Anemia- having lots of transfusions

[orphans_mom]

I was wondering - My husband has rec'd 35 units of blood since June 7th. His kidneys stopped working on 8/12 due to an MI and a fever of 105.5 besides various infections. Since acute failure he has not been able to go more than 21 days without getting 2 units.
IS THIS NORMAL? He is getting the meds so his bone marrow will produce more red blood sells.

[angela515]

Wow... I hope your husband wasn't wanting a transplant in the future, I can only imagine what is PRA is now with that many transfusion and more to come.

Is he taking Epogen?

[lola]

I know when Otto had 0% function he had to have transfusions because his body just couldn't make enough blood for him even with Epo shot's. That's why now we are having a hard time finding him a donor thanks to high PRA's.

[angela515]

I know when Otto had 0% function he had to have transfusions because his body just couldn't make enough blood for him even with Epo shot's. That's why now we are having a hard time finding him a donor thanks to high PRA's.

Thanks for sharing that information. I did not know that.

[orphans_mom]

Yes Jim is taking the Epo shots. Prior to the shots "working" he was getting blood every 7-9 days. The dialysis center told me it would be very difficult to find a donor since he has received so much blood. Thank you for answering my post. Being so new to the situation I did not know if this was normal or another strange occurance in his health problems.

[livecam]

It does seem unusual for a patient to get so many transfusions but Epogen and Procrit don't always work the same or in the same time frame for every patient.  I received two units of blood over two days when I begain back in 1999 but never had a transfusion before or since.  As his hemoglobin levels rise there will be less of a need for transfusions and they should be able to be stopped.  With the two units of blood I received there were no PRA issues that I'm aware of.

[willieandwinnie]

orphans_mom

My husband had many blood transfusion in 2001 and it took him 5 years to get on the transplant list because he had an open abdominal wound. He didn't have any PRA problems that I was informed about.

willieandwinnie

[orphans_mom]

More news. Hemo is down to 8.4. they have increased the dose of Epo shots in hope to not have to transfuse again. Its been 28 days since the last transfusion.