Life after a splenectomy

-A buddy of mine from back in the 30s had a nasty car wreck over the summer. He ended up with a ruptured spleen, so they had to take it out... Now his white blood cell count is looking pretty low on his blood work. I was wondering if anyone knows which vitamins or minerals—or maybe just specific foods—could help him get those leukocyte levels back up? thanks.🙏

If doctors don't provide someone who just had their spleen removed with incredibly thorough, step-by-step instructions on diet and recovery therapy... then you might as well start by calling the Department of Health and Human Services, because that kind of negligence is honestly just appalling...

Aside from the Department of Health and Human Services, does anyone else on this forum actually know what's going on here?
I’m looking for answers too, so I figured I’d jump in here instead of starting yet another thread. 😉

My white blood cell count came back low...

Wait, what? I don't follow...

White blood cells are basically the body's defense force, produced in the bone marrow and various lymph nodes.
In the spleen, you've got the red pulp and the white pulp. In the red pulp, you'll find
erythrocytes, granulocytes, monocytes, and plasma cells.
The white pulp is essentially just clusters of smaller lymphatic tissue.🙄

Donna Sullivan7 said:-A buddy of mine from back in the 30s had a nasty car wreck over the summer. He ended up with a ruptured spleen, so they had to take it out... Now his white blood cell count is looking pretty low on his blood work. I was wondering if anyone knows which vitamins or minerals—or maybe just specific foods—could help him get those leukocyte levels back up? thanks.🙏

What are we talking about here—what's the actual white blood cell count?

lonebadger6 said:If doctors don't provide someone who just had their spleen removed with incredibly thorough, step-by-step instructions on diet and recovery therapy... then you might as well start by calling the Department of Health and Human Services, because that kind of negligence is honestly just appalling...

Oh yeah, you're a real genius, aren't you? Seriously though, I’d love to hear what the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services would actually have to say to him. Like, really.🤣

Gary Johnson7 said:My white blood cell count came back low...

Wait, what? I don't follow...

White blood cells are basically the body's defense force, produced in the bone marrow and various lymph nodes.
In the spleen, you've got the red pulp and the white pulp. In the red pulp, you'll find
erythrocytes, granulocytes, monocytes, and plasma cells.
The white pulp is essentially just clusters of smaller lymphatic tissue.🙄

Nice job on the deep dive. You really went down the rabbit hole with that Google search, didn't you? 🙏 So, sit down... we finally got the group histology results back on the spleen. 🙏

Good afternoon. Well, it looks like I’m joining the club of people living without a spleen... I actually lost mine when I was 17, and now I’m 33. Up until this point, nobody ever bothered to give me any specific guidance on what I can or can't eat. Since the surgery, I’ve ended up in the hospital more times than I care to admit, hooked up to IVs because the pain, vomiting, and diarrhea were just too much to handle. The doctors always brushed it off as lingering complications or internal scar tissue. The last time I was admitted to the hospital was back in December. Now, I finally got to see a doctor who replaced my regular physician, and she suggested that I might actually have celiac disease. It turns out that before this, no one ever bothered to run proper tests; they just assumed everything was a leftover consequence of my ruptured spleen. Honestly, what is there even left to say?

I’m also living without a spleen now. I actually had mine removed about three weeks ago, though nobody has really given me any actual guidance yet, other than the rule that I can't lift anything heavy or do any strenuous work for the next three months. I guess I was wondering if anyone here is also living without a spleen and could share what that’s been like? Like, do you take specific supplements or vitamins and stuff? And what about vaccinations? I already got my pneumococcal shot, but I’ve been reading things online about strep and Haemophilus, so I'm curious about that too. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

steeleagle152, look, there’s some info on this over in this thread if you want to dig into it:

Thanks for the link, but I’ve actually already read through that. I woke up with a fever today, which is kind of worrying, I guess. It’s been about four weeks since my surgery, so maybe my immune system is just bottoming out and I'm catching a cold. My nose is stuffed up and my head is pounding, though honestly, the headache could just be from hitting my head or even just this crazy weather we're having lately. I really hope it isn't anything serious, because the more I try to look up my symptoms online, the less I seem to understand and the more anxious I get.

I saw you posting on another thread. Honestly, maybe just give your primary care doctor a call and ask if this is actually normal?

I have an appointment with my primary care doctor tomorrow, so I'll probably just ask him then. I took some Tylenol yesterday, which brought my fever down, and it hasn't come back yet, I guess. I'm not entirely sure if those were actual episodes or something else, but I'll see how I feel by tomorrow. Maybe I should get some blood work done just to see what's actually going on. 🤷

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