I am in remission with CLL and now after a visit to A&E because
of agonising pain they discovered Gallstones and want to remove my Gallbladder asap.
My last blood test shows Platelet count - 130 10*9/L ......also low Haematocrit
and Red blood cells.
Does anybody know if this would be a problem?
I have an appointment with the Haematology consultant on Monday, but I
am curious to know.
Thank you
Hello MalcT. Of course your Dr will know best, but I don’t think your platelets are a concern for surgery. They are only borderline low at 130 anyway and I think below 50 is where there is concern with surgery. I am not a doctor though, that’s just my lay person understanding.
Your low red blood cells and hence low haematotric shouldn't be a problem provided you don't have a serious bleed. In respect of the latter, I agree with Cajunjeff that your platelet count makes that rather unlikely, though like him, I'm also not a doctor 
Neil
Thank you...now I can enjoy my weekend....👍
I had my gallbladder out 20 years ago. I did fine with it out until recently. When my CLL progressed, I had the usual spleen enlargement and swollen lymph nodes in my abdominal region. At that time, I started to experience reflux, which was likely due to bile reflux rather than acid reflux.
I now have a hiatal hernia due to too much bile in my stomach. When my gallbladder was removed, the bile was duct from my liver was moved to my small intestines. It may now need to be moved farther into my small intestines.
I am also not a doctor but this might be something to discuss with the surgeon.
Hi Malc,
In January of 22 I had my gall bladder removed. I was on the cusp of treatment and had been in the hospital due to a serious infection. Then they told me I had to have my gall bladder removed! Already one down from all the other stuff I was super paranoid but here I am. I don't know what my platelets were but I managed fine. It took awhile to recover but that's because I had a lot of other stuff going on. You sound pretty robust compared to that so hopefully you will breeze through it! Best wishes
My surgeon last year said he would not do surgery if my platelets were under 100. However, that was a minimally invasive arthroscopic procedure. I can't say if this would be true for a laporoscopic cholecystectomy, which is a minimally invasive procedure, compared to the major surgery option that was the only one decades ago.
If you had an ERCP type endoscopy where a piece of one stone is removed, to determine if it is cholesterol versus bile salts, it may be possible to use the drug ursodiol. But even if they are cholesterol ones, if they are calicified, the drug may not work well.
I guess a lot of this depends on if there are only a few, versus many, and whether or not they are blocking a duct.
If you are in agonizing and constant pain with every meal, you may be moving from this being elective to emergency anyway. So, if your docs want this out, I would listen to them and get this out asap.
Waiting on a gallbladder issue rarely helps, and often really hurts one's overall health...
PS - And I would lock your post, since you've got personal info.
My husband has CLL and during Covid was taken, 3 times, by ambulance to hospital with agonising pain, everyone suspected heart until on his third episode they sent him for a Stent, only to be told at that stage that he had a healthy heart and didn't need any intervention whatsoever so, whilst in hospital they investigate further and it was his gall bladder so this was then removed. Apparently, so the surgeon told me, the Gall bladder was very bloody and not in good contain (obviously), he recovered well, didnt affect his CLL in anyway and he has been fine since. They did the removal via keyhole surgery. Good luck x
Simarlar to my case....first they thought I had a heart attack, then a blood clot in my lung.
They told me later that the Gallbladder pain has the same symptons.
But I had a Gallbladder infection which they treated with antibiotics.
The waiting list for Gallbladder removal is up to 9 month.
Did they say what might be the reason of the gallstones? What kind of diet are you on?
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