MISSING LARGE QTY OF RED BLOOD CELLS

I've been dealing with on-again, off-again anemia for seven years.

You lose blood cells by bleeding--they don't simply vanish. Bleeding comes from sores/ulcers, tumors, or imperfect, cantankerous capillaries.

Your doctor has ordered all manner of tests to locate the site and to establish the cause of the bleeding.

Hold your dominion.

Hi everybody..Hi Noddy.

The same thing happened with me months ago. I was in a maze, and

mystified with brother case. Now, he's ok, what the doctors found out?

nothing that really describe his situation.

The last diagnosis was that all what was happening to him only becasue

the spinal cord went crazy and made all these dsiorders and there was

nothing to do except waiting with patience.

It's true that doctors who really want to help or enjoy their work are few.

I pray that you find a solution for this soon.

Hold your dominion.

I don't know if it could be a hemolytic anemia. I looked that up on medline, here -
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000571.htm

Thank you much, you darling people. I DID have minor
surgery in January but it was laparoscopic and didn't cause
ANY blood loss. There simply IS NO sensible reason for this,
and the numbers of blood tests they did are astronomical.
I am wondering that the RBC's are being destroyed by something
OR (shudder to think) are not being reproduced as is typical &
normal by the bone marrow. (isn't that where they are produced??)
I have only been out of the hospital for about a week now and
the fatigue is already worsening. By the way Osso,Noddy and all
Thanks much. Good news, though, my fellow A2K'ers, I HAVE
decided upon a new family physician/internist to try out. I'm
seeing him on Monday, and then I'll see if we "click". More &
more often now I base ALL such decisions to a large extent using
more of my instinct than what other persons say about the person.
The instinctual feeling will hit me within 5 minutes of being in this
doctor's presence - and I will just know. I don't know how I
ever got along in life not knowing how to trust my own gut
reactions. That was only one of the dreadful results of growing
up in a family suffering from/with alcoholism. I was sort of
brought up to "ignore" what I actually saw/ knew.
Dad would say "You have to understand, your mother is very
ill, very sick." That caused me to become used to "tolerate"
very weird behavior from other people too. So for most of my
young life (up till my mid to late
40's or so) I operated much like a blind person walking without
even the benefit of a blind cane. However, recovering &
learning to trust my own instincts has made such a wonderful
difference in my life. I have no bleeding ulcer, no bowel issues
(had my colonoscopy last year) No breast CA spreading, I had
a clear mammogram just last month. It sounds most suspicious,
the way the one scan was ordered - as if the hemotologist were
LOOKING for where the metastases were. AND the way that my
rheumatologist did not really want to discuss it, and he usually
will talk about anything with me. He said I must get a
new internist to coordinate my care, since I'd fired the old one.

Babs--

Suspend dither for the moment and focus on finding an Internist whom you can trust.

As one cancer survivor to another, even if there are no problems today, this is not a guarantee that tomorrow will be trouble free.

Find a good Internist--STAT.

Thanks much, you dear folks, so far it looks like
I have a form of myeloma ... but the good news is that there
are a number of different types of and stages of this condition
and some testing will need to be done to find out more.
So - I guess I will be waiting and seeing.

Babs--

How grim. Keep us posted.

Hold your dominion.

Oh Noddy, it does sound grim doesn't it? The only advantage
that I can see is that being such a grim situation, I would most
likely have a prognosis and a fairly good idea about how long
I'd be expected to survive the disease - during which time I could
really live it up- never having to save for "that rainy day" ever
again.

There is nothing sure-fire about a medical prognosis.

I have a young (in her 40's) cousin diagnosed seven years ago with multiple myeloma. She's still alive--and was able to raise her son from a child of 14 to a man of 21.

Hold your dominion.

Low red blood cell count means anemia. It's common among heavy drinkers as they age. I had stopped drinking on doctors advice but later on I began having disabling inflammations in my ankles and knees. I had been seeing an internist and was referred to a rheumatologist.

The internist was a young doctor and since was no longer drinking he discounted gout and he noted the acid in my blood was "a little high." The rheumatologist ran his own tests and determined my blood acid to be much to high and in fact was the cause of the disabling pains in my knees and ankles. Although it did not affect my toes which is common for gout it was gout and he prescribed two medicines to take. The pain and symptoms have not come back since.

There are a host of problems you will experience if you drink a lot of beer as you get older. It is normal for that to happen.

My liver re-manufactured itself, platforms are once again within normal range, my hernia is no problem. I don't even notice it, my weight is normal and most of all I no longer have the gout. I take seven different kinds of medicines daily but who cares. :wink:

Well Jack, it's a well proven fact that drinking can kill you. I had a
long ago exhusband of 26 or 27 years ago who finally succeeded in
committing suicide by alcoholism. What a waste of a human life.
As for me- I gave up drinking totally way back in September 1985,
and I was fortunate that it did not do any damage to my liver.
Quiting smoking was harder, for me. I must have went through
10 boxes of those patches, at least. I would get frustrated and rip
the patch off - go buy a pack of cigarettes - then be angry with
myself for the remainder of the day. Now that it's been well over
10 years - I never think about it anymore.....what a gift, I don't
think anyone could EVER force, coerce me to start smoking ever
again. it was simply too hard to quit....and now the hard part is
over, I want to keep it that way.

Babs--

Small world, isn't it? Of course, some worlds are smaller than others.

BiPolarBear had the same situation, Babs, and he is fine now. Hope things work out for you. I had the laparoscopy for my gall bladder, and it was marvelous. No problem whatsoever.

Hey, navigator. Good to see you, honey, and glad that your brother is doing well.

Hi Noddy, Navigator, Letty & all. I want you to know that despite the
diagnosis, I AM HOLDING MY OWN . My RBC count has only
declined slowly the past month, which is a MIRACLE compared to what
it was doing before. Of course I had a few treatments by my neice
who is an accupuncturist ( and a truly dedicated healer ) and while
looking up all kinds of things about various kinds of myeloma and
anemias - I found a site on Pub Med which is mostly research and not
very helpful but it seems they have noted that drinking black teas has
a negative impact on your absorption of iron and production of red
blood cells, and suggested GREEN TEAS as the best alternative medication.
Well - what green tea has done for me is truly amazing. I am not healed anything BUT my digestive problems ARE ALL GONE!! No more sluggish intestinal tract, constipation (which has plagued me for years and years - so much so that I lived on a high fiber diet & Milk of Magnesia because it's the only "safe" laxative for regular use.) It is as if I had a complete digestive tract transplant that is how amazing the difference is just from switching to green tea. Of course, you'd have to understand that drinking iced tea 24/7 has been my habit for many years. I switched to green tea and it tastes just as good, better in fact. It has some potent healing powers. Give it a try for what ails you. I am also eating foods that I crave, which happen to be things that are red (blood builders) steak, beets, orange squash, pink grapefruit, strawberries, tons of new foods that I just suddenly can't get enough of. Between my neice with
her degree in chinese medicine & accupuncture, and a friend from Boston who is an organic/ macrobiotic cook, changing my eating; and some changes in my life externally as well.... there is absolutely no telling.
I'm not out of the woods. I tire very,very easily but then I've been told that I now have pernicious anemia too, so now I give myself my B-12 shot every month like a good patient. All in all ...yes, I AM feeling better now AND I do believe I feel accepting of whatever comes - whichever way things go -I believe that I've had one heck of a remarkable life, more so than I could ever have imagined. One surprise after another, I've had the greatest love of any lifetime, traveled places where I never even dreamed nor expected, found life CAN offer peace & tranquility just as perfectly as the wildest excitements. So, here we are........ nothing is certain. We know death is inevitable but it may NOT be as swift as the hematologists were predicting. LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

We love you, too, Babs, and it sounds to me that things are going better.

Babs--

Good to hear that you and your body are rallying together.

Hold your dominion.

Wow! What a view on life! Great to hear that you're feeling so much better. Keep on improving......

Babs, my cousin has had pretty severe problems with blood loss. She will start feeling fatigue and weakness. There is also, swelling in her ankles and feet. Her doctors used to tell her to not worry about it, treating her with that kind of condescension only doctors have perfected.

They still aren't positive why this happens to her, but they take her seriously after she wound up in a hospital in Phoenix, needing a blood transfusion. She lives in Colorado, but has considered going to that doctor in Phoenix because he treated her with respect and took her seriously.

I'll be thinking of you and hoping for the best.

Oh and doctors--the best I ever had was in Connecticut. She listedned, asked about my life, got to know me as a person. I doubt I'll ever have that kind of caring relationship with a doctor again.

So good to hear things are progressing slowly, Babs, and that you're feeling better.