Slightly high Lymphocytes/WBC - Please help

[glittery]

Hi guys,

Hope you are all doing well.
I last posted here ages ago. Since then I was pretty good at managing my health anxiety.

Recently however me and my partner are thinking of having kids so I did a pre pregnancy test.

I found out from my results that I have thelassemia minor and I am a gene carrier, if my partner does not have thelassemia then we are good to go but otherwise we will need to do genetic counselling before having a child.

All of these were nerve wrecking enough, but to make matters worse I did repeated blood test, CBC, as advised by the doctor.

My WBC overall was 10.5 in October and 11.9 now. My Lymphocyte count was 5 in October and in January it is 5.3. Normal range is around 4.8. I don't remember having any infection except that I had Covid in July last year, had an underarm boil in October and then a viral fever in November (as my husband caught it from me too). My Neutrophils has also gone up but it is still within the normal range. I have no other alarming symptoms yet. No lymph nodes. No frequent fevers.

They did a blood smear and noted "lymphocytes most likely as a reaction." But also asked to retest. Doctor is concerned because he was hoping from October 2024 to January 2025 my WBC would reduce but instead it is showing a slight increase?

My GP really likes to get to the bottom of things so he is asking me test again in a month. I already did mention that I have some sinus issues and he is testing me for that too in case it is my sinus infection causing anything.

My head is thinking CLL, leukemia, all sorts of blood cancers or some other cancer which has advanced and now showing up on the blood report.

Crying all day, missed work today and I dunno what to do.

[debs71]

Hi,

I know it is easy to say and hard to do when you suffer from anxiety (I am also an anxiety sufferer including health stuff) but please try not to worry about Leukaemia/cancer, etc. If you had Leukaemia, your blood counts all across the board would be completely irregular - white cells, red cells, platelets. EVERYTHING. You would also undoubtedly be symptomatic, but if you are saying you feel fine, it is highly unlikely anything as serious as that is going on.

I was a nurse for many years and worked briefly on a children's ward that cared exclsuively for patients with Leukaemia and other blood disorders. Their blood results were completely abnormal in every single count possible. We are talking hugely elevated or very low.

I know it is so easy to jump to the worst possible scenario with anxiety, but please do try not to worry. It is far more likely that you maybe have some underlying infection going on that is just not symptomatic.

Hope this helps x

[glittery]

Hi,

I know it is easy to say and hard to do when you suffer from anxiety (I am also an anxiety sufferer including health stuff) but please try not to worry about Leukaemia/cancer, etc. If you had Leukaemia, your blood counts all across the board would be completely irregular - white cells, red cells, platelets. EVERYTHING. You would also undoubtedly be symptomatic, but if you are saying you feel fine, it is highly unlikely anything as serious as that is going on.

I was a nurse for many years and worked briefly on a children's ward that cared exclsuively for patients with Leukaemia and other blood disorders. Their blood results were completely abnormal in every single count possible. We are talking hugely elevated or very low.

I know it is so easy to jump to the worst possible scenario with anxiety, but please do try not to worry. It is far more likely that you maybe have some underlying infection going on that is just not symptomatic.

Hope this helps x

Hi Deb,

Thank you for your response. I have been crying so much. I keep reading on reddit and other cancer forums how people with no symptoms and relatively low WBC got diagnosed with cancer.

My mind keeps thinking what if my next report also shows a high WBC and what if it does not go down.

And the what ifs are just killing me.