non hodgkins lymphoma during pregnancy

I had my second child in August.  Just before the delivery (scheduled C-Section), I had an unexplained fever for about 3-4 days, primarily at night.  They went ahead with delivery anyway.  Immediately after delivery, I still had the fever so they did blood work and my white blood cell count was low and my liver enzymes were off.  I had severe bed sweats and uncontrollable shivers.  They did a lot of blood work and could not find any infection, but put me on antibiotics anyway.  The fever went away and before I left the hospital, my white blood cell count went up slightly.  I had blood work done a couple days later and my white blood cell count was still low, but was continuing to go up. (Still on antibiotics)  At the hospital, I noticed the lymphnodes in my armpits were all swollen, but painless and the lactation nurse mentioned it was very common and due to engorgement of my breasts.  The lumps went away and I'm feeling fine now, other than tired and having difficutly losing extra weight (abnormal for me).  I'm still nervous about some of the symptoms I've had and am wondering if I should be worried or not.  Could there be other explanations for the WBC count and liver enzyme results?  Is there a simple test for non hodgkins so I could ease my mind?

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  The simplest way to determine if you have lymphoma would be to do a biopsy of those enlarged nodes.  However, at this point, I think it might be better to observe first if the symptoms will persist in spite of the antibiotics.  Infection is still the most common cause of all the symptoms you're experiencing, and I would only go for a biopsy if the possibility of an infection has been thoroughly dicounted.

[Jkoenig]

Thank you so much for your response.  You have put my mind at ease.  Most of my symptoms ceased once antibiotics were given, so I'm sure they were due to infection.  They never could pinpoint an infection, but I'm sure that's what it was now.