Low Platelets Questions

1. What causes low hemoglobin levels?

   Since her platelet count is low, several conditions can be to blame. The most common include anemias, idiopathic thrombocytic purpura, or HIV infection. A low hemoglobin can be caused by many health problems, from liver or kidney diseases to cancer.
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2. Can having low platelets cause pain and agitation?

   Platelets are blood cells that help your blood to clot. Low platelets (called thrombocytopenia) usually occurs from a disease, like leukemia, or from a medication. Thrombocytopenia can range from mild cases, which will have few symptoms, to severe, where bleeding can easily occur.
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3. How can I prevent frequent nose bleeds brought on by low blood platelets?

   Having a low platelet count leaves your mother vulnerable to nosebleeds because it takes her blood longer to clot. And once she has one, they tend to recur. So you want to try to prevent nosebleeds from starting in the first place, or at least break the cycle.
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4. What could be causing a low white-blood, red-blood, and low-platelet counts in a former cancer patient?

   Low red blood cell counts and low platelet counts are side effects of chemotherapy because the chemotherapy drugs kill off the fast-growing bone marrow cells that boost red and white blood cell counts.
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5. How can we prevent bruising due to low platelets?

   Unfortunately, there's really nothing you can do to prevent your mother from bruising easily. This is a normal side effect of having a low platelet count, which means blood doesn't clot as easily. Cancer patients with low platelets get severe bruises, and sometimes they don't even know how they got them...
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6. Can my mom continue to get transfusions 4 to 5 times a week to help with low platelets? Her platelets are between 4 and 5,000.

   An average platelet’s life expectancy is only about 8 days, so the benefit from a transfusion of platelets is likely to last only a couple of days. The decision is of course up to the hematologist of the patient.If a patient is otherwise doing well, then it is likely that the platelets transfusions s...
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7. Can platelet counts be increased while on chemo without a transfusion?

   Neumega (oprelvekin) is a drug that is a thrombopoietic growth factor. This drug is sometimes used for chemo induced thrombocytopenia. This drug stimulates platelet production.
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8. Why won't the doctor order a blood transfusion to boost low platelets?

   Most doctors only give platelet transfusions in cases where the patient is actively bleeding and the blood won't clot. The reason is that this treatment is of limited benefit and only lasts a very short time. The problem has to do with the life of the cells...
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9. Using VP160 on a 79 year old father for his lung cancer

   Etoposide, the drug in VP-16, is commonly used for lung cancer. This drug is known to suppress the bone marrow, which means it tends to lower blood counts dramatically. Your father may suffer a decline in red blood cells and in platelets, which can cause fatigue, weakness, and bleeding, and in white blood cells, which puts him at risk for infection...
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10. What medications can cause low platelets

    I think that Advil and/or Motrin will lower platelet count.
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11. My father has wounds that seem to have come from low platelets; what can we do?

    My father's platelet count has dropped suddenly to 70,000. There was no excessive bleeding, however, there are small red blooded wounds on both the hands and thighs as well. What could be the reason and what can we do about them?

12. Can meloxicam cause low blood platelets?

    I have been told that I hAve low blood platlets, can this be caused by meloxicam?

13. Why is my mother suffering from drastically dropping platelets?

    Why is my mother suffering from drastically dropping platelet count? My mom is a leukemia patient who's in the hospital for a second time, receiving chemotherapy due to the disease coming out of remission. The problem is that they cannot keep her platelet count stablized. Once they give her platelets, by the end of the day they've diminished...