I know you’ve been waiting for this one so let’s dive into the numbers!
Your mini-guide to blood.
Thanks to the myUHN patient portal it makes it easy to track all of the testing. First up are Neutrophils, 55-70% of White Blood cells are Neutrophils which “live” for about 1 day. Currently they are more interesting to me right now as the doctor hinted that they like to see 1.0 or greater before discharge. A ways to go here. Come on bone marrow, get to work! 😊
On the charts below the blue area represents the normal range. The white area at the top is the high zone and the white area at the bottom is the low zone. On the left axis the numbers represent the normal range. So, for the Neutrophils the normal range is 2.0 – 7.5.
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Platelets, not too concerning here unless I cut myself as they are involved in the clotting process.
Red Blood Cells (RBC) make up 40-50% of blood volume and live for approximately 120 days. Therefore, production of RBCs is slower and recovery takes longer. Their purpose is to provide oxygen to the body’s cells. For me, this means harder breathing and quicker fatigue when riding the bike with my mates. 🚴🏻♂️
Another part of the White Blood Cells are Lymphocytes. This is where the T Lymphocytes live, now home to the CAR-T Lymphocytes, which attack and destroy infected cells and tumours.
Overall White Blood Cell (WBC) counts. Home to both Neutrophils and Lymphocytes.
Hemoglobin is a component of Red Blood Cells. Each molecule of hemoglobin can bind 4 molecules of oxygen thereby helping with one’s energy level. So, low RBC and low hemoglobin is a double whammy that means you can’t ride as hard as you’d like. 😕
C-Reactive Protein is a marker of inflammation in your body and basically, if anything is going wrong, the numbers climb. The first dot on the far left is 1. It starts going up when chemotherapy starts. The peak dot is 113 and the last dot is 60. In the last two days it was 11 and 7. For some reason I couldn’t make them show up on the chart.
The weight has been on a bit of a decline which is interesting since I’m still eating pretty well and just sitting/laying around.
Totally bored yet? Sorry. Tomorrow is Visitor Day so the report should much less technical.