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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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What Causes The Condition For Transfusion Of Blood And Platelets?

Please write your question heremy current labs came back with these figures: wbc 3.1 / rbc 1.76 / hemoglobin 5.9 / hemacrit 17.2 / mcv 97.6 / mch 33.5 / mchc 34.3 / rdw 14.4 / platelet 9.0 / These numbers are so far from any of my labs, every 2-3 months for the past 16 years. I have severe rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, neuralgia, chronic indomnia since early childhood, degenerative disc syndrome and a few other minor issues. My current Dr is freaking out on me that I have to get a transfusion of 3 liters of blood and 20 units of platelets immediately and a colonoscopy right after. He did not explain anything to me and he spoke to me for under 10 minutes where I could not get a word in edgewise. I feel pretty good, no changes that are not RA related. I am really svared
posted on Mon, 4 Aug 2014
Twitter Tue, 26 Aug 2014 Answered on
Twitter Tue, 26 Aug 2014 Last reviewed on
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Internal Medicine Specialist,  's  Response
You are very anemic and your platelets are critically low. This could be related to the rheumatoid arthritis causing a problem with your bone marrow. Diseases like RA are autoimmune, which means your body builds antibodies against itself. Sometimes the antibodies can affect the cells in the bone marrow that produce the different types of blood cells. All your major blood cell lines appear to be affected. That is why your doctor is requesting the transfusions of blood and platelets. If you are otherwise feeling okay, this probably has been going on for a long time. A person with the degree of anemia you have is usually very symptomatic if it's developed fairly quickly. The colonoscopy is to rule out intestinal bleeding which can occur without symptoms and gradually cause severe anemia. But that would not explain the low platelets and white count. The colonscopy is advisable, but I would also recommend other blood tests to see what else might be causing the anemia and other abnormalities. You might need to have a bone marrow test. Ask about seeing a hematologist who is the specialist best suited to figure this out. Hope this answers your query. If you have further questions, I would be happy to answer them.
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What Causes The Condition For Transfusion Of Blood And Platelets?

You are very anemic and your platelets are critically low. This could be related to the rheumatoid arthritis causing a problem with your bone marrow. Diseases like RA are autoimmune, which means your body builds antibodies against itself. Sometimes the antibodies can affect the cells in the bone marrow that produce the different types of blood cells. All your major blood cell lines appear to be affected. That is why your doctor is requesting the transfusions of blood and platelets. If you are otherwise feeling okay, this probably has been going on for a long time. A person with the degree of anemia you have is usually very symptomatic if it s developed fairly quickly. The colonoscopy is to rule out intestinal bleeding which can occur without symptoms and gradually cause severe anemia. But that would not explain the low platelets and white count. The colonscopy is advisable, but I would also recommend other blood tests to see what else might be causing the anemia and other abnormalities. You might need to have a bone marrow test. Ask about seeing a hematologist who is the specialist best suited to figure this out. Hope this answers your query. If you have further questions, I would be happy to answer them.