12 week results

[hopeful51]

Hi Everyone  Here are 12 wk results

WBC 5.1
RBC 3.94
HGB 12.4
HCT 37
ALT 22
Platelet 85
VL 329...three hundred 29
ANS 3.7

This is pretty much the same as the first TX (48)wks am doing 72 wks this time.
Side affects are pretty minimul .....and I just plow through the fatigue.
I am doing neupogen twice a wk....procrit once a wk ....along with the pegasy my belly is brusied...does and one use their thigh...for some reason I think thats gonna hurt.

I probley should know this, but can anyone tell me what....MCV..MCHC...MCH...and RDW stand for.

Lots of Love and Positive thoughts to All
Hopeful51

[IAmTheWalrus]

Thighs work fine. Usually around the hip or buttockal area there is some good fat. More on some than others. Happy drilling!

I too was a slow responder and had to go the long route. Good luck!

Your HGB looks pretty good. Dr. keeps you on it with HGB above 12?

I think the MCV is typically higher in people using Ribavirin. The riba kills of the red blood cells faster and puts more demand on the body to produce more. This makes the average age of the red blood cells remaining younger. Younger cells are larger than the old weather-beaten (or riba-beaten) cells. This makes the average size of the total cells larger.

Anyway, I read that somewhere and it sounded believable to me.

[epiphiny]

MCV: Mean corpuscular volume is a measurement of the average size of your RBCs. The MCV is elevated when your RBCs are larger than normal (macrocytic), for example in anemia caused by vitamin B12 deficiency. When the MCV is decreased, your RBCs are smaller than normal (microcytic) as is seen in iron deficiency anemia or thalassemias.

MCHC: Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin Concentration is a calculation of the average concentration of hemoglobin inside a red cell. Decreased MCHC values (hypochromia) are seen in conditions where the hemoglobin is abnormally diluted inside the red cells, such as in iron deficiency anemia and in thalassemia. Increased MCHC values (hyperchromia) are seen in conditions where the hemoglobin is abnormally concentrated inside the red cells, such as in burn patients and hereditary spherocytosis, a relatively rare congenital disorder.

MCH: Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin is a calculation of the average amount of oxygen-carrying hemoglobin inside a red blood cell. Macrocytic RBCs are large so tend to have a higher MCH, while microcytic red cells would have a lower value.

RDW: Red cell distribution width is a calculation of the variation in the size of your RBCs. In some anemias, such as pernicious anemia, the amount of variation (anisocytosis) in RBC size (along with variation in shape – poikilocytosis) causes an increase in the RDW.

http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/cbc/test.html

[eureka254]

My husband's been doing the Pegasys in the thigh from the beginning, and it's working fine for him -- he found the belly thing off-putting initially, but when he started the procrit, the nurse used his belly for his 1st shot, so he's keeping it that way: peg gets the leg, procrit gets the love handles.  Gives him more space to work with.
Of the tests you listed, only one I'm familiar with is MCV, stands for mean corpuscular volume, which measures the size of the red blood corpuscle (normal being 80-100).  Don't know if it has any applicable significance in hcv treatment though.
Hope you get to und soon... best wishes.
~eureka

[choprchk]

Oh my yes!!!  For me, the thigh or hip is the only way to go but then again, I've never been able to try anywhere else.....I don't see how you can stand to shoot yourself in the tummy, that pains my imagination!

[JennyPenny]

You are referring to hemoglobin  Hopeful is referring to red blood count. They are diffferent tests.

[thegypsy9164]

Wooooooooooow!

Wait a minute...RBC at 3.94?  My docs freaked out when mine was at 7.1 and did a transfusion.  Are y'all referring to a different test than the one with which I am familiar?

Joey

[jdwithhcv]

I used thighs a few times but that hurt and I got bad site reactions.  I switched to abdomen (have MUCH more fat there than thighs) and got splotches but no itching or pain.  Used abs for procrit too, did that for 40 weeks.

Your numbers look great.  Best of luck to you.

jd

[nygirl7]

I used my thighes for all my zillion shots.............and I've been SVR for over two years so I'd say it works fine :)

Congrats on the great numbers, even with epo x 2 a week I couldn't hold that nice a hemo! And an ALT of 22 well that speaks for itself :)

You can look up those mcv type ones but what I found (I think I remember?) was that it was like blood cell sizes and stuff - it wasn't anything that we really track as important I don't think but I do remember that mine were always high or low and looking them up once.