Bone marrow

Today I saw a haematologist, to try to get to the bottom of my lack of haemoglobin and neutrophils (latest neutrophil count is 0.9, which is actually an improvement!). This consultants opinion directly contrasted the 'it's not a big deal' view of the registrar I saw a few weeks ago: I'm having a bone marrow biopsy next week, with a view to starting G-CSF injections soon after the results are back. I also had some bloods taken which were too specialist to be analysed in Nottingham and are being sent to the National Blood & Transplant labs. The suspected diagnosis is autoimmune neutropenia, which is incredibly rare in adults, but essentially means that I have normally functioning bone marrow which makes neutrophils, but my immune system has mistakenly identified them as harmful and destroys them before they can fight infection - which would explain how I got meningitis. The G-CSF injections (G-CSF stands for granuloycte colony stimulating factor; very confusing since I've used the acronym CSF to mean cerebrospinal fluid so far!) will stimulate bone marrow production of white blood cells in the hope that the rate of production will beat the rate of destruction, and I'll be left with a healthy level. I'll have to give them to myself daily, probably for life. They need to be stored in a fridge, which certainly wasn't available when I was camping in Africa, so I'm very glad I was able to enjoy that experience whilst I was able to. Now, to look forward to the biopsy...

Love Emily x