrit) once a week for over a year now and still occasionally have to have the IV Iron administered over a 4 week period.
I can tell you when I started on it, it took about 2 weeks for me to really feel the difference.
Best of luck to you Atooraya!
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Thanks for the good wishes Kammie.
My epo dosage is 2000 units/ 2 weeks. Is that similar to yours?
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"15 minutes....." ha, it take them more time than that just to get a needle in me for the iron. With a little luck they get it on the second try. Once they called in a guy from the hemo side of the clinic to do me. Ya, 'm a hard stick!
:boxing;
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Atooraya..My dosage of Procrit has always been 3000 units until this past week. Clinic called and said it was low so they wanted me to 'up' dosage to 4000 units!
Also, I do this once a week.
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I'm on 1,000 units weekly and also taking iron supplement. Every so often the clinic will boost the iron with a IV push.
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Saw my Neph for monthly clinic today. My Hgb is up to 12.5 so they want me to hold off on epo for a bit to see what happens. Here's the fun part, I have 2 full vials of epogen in my fridge that I'm not going to use anytime soon...
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Joe - I'll take them off your hands....
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Saw my Neph for monthly clinic today. My Hgb is up to 12.5 so they want me to hold off on epo for a bit to see what happens. Here's the fun part, I have 2 full vials of epogen in my fridge that I'm not going to use anytime soon...
Joe - I'll take them off your hands....
Joe those numbers go up & down all the time. They will have you taking Epo again, trust me. Love you Grumpy, but no "candy" today! Sorry my friend! Lol
lmunchkin :kickstart;
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Keeping the Hgb between 11 and 12 is bullshit. For guys normal level is 13. However they wont give me enough epo to bring me to 13 because some cancer patients had a bad reaction to it. Grrrrrrrr
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lilmunch, I'm sure I'll be back on it again but it's good to have numbers back in the semi-normal range for a bit.
Grumpy-1, sorry but they do make me turn in all my vials, empty or not.
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Atooraya is right for an average size man, 13 is a good number. BUT because of some Dr and clinic over doing it and prescription more that is needed just to make $... The FED decided to decrease the norm. While I didn't have to fight too much with my Dr to get mine up to 12, I did have to put up a good reasoning. I'm now at 11.8 and I hope it will climb to 12 by the next lab. Grumpy