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I recently got called back by my local docs as my total white blood cell count has dipped below my usual acceptably low level of 3-and-a-bit. Apparently in an ideal world it would be above 4 and in my world it usually hovers around 3.2 or a little higher or lower. In March it was 2.6 beating my previous record of 2.8 a couple of years ago. At this point there was apparently some head-scratching behind the scenes as usually, at least at my practice, a level this low would often trigger a change or cessation of the medication causing it to dip - in my case Azathioprine. I have now been taking 100mg Azathioprine twice a day for about 4 years and not had too many problems on it to date.
My neurologist has advised I remain on my current level of medication and have full blood counts every 3 weeks. I think one issue is that no-one knows the correct levels of medications for CLIPPERS except in general terms and the only thing they know about me is that I have been essentially symptom-free while taking Azathioprine. (Of course this doesn't prove that Azathioprine is the *reason* I have been symptom-free). So I think all concerned are a bit loathe to mess with the meds in case it triggers something worse. Having said that I have been told to be very watchful of illnesses which feature high temperatures / fevers and get myself down to the surgery ASAP if one appears. I'm having some more blood taken tomorrow, so in a few days should know if this is a blip or a trend. It's worth mentioning that I had no reason to think there were any problems so although these blood tests are a bit tedious after five years they are well worth keeping up with as things can and do change.
Read other articles in this series at Living With CLIPPERS.
Living With CLIPPERS by Bill Crum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
