Spleen removal

[jojokarak]

Hi all hope your as well as can be 😊 I am just wondering has anyone had there spleen removed? I have been for an appointment today after my iron infusion and it hasn't made much difference to my bloods, so they think my spleen bring a greedy bugger and eating all my red blood cells so they discussing whether to remove it or not 😮

[Chelle_]

😱 that’s not something you want! I hope they work out a way for you to keep it! Xx

[jojokarak in reply to Chelle_]

Aye me too 😊 but if it's got to go has to be done ... Just wanted to see if anyone else has had the same problem ..

Hope your doing ok XXX

[Gemmaswann]

Yes, I had mine removed...but 20 odd years ago as a teenager. It was so enlarged following portal hypertension from childhood chemo damaging my liver it was near bursting. I know it’s not common practice now, they rather do some kind of shunt to bypass/relieve pressure but maybe that’s for children not adults? Sorry not much help. I manage fine without mine. Just need to keep up with vaccinations and be health savvy. X x

[jojokarak in reply to Gemmaswann]

You have been helpful I just wanted to hear from people who have had it removed and know they were fine and 20 years down the line you have definitely eased my mind 😊😘

[Hidden]

Hi

I had my spleen removed during my transplant, I had not really thought of the ramifications.

I am not a low dose antibiotic, and obviously have to careful with infections.

But so far 2 months in there appears to no symptoms

Having every inoculation including the flue jab is advised and taking care if you going abroad to country's with malaria.

Your question made me look and made sense of what I had been advised at the hospital, my weekly blood tests are showing as normal so the new liver must be doing the job.

Overall it seems ok so far

David

[jojokarak in reply to Hidden]

Thanks David and pleased to hear your doing well it seems to be the way to go as I do suffer with a lot of tenderness on the left hand side and I don't want to be constantly worried about hurting that side the last thing I would want is it rupturing as I now know that's a huge risk 😊

[Teri1755]

Hi I had my spleen removed as well, but it was also when I was a Teen and for totally different reasons.

I have a blood disorder,ITP. And after 10 years of nothing working they decided to remove my spleen, which did work! I have been in remission ever since.

However, I've spent my life sick bc of having no immune system, Always having to get pneumonia vaccines to help and flu shots. Just the common cold took forever to get over.

Now I am battling cirrhosis stage 4 and Autoimmune Hepatitis. They believe it's all connected.

ITP is an autoimmune disease as well as AIH which bc it had gone untreated for so long it damaged my liver and now have cirrhosis.

I probably had AIH for 10+ years but always blamed my sickness on not having a spleen. And rarely followed up with doctor, which is my fault.

You can in fact live without a spleen. Andi still am grateful my parents choose to have my spleen removed however I spent my life sick and now I'm fighting for my life. I'm about to be put on a transplant list, my doctor has started preparing my body for a transplant and building up my immune system.

It's a scary thing. I hope all this helped. I wish the best to you and I'm sure you'll make the right decision.

Stay Strong

[jojokarak in reply to Teri1755]

Hiya and thanks for this information, they are actually querying whether I have itp they want to do a bone marrow biopsy. I did ask would it make any difference having it and they basically said no, so I don't want to put myself through it if the end result still going to be spleen out.

I used to the low immune system now last 5 weeks I have had a cold and infection after infection lol

I am sorry to hear you have cirrhosis x.

I really hope you get on the list and have your transplant asap 😘

[Teri1755 in reply to jojokarak]

Thank you JoJo for your kind words, I appreciate that.

I feel your pain, ITP was no fun when I was a child. I lived on Prednisone on and off for 10 years, my platelets were dangerously low, I had blood transfusions, I was basically put on a pedestal and had to be very careful so I didn't get a blood clot which would of killed me.... And when I was a child ITP was rare and they didn't know what to do with me. I also had a bone marrow biopsy which wasn't fun either.

I wish you the best JoJo and hope you get all the answers you need. Living without a spleen was hard but it saved my life. The only thing I can really tell you is because of your immune system will be destroyed and not having a spleen to help fight infections you'll need pneumonia vaccines every 5 years to help your body and i faithfully got a flu shot every year. I still lived my life fighting every infection that I came into contact with.

But, removing your spleen is the only way to protect your body from your platelets being destroyed. Best of luck to you my friend, I will keep you in my prayers. Everything will be ok. Stay strong and please keep me updated on your progress I'd love to hear from you and that your ok. 💜

[Smyally]

Hi Jojo. Sorry to hear this and hope they find a way of keeping the spleen if you can, you probably feel you could do without the extra surgery. Apart from fighting infection what does our spleen do? Post transplant our immune system is suppressed anyway and it’s easy to catch any infection, so how much of a difference does keeping our spleen make. I hope whatever they decide it works out for you. Best wishes x

[jojokarak]

Hiya and thanks and the spleen recycles our red blood cells, stores our platelets and white blood cells and also protects us from certain infections such as pneumonia and mengitis ...

I don't think it's going to make any difference keeping it that's why they talking about getting rid I am hoping it will improve my anaemia in the long run but we shall see what they come up with x