White Blood Cell Count |
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ryleigh0605 
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Joined: Jun 08 2009 Location: Abilene, TX Status: Offline Points: 40 |
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 Topic: White Blood Cell CountPosted: Jun 22 2009 at 6:18pm |
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I have been reading everyones story and nice to find a site that dedicated to triple negative cancer. I wish I had found you when I first diagnosed.
I like many other women, had a mammogram in April 07, no signs. I was moving to my mothers in June to help her and to start a new life. My husband and I had separated after 20+ years.
My brother and I were building a new storage building for my mother, who was still going through the damage of Hurricane Katrina. She lives in Gulfport, MS. Later that night I discovered a lump under my left breast. I had one day left to opt on taking medical insurance from my job that I left. Thank goodness for some very wonderful people, they let the date I mailed be the effective date.
My grandson was born on August 8th with blue baby syndrome and I was diagnosed on August 17th. Because of the agressive behavior of my tumor, I chose to have the double macestomy. I was grade 3, no nodes. So here I am going through a separation, my grandson sick and now me. I was all alone the day that I found out. I remember sitting in my car at a parking lot crying uncontrollably. I was in total shock. No cancer anywhere in my family.
After all the surgeries and chemo and loosing my hair. I am finally through chemo, really bad time with it but made it. My husband and I have decided to try and make our marriage work. I think it was from him feeling so bad when he left me with everything going on, the only problem was, he moved from GA to CA. I hated the idea of being so far from my children. I have never been very far from them, they are my life.
Last May, I started my reconstruction and have had four surgeries so far and they did not turn out very well, but that is ok, I can deal with this right now. My question to anyone that can help is: I have had this terrible pain in my lower sides. My scans did show that I had a cyst on my left kidney and I was 49% blockage of the corotaid arteries, this was discovered in '07. I have since had many test and nothing shows up. This pain is so horrible that I can not walk very well at times. I have never been one to complain but this is taking the cake. I am at the point where I have given up on complaining to the doctor. Recently, I have been having chest pain, so I went to a cardio doctor whose ran a stress test(borderline on this one) and will be having an ultra sound this week of the arteries. He also did blood work and he said that my bad cholesterol was good, my good was low and my white blood cell count was high.
What does this all mean. I have called the oncologist and will see her next week. I am so frustrated with my oncologist. I know that something is wrong, I know my body and I am not well. I can not exercise from the pain, I do good to go to work, which I have had to take a retail job because of the economy, I was an office manager (the job is about to whop my butt). Jobs very scarce in this part of California.
Can someone please let me know that I am not crazy and what do I need to do to get the doctors to listen?
Thank you for your time
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Diana, mother of 2, grandmother of 3
dx 8/07 IDC with medullary features, 1.87cm grade 3, stage 1, 1 node-neg, BRCA neg, Biateral 9/07, ACx4 |
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mefowler
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Joined: Apr 29 2009 Location: Topeka, Kansas Status: Offline Points: 115 |
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Posted: Jun 22 2009 at 7:27pm |
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Dear Ryleigh0605,
Welcome to the TNBC forums! I am sorry that you are going through such a hard time. My first recommendation to you would be to see an internist, or internal medicine doctor. They are taught to diagnose complicated problems. Oncologists and cardiologists start with internal medicine, but then specialize. You need someone who can look at you as a whole person. A cyst on your kidneys is extremely unlikely to be the cause of your pain and is probably an incidental finding (in other words has been there a long time and was only seen because you happened to have a scan.). Have you had a screening colonoscopy? Have you had a CT of your abdomen and pelvis? Do you still have your uterus and ovaries? Specialists are great when you already know what the problem is, but since they are specialists, they do not always keep up on the information for other specialties. Ask around and find out who is a good internist in your new town. I would not go to a family medicine doctor due to your extensive medical problems.
Good luck, and I hope that you get your pain diagnosed soon.
Please feel free to let me know if I can help in any way.
Maire
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53 yo, dx'd 11/08 at 51, 2.9 cm IDC, node-neg, neoadj chemotx with Taxotere/carboplatin q3wks x 6, lumpectomy 4/09, path showed pCR, margin reexcision 5/09, rad'n 6-8/09, intermittent Tarceva, dc'd
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cg---
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Joined: Jul 20 2007 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 1379 |
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Posted: Jun 22 2009 at 7:28pm |
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Dear Diana,
Welcome.
I was diagnosed May 2007, had the mastectomy but did not the reconstruction. You mentioned you have had reconstructions. If you would not mind sharing which type of reconstruction you had - it might give us some insight as to the cause of your pain. The first culprit to a high white count is infection. A chronic smouldering infection could account for your feelings of 'unwellness', pain in an area that has had multiple operations could very well be the 'restructuring' of both sides of your body.
One of the unfortunate things that happens to woman post breast cancer treatment is we become part of a custody battle - and no one wants custody! The primary care sends you to the oncologist, the oncologist kicks you back to the primary "not my problem", the primary care sends you to the surgeon, who then says, "go back to your oncologist or primary care". In the meantime, we end up worn out and untreated for the still unclaimed condition. It is the very rare oncologist that adopts the whole patient after treatment - many are body part specific. And usually one of the doctors we have been dealing with for the past two years will bring in another specialist (some may call this a referral - usually feels like a "dump job"), and with any luck the doctor will be an astute diagnostician and retrace back to the point when you did not have this pain and come up with a causal association and possible diagnosis and treatment plan.
This type of pain wears you down physically and mentally....it is a red flag that something needs to be investigated.
We should have a club called the Oncology Orphans.
One thing I do know, you deserve better, your medical needs are not being met.
Love,
Connie
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ryleigh0605
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Joined: Jun 08 2009 Location: Abilene, TX Status: Offline Points: 40 |
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Posted: Jun 22 2009 at 8:29pm |
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Thank you for responding. I had implants put in, the outcome has not turned out the best. I have several more surgeries that will need to be performed in order for them to look ok. I think there are doctors out there that can do a much better job than mine did. One thing that I encourage everyone to remember, if you do not feel right on the first meeting, do not do it, go somewhere else. He is supposedly the doctor of the year, but it has made him a very busy doctor and sometimes that can be bad. My pain is on the back in the area of my kidneys. I feel like someone is pulling something out of me. Very painful at times. My memory is getting worse instead of better and my head feels like it is swimming in water. I get light headed and have very bad headaches. I realize that we have to deal with many pains after chemo but never realized it would hurt this bad. I have gone as far as to go to a ortho surgeons, who told me that there was nothing wrong with my back, well I knew that. He said maybe therapy. I said for what if there is nothing wrong with my back! It was his way of saying why are you here!
I am to the point now that I get so depressed from hurting, I say to myself "I can not do this anymore" "I am done" I was to the point that I am mad at my oncologist and found myself missing the appt. I have since realized that is not the answer, so I have re-scheduled. I just know that I am not crazy nor a hyperchrondriac.
Thank you for letting me vent. I can not talk with my husband, he thinks that I can not have all this pain. My cancer is over! My sisters are great though, they IM all the time and are always concerned.
Thank you
Diana
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Diana, mother of 2, grandmother of 3
dx 8/07 IDC with medullary features, 1.87cm grade 3, stage 1, 1 node-neg, BRCA neg, Biateral 9/07, ACx4 |
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mainsailset
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Joined: Jul 27 2008 Location: Washington State Status: Offline Points: 5004 |
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Posted: Jun 23 2009 at 9:08am |
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Dear Diana, all the pains & symptoms that you are having are real and they must be totally wearing you down.
My experience (which is limited) is that the white count is telling you your body is fighting an infection, also, mine went high when I still had sugar in my diet. No sugar and the count came right down to normal.
I also fought lower back pain, after I took care of my dad and circumstances meant I abused my back (didn't notice at the time). They did an MRI and found I had stenosis. You might see if they'll do an MRI for you in that area. Once I conquered my fear of the damn MRI machine I actually became quite fond of the monster, it gives good information back.
The light headedness could also be a result of a low red blood count...anemia. I know when I had a low count I walked around like a drunken sailor half the time.
You deserve not just better but THE BEST. Of course you feel like you cannot do this anymore, what you've already done is huge, and certainly more than most get through. The stress you've had must be doubling all the anxiety of the procedures and plain old garbage we face.
I just started a book on "Inflammation" which certainly many of us suffer from. If you get a chance, take a look at some of the threads here on inflammation and then treat yourself to a week of nothing but fresh fruit and raw vegetables and see if you feel better. 'Tis the season and it will help.
How lucky you are to have grandchildren, spoil 'em rotten!
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ryleigh0605
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Joined: Jun 08 2009 Location: Abilene, TX Status: Offline Points: 40 |
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Posted: Jun 23 2009 at 10:41am |
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I have read that a high white means that it is fighting an infection, but I am not sick. I have also read that it can mean that my cancer is back. My sugar was great.
I did have an MRI on my back and it showed nothing. The pain does feel like a back ache, it feels
like someone is trying to pull something out of me and has a burning sensation at times.
I did go and have blood workup at the oncologist yesterday, so I will see what that results is showing.
I am new to this, so can you tell me what you mean by threads? I would love to read about the inflammation.
Thank you for your kind and caring thoughts
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Diana, mother of 2, grandmother of 3
dx 8/07 IDC with medullary features, 1.87cm grade 3, stage 1, 1 node-neg, BRCA neg, Biateral 9/07, ACx4 |
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mainsailset
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Joined: Jul 27 2008 Location: Washington State Status: Offline Points: 5004 |
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Posted: Jun 23 2009 at 1:23pm |
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Hi Diana, sorry I didn't give you a better way to find the "Thread" so here's the link that was posted
By the way, a thread is one of the posted topics, like this one where we all chime in to try and help each other out.
The infection can be invisible to you if it's low grade (in my experience). You may have a only a very slight fever but it's something that is depleting your body.
The MRI could have been taken of the wrong area....makes a difference. My stenosis (which is kind of like a pinched nerve) was happening in my back but it was my knee and upper thigh that were throbbing in pain. My chiropractor was the one who told me where to tell the doctor to aim the MRI (big surprise, eh?)
My experience with the blood work ups is that the onc's have a list of what they generically consider to be appropriate for their care of you. However, I learned I could request more things be added to the test, say the Vit D and my onc was agreeable.
I did a bit of Googling around with "Cancer Muscle bone aches Vitamin D" (cause D's my obsession of late) and came up with lots of hits that pointed to Vit D helping out.
Have you put a cold/heat pack on your back? The burning sensation sounds like a muscle is screaming at you. Of course, I'm just a keyboard opinion here and have nothing professional to help you with, but pain like that has got to extremely harsh to live with.
Give you onc a call and see if they can add D to your blood work, and for heaven's sake make sure they don't use Quest Labs on the D as Quest has a history of bad testing.
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