Thursday, June 7, 2007

Hydroxurea

My platelets were too high, as was my White blood cell count so the decision was made back in January to put me on Hydroxurea. They told me that the benefits outweigh the risks, and, not only would it suppress the production of my platelets and WBC's, it would suppress red blood cell production as well. They didn't really go into any side effects. Although I did know that it was believed that Hydroxurea could potentially lead to forms of leukemia (AML).
Initially I was taking 3 pills a day, two in the morning and one in the evening for a total of 1500 mg. That lasted for about two months and now I'm currently taking 2 pills in the morning for a total of 1000mg. For a while I didn't think that I was experiencing any side effects from the drug but the longer I take it I'm convinced that the constant phlegm draining in my throat and the occasional tightness in my chest and the feeling that my heart is racing may be caused by this drug. The doc gave me Prilosec to combat the potential heart burn I might be experiencing and made me an appointment to see a cardiologist to get a full check up on my "ticker". I'll let you know how that goes.
During a second opinion quest on my treatment and management, a leading specialist suggested that I not take hydroxurea. It was his belief that"we" tend to over treat this condition and that phlebotomy alone will sufficiently reduce the RBCs, Hemoglobin and Hematocrit such that a thrombotic event would not be possible or probable. H e didn't think that it was necessary to treat the high platelet count. In my case the high platelet count led to a condition called Von Willebrand's disease, where, in layman's term, the platelets malfunctioned and would not clot. So even though I had a high platelet count, I had a tendency to bleed. Which manifested itself following my bone marrow biopsy back in January.
I'm still taking the hydroxurea despite the second opinion, and other than the potential heart burn and the phlegm in my throat I really don't notice any side effects to the drug. Most importantly, my blood counts, including WBCs and the platelets, have all been in the normal level for the last three months.

4 comments:

Mary J. McCoy-Dressel said...

Thank you for your comment. It helps my husband, John, to know that others are going through this too. I wish you luck with your PV. For eleven years, John did pretty good. I appreciate that someone else is writing about this. I also subscribe to a MPD email list. I'll send the web address, but you can search Google for MPD-Net. There's another one at AOL, but I don't know anything about it.

PizzaFighter said...

Mary - Thanks for the information. As you can see I'm early in my battle with this disease and I still have alot of unanswered questions. I guess we all do.

Mary J. McCoy-Dressel said...

An informative website.

http://www.mpd-support.co.uk/mpd.htm


Sign up here for the MPD email list. I'm on this one, and it is very good, with people with MPD's.


http://www.acor.org/mpd/xmpd-net.html

Robert said...

New URL

Our Myeloproliferative Disease Support website and daily email digest
URL has changed from

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Please update all links.

Please alert the webmaster to update at every site that links to us,
whenever to see our old link.

Myeloproliferative Disease Support Group and Mailing List
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Information on chronic myelogenous leukemia, polycythemia vera,
essential thrombocythemia, agnogenic myeloid metaplasia,
myelodysplasia, myelofibrosis. For patients and health professionals.

SIGNUP and MPD SUPPORT ARCHIVES:

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Thank you,

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