NoBlood

My father is a 71-yr-old male. He's diabetic and is scheduled for bloodless mitral valve repair on 11/21/05. His blood count was 8.4 in early August. His nephrologist prescribed weekly Procrit shots, but did not prescribe IV iron until 9/29/05 (nearly eight weeks later). Dad's blood count popped up to 11.1 (from 9.5 previously) when he was tested four days later. He has not prescribed any more IV iron, but was willing to prescribe two shots of Procrit a week. After two weeks of two shots/week, but no additional IV iron, Dad's most recent labwork indicates a blood count of 10.4

It seems that others I've talked to have taken or administer IV iron with EACH Procrit shots. Is there some reason why the nephrologist does not prescribe IV iron more often?

Incidentally, Dad's iron saturation was at 14% to begin with. I recently read Procrit's pharmaceutical info and that indicates you should begin Procrit at 20% iron saturation. Does anyone know why Dad's doctor is bashful with the IV iron?

And what can we do about it? Is there a medical paper we can give the doc? When do I know if it's time to consult a hematologist?

Please help!

THANK YOU!!