Hello doctor, I am 24, a male, recently I had some intense shoulder pain and a full panic attack. I suffer from panic attacks and depression, I went to the er and I had a 21000 total wbc count, chest X-ray, abdominal ecography and urine tests all were okay, the rest of the cbc I believe was okay since the er doctor was not concerned and gave me some painkillers for the shoulder, after 1 day I went back because I was worrying for that high wbc count and this time it was 15000 wbc but again I did not see the rest of the cbc, and then I went back a week later and the wbc was 11.750 with 38 % lymphocytes 40 % is the limit it says and platelets were 350 within normal rangeand the rest of the cbc was normal, clinically I feel good but as I have depression I cannot stop worrying about the wbc and I am scared it might be leukemia. I had a head CT scan 4 years ago and I read some inconclusive studies that it might slighty increase the chance of leukemia. Please if you can answer.
Hello. This pattern in which wbc has behaved, does not fit into leukemia. Leukemia is an uncommon cause for wbc elevation, other common causes are infection, steroids or any bodily stress can lead to this. It's not expected to go down in leukemia, and counts are usually much higher than this. Also, you are asymptomatic. So does not appear like a leukemia to me. You can get your count repeated after a week or so and also request to do peripheral smear to look for morphology of the cells. So, does not look like a worrisome to me. Hope this helps you and get back if you have any doubts.