Should someone go for a blood test..?

[Kwenda]

Should someone go for a blood draw..?

It’s is the beginning of the flu season and some say it started early in England this year.

But the question is:-

The semi annual blood test is due next week, BUT I already have a bad case of the flu.

Should I still have the blood draw or will the results all be out of my version of ‘normal’..?

Dick

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator]

Dick,

I'd give it a couple of weeks to minimise the possible influence of the flu on your ALC. On 22-Jan-2011, Terry Hamblin stated in the ACOR-CLL List The absolute lymphocyte (count) can rise because of infection, and unless it is over 30(k), doubling time is irrelevant.”

Your white blood cell counts (lymphocytes, neutrophils, monocytes, eosinophils and basophils), can be increased by bacterial, viral, fungal or parasite infections and allergic inflammatory responses. But then sometimes infections can suppress your counts!

If you have an imminent appointment with your specialist that you can't defer and hence can't defer your blood test, let your specialist know so any out of the ordinary result can be checked by a subsequent test after a suitable waiting period.

I suspect the degree of lymphocyte change with infection is subject to individual variation, the illness type and severity, what stage of SLL/CLL you are at, how impacted your bone marrow is and so on.

Neil