Has anyone taken Epogen prior to surgery?

[Sherie]

My step-daughter is a nurse and she was asking one of the pedi. anesthesiologists at her hospital for some advice for my daugher's upcoming surgery. He highly recommended that we get her on Epogen to build her blood up to avoid a transfusion. Has anyone had any experience with this? I looked it up and there are some serious side effects associated with it and I'm not convinced that it's ok. We are going to discuss it at her pre-op in 2 weeks and see what Dr. Lenke says. She is scheduled to donate one unit and my husband is donating one for her, this seems to be pretty standard.

Also wondering if any of the pedi. patients here required more than 1-2 units of blood?

[rosem]

Epo

Sherie,

All I know about EPO is that they give it lot to renal patients who are on dialysis. Never heard of giving it to build up blood. Your doc should know. My son just had surgery and although we had 1 unit of blood ready he did not need it. The doctor said they use some sort of "blood saver" where they "recycle" the blood that is lost back into the body.

Good Luck
Rose

[Snoopy]

My daughter's doctor had wanted her to donate 4 units of blood and because of low iron counts, she was only able to donate 2 units. She recieved both units in the O.R. and never needed any additional blood.

Mary Lou

[Sherie]

Thanks for your comments. It seems to me that most kids don't require more than 1 or 2 units of blood and they will be using cell saver. I don't think it's a good idea to give medications uneccessarily especially right before scheduled surgery.

Rose: It's so amazing how well your son is recovering, I'm so happy for you. I hope ours goes as well.

[emma12]

I don't know about the epogen, but my daughter was told to be on a multi vitamin with iron for 2 months prior to surgery and 2 months after. They wanted 1 unit of blood on hand for surgery, and she was unable to donate her own because she didn't weigh enough. No one in the family was her blood type (B+), and we couldn't find anyone who was that type, so they were going to use blood bank blood, if needed (something I did much worrying and fretting over). All for nothing! We knew that they would be using the cell saver, and luckily she did not need any blood. They were able to reuse most of the blood that she lost. I knew that the unit of blood was to be "just in case", and we are thankful she didn't need any!! Her red blood cell count was 15 prior to surgery, which is apparently really high. Also, to eat iron rich foods and a healthy diet the months before surgery. Must have worked for her---

[nkittelson]

I recently had surgery and I am 18 yrs old and I was required to give 2 units of blood. I have never heard of the medicine you are speaking of the only thing the doctor recomended me to take was vitamins so your blood will be as good as possible! I am a pedi patient and when i went to the hospital it was mandatory to give to units just in case.

Best of luck! If you have any questions please ask i just had surgery in July
-Nicole

[Sherie]

Thanks everyone for the advice. It looks like most kids are getting by fine with the 1 or 2 units they're asked to donate. We're going this friday to donate the first.

How are you doing Nicole? How long is your fusion?

[MATJESNIC]

The best advice I got was on here. Have her drink, drink, drink, and then drink some more. Do this starting the day before donation and the day of. Drink lots and lots of water, juice, etc. No caffeine. Before donation, make sure she eats a good meal as well. Nicole did all of this and she wasn't light-headed or dizzy or anything. But she was so scared about the whole thing and thought it really hurt that she refused to do it again. I am still upset about that.

Good luck. She will do great.