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[motherbear]

Hi everyone,

Got my son's blood results back and I was wondering if you could help me decipher whether or not the treatment has made any difference. There are a few I am worried about and some I am very happy about but apart from the CRP result wonder if they tell me anything. Here goes!(remember we are in the UK, I will put the normal values down too)

Blood 4 weeks prev         Normal value                             Bloods today.  

CRP    64                                0-4                                           33!:roll-laugh:

HB.      117                            140-180                                     129!

RBC     4.8                                 5-6                                          5.3

PLT      810?                               140-400                                    479

WBC    10.6                              4-10                                           10.4

SOD  139                                  137-144                                       141

EOS    0.31                                  0.1-0.5                                       0.49?:?

 GGT    38                                    4-35                                             36

Lymph 2                                          1.5-4                                         2.90

Lyme test NEG. B.burgdorferi C6 antibody EIA and B. burdorferi EIA (Vidas): (VBBE)

There are a load of other U's&E's, FBC's which I could tell you if I have missed something important.

Thank you so much 🙂     Caroline

[Maz]

[user=2147]motherbear[/user] wrote:

Blood 4 weeks prev         Normal value                             Bloods today.  

CRP    64                                0-4                                           33!:roll-laugh:

PLT      8.1                                140-400                                    4.7?:?

EOS    0.31                                  0.1-0.5                                       0.49?:?

 

Hi Caroline,

That's great going that your son's CRP pretty much halved in just one month of doxy! Mine actually doubled in the first few months with herxing, so he's doing well with this. CRP is considered a more accurate measure for level of inflam and, as your lab ref mentions, the ideal is for this number to be in the lower numbers…0, if possible. So, his inflam is still high and will be producing a good deal of pain, but it's much better than 64! There are a couple people here whose CRP was in the hundreds…I believe Ruth said her's was about 135 while actually on Enbrel, but came down to normal levels after 10 months of abx therapy. So, hopefully, your son will experience the same downward trend, too! 🙂

I think the EOS stands for eosinophils? Sorry, but the labs use different anacronyms and ref ranges, so these are tricky to interpret and should really be double-checked with your son's doc…but if this helps, while I was on tetras (I've been on tetra, doxy and mino), my eosinophil count was always somewhat suppressed. My doc didn't feel it was a cause for concern and it bounced back into normal range when I switched out to abx in other classes. So, for me, at any rate, it was a result of the medication. Medications, including abx, can cause some blood lab blips. Another lab blip I started to experience while on extended-release amoxy was my RDWs increased slightly after about 6 months. These, too, returned to normal when I switched out.

Here's a little schpiel on esoinophils on Wiki for you. As far as I know elevations in esoinophils are more of a concern, called eosinophilia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eosinophil_granulocyte

Again, if I'm reading the lab results right…your son's platelet count is quite low (?) at 4.7, when the ref range is 140 to 400, and something you will no doubt want to discuss further with the doc. There are so many possiblities with thrombocytopenia (low platelet count) that it isn't worth speculating, but certainly worthy of further investigation. Some AI diseases can cause what is called “idiopathic (of unknown cause) thrombocytopenia purpura” or ITP, for short and I don't know if this may be an issue or not, but it will likely need further detective work on the part of his doc to get to the bottom of this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrombocytopenia

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

Sorry, Caroline, but having difficulty reading the other results as the labs you had run are very different than the ones used over here for Lyme. Did Dr D also run an IGeneX western blot for your son, by any chance?

Let us know what you find out, Caroline!

Peace, Maz

[motherbear]

Hi Maz,

thanks for looking at his blood results. All previous counts on his platelets never gave normacy notes until the last ones I have just received. The values on previous results Were not highlighted as a problem which they tend to do. I have no idea how they can give such a different range of results and I am thinking it is just a different way that they report it. I have double checked his latest result and it is 479 so between them and me making a mistake it has become confusing. 479 puts him nearly in normal range (according to the normacy values sent with his last results) so I am ok with that. I have changed the values on my post.

It is Eosinphils and they haven't highlighted it as a problem?  I have looked at the link sent ,thanks.  I will do more internet research and see what I can gather from it. I think it may well be worth mentioning when he goes back to see his GP in a couple of weeks. His Eosinphil count has been between 0.25 to 0.45 but again they never gave normacy notes until his last results which says 0.1-0.5 .

I am so happy to see his CRP has halved! It is the only blood result that I know could show that his AP is working for him! Hopefully this will continue to drop and he will start to get some pain relief.

Thanks again Maz,

Caroline.

[Maz]

[user=2147]motherbear[/user] wrote:

I have no idea how they can give such a different range of results and I am thinking it is just a different way that they report it. I have double checked his latest result and it is 479 so between them and me making a mistake it has become confusing. 479 puts him nearly in normal range (according to the normacy values sent with his last results) so I am ok with that. I have changed the values on my post.

It is Eosinphils and they haven't highlighted it as a problem?  I have looked at the link sent ,thanks.  I will do more internet research and see what I can gather from it. I think it may well be worth mentioning when he goes back to see his GP in a couple of weeks. His Eosinphil count has been between 0.25 to 0.45 but again they never gave normacy notes until his last results which says 0.1-0.5 .

Caroline, thanks for clarifying the platelets ref range…that sure explains a lot and so happy to hear your son is within normal range and not suffering from thrombocytopenia on top of all else! Whew! 😀

Usually, if an allergy to tetracyclines is present, esoinophils will elevate by 30% or more. I was never actually concerned about this while on tetracyclines, as mine were always on the low side while taking this class of abx. They always bounced into normal ranges when I switched out to a different abx and my doc was never concerned about the lowered esoinophil values. That's not to say, of course, that it may not be important for your son in the context of his AS, so you should check in with his doc on this. Just wanted to let you know that it wasn't a big issue for me and was just the way my body reacted to tetras and normalised when I came off them. 😉

Looking fwd to more updates, Caroline! Keep up the good work, Mum!

Peace, Maz

[motherbear]

Hi Maz,

his eosinphils have been odd for the last five months and that was well before he started abx.

Here are the monthly results…………. 0.45, 0.33, 0.23, 0.31 and the last one 0.49.

I am wondering if it could be the Enbrel or Voltarol although there was a hike in numbers on the last count which he was taking abx.

I think it will be worth while mentioning to the Doc when he sees him next but if it isn't the abx then it is a guess at what is causing it.

What do you think?

[Maz]

[user=2147]motherbear[/user] wrote:

Here are the monthly results…………. 0.45, 0.33, 0.23, 0.31 and the last one 0.49.

I am wondering if it could be the Enbrel or Voltarol although there was a hike in numbers on the last count which he was taking abx.

I think it will be worth while mentioning to the Doc when he sees him next but if it isn't the abx then it is a guess at what is causing it.

What do you think?

 

Hi Caroline,

The ref ranges your lab are using are different from mine, so I'm not entirely sure what they mean. My lab has a normal ref range of “15 to 500 cells/uL” for esoinophils, so as you can see there is a wide range for what is considered normal.

This is only a guess, but I wonder if your lab is decimalizing the results, so that the latest 0.49 reading would equate to 490 cells/uL? If this is so, then your son is within normal ranges…but you'd have to check this to be sure.

Also, worth noting that lab values can be temporarily altered during herxing (rising or falling), but the time to look further with esoinophils is if they are above ref range by about 30% or more, as this could indicated an allergy to his doxy. 

I know this isn't much help, Caroline, but I'm having difficulty knowing what your lab's ref ranges mean as their unfamiliar to me. Hopefully, your doc will be able to clarify?

Peace, Maz

[motherbear]

Hi Maz,

thanks for trying to decipher the labs. Because his EOS has been high for such a long time it can't be the Doxy. Something else is doing it so I will ask the Doc when he next goes to see him.

There are huge differences with our lab result norms to those over the pond but the people are just as great!!!:roll-laugh:

Thanks Maz

Caroline

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