Q. I have dizziness, loss of appetite, dehydration and changes in CBC report. Please help.

Hello doctor,

I am a 27-year-old male. I have had dizziness, weakness and shaking, sometimes chest pain, and shortness of breath. I have stiff upper back pain, and most of my body clicks and pops when I move. I have also had a loss of appetite, like no appetite at all and weight loss. I had bad upper right stomach pain for years, and I stopped drinking when all this started. And the pain in the upper right stomach has lessened greatly but still happens sometimes. I had bloodwork was done that was pretty normal, atleast the CBC aspect of it. I then had bloodwork done at a rheumatologist, and a bunch of stuff came back flagged, including my CBC. Now I am just worried that I am dying or something. My symptoms seem to be better sometimes and worse during other times. I drank around 5-10 beers a night for around five years, and I have smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for eleven years. Does any of this bloodwork seem deadly?

I do have anxiety, and it seems like depression for the last month. I also had a chest x-ray done, but I have not followed up with the doctor for that yet. If something on that were bad or life-threatening, I would have got a phone call by now? I did not even get my doctor's bloodwork either I got it from the blood lab directly by calling them. So I would assume if the doctor thought it was bad, he would have called me? The rheumatologist's bloodwork looks like rheumatoid arthritis, but I do not know. I was dehydrated at both doctor visits and smoked cigarettes before I went each time.

Thank you doctor,

I know that my sedimentation rate and neutrophils and a bunch of arthritis stuff came back bad. But the main worry is about possible polycythemia vera. Could that be likely with those numbers? In the previous bloodwork, the RBC and hemoglobin, and hematocrit were normal. I do smoke around a pack a day. Could that cause the elevations?