Labs

[Mamawof25]

These are my labs from today. Manual Diff: Ellictocytes 1+, Poikilocytes 1+. CBC with Diff: Eosinophil 23%, Eosinophil Absolute 1.2k/CMM, HGB 11.8, PLT 136. CCP Complete Chemical Profile: Anion Gap 3, Alkaline Phosphatase 120, SGOT (AST) 41, Chloride Serum 109. Last week my Ellictocytes was 1+, Eosinophil was 6.0, PLT was 135, and Bilirubin was 1.2 mg/dl. Should I worry? My oncologist is not a dedicated CLL specialist. Do I need a second opinion?

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero]

I had a differential done yesterday.. and it has neutrophils, lymphocytes, bands, smudge cells etc...

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator]

I gather that you are only posting results that are out of range. It would help considerably if you posted each test on one line and also posted the reference range for each test. These reference ranges vary from lab to lab and 5% of the population fall outside these ranges and are perfectly healthy. So you also need to look at what is normal for you and take notice of changes from your normal. In CLL, trends are generally more important than one-off changes, which could be due to a number of causes, including poor blood draws, poor management/processing of the blood sample and test equipment problems. (Doctors commonly arrange for follow-up tests.)

With respect to your results, there are some that may be outside the relevant reference range because of your CLL and others perhaps for other reasons or just because it is your norm. Your high eosinophils may indicate you have an allergy or perhaps an infection, for example. Here are several posts that provide you with the tools to understand your blood tests:

healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...

cllsupport.org.uk/cll-sll/s...

cllsociety.org/toolbox/keep...

If your oncologist is not a dedicated CLL specialist, how many different cancers do they cover? You've seen how much new information is coming out about CLL from following this community and how fast treatment options are changing. Is your oncologist able to keep up with all the new developments in all their different patient cancers? Also, if they only see a small number of CLL patients, there's less chance of them having come across another patient similar to you and having experience in how to manage your specific expression of CLL. CLL is a hugely heterogeneous illness, so you won't be surprised to learn that those who see a CLL specialist have life expectancies several years greater than those that don't.

Neil

[Mamawof25 in reply to AussieNeil]

Thank you so much