low white cell count

[staceyand joe92]

My transplant was Dec 3, 2009. I have been doing well and my creatine has dropped to 1.6 . I have had some hair loss from the meds but nothing major until today. The transplant center called and said my white blood cell count is extremely low and I need to be in isolation at home. They are going to overnight me "Neupogen" injections that I will start tomorrow. What side effects should I expect from the injections? Thanks!

[okarol]

Jenna has the same issue and they lowered her Cellcept to improve the WBC count. She also had neupogen in the hospital to bring it back up, with no side effects. Now her WBC is very low again (2.4) so they have reduced the Cellcept again.

[Romona]

I had the injections in the hospital about 5 months post transplant. My legs ached after the injections. I wondered at the time if it had something to do with bone marrow. They also stopped Valcyte until my count came back up. It didn't take very long. It only took a few days.

[staceyand joe92]

Thanks guys! I talked to the nurse at the transplant center and she said the injections will cause flu-like symptoms because they force your bone marrow to produce more WBC.  They have lowered my Valcyte to every other day...hopefully that will help. I travel to Phoenix on Monday to have more labs and meet with the doc.

[Romona]

I think I was in the hospital 4 days and was back to work the day after discharge. I hope it works quickly for you.

[staceyand joe92]

Labs went well Monday....then Tuesday spiked a fever with a WBC count of 0.2! I was admitted to the hospital for four days. Antibiotics and steroids and I'm feeling much better. Who knew a sinus infection could put you in the hospital? My teenager daughters bring home every sniffle, cough, and sneeze. We are cleaning like crazy and I've bought every hand sanitizer known to man and we wash our hands a thousand times a day. I guess with a WBC count that gets that low it doesn't really matter.