I was in the hospital around the 17th of last month and on my discharge sheet it said to see my doc as a followup and also to get cbc test. So I did that and last week my doctor called me and told me to come in. She said my white count was 2.5 and my other white counts on the test were also low. I was given an HIV test right there in the office and I am still waiting for results. I have been having a sore back for a month or more and my knees hurt. I have also had a drop in weight that I thought had happened because of the almost total vegetarian diet I have been on for the past 2 months. Now with news of the blood test and these other pains in my body I think I may have cancer. My white count was 5.5 on Aug 1st , yet now its 2.5 and I have what seems to be bone pain. Does this mean I am pretty far into this disease if I have it? Does bone pain mean like end stage for me? I am scared to death over this. What should I do? Even if my HIV test comes back positive I feel from these symptoms that I may have this disease/cancer as well. Any suggestions will be helpful. I am a 42 year old male.

First off, calm down. Secondly, stop reading nonsense on the internet as it's obviously playing havoc with your nerves.

Has anyone other than what you've read on the net suggested that you may have Multiple Myeloma?

These symptoms and your blood counts could be caused by anything, not just MM, so try not to pick out the worst case scenario as that will only create enormous stress and severe stress can do more damage to your body than something you may have plucked from the internet. For example, type 'bruised leg' through the search engine and the chances are it will come up with stuff like Leukaemia etc.

With my very limited knowledge on Multiple Myeloma and I suspect like other cancers of the blood this disease can only be diagnosed through having a bone marrow biopsy.

CBC are not an exact science and work on rough estimates/percentages, so they are not always accurate. They can give false highs and lows.

Went through something similar a few years ago and drawing from my experience, nothing is worth worrying about until you have a 100% diagnosis in front of you.

Just got back my HIV results , negative thankfully..my WBC raised from 2.5 to 2.6 but my other WBC counts , the absolute and neutrophilis ( sp? ) counts were even lower then the other day. She wants me to wait 6 weeks and redo the CBC tests but I dunno if I want to wait that long especially with this pain I have been having. I think I should probably go see a blood doctor and be proactive. Thanks a lot Jack for your reply though.