About 2 and a half years ago I started to have headaches and overwhelming tiredness.I was sent for an MRI and everything appeared normal. A couple of months later I started to suffer from recurrent infections and illnesses. In the last 2 years I have had many infections including:Recurrent UTIs, kidney infection, recurrent uvulitis, ear infections, recurrent thrush, lymphadenitis and cellulitis (the last 2 requiring hospitalisation). I have also had lots of viruses, colds and flu symptoms. I also suffer from a lot of sores, on my mouth and in my nose, and get lots of mouth ulcers. On a regular basis I suffer from migraines/headaches, aching limbs, neck, shoulders and backache, numbness in arms and hands, with loss of dexterity in the fingers, fatigue, skipped heart-beats and chest pain, brain fog (confusion and memory problems, sometimes slurred speech) and occasional blurred vision, occasional low grade fever, and more recently muscle twitching, spasms and cramps. I eat a healthy diet although I am unable to exercise due to chronic pain. I have put on 2 stone in 2 years but this may be due to lack of exercise and my age - 40 years. ( I am now about a stone overweight) I have also had bouts of depression, usually as a result of being so fed up of it all. I was referred to an Infectious Diseases Specialist about 18 months ago, and initially it was suggested possible CFS. She has run many blood tests to rule out things like thyroid, diabetes and HIV, and I have also had an ECG and cardiac scan. Although my blood tests are usually relatively normal (apart from when I am really ill), the one thing that does crop up almost every time is a low white blood cell count. Neutropenia and leukopenia have been noted on several occasions.I recently had another test and all was normal apart from a low absolute leukocyte count (normal range 1.5 - 4.......mine was 1.1). As yet I still dont have a diagnosis.Am I right in assuming that the reason I am always getting ill is because of the leukopenia? Or is the leukopenia a result of always being ill? Do you have any ideas of what could be the cause?Or any suggestions of a diagnosis?Or can you suggest or recommend any more tests? I would be very grateful for any assistance, thanks.
Hi! You are absolutely correct! You often get infections, and you say, On a regular basis I suffer from migraines/headaches, aching limbs, neck, shoulders and backache, numbness in arms and hands, with loss of dexterity in the fingers, fatigue, skipped heart-beats and chest pain, brain fog (confusion and memory problems, sometimes slurred speech) and occasional blurred vision, occasional low grade fever, and more recently muscle twitching, spasms and cramps...WHAT IS YOUR DIFFERENTIAL COUNT OF WBC?WHAT IS THE STATUS OF IMMUNOGLOBULINS?PLATELET COUNT NORMAL? RBC MORPHOLOGY NORMAL? I need these also, to stamp your case as king of combined immunodeficiency BUT in the same time I would like to consider bone marrow failure and try to find out its cause; bone marrow examination is a must in such cases of cyclopedias...! Therefore, I would like to see you again with these reports. Regards,