Platelets

 

Friday, Lindsay accompanied me to a consultation with Dr P, ast which he outlined the plan of action to decide what needs to be done about whatever is causing the high platelet count, see graph. First, the JAK2 test, which was described in the previous entry under 'Medical', followed by another consultation next Friday week. (Somatic mutations in JAK2, Janus kinase 2, a human protein that has been implicated in polycythemia vera, essential thrombocythemia, and other myeloproliferative disorders, are analysed in this test, which needed 8 ampoules of blood. The technician who took the samples came from Gujerat, where she had her original training. We ought to be able to train some of the unemployed to take blood samples.)

I don't know why its always necessary to take up the time of expensive consultants with face to face interviews when most of the time what they say is quite technical, and more readily understood in writing, when the patient could look up the terms on the web. The JAK2 test narrows down the diagnosis, but then Dr P wants a bone marrow biopsy, and we will no doubt have a further explanation at the next meeting followed by the bone marrow biopsy at some later date.

Just to recap, what Dr P is looking for is information to see whether I have one of the 'Myeloproliferative disorders', some of which are possibly signalled by the high platelet count. The one factor that seems to be common to these disorders is an enlarged spleen, but as there are several, it needs to be narrowed down further.

Apart from the myoproliferative disorders, there are other causes of a hight platelet count, eg malfunctions of the spleen. Dr P asked whether I had had a splenectomy at the time of the operation on my burst colon (after being knocked off my bike on October 4, 2001), which of course I hadn't.