My mother had a pelvic area cance about two years ago. Successfully treated with chem and radiation. She developed radiation proctitis and after bleeding 6-8 months (I don't really know why she ignored the bleeding...fear maybe?) she wound up in the emergency room with chest pain.

She was hopefully successfully treated for the bleeding but has very low RBC and hemoglobin. She had a heart attack with fairly extensive damage, but I am still hoping to find other ways to increase her counts naturally. She had been on Procrit and it is still prescribed and I think for the time being she is maxed out on iron. I am frightened that the insurance won't allow the Procrit because she is now on hospice basically waiting for the next and probably final heart attack.

I know I have rambled but I need help to maybe beat out the inevitable. By the way her RBC is hanging somewhere around 2.1 and hemoglobing about 6 (up from a worst low of 3.9.

Procrit is an effective way of raising hemoglobins. One can always request a reticulocyte count. If the retic count increases their is soon to be an increased red blood cell count.

Note the following from Wikipedia:

The normal range of values for reticulocytes in the blood depends on the clinical situation and the lab, but broadly speaking is 0.5% to 1.5%. However, if a person has anaemia, their reticulocyte percentage should be higher than "normal" if the bone marrow's ability to produce new blood cells remains intact.

Reticulocyte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Take care.