Post
by chris » 30 Aug 2011 15:29
Hi Jayne
Welcome back. Missed your posts. Yes, am quite hacked off about scan results and just about to ask for a formal explanation!
Glad you had such a great time on holiday and felt so well. There must be all sorts of factors other than the pure haemoglobin count which determine how you feel so I suppose best not to compare with anybody else's numbers but get to know your your own and what that means for you. I thought I was the only crazy who plotted blood test results on a graph so was really glad to know I am not alone in my madness! They do give a much better indication of trends than pages of figures and I was heartened to see relative stability in some of my counts - though not the platelets which are slowly descending... to what I wonder?
I admire the proposed workout with the cross-trainer and I'm sure the fitter your muscles are the less work your body had to do to get through the daily activities. Hope your first day back at work was not too taxing - even making the tea??!!
June
Different places use different measuring systems for blood counts. If the maths is going to give uyou a headache, stop reading now! In US, normal white cell count is quoted as 4,500 - 10,000 as they count cells per millilitre whereas in the UK it is per microlitre so you need to count 3 places to the left of the last figure and stick in a decimal point. So UK range would be 4.5 - 10. With your haemoglobin count thay are using yet another different system so you just put a decimal point in before the last figure!!! Good to know that as otherwise you would be a bit worried if the norm was 116 and yours was 10!!
For what it's worth, my blood test results form states normal neutrophils are in the range 1.7 - 7.5 so if your hospital is using the same system, 1.7 would be within the range of normal. However, if your hospital is using a different one (as it does for the haemoglobin results), then it would be very low. Again, you need to ask to see your printed results (mine usually contain a range of normal in a column next to my results) and ask your consultant what the normal range of neutrophils would be. It is very confusing and no doubt they have their reasons for using different measurement systems. Having low neutrophils could make you prone to infections so you would need to steer clear of anybody with an obvious infection, avoid certain foods, avoid aforementioned fungal spores in the garden, ask somebody else to deal with pet faeces, avoid crowded places, use lots of hand gel etc etc. If you haven't already got this, do ask Sophie for a copy of 100 Questions and Answers about MDS as it has a whole section on neutropenia and what precautions to take.
Hope this helps
Chris
Chris.Trustee,Patient Support Ambassador (Essex) (F) Age 73 (2023)).Diagnosed in 2008. CMML-1. Normal red cells, low white cells & platelets, slightly raised monocytes. Enlarged spleen. Not had any treatment - active monitoring 6-monthly.
glad you helped raise lots cash and it will i am sure be well spent 
white cells should be 4-11 and Newts as i call them fight infection and should be approx 30 percent plus of the white cell so if white cells 6 newts should be 2 +.....think you should get nurse to explain print out to you ..
... both daughter and son have results ...son due to grades ??? has to do extra foundation year and resit 
as missed out by 40 points 