what you've been waiting for?

Well, I finally have my blood work back and there are parts of it that I don't understand.  But some parts are obvious.

The reason that these were taken was that I'm not recovering from the chemotherapy as quickly as I think I should.   So with that in mind I'll see if I can see things that will slow me down or show how bad the chemotherapy has been.

The first thing on the list, and most obvious to me is the Hemoglobin A1C which was 7.4.  That's much higher than it would have been before I had any tumors.   It's not the 10+ I had when I was diagnosed with diabetes.  It's not catastrophically high.  But it's bad.  Normal is 4.8-6.0.

My TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) is 0.31 which is low the normal range is 0.6-3.3.  That means my pituitary does not think I need thyroid hormone.

My T4  which my doctor told me is most of what my thyroid produces is 1.42 which is high. This seems a little odd because I have thyroid disease and take a pill to supplement my personal production of T4.  The range is 0.71 to 1.40.

So I guess I'm just zinging right along.

As for my immune system:  my white cell count is3.4 which is about what it got up to after I came off the chemo but before I was on the revlimid.   That's nothing to write home about.   I can fight off infection but probably not well.

I don't understand what the other numbers in the immune/blood section of the report mean but I'll list them and

WBC Comments: ATYPICAL LYMPHS PRESENT.

My absolute neutrephils are 2.0 which is the bottom of the normal range 2.0-7.5.

Platelets are in the normal range at 187 normal is 150-440.

I know platelets involve clotting and neutrephils are important for fighting off infection but the rest of it is Greek to me.