A question on blood work

[CLynn]

Okay, for those of you who get your blood results sent to you as well....


Had my blood drawn last Friday, called about the results on Tuesday. The nurse said they came back great. She faxed me the results here at work. I noticed that for the first time, my RBC was listed as "low", it was at 3.71 (the low limit is listed as 4.20). My hemoglobuin is down as well but still "okay", it's a 12.8, but low limit for that is 12.0. So when I called her to ask, she told me it was just a little low, I shouldn't be concerned. So I looked at the 3 copies of results I have, the end of September, the end of January, and these from the end of May. Both the RBC and hemoglobin have both gone down each time, it's just now that the RBC is down enough to be considered low. It concerns me, but doesn't seem to concern the nurse, so wonder if I am being silly.

 

[Johnnysmom]

This may be totally unrelated but I had sort of the same experience with my son. His White Blood Cell count was low and the dr. adjusted his dose because it was considered a side effect. For the next 3 months it continued to go down. Once I saw all the numbers I was freaking out. The nurse told me the same thing that the Dr. wasn't worried. Well, I didn't feel comfortable with that so she had him call me. He explained that it would take several months for those numbers to right themselves. He was looking at my son's neutrophil count which was 1.9 and said that was why he was not worried. So I insisted another blood check in a month instead of the 2 months the Dr. had suggested. Everything was normalized at the next blood test. I felt satisfied with the explanation the Dr. gave me but I did feel bad that I questioned him because he is very busy and he needed to take time to explain this to me when maybe I should have just trusted his professional judgement more. But if you are worried about it you should bring it to your doctors attention. That is what they are there for.

 

[DustyKat]

With a dropping haemoglobin and a low RBC I would looking at perhaps some type of anaemia creeping in. Are they doing the gauntlet of B12, Folate and Iron stores as well?

Where are you at with your disease? Could there be some slow insidious type bleeding happening?

Since you are tracking them slowly going down I don't believe them to be one offs or they would have normalised themselves by now.

Dusty. xxx

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

It's my experience that the nurses don't have all the answers, and I do think you should ask your doc about the results. You don't necessarily need to make an appointment, you should just be able to call or email your doc. I get my blood work results through my clinic's website, and it's set up so that I can email my doc right from there to ask questions and my doctors (both GI and GP) can email me through that system too. It's nice, saves me a phone call and the messages I get from my GI and GP are saved so I can refer back to them later if I can't remember something. But yeah, long story short, definitely contact your doctor for more info especially if it doesn't seem right to you. The nurses sometimes give out misinformation or just don't know.

 

[CLynn]

With a dropping haemoglobin and a low RBC I would looking at perhaps some type of anaemia creeping in. Are they doing the gauntlet of B12, Folate and Iron stores as well?

Where are you at with your disease? Could there be some slow insidious type bleeding happening?

Since you are tracking them slowly going down I don't believe them to be one offs or they would have normalised themselves by now.

Dusty. xxx

You are thinking like me, Dusty. The draw at the end of Sept. was to see if I needed a colonscopy, I was sure the Crohn's was flaring, and it was. Had the scope in October. So started prednisone, did that for a month, switched to Aza. I have gained back most of the weight I'd lost before the scope, my cramping is gone, so I know the Crohn's is getting better. I did go 4-5 weeks without Aza, stupid insurance company. But have been back on it awhile now.
I asked the nurse if I should be worried about a bleed somewhere, she seemed to not be worried at all. But then, I doubt she was looking at all 3 results and seeing the gradual decline.

 

[CLynn]

And I have been asking them why I keep bruising so easily, no one seemed to know up to now. I know why, looking at the results from last week, lol! I do the B-12 shots every 2 weeks, the level has not been tested since the end of Sept. Funny how the general practitioner orders more on a blood work up than the GI does.

 

[DustyKat]

Hmmm, I would go to the GP then and have bloods done again. Did they do inflammatory markers?

How are you feeling in yourself?
One month of Pred isn't a normal course and with the Aza gap, yeah, maybe things aren't quite under control.

Dusty. xxx

 

[CLynn]

Yes, I think I will call the gp's office and see if they might run a work up. If I am tested for inflammatory markers, I have never been told so. And never used to ask for copies of the blood work. So am new to checking it all out.
I feel tired and bruise easily, but better than I did last fall, as far as the cramping and my weight.

 

[DustyKat]

Okay, I wonder if the way you are feeling...better but not fab, and the dropping Hb and RBC are in fact due to some lingering inflammation???

I would definitely go to the GP and have them test for...

FBC...I think you call it CBC?
LFT's and UEC's...what you call it a CMP?
CRP
ESR
B12
Iron Stores
Folate
Vit D

Dusty. xxx