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Teardrop cells in manual smear.
Blood Cancers & Disorders | Last Active: Jan 5 8:47am | Replies (6)Comment receiving replies
Good morning, @esselltee. I’m so happy you found Mayo Connect. You just joined a big, welcoming family so I hope you will no longer feel so alone with what you’re going through.
Waking up not feeling well, repeatedly, is traumatic no matter what the diagnosis. It’s understandable that you’re concerned, given the symptoms you’ve been having. You know your body better than anyone else and if you’re feeling off, then of course you want to have your doctor verify nothing is amiss. I’m sorry you’re not getting much feedback from your doctor. Doesn’t mean you can’t be the squeaky wheel and keep gently prodding for answers.
Blood tests can reveal quite a bit about our health. A diagnosis can’t usually be given based on the values of just one lab. But given that you’ve had repeated labs, and they are trending in certain values, has raised a red flag in your eyes. You’ve also seen that some of your red blood cells have a tear drop shape and which can indicate a change in the health of your bone marrow and how your blood is being formed. They can be found in the presence of anemia but it’s good to know the underlying cause.
From my own experience, having an enlarged spleen does feel very similar to what you’re experiencing but this is also something that you need to bring to the attention of your doctor. It might be helpful to keep a little journal of these symptoms and any correlations you feel are relevant.
My other suggestion, would be to get a referral to a hematologist. This is a doctor who specializes in blood disorders and irregularities. I think for your peace of mind, you’d feel better getting answers for the changes you’re seeing in your health and blood result.
Do you need a referral or is can you see a specialist without a ‘note from your doctor’?
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Oh gosh! @loribmt Your words are so compassionate and I thank you for just responding- but even more so in such a calming way.
I have actually called three different hematologists in the area and got the same answer from them all: even though I do not need a referral from my doc per my insurance, they say they will not take self-referrals. My sweet husband actually got upset and called BC/BS (our insurance) and asked for help and they did say that that wasn’t allowed and that they were happy to be on the line with me if I want to call again and they’d advocate. I - being averse to conflict lol - have not taken them up on that.
A small light of hope for me is that I - by coincidence- had a telehealth appointment already scheduled for Jan 11 with a regional cancer specialist for a genetic risk assessment I qualified for (my maternal AND paternal grandmothers both passed from pancreatic cancer and I have had nearly 10 precancerous colon polyps thus far at 45 years of age). I have told the patient coordinator there about this recent discovery (teardrop cells) and my concern about them and she did say she would pass the information on to the nurse and genetic counseling team. So, maybe that is a start?
Thank you for sharing your experience with spleen pain. I guess I also keep questioning if it’s my spleen bc when I feel around under my ribs (I know… I probably shouldn’t be pushing there just in case) I don’t FEEL anything enlarged. But, I am not a doc, don’t know what to look for, AND I am overweight and hold most of my weight in my midsection. So that probably doesn’t help.
It is crazy how we can “gaslight” our own self sometimes. I keep talking myself out of believing what I know I feel and what I know is likely (given not many other possibilities for teardrop cells). For example, my wbc counts back over the summer were June 23: 16.04; June 24: 18.14; June 29: 15.09; July 7: 12:84… which were all high obviously, BUT it was also when I was having the repeat/stubborn UTIs. So, was THAT causing the wbc? Was the wbc causing the UTI? Was a blood cancer causing both?? Who knows?! These are things running through my head.
At the risk of making this post a novel (may be too late! Lol), thank you again for responding. It means a lot.
-Stacy