Low wbc count

Welcome to Connect, @koneal00 I’m sure you want all of this medical drama to just be over! It’s not uncommon for blood numbers to fluctuate for a months after aggressive cancer treatment with chemo and radiation. But having a continued decline in your WBC, especially if your neutrophils are low, warrants a peek at your bone marrow with a biopsy. Having a compromised immune system unfortunately puts you at a higher risk for infections and illness.

Your WBC is low, yet it might not be for lack of production but from consumption…something causing depletion such as an ongoing infection. Your doctor is wanting to rule out any potential causes for this drop so the next step is to check the production source to see if there’s a holdup in the supply chain.

The bone marrow is the heart of the body’s blood manufacturing process and center for your immune system. So when there’s something amiss with blood numbers it’s a good idea to go right to the source of the production to get a clear picture of the health of the bone marrow and its ability to churn out healthy blood cells.

The biopsy is actually a sample of the core tissue of marrow (the soft spongy portion in the center the bone) and an examination of the peripheral blood. The analysis of these two samples goes through quite an intensive process so the results can take a week or so to be completed.

Below are a couple of articles with information about bone marrow biopsies and aspiration.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/bone-marrow-biopsy/about/pac-20393117
https://medlineplus.gov/lab-tests/bone-marrow-tests/
Will this be the first bone marrow biopsy you’ve had?

The chemo u had could have gotten into your bone marrow an destroyed it which happen to me an now I have mds