It’s All in the Blood

Every time I go to the Oncologist, I have to report fifteen minutes early for bloodwork. They draw a vile of blood out of a vein in my arm, and put it through the tests to tell me all of my blood-counts. It was quite a lesson when I started learning all the languages and what they were looking for in my blood. Hey, my blood is red, and type O. That’s all I ever knew before all this. I had this procedure done last May 4 and also this August 16. I will let you know some things which they test for by comparing the two results. I’ll take it easy on you and only do a few. In a few months, I’ll get to compare those tests with these. I’ll probably know more then about blood than I do now. Cancer is an ever-learning process.

White Blood Count (WBC): White Blood Cells fight infections. They are measured in thousands per cubic mililitre (K/uL). May = 5.9 K/uL.  August = 5.0 K/uL. Normal range is 4.1-10.9 K/uL. This means that in August, my blood measured 5000 WBC.

White Blood Cell Amongst Red Cells

Red Blood Cell Count (RBC): Red Blood Cells carry oxygen to and remove waste products from the bodies tissues. These cells also contain Hemoglobin. RBC are measured in millions of cubic mililiters (M/uL) of blood. May = 5.01 M/uL. August = 4.66 M/uL.  Normal range for men is 4.20-6.30 M/uL.

Hemoglobin (HGB): This gives red blood cells their color. They carry oxygen from the lungs to the tissues, and take carbon dioxide (waste products) from the tissues to the lungs. From the lungs, carbon dioxide is exhaled. HGB is measured in grams per deciliter (g/dL) of blood. May = 15.3 g/dL. August = 14.3 g/dL. Normal range is 12.0-18.0 g/dL.

Hemoglobin

Hematocrit (HCT) value: This is the percentage of red blood cells in relation to your total blood volume. May = 44.6%. August = 43.4%.  Normal range is 37.0-51.0%. Put the blood in a centrifuge and it will separate to show the HCT Value.

Hematocrit

Platelet Count (PLT): Platelets help to stop bleeding by forming blood clots. They are measured in thousands of cubic mililiters of blood (K/uL). May = 205 K/uL. August = 181.0 K/uL. Normal range is 140.0-440.0 K/uL.

Platelets

You will note that all my normal readings are down from May to August. The RBC and WBC are in the low range of normal, as is the PLT count. The HGB and HCT are in the middle range of normal. I will again compare the blood test readings in November to these. We will hopefully be able to tell the difference over the months and years.