Monday, March 30, 2009

Elevated platelets?

Goldie had her routine blood work done back in September and her platelets were 432. I think that should be in thousands. The normal range is listed as 156-369. Her iron was low so we treated it and had another CBC in January. That time her platelets were 421. I was told by the GI doctor that this was slightly elevated, but could be due to her having a recent infection and not to worry about it. (Her blood had been drawn about a month after she had strep and an ear infection) Well, then I went and compared it to her first blood draw and saw that it had been higher in September. I'm pretty sure she hadn't been sick then. I found information on low platelets, but can't seem to find anything on elevated platelet counts. All her other numbers were in the normal range. Any ideas?

Goldie has her 2 year checkup this week and I've got my list of questions for the pediatrician. She also has an appt at the DS center in May, so anything the ped. can't handle I will save for them.

6 comments:

Mel said...

Good luck for that. Hopefully it all turns out to be nothing. I wonder if sometimes we know so much more about our kids that we get some extra worries that we don't get with the others ;)

Jennifer said...

I don't know about platelets, but my hubby's white blood cell count is always off - slightly low. The doc says the ranges given encompass 95% of the population, but some people naturally fall outside of the range even though they are healthy. Hopefully that's all it is. It may be something perfectly normal for her.

JaybirdNWA said...

Usually, an increased platelet count means that the bone marrow, which makes RBC, is reacting to something which could be an infection as you have already stated. Hope you find out soon.

Monica said...

Please keep us posted!! We'll keep Goldie in our prayers!

Beth said...

My 20 yr old daughter (not dx'd with anything) also has high platelets, and she dropped 3 grams of hemoglobin in 3 months. The anemia is the only thing the doctors are caring about, so my guess is that yours won't care much about the platelets.

Hannah's labs have almost always had something come out-of-range, but they always amount to nothing.

Have you been testing for zinc and selenium as well? What about ferritin (which is different from hemoglobin--it gives a better picture of anemia)? Our kids tend to have difficulty with iron. If you have to do more labs after this appt. it's probably time to check for celiac as well if you haven't yet. Or, save it for next time.

Linda said...

Sorry that I don't have any answers but I do have a couple of questions. What did you do to treat the lack of iron? Did the extra iron constipate Goldie? If so- what did you do? Sorry for all of the questions. And I wondered, too,if they tested her zinc level. If you have time will you please e-mail me about this- lindanargi1@yahoo.com. Thanks so much!

P.S. I found coconut milk yogurt at the health food store. Check it out online- lots of health benefits- it's worth the trip to the health food store in my opinion. If you don't have a health food store near you sometimes grocery stores will order it for you and even store it for you- because they'll probably have to order a case. Just an idea!