Shelby continued to have a fever until late this afternoon. Her white blood cell count (wbc) is almost non-existent at .6 (or 600 for many of you) and her absolute neutrophil count (ANC) is 204. She is severely neutropenic therefore she is at very high risk for catching ANYTHING. ARGH! Tomorrow Hematology will be consulted. As of right now, nothing has grown on her new cultures and she has tested negative for tons of viruses.
This is scary. Please pray that Shelby's numbers improve or that the doctors can figure out a way to help her.
3 comments:
I'm so sorry, Jennifer. I'm hoping those numbers finally start coming up. That's some crazy stuff there. If it's all the spleen because of the portal hypertension, has anyone talked about a shunt to relieve the pressure? Obviously I don't know all Shelby's numbers and history and don't have anything like a medical degree, but surely it's not OK to have her ANC going this low on a regular basis. That's just asking for trouble.
I agree Moreena. It's not o.k. to say "oh well, this is going to happen b/c of her big spleen, but just go on with your life...and make sure to wash your hands good." Dr. Alonso said about a year ago that Shelby was NOT a candidate for a shunt b/c she was headed towards transplant. Since then, no transplant talk. Huh?!? Her platelets are like 40,000. Chicago used to say kids w/big spleens were o.k. w/low platelets as long as they were above 55,000. No mention of that being a problem, either. Where's the consistency????
Jen--I think that the low platelets, like 40,000, are much less of a problem than her ANC going that low. A kid with platelets at 40,000 doesn't need the kind of precautions that someone with that ANC needs. That's the weird bit, and the one that I think is a much bigger deal. Have you found someone on LF that has some experience with low ANC?
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