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Old Mon Jan 30, 2012, 05:25 PM
Cheryl P Cheryl P is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Camargo IL
Posts: 10
I am a 43 year old, athletic mother, like many of you, who has rarely ever been sick. But I want to mention one "unusual" thing, that is that I stopped menstruating December 2008, one month after my 40th birthday. Not sure if this means anything or not.
In 2007, I went in for a routine physical, and my doctor stated that my wbc were low (3.8, red cells are fine around 4.3, plateletes around 150.) Since then, I have been tested for everything and so far it's been negative. I have been monitored by a hematologist who diagnosed me a few years ago with aplastic anemia after a biopsy. (All the numbers took a drastic plunge that day, but 5 days later were back up)
My wbc count is usually between 3.4-2.4, and plt about 150-140, red cells are always fine.
I went to Barnes in St. Louis, and my white cells actually went to the normal range 4.2- first time in several years. Barnes thought that it might have been a lab error with the previous bloodwork because all the numbers went back up so quickly. They looked at slides of the biopsy I had done and said everything looked ok. I went back home and continued to monitor my white cells every 3 months.
For about 8 months they went and stayed in the 5.1 range, platelets around 155 and so I thought everything was fine, and my hematologist was left scratching his head.
Then June 2011 after bloodwork, they began to fall to 3.94, then in September 2.67, and platelets to 125, red cells at 4.51. The hematologist suggested I speak to a bone marrow transplant doctor at Barnes, so I again went back to St. Louis.
The bmt doc said it would be 'medical malpractice' to even think about a transplant at this point and he wasn't sure what to think because I am not sick. So a month later, I had 2 bone marrow biopsies at Barnes and my white cells went up to 4.3 again, and red cells to 141. He said that it appears there has been some injury to my marrow and that it is "cyclical". He told me to go live my life because I am healthy. But when I asked him what he thought it was, he said "aplastic anemia, but not now".
My pathology report says this and I was wondering if anyone would please give me their opinion about this:
Examination of the right and left bone marrow biopsies and aspirate shows hypocellular marrow (cariable <10% to upto 20-30%) with normal maturation in all cell lineages. No overt dysplasia, excess blasts or features of a specific infectious etiology are seen. The histopathologic features may favor aplastic anemia if other secondary causes of bone marrow suppressionn are excluded and cytogentic/FISH studies are normal. Compared to a previous bone marrow study from July 2010, the overall cellularity has marginally improved from 15% previously to upto 30% in current study, however significant core length shows <10% cellularity on the right side. Flow cytometry shows no excess blasts.
Thank you, and thank you for this website! I am a little lost and overwhelmed waiting for the other shoe to drop and wondering when it will.
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