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falling, falling, now abnormally low white cell count

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
Im wondering if I should be worrying about my latest blood test results or not. My white blood count seems to be taking a dive and now abnormal.

My white blood cell count has slowly fallen over the years I've had CFS/ME. (norma range for WBC is 4 to 11) my results have been:
1998- 5.5 (after 1-2 yeas of CFS)
2005 - 5.4
2006 -4.3
2007 - 4.1
2008 - 4 (right on border of normal range)
2010 - 3.5 (below normal)

Im right now a bit concerned.. none of my doctors seem to be worried of my falling white blood cell count over the years and now that its abnormally low.

I realise the white blood cells are our defence against viruses, bacteria etc (and also have read that this white blood cell count falls in conditions such as leukemia and is an early warning of it).
im sure thou my issue is being caused by my body fighting a chronic virus.
..........

Is anyone who is XMRV positive.. have out of range low white cell counts?? Is this normal for that??
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,089
Location
australia (brisbane)
Sometimes they treat this with immunoglobulin/gamaglobulin injections, i have read where this sort of treatment can help cfs. WBC is probably going down because its worn out trying to fight whatever chronic infections/co-infections u have. I would hit them up for immunoglobulin injections though and i reckon a doctor could possibly look at treating u with antivirals and or antibiotics.
 

soxfan

Senior Member
Messages
995
Location
North Carolina
WBC

My WBC has been low for years. The range our lab uses is 3.9-10 and mine is consistantly in the low 3's and has actually been down to the 2.3 range.
I just had one done and mine was 3.4 so the doctor is repeating in a month. If it is still low then he said he is going to send me to a specialize doctor (hematologist) I think was the name...
 

3CFIDS@ourhouse

still me
Messages
126
Location
Southeast US
I know this thread is old, but I just found it looking for something else. My white count has been low throughout my 10 years of illness. It is now in the 2's, never gets higher than 3. I've been sent to hematologist/oncologists twice. I am XMRV positive and wonder if it's just that my white count gets depleted by being in constant fight mode. One doctor wanted to do a bone marrow biopsy, but I wasn't anxious to rush into that!
 

justy

Donate Advocate Demonstrate
Messages
5,524
Location
U.K
Im wondering if I should be worrying about my latest blood test results or not. My white blood count seems to be taking a dive and now abnormal.

My white blood cell count has slowly fallen over the years I've had CFS/ME. (norma range for WBC is 4 to 11) my results have been:
1998- 5.5 (after 1-2 yeas of CFS)
2005 - 5.4
2006 -4.3
2007 - 4.1
2008 - 4 (right on border of normal range)
2010 - 3.5 (below normal)

Im right now a bit concerned.. none of my doctors seem to be worried of my falling white blood cell count over the years and now that its abnormally low.

I realise the white blood cells are our defence against viruses, bacteria etc (and also have read that this white blood cell count falls in conditions such as leukemia and is an early warning of it).
im sure thou my issue is being caused by my body fighting a chronic virus.
..........

Is anyone who is XMRV positive.. have out of range low white cell counts?? Is this normal for that??

mine have been doing exactly the same thing over a similar period of time. My latest ones went back up though to 4.3 after going down to 3. My doctor isnt at all concerned about it - but then he isnt normally concerned about anything if you have M.E.
 

rlc

Senior Member
Messages
822
Hi justy, i feel your doctor should be taking your blood results more seriously, it can indicate a large amount of problems, which can be investigated such as iron, folic acid and copper deficiencys. And conditions that would fit with being misdiagnosed such as Addison's other adrenal problems and SLE (systemic lupus erythemotosis) don't know if you've ever been tested for any of these.

I saw in another post of your's that you had noticed improvement after taking vitamin D, i haven't been able to find information about low vitaminD causing falling white cell counts, but there's alot about vitamin D that's not known yet, so it's possible. However you said that you been improving on 2000i/u of vit D. this is a very small dose and maybe if you could get your doctor to tests you and prescibe the correct dose, which is often around 50,000i/u a week for eight weeks you may get a lot more improvement!

I have just put a whole lot of information about treating vitamin D and how to properly diagnose Addisons etc in the known CFS misdiagnosis tread if you want to have a look.
All the best!