posted
Does anyone else have a consistent low WBC count? It hovers right around the low end range of normal to just under normal. Is this an indication of anything specific? Progress? Lack there of?
Posts: 239 | From NC | Registered: Aug 2010
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philly78
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 31069
posted
I do. Mine hasn't been higher than 3.5 for as long as I can remember. The only time it went up was when I was admitted to the hospital with diverticulitis. Even then, it was high normal.
I was in the hospital over the summer and at my lowest, I was like 1.9. My usual is 3. I think it went down because of the abx I was receiving. I'm also on the verge of being neutropenic. My ANC is usually 1 or just above 1. Oddly, I never really get sick.
In reading up on things, I'm finding that it can be related to erlcihia, lyme and I think I read somehwere KPU? Some antibiotics can cause leukopenia as well.
-------------------- When faced with pain you have two choices....either quit and accept the circumstances, OR make the decision to fight with all the resources you have at your disposal. Posts: 1000 | From PA | Registered: Mar 2011
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TF
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 14183
posted
At some point in my lyme/coinfection treatment, my white blood cell count got low. By that, I mean that it was no longer in the normal range.
When that happened, my lyme doc had me take Transfer Factor. It was bovine (cow's) colostrum. This brought up my white count to within the normal range within 2 weeks. This way, I did not have to stop my antibiotic therapy.
Later, the same thing happened again. So, this time the doc said to just stay on the Transfer Factor until I was finished treating.
He said that the body senses the antibiotics and so it thinks that it no longer has to produce white cells to fight infection. The antibiotics are taking over the job. That is what leads to the low white cell count.
So, according to him, a low white cell count can occur just as a result of being on antibiotics for a while. I had been on them about 2 1/2 years continuously when it happened to me.
Posts: 9931 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
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posted
Thanks TF. I thought that was probably the reason. I will follow up with my LLMD to see if she is concerned with the low number and recommends taking anything for it.
Posts: 239 | From NC | Registered: Aug 2010
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posted
Mine just came back as low, so I am on a week break from abx, with a retest at the end of the week to see if I am making progress.
Posts: 447 | From Vermont | Registered: Jan 2011
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Razzle
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 30398
posted
Interesting. Abx make my WBC's go UP and not down... I have had low WBC's for years prior to Lyme dx and have asked every MD I've ever seen about it, only to be given the same nonsense about normal curves and statistics (I took 4 classes in statistics in college as part of my degree, so I knew they were telling me a bunch of bs...). It was only after I got my Lyme diagnosis that the doctor who diagnosed me bothered to do any further immune system testing, and that's when I found out it is my Lymphocyte subsets that are low (B-Cells, T-Cells, esp. CD8+ T-Cells...). Abx and steroids are the only things that seem to improve my WBC counts, much to the confusion of the doctors who I have asked about this. But the only thing I can figure is the steroids fight inflammation, which makes the WBC's stay in the blood instead of going out into the tissues where the inflammation is normally taking place, and the abx kill whatever bug(s) is/are responsible for my Lyme/coinfection symptoms, and these bugs are also able to mess with my Lymphocytes, so when the bugs get killed, then my Lymphocytes survive better and the counts go up...
-------------------- -Razzle Lyme IgM IGeneX Pos. 18+++, 23-25+, 30++, 31+, 34++, 39 IND, 83-93 IND; IgG IGeneX Neg. 30+, 39 IND; Mayo/CDC Pos. IgM 23+, 39+; IgG Mayo/CDC Neg. band 41+; Bart. (clinical dx; Fry Labs neg. for all coinfections), sx >30 yrs. Posts: 4167 | From WA | Registered: Feb 2011
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