4 year old girland high fever and low blood cell count and enlarged spleen

[jdc212001]

a 4 year old girl is in the hospital.  she has high fevers, blood in her urine, an enlarged spleen, and a low red blood cell count.  she has had blood transfusions and her red blood cells burst.  the doctors have tested her for many things including sickle cell anemia.  she does not have these things. I was wondering if there was anything rare she could be tested for.  the doctors here don't know.  please help.
i'm just trying to help a friend.

[Carol in PA]

jdc212001:
I hope the doctors have considered testing for tick borne disease, such as Babesia, Bartonella, Ehrlichia.

Carol

[zayny]

well, i'm no medical expert, but low red blood cell count is anemia, and many types of anemia can cause an enlarged spleen. i don't know how low her RBC would have been that they'd give her a transfusion. generally, the best route of action is to determine the cause of anemia and to treat that rather than rushing to pump someone full of blood.

so many different things could cause blood in the urine, and with a fever, the most obvious thing to look for seems to be a urinary tract infection, or some other related infection.

i think hearing leukemia is a wee bit scary... it's always scary to see a little one get so sick, but try to think positively and rule out the most obvious things before jumping to the most serious.

from what i know of leukemia, it affects your white blood cells, not the red.

in the meantime, u could always search around on google and see what u find. there are a lot of good medical websites out there. even if what u find is wrong, it's always helpful to look around for possible leads to help drs do their jobs better.

best of luck.. i'll keep her in my prayers.

[myproblem]

I thought of Leukemia too. That sounds like what happened to my friend's daughter when she was 5 or 6. She took her to the hospital about three times before they took her seriously. She had tumors in all her organs, and had some extremely rare form of Leukemia that starts with a "B". Anyway, she somehow survived. I wll keep her in my prayers.

[fcar]

Only suggestions.  How about has she been tested for lukemia, any other cancers like hodgkins or possbily perhaps mononucleousis.

  

How sad, my best to your friends child in finding an answer.