Questions for Susafina and Ro10

Friends,

Susafina, you mentioned your medical team advised you not to ride stationary bike with platelet count below 50,000. That is interesting. My oncologist's nurse said it was ok, but I kind of wondered if maybe that is too much activity and if I should stop. I do 30 minutes on the lowest setting. Did you team mention why not to do below 50,000? Is it just too much activity? The mention of wearing only looser clothes was good too.

It's harder to get out towalk now because it is getting quite cold temperature wise now in my area.

Ro10, you mentioned you used to give platelet transfusions as a nurse. Please provide more info. Are they pretty common for chemo patients? Is it true the benefits only last a few days and that is why they wait for platelets to drop to 10,000 to give? Are there any risks involved? I thought I read on the board that someone here had a bad allergic reaction to a platelet transfusion. My team waits until 10,000 to transfuse.....is that the same number your center had used? It seems awfully low to me as well. I am not sure why they don't do at 20,000. My oncologist's nurse was alittle bit snappy with me she mentioned about the daily bloodtests and that they would make a determination after each test. I said do you mean to transfuse, and she said "I told you we don't transfuse until 10,000."

I had some hemaglobin transfusions after surgery and didn't feel a thing, it was just this one I had last week that really hurt. Why do you think it would hurt? Could it be veins are sensitive from 6 rounds of chemo, or do you think it was set at to high of a speed going in?

I am really nervous because all of my counts are low and unusual as they start to recover alittle and then drop again, they go up, down down, etc. But the platelets are really bad for that. Before my 6th chemo on Nov 2 I had 118,000 platelets and now as of yesterday Nov 20 I had only 25,000. Even my team mentioned that normally once start going up stay going up but in rare cases like me, that is not the case.

Hugs,

Cindy