To ask about too many red blood cells

[Endoftether20]

Just that really. I've been told I have a high RBC count. GP thinks it may be causing my joint pain (can't lift a kettle without elbows hurting) as my system is sluggish due to my blood being too "thick".

I have never heard of this before. I'm awaiting an appt with haematology but GP has warned that they may want to do blood letting which apparently involves taking a pint of blood at a time over several weeks.

Cant lie, I am cralling myself. Anyone been through this before?

Crapping myself* oh for an edit function!

Have you had a test for haemochromatosis OP? This is easily rectified by blood letting but is serious (liver cirrhosis) if not treated.

I had the full gamut of blood tests cos GP didn't know what was causing joint pain. Liver function tests came back OK. The high RBC count and low vit D were the 2 things flagged up.

The high RBC count makes the blood too thick apparently and is why she says haematology will probably go down the blood let route which sounds positively medieval lol

Think of it as just like donating blood, but without the cuppa and biscuit afterwards!

Yes, I’ve heard of polycythemia before. It’s very manageable, I know a few people that have it and they have regular blood draws which were frequent at first and are now fairly infrequent. One takes a chemotherapy drug to suppress it.

As things go, it seems to be annoying rather than life changing.

A friend has to have regular removals, it’s no big deal, he says, but it must be done to keep him healthy.

@lidoshuffle thats the thing, I don't donate blood unfortunately as I HATE needles!

@gwenneh thanks, that sounds positive, apart from the chemo drug thing. So the draws should get less then?

I'm a little worried as I'm about to start a new job with 3 months residential training so the initial appt is likely to be delayed until after that anyway, although when I spoke to the booking clerk last week she said its likely to be at least that anyway. I'm just concerned that weekly blood letting will be hard to arrange with it being a brand new job, which is what I've been told to expect.

Yes, the draws are frequent at first and then weeks or even months apart after. So once you get over the initial few and they monitor the RBC a few times, they’ll be less disruptive!

Good luck, I hope it gets you feeling better soon.

There are several things this could be OP, but try not to worry about the blood letting. You don't have to look if you don't want to and it's not especially painful. Giving blood doesn't even take very long - I was a blood donor for a while I bled a pint in 15 mins or less. You can sit there with a podcast or some music on if you need a distraction.

Thanks everyone. Feeling a bit more positive about it. It just feels a bit medieval is all haha

As long as you can promise you're looking after yourself, then it may require further investigation and treatment,

@gingernaut yes I eat relatively healthy, get a fair amount of exercise etc. My vice is smoking unfortunately which will hopefully be going soon. Everything else apart from Vit D was fine and I've been put on supplements for those, surprised me that tbh as I do eat oily fish etc regularly.