Blood test- high esr and crp, mid 20s

[unicornwonders]

hi hoping someone could help i’ve been feeling exhausted, sore body, just generally unwell for a while. My GP requested bloods and it’s come back at 9 crp and 28 esr. i’m 24f so both have marked as high and i’ve been made an appointment for tuesday. I had a very (stupid) quick search and am now petrified after seeing cancer etc show up. I have a four year old and am generally very worried now. Has anyone had experience of this and been ok? I’m not sat scared i have something like cancer as i’ve had a few family members die young to it

Sorry you’re feeling worried and been struggling. I understand your pain I’m in the same boat.

Those markers are simply for an inflammatory response of some kind, definitely not specific to cancer. it could be autoimmune or even that you’ve got a virus you’ve not gotten rid of - pretty much anything that causes inflammation in the body would set those markers off (experience as I am a healthcare professional)

@Cloxs what would normally be the GPs next steps after levels like this? As my appointment tuesday is only via telephone. Thanks for your reply though. I have bad health anxiety so this has really given me a negative push

I get it - I have health anxiety as well and often would go down the exact same pathway you are so no judgement. I’m not a medical dr so I’m not sure - possibly an ANA screen to check for autoimmune, thyroid panel - there are possibly others but I wouldn’t be in the best place to advise but hopefully a dr will come and answer! I think there’s a few on here 🙂

@Cloxs i suspected thyroid issues however my tsh level was normally. i’m glad im not the only one, have you got an appointment booked? thanks for your help :)

In my case high inflammatory marker bloods after a virus were rerun and an autoimmune screen done for the usual suspects eg ra, lupus, diabetes which eventually went positive. Your ESR is not massively high, mine has been 123! Have you had Covid recently or another illness? Don't stress too much op.

@CherryRipe1 no covid or anything just feeling very tired breathless, sore muscles and some slight pain inside my rib cage area. so no idea what’s caused it. is the autoimmune screen another blood test? and did you find out what was going on quite quickly?

I haven’t as my markers aren’t raised at all - I just understand how it feels to be run down and feeling like shit

They're only just outside normal range OP, less than 5 is normal for CRP and less than 20 for ESR. A common cold could raise them both more than this.

Hope your GP can get to the bottom of your symptoms, but I wouldn't be worried about those 2 results

Those readings are only just outside normal range, I wouldn't be worried about them.

As others have said only just outside normal and in my experience these things can just happen. I had a CRP of 30 which the next day rose to 117 and I was hospitalized incase it was my appendix and no cause was found! My CRP has been normal ever since too!

It could be lots of things with those symptoms like fibromyalgia, costchronditis, fatigue, anaemia, vitamin deficiencies like B12, d or absolutely nothing at all just run down. Those readings aren't high at all, just slightly elevated. The GP should repeat in a month or so and if not resolved run separate blood tests for autoimmune stuff. I think mine actually ran the AI tests when they rechecked my inflammatory markers due to my symptoms. These were ana, rheumatoid factor & anti ccp, dsdna (lupus), hba1 (diabetes), ferritin, full blood panel. Bloods give great clues & they could see there was something up. I was sent to rheumatologist and got dx fairly quickly. Don't worry op.

thank you everyone, you’ve all calmed me slightly. I’ve had some awful symptoms lately but not an actual bug as such so i’m hoping whatever it is gets resolved quickly.

Could be lots of things. Lyme disease for example causes high esr, it’s a bug you get after being bitten by a tick and it makes you achy and painful, it’s treated with antibiotics.

hi everyone had an autimmune blood test saturday, results not back yet but they also rechecked my crp and esr. CRP went up again to 12, ESR went down to 24. My GP thinks it’s lupus, so just waiting on the rest of bloods etc. how long did this normally take? for the autoimmune results to come back as i wasn’t given a timeframe. Thanks for everyone’s help

Good question. I got some the next day and the rest came in dribs and drabs. I'm still waiting on some lab results from January. Ana, ena, Smith,Ro and La, antibodies, immunofluorescence staining, immunoglobulins, rheumatoid factor should be run but dsdna is a good marker for lupus. Do you have an NHS app for your hospital results or Patients Know Best? If so you can check these. If tests were GP ordered then if you have an online portal like Patientsaccess you can check on there. Good luck op.