Please help: I am a 38 year old black woman. I... - CLL Support

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Please help

4 years ago•8 Replies

I am a 38 year old black woman. I have been sick the past month. Long story short just got out of hospital and I have c diff bacterial virus, CMV viral infection and high liver enzymes. The high liver enzymes might be due to prescription meds. Also blood tests show I might have autoimmune hepatitis. This has been a lot for me and I was just adjusting and the results from al the tests in the hospital just came on my app. Everything looked like expected until I was looking at bloodwork from the ER. It said smudge cells present and I looked on google and freaked out. I see that high white blood cells and low red blood cells is most common but I have diagnosed anxiety and it’s one of the meds the doctor made me stop until my liver numbers are down. This is the last blood test I had done. Only the first test showed smudge cells the others don’t list it at all. Can anyone take a look and tell me what you think? It’s only lets me post one photo so this is my count. Please be honest. I’m trying to prepare myself

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Diva7633

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8 Replies

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4 years ago

until your totally cleared up of c-diff and your hepatitis issues i would;t believe the rest.

AussieNeilPartnerAdministrator4 years ago

I agree with Ivotedfornixon and scottxxo. You are jumping way ahead with your concerns. Given your WBC is in the normal range, those smudge cells could just be due to the way the blood slide was prepared. You don't have a diagnosis of CLL or any other blood cancer.

Trends/consistent out of usual results are what's important, not a once off observation. Remember when you are Googling for health information, what gets returned reflects the degree of interest in a result, not its incidence. Blood cancers are rare. The median age at diagnosis for CLL is 70!

Neil

Yuck in reply to AussieNeil4 years ago

Great to see you posting, Neil!

More than “makes my day.”

AussieNeilPartnerAdministrator in reply to Yuck4 years ago

It's great to feel up to posting! Thanks

J_884 years ago

If it said smudge cells present then you need to get a flow cytometry done to see if it's CLL. On my blood work it always says smudge cells present. I am only 31.

Diva7633 in reply to J_884 years ago

It in,y said it once. I had about a bunch of blood tests done after and it never mentioned it again.

MsLockYourPostsPassed Volunteer4 years ago

You clearly have some difficult healt issues going on. Please, for your sake, avoid Dr. Google. You can search something like smudge cells and come up with 10 or more things that are going to kill you, when, in fact, they were noted once because of something as simple as the way the blood sample was handled. My doctor gently reminds me, when I freak out about things I find on google, that I'm missing one important thing - medical school. I hope you feel better soon!

Jm954Administrator4 years ago

Smudge cells are an artefact that DO NOT MEAN A DIAGNOSIS OF LEUKAEMIA.

They can be caused because the sample is old or the skill of the smear maker so please don’t worry about them.

As this is a group for CLL patients I am closing your post to replies to prevent you getting CLL focussed and unhelpful replies which will make you more anxious.

I wish you all the very best.

Jackie

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