Posted: 1/18/2010 11:12:55 AM EDT
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Just got back from the family doctor's office, the 20-month-old has "irregularly-shaped red blood cells" and we're being referred to Children's as he's never seen it before. Any ideas on what range of problems we're looking at? This was the result of routine blood work, not a case in which there was a check because there seems to be anything wrong with her (there doesn't). Thanks. |
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Hence the "could be nothing, could be major." |
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Hence the "could be nothing, could be major." This. My wife works in pathology and one of her favorite sayings is "if you look hard enough, you can find something medically wrong with any person." Don't get worried, let the docs do their thing, just make sure that your referral isn't going to take 6 months to schedule you for an appointment. If they have a long lead time for consultations, ask them if they will put your name down as someone to call if they have a cancellation, sort of like flying on standby except you don't have to sit around the office all day. |
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I have the page in pdf format if anyone can provide insight. Does it give a percentage of the abnormal cells or does it quantify the abnormalities. If it just says "15% abnormal" it doesn't really give anything to interpret, if it states the abnormality then you might have something to work with. |
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It shows all of the readings, separate columns for "in range," "out of range," and "reference range", and comments from a manual review of the smear. The comments are "anisocytosis... moderate" etc. I'm just a medic, wife is a Certified Pathology Assistant (MS), but the non MD conclusion is that there isn't enough information there to tell anything. How long will you you have to wait for the consult? |
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It could be nothing, but you need to see a Hematologist first and foremost, they specialize in blood issues. My 18 month old son has the same condition, we just have to watch his iron intake. Too little will mean anemia. Our Pediatrician had no idea what to do with his results and tried to send us to the Tx Children's Hospital. Fortunately, my family is full of Drs. and told me to get the results to a Hematologist immediately. We saw the Hematologist, he drew blood, did a smear on a slide, looked at it in front of us...and told us no big deal. He had the results verified by another Dr as well. I have the same issue as your son as well. It can be genetic and in our case it is.
Go to a hematologist and save yourself some time and money. You will eventually end up there. |
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No idea on when we'd see someone else. I've been googling the terms under comments, and keep running into thalassemia. Schedule the consult, step away from the google, take a deep breath and relax a little. If the abnormalities are caused by a disorder, worrying yourself to death over it isn't going to help anything. I know it is easy for me to say as someone without kids, but my wife recently had an enlarged lymph node removed due to abnormal cells seen after a needle biopsy. They sent her slides to Stanford (best path department in the nation) and the response was pretty much "it is something, but who knows what, you'll just have to wait for more symptoms to develop." She works in the field and knows there is nothing she can do to speed up any of this - there is no magic star trek tricorder that a doc can point at your child and know instantly what is wrong. |
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Quoted: Yeah, I know, just curious. I'm not freaking out... if she has anything bad at all, it's not slowing her down.Quoted: No idea on when we'd see someone else. I've been googling the terms under comments, and keep running into thalassemia. Schedule the consult, step away from the google, take a deep breath and relax a little. If the abnormalities are caused by a disorder, worrying yourself to death over it isn't going to help anything. I know it is easy for me to say as someone without kids, but my wife recently had an enlarged lymph node removed due to abnormal cells seen after a needle biopsy. They sent her slides to Stanford (best path department in the nation) and the response was pretty much "it is something, but who knows what, you'll just have to wait for more symptoms to develop." She works in the field and knows there is nothing she can do to speed up any of this - there is no magic star trek tricorder that a doc can point at your child and know instantly what is wrong. |
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No idea on when we'd see someone else. I've been googling the terms under comments, and keep running into thalassemia. It's a common blood disorder for those of Mediterranean descent. My bro/sis/dad have the minor variant. I am negative for it. We have been told as long as their spouses are negative, it poses no danger for their offspring, and as long as their children have the minor variant, it's really not a big deal. Unless you're child has the major variant, you have nothing to worry about. And from what we've been told, unless both you and your spouse are positive minor carriers, your child "most likely won't" have the major variant. hope that helps. nolo |
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Quoted: Quoted: Yeah, I know, just curious. I'm not freaking out... if she has anything bad at all, it's not slowing her down.  Sounds like you've got a good kid there! It takes a lot to take down my kids, historically. One time the 2nd oldest had pneumonia and we had no idea at all (he didn't even seem to have a cold): the doc volunteered to listen to his chest ("while you're here...") when we had the oldest in for something. |