Hi,

I want to start by saying I have hereditary spherocitosis, had a spleenoctomy when I was 5. I have a twelve yr old with the same. My mother has a hemolitic crisis about two months ago and had to be hospitalized for two weeks. She had 6 blood transfusions and has been on predisone ever since. Her hemoglobin has been okay at 14 or so, until today we took her to the hospital and it is at 6. She is being admitted and waiting on the doctors on what to do next.

I have not been to hemotologist since I was a child, and my worry is, am I prone to these hemolitic crisis? It really worrys me of what is going to happen with my mother, she is 74 yrs old. She had no prior problems with her spherorcitosis before, why now? I would really like to hear from anyone that has a similar situation. Thanks.

Lillys,

I'm assuming you are familiar with your condition and what it actually is etc....

It sounds like your mother has had a Transient Aplastic Crisis, which has caused her Hb to drop quite suddenly. From what I understand (and I'm not talking from experience) this can be caused by a viral infection, which causes the bone marrow to stop producing red cells temporarily. This means your body can't compensate for the amount of red cells lost due to the spherocytosis and the haemoglobin drops.

You don't mention if your mother ever had a splenectomy but I'm assuming that she probably hasn't.

You have however. I'm not an expert at all, so please talk to your doctor about your worries. But from what I understand a splenectomy is an very effective way of preventing this happening to you.

Like I said, you really need to talk to your doctor about your condition. I just hoped I might be able to offer a little comfort.

Take care:)

Thanks Tauri79