You need to be vigilant about low as well as high white blood cell count. A low count may be brought on by treatments for cancer. If you have cancer, your oncologist and your hematologist will monitor your white cell counts very closely. Low white cell counts can bring along with them the risk of complications.
What is your physician looking for when he does blood work? When he checks your complete blood count, he is looking for:
Platelets – these help your blood to clot. A low count in platelets may mean your body’s blood won’t be able to clot itself.
Red Blood Cells – these carry oxygen through all the parts of your body. Their ability to do this depends on your body’s level of hemoglobin. If your hemoglobin count is low, it makes your system work harder to take oxygen to all the parts of your body, and results in anemia. You may feel short of breath and overly tired, if you are anemic.
White Blood Cells – these help your body to cast off infection and disease. A low white count means your body is more susceptible to disease. A high white blood cell count means that your body is probably already fighting an infection somewhere. Your doctor will determine where the infection is, so it can be treated.
At times, your physician may want to run what’s called a CBC on your blood. This is called a complete blood count, and is useful in telling your physician what is happening in your body.
In addition to a high white blood cell count, your health care provider will also check your blood for low white blood cell counts. Sometimes this is caused by some chemotherapy drugs, which can cause damage to your bone marrow. Bone marrow is responsible for making blood cells, and chemotherapy kills cells within your bone marrow. Your physician will be able to tell you if the treatment plan that he is putting you on could result in a low white blood count.
If your white count is high, that will tell your health care provider that your body is most likely fighting an infection somewhere, and he will then isolate it and treat it with medications, where possible, so that your body does not need to produce the excess of white blood cells.
If you have a low red count in addition to a high white count, you may be suffering from anemia. If you are often short of breath and fatigued, anemia may be the cause. Ask your physician to test for anemia if you are experiencing these symptoms. In some cases, your fatigue will be so severe that you may need to adjust treatments you receive for cancer or other diseases, in order to allow your body to produce more red cells. The white cell count may increase if infection is present.
