What I am about to write may sound almost too amazing to be true, and perhaps it is. When I got home from work today, I found my early October blood test results lying in my mailbox. Surpriiiiise!!! According to the schedule, you see, my results weren’t supposed to be mailed off until October 21st!!! My knees began shaking so much that I almost didn’t make it to the front door (oh well, okay, that’s actually not true; I just thought it would be neat to introduce some drama…teehee).
Well, I confess, I am ecstatic…even though, as prudent Sherlock reminded me, these results must be examined with a certain degree of caution because they were not processed at Careggi university hospital but at another one of Florence’s main hospitals (my reason for switching hospital labs can be found in my October 5th post, btw). A very good hospital, mind you. But that also means that a lot of my numbers now have different reference ranges. In some cases, though, thank goodness, the old and new ranges were identical, which made my job much easier. Okay, that said, here are a few values:
The following gives me a good reason to celebrate: my total IgG has gone down from a whopping 39,9 (June 2009 tests) to 29,7 g/L. No kidding. A more than 30 % drop! Incidentally, the reference range happens to be the same for both hospitals, except one is in g/L, the other in mg/dL, which simply means that I went from 3990 to 2970 (mg/dL, i.e.).
Trallallero trallallà!!!…brief dance of joy.
Now, my M-spike (or rather, what Sherlock and I believe to be the number corresponding to the M-spike, though this will have to be confirmed by our respective hematologists) has gone down from 2,68 to 2,41. That would also be a very good result: a drop of more than 10 %.
As for the rest of my results, taking into account the above-mentioned range differences, it would seem that…
1. my platelet count has increased to 305 (new range: 150-400) from June’s 244 (Careggi range: 140-440).
2. my serum calcium and creatinine are stable…still within the normal range. And my IgA and IgM also remain unchanged. Phew!
3. my C-reactive protein, which till now has been a maddeningly “less than” amount, is finally an ACTUAL NUMBER: 0,3 mg/L (normal range: <0,5). Good to know.
4. my monoclonal component has gone down from 28,3 % to 25,7 %. Another slide in the right direction!
5. my total protein seems to be stable, still slightly above the normal range, but, due to the difference in ranges, I will have to do a few calculations later on, with Stefano’s help. It looks about the same to me, though.
6. I am almost positive that my hemoglobin and hematocrit have increased. Hard to tell because of the, yes I am sure you have guessed!, slight range difference. My hematocrit has certainly gone up…Oh, and so has my white cell count.
There are a few bad things (can’t have everything, after all):
— my B2M appears to have gone up a bit. But yes, as you may have guessed (again!), the new reference range is lower than the Careggi one. Even so, my B2M is only slightly above the normal range. I am not concerned.
— my vitamin D has decreased compared to June, in spite of my vitamin D supplementation over the summer, so I will have to do something quickly about that…this is a matter of some concern to me, now that the flu season has definitely struck Florence. This number is still within the normal range, but it is located on the lower end, which I know is not good at all!
Well, I am definitely in the mood to make merry this evening, as is Stefano, who slyly asked me over the phone if I wanted to celebrate this happy occasion with tripe and onions for dinner…yeah, right!!! He knows that I would rather eat my own shoelaces! Silly boy… 🙂