Do hospitals test for leukemia?

[unspoken2]

My dad has resigned himself to the hospital 3 times in the past 3 months.  The first time he was in, he was treated for pneumonia, flu/influenza, and ultimately bronchitis for 5 days. All involved massive doses of anti-biotics.

The second time, he made it inside the ER and was tested for flu again and some blood tests but they released him claiming there was nothing wrong.

The third time, he was there for 3 days, this time they claimed he had pneumonia.  He is a chronic smoker, 2 packs a day, so they blamed it on his smoking. Though the first and second time, his lung scans/test showed his lungs were perfectly healthy.

At some point his doctor said (maybe 1 year ago) he was showing some signs of leukemia but later dismissed this.  I did some research on the symptoms on leukemia and he seems to fit a lot of them: persistent fatigue, weakness, frequent infection (i.e. the flu and bronchitis), loss of appetite or weight, shortness of breath when physically active, bone pain.

So, I would hope that the hospital would check for this but I am not sure, does anyone know if they do?  Feeling bad enough to want to go to the ER 3 times seems a little extreme for him having nothing?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Ken_PA]

Jules is exactly right about everything, especially copies of the records.

The symptoms are generic enough to be from many things. Also, an ER is meant to keep people from dying in the immediate term, not for diagnosis of anything mysterious.

Good luck.

[unspoken2]

Thanks for your reply.

About the blood work, short answer is yes.  His blood has been checked every time he has been at the hospital.  But, he has not obtained the records, so I am not sure what they checked for.

I am pretty sure his smoking has a lot to do with his health issues as well.  It seems like he is now understanding and wanting to cut back.  The thing, as I said before, is that he has gotten his lungs checked many times now and the results always show that they are healthy. This doesn't help to convince that smoking is a problem.

[Jules77733]

Leukemia typically shows up in routine bloodwork--the complete blood count (CBC)--as an elevated white blood cell count or an extremely low white blood cell count. Sometimes, it also presents with a low red blood cell count. Your father's doctor may have mentioned that he exhibited signs of leukemia either because of the symptoms you mentioned your father having (fatigue, weakness, bone pain, etc.), or because your father had an elevated white blood cell count with a CBC the doctor had run. Unfortunately, the white blood cell count can be elevated for a number of other reasons the most common of which is an infection (white blood cells are part of the body's immune system and therefore will become elevated when fighting off an "invader"...so this can happen when you have a simple cold, bad allergies, or an infected wound, for example). A chronically elevated white blood cell count is cause for concern and warrants a full patient work-up if the immediate cause isn't clear.

Did the hospital have any bloodwork done any of the times when your father visited the ER? If so, your father has a legal right to copies of the records and results of all procedures done while he was a patient, even if he wasn't admitted to the actual hospital for any reason. I highly recommend urging your father to get copies of all records as soon as possible and to keep them in a central location--it's important to have your own copies of everything and bring them with you to appointments.

One of the things I did notice from your post is that most, if not all, of your father's frequent infections have involved his lungs in some way. Cliche as it sounds, it may be a result of his smoking given that he's a very heavy smoker...but he can have this investigated by a pulmonary specialist.

Good luck, and I hope this helped. Keep us posted!