what do the numbers mean???

[baby T]

my test results on the PCR test was 9850 what does this mean if you can help out on this one please do. a nurse told me that it would take 6 months to a year for me to even get on the waiting list for this. is this true thank you again trisha

[GoofyDad]

The lab is just showing Neutrophils and WBC. A few posts up in this thread I asked for guidance on the calc. Hopefully I'm doing it wrong. That would be good news. Neupogen won't arive until next week sometime.

I spoke with the nurse and she has sold me on nausea being triggered by riba pills. They're presribing a 'PPI' (like the little purple pill she says) to help with nausea and as a prophy for other stomach ills stemming from,low plateletes. I thought nausea was from food, but it's true, I eat, then I take riba.

She said they'll prolly reduce my riba at some point (remember me on the scale, Jim??...sorry hope you're not eating) but want to keep me at max for as long as they can. Sounds like they're right on the same page with me.

Just saw your new post Jim, I'll have a look at the calc. My old lab used to show absolutes, now I go to the hospital just cause it's convenient (believe it or not).

[jmjm530]

Just don't take the Neupogen until you know your ANC. If your lab is only showing neutrophils and WBC it's possible you need another test for ANC. Don't really know. I'm also taking the purple pill -- two a day -- for GERD. The nausea you speak of us very common in the beginning of tx and usually gets better.  

I'm a little confused why they're talking about eventually reducing your riba as your Hemoglobin is 13. The only reason you should consider reducing Hgb is if you're anemic and Procrit intervention doesn't work. They're a number of drugs that can treat riba-induced nausea which like I said usually goes away eventually. Reducing riba, especially early in tx, reduces your chance of SVR.



-- Jim

[GoofyDad]

I treat at CPMC. I just stumbled accross this, which shows me as a Neupogen candidate based on pure WBC decline from baseline (3.7 to 1.9).

http://www.cpmc.org/advanced/liver/physicians/hepc-protocol-santacruz.pdf

Not quite a 50% drop for me, but given that it's so close so quick, I'm comfortable with a little early intervention.

I would like to get a handle on the ANC though. I'll persue that.

Goofy

[GoofyDad]

Spoke to the lab receptionist. She thinks bands (and segs too) are soemthing they only see for manual diff (hand done with slide) vs. auto diff (el machino). So lets at least assume I have bands > 0. That alone is an improvement. I'll try to learn more about deriving ANC from nurse and let you know what I learn.

[cougareyes]

Regardless of how you calculate it with your neutrophil % at 25 it is low. When my wbc was at 3 and my neutrophil % at 35 my doc said don't worry my anc was at about a 1000. Im not sure if they do a seperate blood test to get the anc(when listed seperately on the cbc), and some docs just use this as a guessimate.
Jim's right there is nothing in your bloodwork that warrents riba reduction, unless there are other factors that your doc is looking at. Especially this early in the game you don't want dose reduction.

[cuteus]

what an odd thing this tx is! ANC so low in only two wks! WOW!
mine held above 1000, for most of the tx, until wk 65, then it dropped to 850, but went back up on its own. What individuality can do for numbers! The hgb did suffer through out, but normalized 3 mo post tx.
Hope all of your bone marrows hold on, for those of you treating.
Scott had some trick about taking the Neupogen at a time when the bloodword would show a good response, but I can't remember if it was the day before bloodwork or what.