Leukemia & CBC

[sammyc7392]

hey guys,

does anyone know if a cbc (includes diff/plt) would show blast cells? everything came back normal. im still thinking that i have leukemia at the moment since i have these red pen prick dots isolated about 15 of them on various parts of my body.

[CHELLEB1017]

I just had about 15-20 under my breasts last week from leaning over too hard on the bathtub bathing my son. Took about a week to go away. I also had a patch of them on my arm from itching a few weeks ago which took a few days also to go away. From what I know and I am no doctor blood cancers would put blood cell counts out of whack so they would look further into it and see whats going on.

[sammyc7392]

mine dont seem to be going away. and i am noticing more no trauma unless it takes a week to show. would a cbc w diff/platelets show leukemia even if mine was normal? was it missed?

[CHELLEB1017]

I think your would have numbers way out of normal range! I would say you are fine!

[StirCrazy]

Aren't the 'red pin prick' dots supposed to form in clusters as a possible sign of leukaemia?

I ask, as, as well as all the other symptoms I've had, I also noticed some of these red blood dots. Maybe about 15 in total - but they are not all together in a 'rash'.

[Meriland30]

Leukemia is one of the only types of cancers that are readily evident as a severe abnormality via blood test. Your white blood cells would be COMPLETELY off....

[StirCrazy]

Leukemia is one of the only types of cancers that are readily evident as a severe abnormality via blood test. Your white blood cells would be COMPLETELY off....

My last blood test was pretty off. High white blood cell count - but at that time I didn't have any 'cold symptoms' (just nerve twitching).

Leukaemia is the main thing that comes up when you search for high white blood count. :scared15:

[Meriland30]

My last blood test was pretty off. High white blood cell count - but at that time I didn't have any 'cold symptoms' (just nerve twitching).

Leukaemia is the main thing that comes up when you search for high white blood count. :scared15:

Smoking and stress in and of itself cause cause high WBC. Yeah, and ALS comes up when you look up body fasciculations which I have and when I went to the neuro it was diagnosed as benign...

Also, you don't necessarily need to be symptomatic with the flu or cold in order to have a high WBC.

[StirCrazy]

Smoking and stress in and of itself cause cause high WBC. Yeah, and ALS comes up when you look up body fasciculations which I have and when I went to the neuro it was diagnosed as benign...

Also, you don't necessarily need to be symptomatic with the flu or cold in order to have a high WBC.

Hi. Speaking of me personally I don't smoke and wasn't feeling any stress at the time either. I have to deal with a lot and generally have always just got on with it.

Also, as loads of people do, I've been through the scary staying up all night searching symptoms and the 'have I got ALS' stage - including the almost constant strength/balance tests . I can't be sure as I've not been for some proper tests yet but I don't think I have that, nor do I think it's benign as I twitch literally everywhere and it didn't stop when I tensed the muscle near or under the twitch - which I've read from various sources that it should do if you have BFS.

The worst thing was when I got the blood test back and analysed the high white blood count, then got the red spots a couple of night sweats and asked my dad why I never met 'grandma' (found out she died of leukaemia before I was born at quite a young age). After putting all that together things just spiralled out of control for a while.

I don't want to derail the thread, but I obviously have done a LOT of reading and watching over the last 3 months so can almost imagine what it's like to finally get 'bad news' confirmed. I guess for you BFS diagnoses was a big relief.

[Meriland30]

Hi. Speaking of me personally I don't smoke and wasn't feeling any stress at the time either. I have to deal with a lot and generally have always just got on with it.

Also, as loads of people do, I've been through the scary staying up all night searching symptoms and the 'have I got ALS' stage - including the almost constant strength/balance tests . I can't be sure as I've not been for some proper tests yet but I don't think I have that, nor do I think it's benign as I twitch literally everywhere and it didn't stop when I tensed the muscle near or under the twitch - which I've read from various sources that it should do if you have BFS.

The worst thing was when I got the blood test back and analysed the high white blood count, then got the red spots a couple of night sweats and asked my dad why I never met 'grandma' (found out she died of leukaemia before I was born at quite a young age). After putting all that together things just spiralled out of control for a while.

I don't want to derail the thread, but I obviously have done a LOT of reading and watching over the last 3 months so can almost imagine what it's like to finally get 'bad news' confirmed. I guess for you BFS diagnoses was a big relief.

I had a ALS phase much similar to yours, in fact, one of my first posts on this site related to that. I was convinced, terrified for months to the point where I lost my job over it. BFS is tricky, really...really tricky. You go onto the forums and you will find many people have it throughout movement, and some abate via movement. You find some can elicit a response via tapping, and some can not.

My twitches were literally in every single body part from the bottoms of my feet, to my tongue, and very apparent. I was so convinced that I had ALS that i literally developed psychogenic weakness in my legs and arms, and it was so convincing that I could not lift a 10 lb dumbell with my left hand vs my right. This, is what sent me to a neurologist. Now, my neuro made it explicit that in ALS, 99% of the time TWITCHES COME AFTER WEAKNESS. Not the other way around, this is cause the twitches are a result of reinnervation of dead muscle fibers. Next thing he did was check my reflexes. ALS effects your lower, and upper neurons...so when checking basic reflexes (hitting kneecap, arms, etc) they are either spastic, or absent. Mine were normal, all was normal, as was my strength tests.. even on my crappy arm which subsequently improved a week later after I stopped worrying over the disease, and within two weeks post worrying about ALS, my twitches subsided on their own about 80%.

It is also notable that ALS is VERY rare, 1 per 100,000 cases and the majority of those cases being older, extreme athletes. Twitches without clinical weakness is almost always benign. Btw, it is focal twitches that are more troublesome than sporadic widespread. ALS twitches spread from a location in a slow fashion, BFS twitches and any other benign twitch almost always presents as a sporadic, all over the place twitch. I wouldn't worry about the twitches, I really wouldn't. Unless you wake up one day and collapse on the floor cause your leg gave out completely and permanently, then I wouldn't worry about anything serious. ALS clinical weakness is different than perceived weakness. Clinical weakness means that the body part in question is not respondable to the point where it seems detached from your mind and body, not just that your body part feels slightly weaker than the other.

As for the WBC and other symptoms, well, I literally just pulled stress and smoking as two of many benign reasons just for reference. Leukemia is only ever very rarely associated with genetics, and usually that is apparent when when your parent, along with grandparent develop the disease, and is usually the result of specifically named genetic mutation syndromes. If your grandmothers kid (your parent) does not yet have it, then you are unlikely to have it seeing as usual genetic mutations are inherited in a 50/50 fashion most of the time, if the child doesn't inherit the mutation, then that is where the road stopped. I really would not worry about night sweats and red dots, as I get both frequently as well, especially when I am worried about something, which you obviously are. If you are entirely concerned, there is no harm in going back to get a more extensive blood test done to rule out leukemia, which they can do...