White Blood Cell Count

My husband is getting his last radiation treatment tomorrow. He was suppose to get his 3rd dose of cisplatin yesterday but his white count was too low. They checked it again today and it was even lower than yesterday.

Has anyone else had this problem? Also, has anyone not been able to get in their third dose of chemo.

Thanks,
Carol

Hi Carol,

My boyfriend had the same issue.  He was getting carboplatin weekly along with the daily radiation.  He was scheduled for 7 doses but didnt get the last 3 due to low white blood count.  He had 9 weeks of chemo prior to rad starting as well.  His doc wasnt concerned about missing the last 3 chemos- he was afraid of making him sick and then missing radiation which he felt at this point was the most important thing.  Also during this time he started to run a fever...anywhere from 99 to 101.

I was a little worried about him not being able to get everything he was supposed to but it sounds like it is common.  Now we anxiously wait for the next scan result!

~meesh

My blood counts were low throughout treatment, although never low enough for hospitalization. This delayed my 2nd round, and almost nixed the 3rd. My MO said that missing the last chemo round was NOT going to affect prognosis!

I am eleven months out from TX, and my white blood cells are still in the 2's. That being said, I have not caught a cold, virus, or catching illness of any kind in the past year, and cuts and scratches all heal well! I was sent to a hematologist, but they said I was fine---no weird blood disease or anything.

Anecdotally, my acupuncturist has told me to eat "red foods" to build white blood cells and I have complied with this. I will have my blood tested in a few days--we'll see if the diet changed anything!

My husband's doctor said the same thing about the last treatment, so I don't understand why they even need to do it. They are going to check his blood tomorrow and if his count is 1000 or more they will give him the chemo. Carol

Ive have just completed my 3rd week of cisplatin a weekly dose of 67 mgs infused in 90 mins, into my 4th weeks with the 5 days a week radiation, my wbc's were right at the bottom of acceptance the first weeks, 4.1 the second week and some how jumped to 5.3 today... not sure how that possible...but Im guessing next week I"ll be on the down side again... My doc and nurses are that concerned with wbc's as the are with the grans count...if that number crashes, that when they say I am truly susceptible to infections and would have to stop treatments. 

Well, his count was 4.8 today (they gave him a shot on Friday to boost his white count and that seemed to work). They were able to give him his 3rd and final dose of cisplatin. So he's all done with this treatment although it doesn't seem like it because he feels so sick and is in a lot of pain. Carol