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Blood Work Confusion

Help please, I feel really dumb.  I have never been good at conversion math and I asked the dr this a.m. to translate this 3x and I still don't get converting these numbers.  Never been good at math but this is totally confusing!!  The only thing I understand is that at week 6 I am UND from 5,597,345 !!!!!! which confirms the decision to do 24 wks for 2b and my ALT is 13 U/L (don't know what U/L is), but it hasn't been below 200 in forever!!!!  If someone could help me with these lows and highs it sure would be appreciated, I do feel like I'm coming unglued (very irritable) so maybe it's just me.  Other good news is he gave me nausea med and said bloods explain my dizziness and need for fresh cold air.  Doc says:

WBC 2.9 K/uL is low
RBC 3.46 M/uL is low
hemoglobin 11.0 g/dL is low
hematocrit 33.6% is low
neutrophils 28.3% is low
lymphocytes 62.5% is high
absolute Neutros 0.82 K/uL and will medicate if drops more (?)
platelets 171 K/uL which is dropping
TSH 1.98 ulU/mL which is dropping
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4549134 tn?1363193215
Your U is units L is liters. Units per Liters. Your WBC= white blood cell = Neutrophils, Lymphocytes.  Fight off infection. Your Neutros are the helper cells while your lymphs are killer cells. They are high, if your white count is down you are more susceptible to infection. I'm not sure what the ranges are in order to start treatment because I haven't started yet myself.  That is the easiest way for me to explain the wbc part. Your platelets are for clotting so they are okay.  When I say killer cells "viral" cells tlymphs they are specific for viruses. Your white cell neutrophils are fighter cells. They need to be higher than your lymphs. Unfortunately with hepc almost won't happen.  With any virus they will be higher until the virus is treated. Getting your WBC up and neutrophil % up is most important.  Hope I explained that a little bit so you could understand and didn't confuse you worse. Your rbc,hgb,hct are normal.
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4549134 tn?1363193215
On the bright side your ALT is low which is a good sign. Means your liver is working just fine! If it werent you enzymes would be higher! Seems like your liver is rejuvenating itself. That's just my guess though. I pray it is and all goes well, gives me hope :)) I wad just recently diagnosed. Haven't done anything but lab work so far :-/
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1815939 tn?1377991799
Congratulations on being Undetectable at week 6. That is great.

Your labs reflect the fact that you are on Interferon and Ribavirin. Both of these drugs affect the blood count results. Interferon can affect the thyroid.

The drugs cause hemolytic anemia and your hemoglobin, red blood cell count, and hematocrit reflect that, so they are all low and will probably stay low throughout treatment. Your hemoglobin is still okay, even though it is low. They won't do anything until it gets below 10. It may stabilize on its own.
"RBC 3.46 M/uL is low
hemoglobin 11.0 g/dL is low
hematocrit 33.6% is low"

The drugs also cause a drop in the WBC, neutrophils, and absolute neutrophils. The absolute neutrophils will be watched closely and if they drop too low, the doctor may proscribe Neupogen.
"WBC 2.9 K/uL is low
neutrophils 28.3% is low
lymphocytes 62.5% is high
absolute Neutros 0.82 K/uL and will medicate if drops more (?)"

Your platelets are still okay.
"platelets 171 K/uL which is dropping"

Keep an eye on your thyroid results. These drugs can affect the thyroid so your thyroid should be monitored closely.
"TSH 1.98 ulU/mL which is dropping"

Here is a link a site that explains thyroid testing:

http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/tsh/tab/test


Here is a link to a site that will explain the blood count tests to you.

http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/cbc/tab/test
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