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Old Wed Aug 11, 2010, 05:30 PM
Neil Cuadra Neil Cuadra is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Los Angeles, California
Posts: 2,553
castlepatterson,

Your symptoms could match a bone marrow failure disease, and I haven't heard of stress causing all blood lines to be low, but not being a physician I don't know what other explanations there might be. Let's hope it's a combination of causes that are temporary and less serious.

A single blood test can produce warnings about low counts but isn't enough to diagnosis the problem or determine if it's a one-time fluctuation or even a false reading. The next blood test will show if the counts are still low and an explanation is needed.

How low is low? If your blood counts are only slightly below normal, you may be one of those people with naturally low counts. Or your doctor may be taking a conservative approach in case your counts go back up. It may be worrying you, but she may be doing you a favor by watching and waiting.

However, if your counts are very low or you have physical symptoms like being out of breath or bruising, I'd expect the doctor to want you back for a repeat of the blood test fairly soon. A bone marrow biopsy and aspiration would be a logical diagnostic test if your counts are seriously low again. But nobody wants to undergo tests like that if they don't have to.
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