Neutropenia

[Nusch]

After my RT in March I’m still low in WBC (Neutropenia). Yesterdays result show 2.6, lowest normal is 4.0. The value didn’t change compared to two months ago. I‘m thinking about my 4th Covid shot but don’t know if that’s good as long as WBC is as low. Any recommendations or hints, how to recover. Many thx!

[LearnAll]

Major treatments like Chemo or Radiations cause neutropenia (low WBC count) in almost all men. This is due to temporary suppression of bone marrow a nd slow down in all blood cells. However, Neutropenia is a temporary side effects and usually goes away with time.It does not need any treatment as as soon as bone marrow starts producing cells ,the WBC count starts recovering. I will wait for 4th Covid shot for another month at least in this situation. But your Doctor can have final say.

[Nusch in reply to LearnAll]

Many thx!

[treedown]

Mine was low and lymphocytes were very low and took almost about 18 months to recover on ADT. If you had no negative reactions to previous shots I see no reason not to stay up to date if thats what your Dr recommends. I just had covid and got my blood draw 3 days after my negative tests. WBC were lower than last test and my MO said that is normal. I expected them to be higher after fighting off the virus.

[Nusch in reply to treedown]

Many thx. May I ask, how low your WBC was?

[treedown in reply to Nusch]

WBC encompasses the total amt of the 5 or 6 individual white blood cells they monitor. My # as a whole only got slightly below normal so what I had was Lymphocytopenia because just my lymphocytes dropped. And they dropped a lot, to 221. My MO and RO agreed I should stop Zytiga for a few weeks as I was getting radiation at the time. When I restarted Zytiga it was at 750mg and remained at that for the rest of my 2 years of ADT.

[Tall_Allen]

It is because your WBC is low that you should have your Covid booster-- you are more susceptible to infection.

[Seasid in reply to Tall_Allen]

Exactly