I have recently been told that I have a low white blood count. It was 1.8 two weeks ago and is now 0.8 so officially neutropenic although finished chemo 10 weeks ago and blood count was ok then.
My history is I was given Neulasta injections to bring up my white blood count during chemo treatment and it worked. I had my operation 3 weeks after final lot of chemo and all blood tests at that point were fine. It was when I had my next lot of herceptin which showed my white blood count was low and my oncologist wanted it to be repeated and now it’s even lower. I was told that if it continues to be low I would need to have a bone marrow test done which petrifies me.
Does anybody else have any experience of this? I did post a while ago about this when I thought it might be to do with herceptin but my oncologist and the chemo nurses say it’s extremely rare and they’ve never come across it before.
Can anybody shed any light on this? The thought of having a bone marrow test carried out fills me with dread.
Hi Ruby,
Last week I had surgery to my reconstructed breast. As a routine pre-op test I had a full blood count and although my Hb was really good my WBC, neutrophils and lymphocytes were all low, well below the normal range. No-one gave an explnation for this or seemed bothered by it, but I am.
I finished chemo sept 06 and had to have neupogen injections for the last 3 cycles of taxotere due to severe neutropenia. However apart from routine bloods before and after my reconstruction (which I don’t know the results of) I haven’t had bloods done by my Onc. I have a routine oncology appointment at the end of this month so will ask about the WBC.
I was wondering how you feel as I have been feeling quite unwell recently with overwhelming tiredness. I’d be really interested to hear how you get on and wish you lots of luck.
Claire
Thanks for the info Dawn it was great to chat on the other website.
Claire thanks for coming back to me on that. I feel a bit better knowing it’s not just me and that nobody seemed bothered by your low count i.e. maybe it’s quite normal? I had severe neutropenia after my first FEC and that’s why they gave me the neulasta injections which kept my count up after that until now that is! Because I’m on herceptin they take blood from me before each cycle which is how they discovered my low count.
I don’t feel great today tired and a bit rough but other than that have felt completely fine and I hardly ever pick anything up anyway. I guess I’ll get a call from my oncologist in the next few days if he’s bothered about it.