White blood cell count post treatment still low

dclear14
dclear14 Member Posts: 36
in Head and Neck Cancer #1

Hello,

My husband Robert's white blood cell count is at 1.8 nine months post treatment.  Family Dr. wants to get his chemo doc involved.    Aren't there shots that he could get to boost his cell count?

Comments

  • phrannie51
    phrannie51 Member Posts: 4,716
    #2
    Yes...there are shots to boost the WBC count...

    Neupogen and Nulasta do.  They may not want to give those to him now that he is finished with treatments, tho.  My counts were still low the last time they tested my blood, and I was 3 months out of treatment.  They just said it takes time for the bone marrow to build it back up....no need for anything to help it.  Nine months seems like a long time to me, tho....but I've heard it takes a year for the body to get back to normal after the treatment we've been thru.

    p

  • Ladylacy
    Ladylacy Member Posts: 773 Member
    #3
    White blood count

    When my husband finished his first round of chemo treatments in October 2010, his count was so low that they gave him a blood transfusion which helped to bring it up.  When he finished his second round of chemo treatment in July 2012 his count was low, but not as low as your husband's and not as low as the first time.  The count is gradually coming up.  There could be other reasons for such a low blood count and maybe you should see the chemo doctor involved.   Maybe your husband needs a blood transfusion that is a very low blood count.

  • corleone
    corleone Member Posts: 312 Member
    #4
    Need to check this with your MD

    … because the count is too low, especially 9 months post treatment. Someone (best hematologist, or the medical oncologist) needs to look into this. Of course you can get the granulocyte colony stimulating factors (G-CSF) like Neulasta but the problem is it doesn’t resolve the root cause, and I don’t think you’ll get it anyway, before determining the cause.

  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #5
    WBC ~ Neulasta..

    Like P said, I had three injections of Neulasta, one after each big dose of chemo. I had low WBC during Tx, and it did take nearly a year before all of my bloodwork came back in normal ranges.

    Always a good idea to get your MD's involed and communicate with them.. My onco, was actually a hematology oncologists, so she was hot on my bloodwork.

    Best,

    John

  • D Lewis
    D Lewis Member Posts: 1,581 Member
    #6
    WBC count still a bit low here

    I'm roughly 2 1/2 years out from treatment, and my white blood cell count is just a bit below normal. My treating chemo oncologist was never bothered by it.  He recently retired and the new chemo oncologist doing my follow up suggested that I might need a bone marrow biopsy to identify the "cause" of this low white blood cell count. I resisted, six months later my count had climbed up just a bit (still just below normal) and my new chemo oncologist had six more months of experience under her belt.  This last exam, she wasn't so worried about it.

    I did have the neulasta shots during treatment.

    Deb

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