Wondering what it may mean.
Posted by canefan17 (Member # 22149) on :
Babesia maybe?
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Babesia or just plain ole anemia... or Celiac disease.
Posted by Razzle (Member # 30398) on :
Known causes of low red cell count:
Iron deficiency Vitamin B12 deficiency Folic Acid deficiency Lyme Babesia Ehrlichia/Anaplasma (Don't know if other coinfections can also cause anemia) Malabsorption - e.g., Celiac Disease
I've had a low red cell count for a long time. Mine is from malabsorption, possibly Lyme/coinfection (not Babesia), and "chronic disease." My anemia is unresponsive to nutritional support, and also does not respond to red cell stimulating medication.
Posted by Larae30 (Member # 35220) on :
Mine nosedived from when I had it tested RIGHT after feeling sick, to 3 months later. The likely cause for me is babesia.
Posted by seibertneurolyme (Member # 6416) on :
razzle,
Very good list. I would also add bartonella to the list as well and intestinal parasites such as giardia and ascaris.
Bea Seibert
Posted by blinkie (Member # 14470) on :
Bea-your hubby had this with low hemoglobin and hemocrit, right? I thought his went up after a found of factive but then nose-dived again.
I also have low RBC, hemocrit and hemoglobin. Persistently...I know it's infection, not sure which one...I've treated most of them very aggressively.
Posted by Catgirl (Member # 31149) on :
Wow, I didn't know all of those could do that (fascinating). I didn't even think of celiac (not eating any gluten though).
Blinkie, I have the low hemocrit and hemoglobin too.
Posted by rera2528 (Member # 29886) on :
Also depends what you are taking right now. When I was on clindamycin/qualaquin pulse, my rbc was low. When I tested two weeks later, it was back up.
Posted by Razzle (Member # 30398) on :
There are some others I also forgot to add to the list:
One other oddity that was seen with me in the hospital was, when they took blood through my PICC line, the hematocrit & hemoglobin would be lower than when they took blood through venipuncture.
Blood draw through PICC was at the same time as blood draw through venipuncture. The hospital re-ran the tests numerous times because they couldn't understand how the numbers could be so different! The doctors didn't have an explanation either...
Posted by Catgirl (Member # 31149) on :
I had a low count even when I went undiagnosed with lyme. She never said anything about it.
Posted by seibertneurolyme (Member # 6416) on :
blinkie,
Hubby's RBC, hematocrit and hemoglobin were all normal for probably the first 8 years of his illness -- but most of that time he was not treated very aggressively.
In 2009 I think it was he started having issues with these numbers. RBC was somewhere between 4.0 and 4.5 -- basically borderline normal or slightly low. This was while hubby was on a 5 drug combo to treat babs, bart and lyme all. The doses were moderately aggressive.
Then after a year or so when hubby switched from levaquin to factive his RBC went to normal and stayed there for about 6 months.
Then we started treating babs aggressively at the beginning of 2011 and hubby had the 5 high fevers of over 101 with hospitalizations. That is when the ehrlichia/anaplasma started showing up. RBC and hemoglobin and hematocrit bounced around a little but mostly stayed low all of 2011. This was the first time hubby ever had issues with low WBC.
Most recently hubby's RBC and WBC were almost back to normal finally while on the sida acuta and ivermectin and all the other babs meds.
Hubby has been off all antibiotics, antimalarials, antiparasitics and killing herbs for 31 days today. His RBC and WBC both have started falling again -- OFF of all meds.
So we are pretty sure he still has an infection -- or multiple infections. Hope the next round of tests can help direct further treatment.
Bea Seibert
Posted by chootik (Member # 11221) on :
Does anyone have also a low platellete count?
My RBC is normal but platellets have been going down in the last few years.
Posted by Razzle (Member # 30398) on :
My platelet count drops cyclically about once every 2-3 weeks. I suspect Lyme to be at least partially responsible.
Posted by blinkie (Member # 14470) on :
Bea-this is all so frustrating, isn't it? Mine have been chronically low since my tick bite. Like your hubby...borderline normal to low.
My LLMD says it goes with chronic infection (of multiple possiblities)...I think it's specific to one of these buggers.
Posted by manybites (Member # 33750) on :
For me was babesia.
I ended up after the car accident with blood transfusion .
Only combo Biaxin , plaquinil , Mepron and cryptolepsis brought the numbers back up to normal range .
I confirmed the diagnose as my neutrophils were high after the blood transfusion .I had also all symtoms of babesia.