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anemia and transfusions

LaCh
LaCh CSN Member Posts: 557
in Anal Cancer #1

hHmoglobin is 8.7.  Feel like crap.  For those who have received blood transfusions, how low did your hemoglobin go before they transfused you?

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  • RoseC
    RoseC CSN Member Posts: 559
    #2
    My doctors used the

    My doctors used the hematocrit as the ruler. If the hematocrit was less than 25, it was time for a transfusion. Not sure how hematocrit relates to hemoglobin...

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  • LaCh
    LaCh CSN Member Posts: 557
    #3
    RoseC said:

    My doctors used the

    My doctors used the hematocrit as the ruler. If the hematocrit was less than 25, it was time for a transfusion. Not sure how hematocrit relates to hemoglobin...

    RoseC...transfusions

    Hemoglobin is the protein in the red blood cells that carry oxygen, hematocrit is the percentge of red blood cells to total blood volume (with other cells and blood plasma).  My hematocrit is 26.6 and I'm only at the end of week 3 (but not even really that either because of Christmas and New Years).  I can't imagine the levels not continuing to drop and the necessity of a transfusion at some point (soon).  Thanks for the info RoseC

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  • eihtak
    eihtak CSN Member Posts: 1,473 Member
    #4
    Transfusions...

    My count dropped all the way to 2!!! My doctor is from Nigeria and said he'd only seen one other person back in his country with it that low and still functioning fairly well. I was hospitalized and given not only a blood transfusion but an iron infusion also. After it was back up, I still received transfusions several times throughout treatment because it would quickly go back down. I don't know at what point they would do it, sorry. I do know I felt noticeably better after one though. Now I take ferrous sulfate daily and my count is always around 15....so really good!

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