High haemoglobin mystery - any connection with my T3?

[Agapanthus]

I am about to have an operation which incidentally I am dreading. I have a Giant intermuscular lipoma growing inside a muscle in my right arm above my elbow and very close to the radial nerve. I have been told that there is a 10% chance that they may hit the radial nerve when trying to cut it out which would give me 'wrist drop' a horrible disability for someone right handed. If I don't have it removed the lipoma could hit it instead with similar results.

As part of the pre op, I have had blood tests done which are mostly OK, but one is a mystery to me, and I am concerned that no one leaps on my T3 monotherapy (approx 14 yrs NHS) as the reason for it. It seems that they tested my blood for clots last time and this, due to high haemoglobin levels as this can thicken the blood. I checked back and they have been high in range since 2013 (all the results I have on my NHS link though I may try to see if there are others). Now it has tipped over into slightly over range and they want me to have another test on it. Happily no clots, and from what I can make out they also check the haematocrit and that is perfectly normal. My red blood cell count is also high but in range.

By some quirk of fate, I also have low platelets possibly autoimmune as I had them in pregnancy 40 yrs ago with thrombocytopenia and they give the opposite issue re blood being thinned! So one hopes that one is counteracting the other maybe?

At any rate I was curious as to what may be causing it, and googled. I don't seem to obvious fit any of the usual reasons. So I then googled 'high haemoglobin' and 'thyroid' and it seems that having an overactive thyroid can cause this. Of course the NHS would believe that I did have this as my TSH has been below range ever since I went on T3 so many years back. I have had a REMS scan last year to check my bones (I am 72 next week), as a DEXA had given me a severe osteoporosis diagnosis 8 years back despite no fractures before or since, and the REMS scan with the advice of Nick Birch with Osteoscan disagreed for 2 very clear reasons, so I am only osteopenic in fact, which is normal. I don't have any other signs of being overactive. I don't have Atrial Fibrillation either.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this in case someone else might challenge me on this in the Drs or hospital?

[FallingInReverse]

Personally I can’t help, but there is a “Related Post” showing up right under this called:

T3 only, high RBC, haemoglobin and hematocrit

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

which has a reference to this list within it:

FBC interpretation help please!

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Possible you might find something helpful to your situation, including that many of the people writing are still active on the board!

[Agapanthus in reply to FallingInReverse]

Thank you for that link FallingInReverse - that is very helpful and interesting to read.

[Obsdian]

I don't have any information or knowledge to share but I have mild polycythemia as well. In the past I was naturally a high hemoglobin producer and chronic illness has pushed me that bit over.

[Agapanthus in reply to Obsdian]

Apologies Obsidian. I only just saw your post. I am due for a retest next week and really hoping it's dropped down a bit, as one of the side effects I was getting was a sweat as I woke (I am 20 yrs post menopause!). Now this seems to be calming down a bit so maybe I am not so high.

I suspect that both my low platelets and high haemoglobin are autoimmune. I have had a lot of stress recently, so no doubt this impacts on my scores if there is autoimmunity. I am retired so normally my life is quite calm, but something very stressful happened in my family, and also I have an operation looming

[Obsdian in reply to Agapanthus]

I've been quite ill the past few months and improving now. As s result I've had a lot of blood tests. I've been watching my hemoglobin results. I don't understand what affects it, but in the last month of starting to improve it's dropped 9 points. Found that interesting.

[Brychni]

Hi there - I have exactly the same thing: low platelets and today for the first time (actually second but that's another story) I had results showing high haemoglobin mch, whatever that is. I also have antibeta2 glycoprotein1 antibodies. Was diagnosed a few years ago with undifferntiated Inflammatory Arthirtis which has now been changed to with Lupus and connective Tissue Disease - also now weird spots because of the low platelets. The list goes on and now this. I have been googling and found your post.

So I have the same question regarding clots ahd thin blood because the antibeta2 thickens the blood and I am supposed to take an aspirin every day but the low platelets apparetly thins the blood although not until they get really low. Ad now, I read the high haemoglobin also thickens the blood! I asked my rheumatologist if they cancelled each other out and was told 'it doesn't work like that' but when I get the bruises and petechia I wonder if I should be taking the asprin.

I had an appointment today when I collected the results but niether of noticed the mch and just talked abou the low platelets - so I suppose I need to call the surgery and ask if any further blood test needs to be done.

Be interesting to see how you get on.

[Agapanthus in reply to Brychni]

Hello Brychni . You have a lot going on there. How interesting that we have the same though with the low platelets and high haemoglobin.

I checked out MCT and it means this apparently though you may have googled it yourself by now.

'MCH stands for mean corpuscular hemoglobin. MCH measures the average amount of hemoglobin within a red blood cell. MCH is one measurement of your red blood cells' health that is recorded during a complete blood count. The normal range for MCH is 27 to 31 picograms per cell.'

Are you in the UK?

I am getting on in years now at 72, but about 40 years ago when I had my last child, I had ITP, which is thrombocytopenia in pregnancy, where the platelets go very low. It resolved afterwards, but at some point many years later my platelets could be seen to be low, but maybe not as low as yours are now, as I am mostly not getting symptoms - no bruising at any rate, or spots, though a very few petechiae.

I think this was my first autoimmune disorder, and when you get one, you tend to get more, and so about 10 years on I was diagnosed with autoimmune underactive thyroid at age 44. 10 years later I got Lichen Planus. All have been pretty stable for years, but looking at my test results I spotted that I was high in range with the high haemoglobin, for many years, and it's not tipped over slightly.

Thank you for telling me the answer to the question if the low platelets cancel out the thick blood re the high haemoglobin. That's a bit disappointing. I am very interested in the test you had done for antibeta2 glycoprotein1 antibodies. I had to google that to understand what it was. Why did they test you for that? Was it because of the high haemoglobin or something else?

I have a retest of my haemoglobin next week I think, and am hoping it may have gone back down. I am due for an operation in October, so would like it to go smoothly of course. I am concerned about the thick blood and clots as my father died of a stroke, and I never knew the reason why he got one, though at 84 it's not unusual.