Worried

I am freaking out a bit...

Trenton Doctor called this morning early, waking me from my sleep. She called to tell me the results of some blood work she ran on him at our appointment last Thursday. She was concerned about some lymph nodes in his neck that are protruding, even when he is not sick. She was going to do some blood work anyways since he is a terrible eater to see if if he anemic, so decided to do a full blood work panel just to make sure something wasn't going on.

So when she called this morning I was worried, they usually just send results in the mail, unless there is an abnormality. She started off by telling me the things that were normal, his iron levels looked fine, no lead.

But there was something amis with his red blood cells, his white where also high. The phlebotomist said that she should have a hematologist look at his blood as which she did and both said that he has Megaloblastic anemia, a deficiency in B12 and folic acid. She said that if left untreated it could cause neurological damage. She said the condition is often hereditary and was there any of this in our family history (Not that I know of)

So she said I would need to bring in Trenton to do more blood work and see the hematologist, she would make a referral.

So there it is. I of course jumped on Wikipedia and looked up

Megaloblastic anemia is an anemia (of macrocytic classification) which results from inhibition of DNA synthesis in red blood cell production.^[1] This is often due to deficiency of vitamin B₁₂ and/or folic acid. Megaloblastic anemia not due to hypovitaminosis may be caused by antimetabolites which poison DNA production, such as some chemotherapeutic or antimicrobial agents (for example azathioprine or trimethoprim).

It is characterized by many large immature and dysfunctional red blood cells (megaloblasts) in the bone marrow,^[2] and also by hypersegmented or multisegmented neutrophils.

Freaking me out a bit. Oh well, hopefully it is easily treated and all will be well. So his eating is probably the cause. If I could just get him to eat, meat, or veggies. Ugh.

Here is what one site said under Megaloblastic diet...People who are strict vegetarians and, most particularly, people who do not consume eggs, milk, or meat can develop Cbl deficiency. Counsel these people to either change their dietary habits or remain on supplementary vitamin B-12 therapy for their lifetime. An oral tablet of 100-200 mcg taken weekly should provide adequate therapy.

I looked up foods high in B12 and Folic acid and am going to see if I can get him to eat them. I made split pea soup for dinner, it is in the crock pot. We will see if he will eat it.