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health advisory Hospital Diseases 2007-11-12 20:36:06

Mother in law has four pints of blood instead of ten and low something else in her blood. she is to have Vit B injections. doc has mentioned cancer and panicked family. She is diabetic and in her late 70's. Can anyone give us more info as not seeing doc till next week

Answer:

It's high white cells indicate active infection, not low (your body makes extra white cells to fight the infection). But then she'd have high temp and other signs of infection too.

Vit B injections (hydroxycobalamin) points to anaemia due to poor iron absorption.

Symptoms of anaemia include being tired all the time, pale (almost transparent), short of breath sometimes, got a smooth red tongue and feels awful.

the causes of low blood count are many and varied - including hemorrhage (you have a low blood count because you bled all your blood out) or cancer (either a blood cancer or other sort). Cancer usually presents itself as undue weight loss over a short period of time before the anaemia sets in though.

Don't panic, it's entirely possible that she's just anaemic because she's in her late 70's and nothing else is wrong. It's more common than you think! Eating more greens would help (an old wives tale I know, but it's true - folic acid in the greens increases Iron absorption)

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COUNT DRACULA !!!

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Ignore the sicko Robert below. A low blood count means you either have a reduced amount of red or white blood cells in the body. Low white cells indicate active infection, low red cells indicate anaemia which is an iron deficiency. If you are extremely worried about your mother phone NHS 24 and you will be able to speak to a doctor or nurse who will clarify these terms fully and hopefully work with your concerns.

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Her blood is low in iron. Get your doctor to take a blood sample. If the blood sample shows she is low in iron he or she can prescribe iron tablets. I have the same problem.

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