Unresolved Worry

Hi. I am honestly not sure how to start this post. I debated whether I should even make this post. I do not like to spend time worry about things I cannot change, and well, worrying about results I don't even have yet seems to be the absolute epitome of that. Yet here I am, worrying. 

Remember when I said my doc took 9 or so vials of blood during my last Rituxan treatment? Well, last week I got a call from my physician... from his cell phone. It is never a good sign when a doc calls you after hours from their personal line. I am pretty good at reading people and there was obvious concern from the first hello. The call went something like this, 'How are you doing?' 'Your blood results showed some concerning results.' 'You are nearly devoid of a vital protein that play an essential part in the body's immune system.' 'I am sending an urgent referral to oncology. My team will call you to set up your appointments.' As you can imagine, my brain sort of shut off at Oncology. Within minutes his team called me expressing they were, 'calling every hospital in the area to find the soonest appointment available.' That, 'my physician was personally calling an Oncologist, Hematologist, and Immunologist to go over my case.' By the next morning, I suddenly had an onslaught of appointments scheduled for the coming week. 

From what I understand, my white blood cell count and ANC have been chronically low for quite some time. Low even for someone on immunosuppressive treatments for an autoimmune disease. This alerted my team to run specific blood work on my immune system, specifically, antibodies known as Immunoglobulin. Immunoglobulin A, G, and M are proteins that your immune cells (B cells) make to fight off bacteria, viruses, and foreign invaders. Even while on immunosuppression these antibodies are to be kept at specific levels, mine, however, are nearly nonexistent. Especially my IgA and IgM, with my IgM being almost undetectable in my blood. Apparently, this phenomenon can be attributed to a few things: rare medication side effects, specific blood disorders, and Cancers. I am sure there are more, but these three seem to be of most concern to my team currently. 

That's all I know for now. From what my physician has expressed, it is likely that, at the bare minimum, I will need to begin Intrevanious Immunoglobulin therapy (IVIG) and possibly stop my current immunosuppressive treatment, Rituxan, which would then have to be replaced with another therapy. However, I won't have any solid answers or treatment plans until I see the Oncologist, Immunologist, and Hematologist. We are hoping they can give us an explanation as to what is causing this sudden and aggressive immunoglobulin deficiency. I will of course keep everyone updated here on the blog - Keep in mind though that things may still be unclear even after I see the new physicians next week - as I am sure there will be more tests to run before they can truly solidify any diagnoses.

Sorry this is such an unresolved post. I really don't have any information besides, something is wrong and my team thinks an oncologist may have the answers. Ooof. Here is to hoping it's just a rare medication side effect!