Hi, lynned0. I'm sorry you aren't doing well right now. What surgery are you having on Monday?

When someone is on Pred, they can have an infection and only have signs such as an elevated white blood cell count or an erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). It might be a good idea to look at your throat to see if it looks red. Are any lymph nodes in your neck tender or swollen? Are you more tired than usual? Do you have any kind of cough? Have you taken your temperature to see if it's elevated?

Jo*Mar is right - you should get copies of any tests run. That way, if you see a new doctor, you can keep track of any trends in the test results.

Did your doctor test you for the TPMT enzyme BEFORE they started you on the Aza/Imuran? They are supposed to!

http://labtestsonline.org/understand.../tpmt/tab/test

If you do have an underlying infection, it's not a great idea to have surgery during one. I hope they will check you out beforehand to make sure it's safe for you to have it done.

There are a lot of reasons for an elevated white blood cell count. They should keep an eye on it and retest you.

I hope you'll be okay. Let us know how you're doing!


Annie