White blood cell count

[mgw]

Hi I'm really panicking about my white blood cell count an was wondering I anyone could offer any ideas of why this could be..

For the last few blood tests I have had my white blood cell count has been outside normal levels and high.. I remember having a urine test a year and a half ago where white blood cell counts were high in a urine sample..

I now have to make an appointment to be examined for spleen enlargement or anything else that could be causing this and am really panicking :(

[Vigilante]

I may be wrong but don't White cell count go up in the case of anything from viruses/infections to cancers.

If it helps my Mum had in the doctors words "far too many white cells" in a blood test years ago and she was supposed to have a further blood test to recheck that a week or so after. She never did have it re-tested and shes still here and fine.

[Althea]

I now have to make an appointment to be examined for spleen enlargement or anything else that could be causing this and am really panicking :(

Is that what your doctor has recommended? Or is that what your health anxiety is telling you about a test result that hasn't bothered your doctors?

[mgw]

Thanks for your replies.

I'm worrying because I haven't had an infection tht I can think of and for this long I don't see how it can be an infection..
And the doctors have recommended this to me.. I think the spleen enlargement examination is due to unexplained bruises I originally went in to ask about.. They did blood tests for liver functions which came back fine but again saw the high white blood cell count :(

[KLP]

Mine was tested earlier this month and was 2.9. I'd asked for a copy of the history if my bloods and it looks like I have a history of low wbc, except in pregnancy when it was normal.

[Althea]

Okay, your doctors have recommended it--that's actually easier to deal with! It doesn't have to be an infection to raise the WBC, but they want to make sure it's just you being you and nothing that needs fixing.

[mgw]

Can it ever be normal to have persistent high white blood cell counts then? Thankyou again so much for replying

[Vigilante]

Not sure, I just know its basically how the body fights things off, How long has it been high and what kind of high are we talking about?

I recently had to see a blood specialist myself, my white cell count was normal but red cell count is always raised and along with that I have high b12 and Immunoglobin A. They basically checked my spleen and nodes by feeling then did a few more blood tests which were normal, so I was discharged.

I'm assuming one result out of line does probably not mean a great deal by itself, I have heard it mentioned that you could take 100 people off the street and blood test and find something wrong in 50 of them.

Try not to worry, go for the spleen test but I'm sure you will be fine.

[Althea]

Can it ever be normal to have persistent high white blood cell counts then? Thankyou again so much for replying

It can be normal for you, or it can be normal for now for you because of something that will go away on its own that you don't know about, or it can be normal for you as a part of your body's anxiety response. There are all kinds of things that affect your WBC, and mostly the doctors just want to rule out anything that would really need attention.

[mgw]

Thankyou all so much for your reassurance :).
Went to the doctors today (a different surgery as am home from uni at the moment) and the doctor said she didn't understand why my other doctors were worried as they aren't abnormally high. She also examined my spleen and it was fine :)

[emlica]

Oh that's good. Different GPs have different ideas of 'normal' - so for instance, if you're at the top end of the normal range, some GPs might think that was a bit high, while others take the normal range to mean exactly that - they're normal.

[Vigilante]

Yeah, blood tests are kind of open to debate at times as to what exactly is normal. labs define a range based on say 100 peoples results some will have high and some will have low so they create an average range.

Some people will always fall outside of this range at either end.

Good that your spleen is normal.

[mgw]

Right so just got back from the doctors.. White blood cell count is now 16.8, so got higher again, no infections I know of etc..
Doctor felt my liver/spleen and said that it feels abit strange..
So am now being reffered to hopsital for a scan..
If that comes back okay I have to go to a heamotologist (No idea how to spell that!)

Really panicking about all this now, really putting me down :(

[KLP]

Over the period of my anxiety, my wbc has lowered from 3.5, then 3.2, and the last one earlier this month was 2.9.. It might be that our anxiety is causing our wbc to go a little haywire. My doctor is sending a letter to a haematologist, to see if they think further investigation is necessary. But I'm also going to see my sons consultant haemophilia next week and ask him his opinion as well.

[mgw]

Thanks for your reply KLP, yeah I've read quite a lot on here about people with anxiety having low white blood cell counts, and that it can easily be due to stress etc! Just haven't really found anything about it being high :( Hope all goes well with haemophilia consultant, sure it will x