To be concerned over blood test results?

[Cosyhusky]

I fully admit to having health anxiety. So I want to ask here instead of falling down the Dr Google rabbit hole!

I had a full blood count done a week ago and the receptionist phoned me this morning to re do the test in 2 weeks because my C Reactive Protein levels were high, whatever that means! She also said that the rest of my results were 'acceptable'. I hate the word acceptable! It sounds bad, or that I just scraped by...

The worry side of me is saying phone the Dr's back and ask what my levels were exactly to look it up. The rational side is telling me that is a very bad idea!

Any experience on CRP levels? I should add that I had them done last Monday, and a couple of days before my glands were very swollen just one side of my neck. I then got a weird cold/sore throat last week.

Gah, fuck health anxiety!

It's an indication of infection. You've just had an infection which is why they want to repeat once the infection is clear. If it's still high, could be an indication of something more serious. Don't waste energy worrying about things you don't need to worry about.

Not a medical person - but C reactive protein is a marker of inflammation - sounds like you might have just had a virus/cold and your body was reacting as it should? But of course without knowing why you were getting the blood count done my opinion nor anyone else's doesn't really count for too much. Do try not to worry. And things are either acceptable or unacceptable - it's not like school where you get grades for 'good' blood results. So acceptable sounds ok to me.

It's also known as the "Completely Random Protein" because so many things can make it go up. On its own it's not a sensitive indicator of anything really

My anxiety got the better of me and I called. She said my levels are 11, which don't sound too high.

But you're right, acceptable is better than unacceptable, obviously!

Yes, it’s an indication of infection or inflammation, if you had just had a sore throat then that’s most likely what caused it to be raised. If you repeat the blood tests when you’re feeling well then the levels should have fallen nicely. That said 11 is basically normal, personally I wouldn’t even consider that clinically relevant.

Because CRP is an inflammation marker it's useful to know for people who have some sort of inflammatory disease, like crohn's or ulcerative colitis. Just get it redone when you haven't been recently ill.

It can be useful to know where you fall in a normal range for a particular test. I recently found out that my vitamin D levels are at the very bottom of the normal range so the doctor suggested I supplement it to get them up a bit.

11 isn’t bad, it’ll be the bug you had. Don’t worry.

Thank you! I will try and put it out of my head!

My crp was 155 last week! So 11 sounds not too bad - I just had a mild infection and took some antibiotics and I'm fine now.

I have rheumatoid arthritis and my crp levels are monitored, 11 is fine, when I'm having a flare up it gets to about 60

Hi Cosyhusky,

As people have said, its inflammatory markers and 11 is low, wouldn't really be considered in a hospital setting(nurse here). As you feeling unwell, this was your CRP nudging up. If you dont feel reassured, ask for more bloods to be done.

Tazzy.