I have a liver doctor and a kidney doctor.  Some of the labs they want
are the same.  I also live about an hours drive from the hospital.  I
have been combining trips, but I think that might not be a good idea.
A couple of weeks ago I went for a dual visit.  I had just gotten over
a sore throat and I had a terrible head cold.  My kidney doctor said
that my white blood count was low.  He took me off Cellcept, and
wanted me to repeat my labs in a week.  He also said to mention my
white blood count to my liver doctor.  Well my liver doctor was not
there, and I spoke to an RN maybe.  I am not sure exactly what her
title is.  She really didn't have much to say about my count except
she thought it was a good idea to have labs repeated, too.

I had labs done here locally and faxed to the hospital last Friday
around 10 AM.  Around 4PM I got the shivers really bad.  I called and
asked if they had my lab results, and complained about the shivering
and a fever.  The labs had not made it to them yet, but they told me
to go to the emergency room because of the shivering and fever.

I showed up at the emergency room around 6PM.  They called me back to
the patient area, did a electrocardiogram, put in an IV, and sent me
back to the ER waiting room.  I sat in the ER for 4 or 5 hours before
they put me in a temporary bed.  Around 4AM they carried me up to a
permanent room.  I stayed in the hospital for 5 days.  During that
time, I found out at that my white blood count from the week before
was 0.7.  During the hospital stay they gave me Neupogen and got my
count up to 2 and let me go.  They still don't know the cause.  Follow
up labs yesterday show my count is back down to 1.2 and I got another
Neupogen shot.  I get labs again here locally tomorrow.

The thing I am pondering most, other than the cause, is how two
doctors could send me home with a 0.7 blood count?  The next week, I
sat in the ER with other sick people for 5 hours.  When I got to a
temporary room they did give me a face mask.  That seems a little too
late.  Everyone that came in my permanent room had to put on a mask. I
didn't find out until I was in the hospital that 0.7 is not just low,
it's critical.