HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Low white count and 6MP

Support Forums
>
Ulcerative Colitis
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 12/16/2008 7:05 PM (GMT 0)
     I had an appointment with my GI doctor yesterday.  My white count is down to 2.6.  He said he doesn't want it to go lower than that and wants me to get monthly blood counts drawn, which I have been doing.  This is the lowest my white count has ever been and frankly, I am quite concerned.  I am a former lab tech and know you need white cells to combat infection in your system.  Too low of a white count is dangerous.

     What I am asking is.....for you people out there taking 6MP.  What do your doctors want your white count levels to be before being very concerned?  I am taking 50 mgm of the 6MP at the present time.  He said there is another drug out there to boost the white count...forget it...I adamantly refuse to take another pill.

Posted 12/16/2008 7:21 PM (GMT 0)
I am also taking 50 mg of 6mp- just started November 25th and have had two blood tests so far. I don't know what my white blood count is, but I will ask the doctor Monday when I see him. I talked to him last week and he told me everything was good except my red blood count. I am very anemic.

Thanks for bringing this up... and I agree with you about taking another pill. I just don't think I can do it either. I almost choked today on the Colazal I take.
smhair
Posted 12/16/2008 8:16 PM (GMT 0)
I can't remember what my numbers were but my WBC was a little on the low side and I had to go in every 2 weeks for a blood draw. My numbers went back up and in fact, my WBC still fluncuates but nothing to be concerned about according to my GI. I wished I could remember what my GI told me about what is too low.
Posted 12/16/2008 11:52 PM (GMT 0)
When I was on 100mg of 6mp, my doctor discontinued it when my WBC dropped below 3. I started it again at 25mg once it rose above 3 and then he permanently ended it when my count dropped to 1 after restarting.
Posted 12/17/2008 12:16 AM (GMT 0)
     I thought 2.6 was awfully low.  It used to be 3.5 and I remember my doctor saying he didn't want it below that!  I was thinking of lowering the dosage myself back to 25 mgm but am afraid the UC will come back.  Boy this really is a catch 22.  I see you are on Remicade piccolo, which is not an option for me.

Posted 12/17/2008 1:08 AM (GMT 0)
My doctor had said that even at 5 my count was low. My uncle is a radiologist and hes been helping me a lot with my meds and what not and he told me that 3 is low but that normally people that are taking chemotherapy don't get concerned until the count drops below 2.5. I am not sure how true that is, I just know that my doctor promptly stopped it when my count was at 2.8.

Why is remicade not an option for you Christine?
Posted 12/17/2008 2:52 AM (GMT 0)
My doctor has always told me that on 6MP they don't want it lower than 4. Lately mine has been a little high (a 10) which concerns me since I'm on immunosuppressants to lower the white count so why is it a 10? lol
Posted 12/17/2008 2:25 PM (GMT 0)
     Glamore girl....did you have a cold or infection lately?  That could boost your white count level.

 

     Picolo...I cannot take Remicade because years ago I had a positive TB test.  Negative chest xray but because I was exposed to the TB virus (worked in a lab years ago and also had an aunt through marriage who had TB and I was around her a lot), the virus lies dormant somewhere within this old body.  Remicade could activate the virus (my GI's associate told me and he actually had a patient who died while on Remicade) and it could kill me.

✚ New Topic ✚ Reply