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Need help re outcome of blood test?

I had a full blood count & other various blood tests ordered recently by mr Dr due to her suspecting a TIA. Thrombo & others came back normal & only one that raised any concern was my ESR was 28 having come down from 120, 130 & 130 on various dates during April last year which was due to me contracting Pseudomonas Aeruginosa in my caesarean wound whilst in hospital. But the Dr is concerned as to why it's 28 almost one year after me having Pseudomonas. She asked me a series of questions over the phone tonight when giving me the blood results which were mainly toward bone or arthritic conditions. I don't have any problems there. I'm female, almost 40, period overdue, wisdom tooth impacted but not infected, have swollen calf which swells then goes away from time to time, dvt/thrombotic conditions ruled out, specialist who ultrasounded it says its fluid/haemotoma from bruising it once, I can't think of anything else. Has anyone got any suggestions/ideas on having an ESR of 28 whether that is really high, could it mean cancer somewhere in my body? My Dr wants to repeat it in 3 weeks as I have a CT scan Monday to check for problems after suspected TIA. Thanks.

Public Comments

1. Well you know doctors want to rule out serious stuff first before anything else. An ESR of 28 is mildly elevated and no where near the 130 you had with sepsis earlier although pregnancy does in fact elevate ESR levels due to the increased fibrinogen (protein) that pregnant women have. The ESR also increases with age somewhat. The other form of elevated proteins can come from within the bone marrow and thus the questions related to bone. Another cause of concern is collagen disease and lupus and thus the questions related to arthritis. The other major concern is any type of cancer. Generally the higher the sedrate the more concern one would be without an obvious cause. If it does not go down then he might order some additional tests.