[Marlene]

Estelle,

When John was in the hospital he had no WBC and spiked really high fevers. I asked how he can run a fever without white cells and the doctor said it wasn't unusual for that to happen. So yes, you can have fevers even when your white count is that low.

The other thing to keep in mind is even though the blood does not show a white count, it doesn't mean his body is not making them. The little he is making, is not staying the blood. Instead, it's moving on to the site or sites of the infection and not showing up when they do the CBC. But it's clear, he's not making enough. Like Neil stated, a growth factor could help this.

Lastly, white cell transfusions are done but very rarely. They did transfuse white cells (just neutrophils if I remember correctly) for John but it was difficult. It took two days to set it up and then they had to stop on the third day due to side effects. We were fortunate in that our hospital had it's own blood donor service and had a dedicated team managing all of John's blood products.