Anemic before FOLFOX

mysweetgrace
mysweetgrace Member Posts: 3
in Colorectal Cancer #1
My Dad went for his first infusion yesterday. He is doing Folfox 6 with Avastin. He did well throughout the infusion.

He had been really weak and fatigued for the past few weeks. Yesterday when they did labs before the infusion, they discovered he was anemic. I believe the doctor said his count was 7 when it should be around 14. He is getting a blood transfusion tomorrow when we go back to have the pump taken down.

I'm hoping getting the blood will make him feel better - and I hope the treatment works for him. He is a candidate for surgery if the chemo works to shrink his recurrent tumor.

Anyone else start treatment with so much blood loss, and had to have a transfusion?

Comments

  • peterz54
    peterz54 Member Posts: 341
    #2
    Yes
    My wife got blood a couple of times early on. A month before being diagnosed Stage IV CRC she was diagnosed and with anemia, but as we learned later it was much worse.
  • bailee2012
    bailee2012 Member Posts: 60
    #3
    Anemic
    Our first visit with husbands primary care dr to see what was going on with him the dr did bloodwork. Dr called next day and said husbands hemoglobin was 7.6. Told him to start on iron supp. And eat red meat and leafy green veggies until follow up appt. We did that EVERY day for dinner for weeks. One appt led to another and couple weeks later he was dx with crc. When he was admitted tohospital his hemoglobin level was up to 10 and we took all the credit cuz it was just what we were doing that raised it to that point. He had been feeling a lot better and had alot more energy also since we started doing that. So just try to get him to eat like that and you can make a difference in his level. They didn't give my husband a blood transfusion only after surgery and chemo had started the dr had him get an iron infusion that took bout 6 hrs to do. His level yesterday was 12.
  • Maxiecat
    Maxiecat Member Posts: 544 Member
    #4
    I had to have two units
    I had to have two units between my surgery and my first chemo treatment. I felt much stronger afterward.

    Alex
  • pete43lost_at_sea
    pete43lost_at_sea Member Posts: 3,900 Member
    #5
    just a word of caution
    I am off all supplements with iron because iron is fundamental to the process of anguogenisis

    Just check with your doc or Naturopath.

    Trying to make my terrain as tumour unfriendly as possible

    Hugs,
    Pete

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