Would you be overly worried? High WBC

I posted a week ago about my high WBC and low platelets and my now fired hematologist who freaked me out telling me I might have cancer before examining things further.. WBC is 15, platelets are 60,000. I'm 22 yr old female, 32 weeks pregnant and last year after a Miscarriage was the first time I ever knew I had a problem with my blood. The WBC was normal in my past, but around the time I miscarried and fell pregnant again, it can risen to around 12. Then lately, 15.

I also have an infected tooth I just started antibiotics for, so am wondering if that could cause my higher WBC. (And wouldnt pregnancy alone wreck havoc on my immune system and body????) My dentist told me a month ago it was infected, and ive needed a root canal on it for a year.

I have 2 more months of pregnancy, and my OB has sent me to specialists and determined my pregnancy is wonderful and the ITP is no issue at all to my baby. So I am considering just going with the flow until baby is here -- I have a hematology center I go to, but all they could really do for me now is a bone marrow, I guess. Which I don't think I want while pregnant. I'm thinking this is all pregnancy..and my OB sounds like she thinks its pregnancy too, but shes not a blood expert, so is just being cautious. My thought is to wait it out until my body returns to a non-pregnant state.

So.. if you were in my shoes, young, very healthy, with these counts and pregnant. AND you had perfect results for chronic leukemia tests, would you be worried and rushing out thinking its leukemia? The chronic tests I had done were something called CML, FISH, and flocytometry, all normal. My other bloods (hemagloben, hematocrit, red blood, etc) is all normal!

Thoughts?

Well here are the facts but only you can decide whether you want to leave it or not. White cell count can go up in pregnancy and is normal. It is also normal for the white count to go up when there is infection somewhere in the body. So knowing that and with the haematologist not being concerned, if it were me I'd assume all was well. But as I say it's your call.

I just got a call from my OB, my new counts as of yesterday is: 66,000 for platelets and my WBC has dropped *whoohoo* back down to 12.3

Ann wrote:

Well here are the facts but only you can decide whether you want to leave it or not. White cell count can go up in pregnancy and is normal. It is also normal for the white count to go up when there is infection somewhere in the body. So knowing that and with the haematologist not being concerned, if it were me I'd assume all was well. But as I say it's your call.

Thank you. With the wbc coming back down (see my 2nd post) Im still thinking the pregnancy is the culprit, and my infected tooth.

The antibiotics are working then and the count has come down accordingly. Now you can just enjoy your pregnancy.

I actually started the antibiotics AFTER the last blood draw. I've been on the antibiotics less than 24 hours, so my blood went down on its own to 12.3

Even better then.

There's a saying we were introduced to at medical school: when you hear hooves, look for horses, not zebras (meaning consider the common causes first before the rare causes). Your hooves were the high WBC. The commonest cause for raised WBC is infection. Common things occur commonly. Since the most likely explanation for the raised WBCs is the infection that you knew you had anyway, there's little point in worrying about raised WBCs - especially if they are coming down.

Hope the rest of the pregnancy runs smoothly!