[AmyBing]

Hi. I'm new to this board. I have lupus & RA. Was taking plaquenil, imuran & methotrexate until last week when my doctor advised me to stop the metho due to low WB count. I'll stop it for four weeks and retest my blood & go from there. This past visit, he also did a Coombs blood test and it came back positive. I have autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Does anyone else have this and if so, how are you doing? Any treatments work for you? I haven't found too many SLE people having this type of anemia.

Thanks & hope you are doing well!

 

[Lily]

Hi Amy and welcome but sorry what brings you here :hug:

We have had one or two with hemolytic anemia present alongside their Lupus. On looking it up I found there are lots of reasons for it, so I guess your doc will want to investigate further to find the cause. You can even get a positive on a Coombs from drug induced hemolytic anemia.

I had mild destruction of red cells before starting Imuran, they seem to be fine now, same with my white cells. This drug was the only one that seemed to bring things back into normal range.

Good luck and let us know how you get along.

love
Lily

 

[ElephantEyes]

Hi - I'm new to this board too, I've been lurking on the site for years, but have never posted.

Anyway, I just wanted to let Amy know that I have had autoimmune haemolytic anaemia in the past along with the lupus. It seems to be under control now and I haven't had any problems with it in about 6 years. The haematologist put me on 1 mg of pred for every kilo of weight in order to bring the anaemia under control So I was on a pretty high dose of pred for a while before they reduced down the dose. I also was supposed to take epogin injections (but in the end, I didn't need to as the pred kept it under control).

If it is a recurring problem, the specialist could look at removing your spleen. Keep in mind though that it is a while since I have suffered from this, so there may be newer treatments that I am not aware off. I hope this helps.

Nellie