Blood test abnormalities (Doctor said worried about lymphoma)

[Hijikata]

Howdy all,

I started a new job as an elementary school teacher three months ago and ever since have been getting sick once a month, without fail, and it knocks me out for about a week. Obviously I wasn't too worried because working with kids, pretty much every first year teacher (I used to teach high school but this is still my first time teaching kids this young) gets sick all of the time. But I went to the doctor and let them know and they did a pretty big barrage of blood tests and I got a message saying to come back the test needs to be repeated, which I did today, but now I am going to be stressing about it all week!

Basically my blood test looked alright, I didn't get a print out deliberately so i wouldn't analyse every detail by myself, but there were two red flags.

My monocytes were 11.5 (I assume percent) which is elevated according the doctor. But the big one was my sIL-r2 blood test ,which is a tumour marker, was almost double the reference range marker (mine was 740, reference is like 438) and the doctor said this is quite specific for lymphoma and chronic myeloid leukemia. I honestly can't find that much detail about this particular test except for like case studies which I can't access. I've never even heard of it but now I'm stressing out!

Has anyone else ever had this particular blood test and how did it go?

Thanks in advance

Hiji

[pulisa]

I think you should get back to the doctor and ask for more specific information. Please don't google or research it yourself because you will get false information. Are you being referred to a haematologist or are you having the test repeated first? If you've got or had a virus your white cell results can be significantly affected so it's sensible to redo the test after a week or so.

Sorry if this is useless advice-I've never had that particular test but had to have investigations after dodgy bloods a few years ago (virus had affected them).

I hope you get some reassurance very soon.

[Hijikata]

Thanks for replying mate! Had a repeat test today to see if they were out of whack because I was just getting over a cold when I had them done. I live in Japan and unfortunately today the doctor I saw couldn't speak English whereas the one who ordered the test could. I speak Japanese decently but medical mumbo jumbo is beyond me lol. I guess I just have to wait to see if they are normal now that it's been a month but the waiting is terrible.

[Carys]

Oh gosh I'm so sorry you are having this worry, it must be very frightening and having the difficulty of language barriers.... I will say though that starting working in an elementary school can make you repeatedly ill for a while (I was a primary school teacher and spent my first year ill lol) I am everso sorry I don't know the test you refer to, but just wanted to add some support for you.