[Lisa V]

Deanna, it is normal for WBCs to react strongly to an illness or infection. Sometimes they go up, other times down. I'm not sure what determines which direction they will go, but I just read a posting on another forum saying that a viral infection often causes a drop in ANC. Does a virus make them drop but a bacteria makes them rise? Or is it just idiosyncratic and unpredictable? Maybe someone will know.

When my husband was in the hospital getting ATG he developed a C. difficile infection which caused his ANC to shoot up from 0.9 to 2.9. Even so, I had the hardest time convincing the nurses that his chills, fever, vomitting and diarrhea were more likely the result of an infection rather than a serum reaction, and that his WBCs wouldn't respond that quickly to the ATG. If anything, they usually go down during treatment, and then slowly climb back up. They finally figured it out, but it just goes to show how difficult it can be to interpret counts and symptoms. We'd been through the drill before so I knew his response patterns. That's about all you can do is learn what yours are and pay attention to them.

I too am curious about the purpose of the IV iron. AA is not an iron deficiency disease. You may not have to worry about iron overload if you're not being transfused, but it is such a huge problem for many AAers that I would be exrememly cautious about it.