Odd questions

Okay this may seem odd, but I'm trying to make since of it all too. About a week and half ago I saw my hemo for the first time in three months, he noted that my white blood cell count was low. He asked if I was feeling bad or had any type of infection in the past few days, which I hadn't. He did change my schedule to see him to two months instead of three with blood work every month. Yesterday I went to my gastro doctor he noted that my liver function test showed high ALT and AST, and he wants to do a biopsy. Now I don't feel as confident about him as I do my hemo. MY hemo is the best, he talks to me for as long as it takes. Dr. Joe Bond Rolla Missouri. The gastro doctor yammered on for ten minutes about fatty liver leading to cancer 4% of which I understood and those test results. Which I didn't know he even ordered as part of my blood work before my colonoscopy. I agreed to redo the liver test and he said he would call with the results and possibly schedule the biopsy if needed. This is all very confusing and a bit scary. I have a call into my PCP to see if we can do some retesting before my appointment with him on the 28th. Anyone know what any of this means? Low white blood cell count, high ALT AST counts.

Thanks Rodger

Rodger,

My son's liver enzymes have run high for years as a result of his immune system being low functioning. Do you know how high they are? Are you talking 10 pts. too high or 100 pts. too high? Anything 120 and higher is a concern. Lower then that, it can just be your body's immune system having issues. Bubba's white cells ran low when his platelets were low. How low is low? ANC's below 500? Is it possible your body is in a dropping phase of platelets (in other words, it's gearing for a drop immune wise but hasn't shown up in blood work yet)? I guess I would be very hesitant to allow a liver biopsy unless there were some other data points showing the need. They thought my son had fatty liver too. If they think that, adjust your diet and see what your enzymes do in a few months. You won't see much change in them in just a few weeks. Do you have any other physical symptoms (pain?)? It's taken a long time but we're finally almost at normal liver enzymes as Bubba heals. I guess I'm just saying there can be a lot of reasons for high liver enzymes and assuming the worst at the get go seems alarmist to me. Something just doesn't add up here.

My .02

Thanks Patti. The way the gastro guy was talking concerned me. He seemed in a rush, to do the liver biopsy. I'm going to wait to do much of anything until after talking with Dr. Bond (hemo) at the end of January. If he can wait and see what happens till then so can I. Dr. Bond said if anything came up to call and they would get me in to see him, so I have that open invitation. My last platelet count was 169 only down a little from the previous 11 months, after I finished my rituxan treatment last December. Thanks Rodger

My sister does not have ITP, she has a different blood disorder. It was actually discovered because her liver enzyme levels kept rising. It turned out that in her case an enlarged spleen was causing the rise, not the liver itself.