Blood work tomorrow for Mom

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Luv2lunch
Luv2lunch Member Posts: 270
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Hi everyone.
Just a quick question. I read alot on this board and was wondering if I should be more in tune with my Mom's blood work. She has it taken every month, usually 2-3 days before her chemo will begin. The doctor has never called to say there is a problem. Should I just assume everything is OK? I'd like to think that if there was something going on he would let us know, right? But after reading here about different levels being up or down, should I ask the doctor something about Mom's blood work?
Hopefully everything is ok. Thank you all for your help.
Best health to everyone :)
Linda

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  • Sundanceh
    Sundanceh Member Posts: 4,392 Member
    #2
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    Keep An Eye
    Hi Linda

    Keep a close eye on her blood counts - both her white and red blood cell counts. The white counts are critical to keep as high as possible, so that chemo can continue on schedule. She should be in the low 4's or mid to high 3's.

    Also keep an eye on her blood platelets - these are the clotting factors in our blood, that make the bleeding stop when cut. Ideally, they should not go below or too far below 100,000.

    Your onc should be dialed into these numbers and what they represent, but now you know some of what they know, so you can be more a part of the program.

    -Craig
  • Annabelle41415
    Annabelle41415 Member Posts: 6,742 Member
    #3
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    Blood Draw Check
    Every doctor should do a blood draw check and that is to see if they can receive chemo to determine if the levels are good enough. There were several times where my doctor, or nurses, said no chemo because my counts are low. If your mom is getting blood draw then if something was wrong they should say something.

    Kim
  • Buzzard
    Buzzard Member Posts: 3,043 Member
    #4
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    Annabelle41415 said:

    Blood Draw Check
    Every doctor should do a blood draw check and that is to see if they can receive chemo to determine if the levels are good enough. There were several times where my doctor, or nurses, said no chemo because my counts are low. If your mom is getting blood draw then if something was wrong they should say something.

    Kim

    Usually Neupagen or Neulasta is brought up......
    if the counts are down. It will boost the immune system White Blood Cells WBC usually in a day or so. CEA levels are sometimes used as markers but aren't direct indicators for everyone. They also check liver emzymes and about 10 different levels in all. If they talk of maybe having to postpone treatment for a week or two its most likely White blood count or platelets are low...WBC is the immune system and they do not want to compromise that by adding another treatment on top of a low WBC count...

    Maybe ask for CEA level...and a printout of WBC,Platelets, The CEA usually takes a couple of days to get back but the others are immediate and can be printed out. If you do not understand them ask the nurse to explain, or bring it to us and we will decipher it for you and mom........Love to you both, Clift
  • tanstaafl
    tanstaafl Member Posts: 1,313 Member
    #5
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    Medical POA, "in tune" and ready to roll
    "more in tune" has lots of potential health benefits, I would build a complete file of records and try to understand them. Also it is a good time to get a Medical Power of Attorney on the record and practice exercising it for records requests, if not already done. Under HIPPA, one can be so screwed if this is not done before an emergency disables an adult family member.

    We automatically collect and track our records. In fact, we get our lab results *before* the doctors see them. If anyone starts/fails anything, we are packed and ready to get a 2nd, 3rd, 4th opinion.

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