587,000 platelets and 22 c reactive protein

[mochapie]

Not feeling well lately and I got blood pressure done which is ridiculously high and was on metoprolol 25 mg once a day which is now gone to two times a day combined with amlodipine combined with olmesartan water pill addition to try to bring the blood pressure down as well as wean off of metoprolol in future. Unfortunately during all this they took my blood and noticed my C-reactive protein is at 22 which is incredibly High 10 should be the highest and my platelets are at 587,000 and they want me to see a hematologist again I've seen her before she has done every test in the book and said I'm sorry I have no answers your platelets are just platelets that run High she has tested for autoimmune disorder also negative. five years ago I was negative on jak2 mutation with a different hematologist. so now I am as worried as ever however for the very first time ever I was told I have anemia I have never had that before. could this be why these platelets are so high that it's reacting and not thrombocytosis essential but more of a reactive but the C-reactive protein being so high could mean three things autoimmune disorder or cardiac or cancer I'm hoping it's the first one. I am 100 pounds overweight and have tmj, massive allergies and in the past with a high platelet count had a small ulcer which they treated with protonix. Can anyone give me advice or tell me to calm down about the blood levels the hemoglobin was 11.3 and I believe the MCHC was also low and a couple of others. I am going for an echocardiogram this Wednesday and the Hemetologist

[Mazcd Partner MPNVoice]

Hi Mochapie, I am sorry that you are feeling so unwell. Hopefully you will start to feel better once your anaemia is under control and also hopefully you will get some more answers from the haematologist today. Good luck and best wishes, Maz

[hunter5582]

Sorry to hear things are so difficult at present. When my blood pressure was up due to hyperviscosity, Losartan worked well for me with no side effects. it really sounds like there is a mystery about what is actually going on. Unfortunately, your situation may be beyond the scope of what many hematologists can assess and treat. It would be a really good idea to see a doc who specializes in MPN care. Here is a list of docs mpnforum.com/list-hem./ ..

I would also wonder about seeing an Immunologist. You certainly do want to get to the bottom of what is going on ASAP.

All the best to you. Hope you get answers soon.

[mochapie in reply to hunter5582]

Thank you Hunter I recently had an echocardiogram which was fine I do have nodules in my thyroid and had an ultrasound done on that but I'm waiting on that result seen my cardiologist and he wants me to do an at home sleep study for sleep apnea and I did talk to my hematologist about the platelets and found out yes I also have anemia but I can tell you the ferrous sulfate 325 mg I absolutely hate these pills but she's expecting the anemia is causing the platelets to be high and hopefully it's not an MPN but we're going to recheck the blood in a few months and if the platelets are still high she's going to check for mutations in the blood although my jak2 mutation in 2015 came back negative. In the meantime my general doctor put me on metoprolol 25mg two a day amlodipine 5 mg one a day as well as olmesartan with the HCTZ built in and two nights ago I felt hot like my body was on fire I couldn't even put a fork to my mouth I was shaking I felt dizzy walked into the wall felt like I was going to pass out and like I was losing breath and my heart was pounding so my husband had a call for an ambulance at the emergency room they suspect it was just too many damn pills with 3 different blood pressure pills and the iron pill just to pull blood pressure down it was just too many pills all at once that they put me on and I did fine for about 10 days on them little shaky , but then all of a sudden it was like full-blown having a heart attack and I was fine in the ER they lumped it up to side effects from too many pills. I know my blood pressure was high 10 days ago but to come at it with three different medications the ER doctor said these are very strong medications and I think you had a very bad reaction to them and I'm honestly praying it's that and not a panic attack because I didn't have anything bad on my mind at the time just finished swimming and relaxing. I think not knowing what's really wrong with me and when I mentioned can I have leukemia at the onset of it they don't exactly say no they say we have to rule out anemia but it's like I want an immediate answer to cancer so I'm just getting myself worked up and Googling everything I can

[hunter5582 in reply to mochapie]

Some blood pressure meds can cause tachycardia and palpitations. nearly all of them can cause dizziness and orthostatic hyoptension. I would expect that the ER was right and you had a bad reaction to the meds. (Just a lay person's opinion). FYI - Tachycardia is frequently misdiagnosed as Panic Attack in women. Glad to hear that did not happen to you. Note: It would be abnormal to not feel anxiety in your current situation. Anxiety is a normal response to feeling a threat. We are designed to feel "anxious" when a saber-tooth tiger is about to pounce on us. That is adaptive. Your "tiger" is the uncertainty of your current health situation. Your response is normal given what you have going on.

There are things you can do to help. What works for me includes:

1. Understanding the physiology of anxiety.

2. Mindfulness practices: I use Qigong and Prayer.

3. Support from family, friends and faith community.

4. Reciting one of my favorite quotes (Frank Herbert, Dune)

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

I hope you get answers soon. No matter what the answer is, knowing is better than no knowing. All the best to you.

[mochapie in reply to hunter5582]

Thank you Hunter it is always a pleasure to hear from you and I do need to calm down it's even giving me gastrointestinal upset to be so worried about everything

[hunter5582 in reply to mochapie]

Not surprised to hear about the GI upset with the anxiety.

Fun Fact - "The Gut Brain" - your GI system is connected to the area of the brain that mediates anxiety, depression, insomnia via the vagus nerve. This is two-way communication. Anxiety hurts your stomach - a hurting stomach neurologically makes you anxious. That is just half the fun. Anxiety causes your body to produce cortisol, cathecholamines and cytokines. Guess what? They make your stomach over-produce acid. It hurts. Inflammation in the GI tract also produces - cytokines, catecholmines and cortisol - which all make you more anxious (and depressed and insomnia). It is a feedback loop that we can get stuck in that can be hard to break out of.

I learned the hard way just how bad this can become. I let the cycle continue so long I ended up with gastritis-esophagitis-peristalsis- and a full blown anxiety disorder (and thrombocytosis near 1 million). I bent myself into a messy pretzel until I figured out it did not matter what caused what. I just had to deal with everything in a different way.

I will never ever let myself go back to that place ever again. Despite all of the challenges I have had in the last couple of years, I have managed to prevent sinking back down into that pit. Sure hope you find ways to do the same. The challenges you describe are difficult and scary. Hopefully, you will get answers and a plan together soon. Until then, I hope you find effective ways to cope and the support you deserve. No matter what, we will all be there for you the best we can.

All the best to you.

[mochapie in reply to hunter5582]

Thank you hunter

[clubdino]

Iron deficiency can cause high platelets and it will cause you to become anemic if left untreated for too long. I'm not sure about the CRP but you did mention you were overweight and I know that that can cause an elevated CRP because overweight people tend to have more inflammation in their body. Here is a link about that:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/105...

Also, I see you were jak2 negative but were you tested for the CALR mutation?

[mochapie in reply to clubdino]

Thank you for responding and no I was not tested for the calr mutation the next blood work we're going to do that

[clubdino in reply to mochapie]

Yeah, you could be calr positive. I'm calr positive and have had ET for 16 years. My platelets have never gone over 550k. At one point I became iron deficient and my platelets jumped 100k but when I started the iron they went back down to their "normal high level" if that makes sense. I was one point away from being anemic.

I also have super high blood pressures randomly (190/100) and now on 2 blood pressure meds. They are working though bc my blood pressure the other day got down to 97/60.