AIH since dec 2013

[birty]

Had my routine bloods done Tuesday ,GP rang me today to say my white cell count has dropped to 1.8 ,he spoke to consultant , got to stop taking mercaptopurine,another blood test next week ,said if it's come up I can restart it at a lower dose,been on mercaptopurine since April 2014 and before that was on aza , Anyone else had this? How long did it take your white cell count to come up?

[Bolly]

You will find out how long it takes to come up via the blood monitoring. How long did it take to drop, have you been on the same medications since dec 2013 with no problem before?

[birty in reply to Bolly]

I was on aza to start with,then changed to 6mp because aza made me feel so sick,this time last year it was 3.3, it dropped to 2.5 about May time and has been steady till now,don't know what my lymphocytes are,in June they were 0.55.

[Bolly in reply to birty]

The problem with being on immunosuppressants is they are supposed to suppress your immune system, a major part of which is your white cells. So the docs need to find a balance between a level of medication that will stop the AIH attacking your liver without wiping out your white cells and leaving you vulnerable to infection. Sometimes they need to move on to yet another medication, but the sensible thing to do is what they are doing now which is reducing the existing meds first to see if that does the trick.

My different "cytes" within the WBC often go below normal, but my hep said it was the total WBC that mattered most.