A strange experience with Decadron

[Guest guest]

Hello all,

I have just had an experience with Decadron here in Bogota, that I hope

someone may be able to comment on.

After having little reaction to RFC from Nov 07 to May 08, my wife and I

decided, with the agreement of my truly excellent hem who looks after me in

Italy where we live, to take a couple of months' break from early July to

early Sept. in Bogota, my wife's home city. During these two months I would

take injections of Decadron (dexamethasone) for 5 days every three weeks at

a dose of 16 mg/day for the five days, tapering off over the next 3 days.

My haemoglobin levels became a problem. There was sometimes a small upward

blip after each of the 3 cycles of Decadron I took, but the general Hgb

trend was sharply downwards, from an initial starting point before

beginning the treatments of 11.8 to a final of 6.77 yesterday, a few days

after finishing the third cycle. My total WBC also dropped like a stone

during the course of the treatments, from 39K before beginning to 3.84K

yesterday.

Five days ago my temperature began going up and down like a yo-yo between

36.3 (normal for me) to 38.5, so the next day we went to the Emergency

Unit of the excellent hospital just down the road, where I was taken in

for observation. The docs suspected my temperature fluctuations were being

caused by an infection, but they could find nothing.

Yesterday morning here, I called my hem in Italy and she said it could well

be the disease itself that was causing the fevers. She told me that with my

Hgb at 6.77, I most certainly needed a transfusion of packed red cells

asap. And that I should take 50 mg/day of Pred to try to get my bone marrow

activated.

I was given a shot of Epo on the slight chance that it would do something,

and the hospital began preparing the irradiated red cells matched to my

needs. They were finally ready at 8 pm last night. I was given the

transfusion during the night. I began to feel stronger by the minute. This

morning my Hgb was almost 10 and I was allowed out of the hospital.

I had begun to think that I was facing bone marrow collapse, but my doctor

son in England - not a hem but a very good family doc - said that if that

were the case I would have a very high WBC. He suspects that something I

have been taking, perhaps among the various prophylatics, might have

suppressed my marrow function. Of course, as he says, he is far from being

a specialist in blood disorders.

We have managed to bring forward our return to Italy and are leaving

Friday, the day after tomorrow. It will be good to be under the caring eyes

of Francesca Mauro again, my Italian mamma, as she has styled herself.

If anyone among my learned friends in the group has had any similar

experience, or comments to make, I will be grateful to have them.

Colin