Self monitoring / testing of HGB / HCT ?

[jon1972]

Does anyone here use any sort of home testing devices to monitoring your own blood levels? I have been trying to associate my symptoms with elevated counts and would like the ability to be able to test my reds at will, but I haven't seen any units online that have that great of reviews. I'm not trying to replace my hema, but rather just be able to gather additional info on my own between visits. Thanks.

[charl17]

My wife works in a hospital blood bank. She can draw my blood and run a CBC with Diff any time. It is a very fast automated test. Maybe your hematologist can have more frequent CBCs run for you. Maybe there is an independent lab that will do it for a price. When my hematologist was in Ohio and I was snowbirding in Florida he gave me an order for a monthly CBC from an independent lab.

[socrates_8]

Hey Jon...

Not independent of the collection pathology. However, I have always collected all my CBC results, along with all other tests records since diagnosis. Just had to train up my GP was all...

Best

Steve

[clubdino]

I used to read hematocrits all the time in the veterinary field. You would need a tiny hematocrit centrifuge, capillary tubes, micro-hematocrit capillary tube sealant, and a hematocrit card to read the results. You just prick your finger and stick the capillary tube up to the blood droplet and the tube will suck up the blood itself. Then you put the tube in the clay to prevent the blood from spinning out in the centrifuge. Always get 2 tubes of blood because you can never put one tube in a centrifuge. It has to be balanced. Then you spin it in the centrifuge clay side down and as far as reading the results you would have to watch a youtube video on that. You could easily learn how to do it yourself if you watched videos on how to read a pcv (packed cell volume.) PCV and hematocrit are practically the same thing. Initial cost would probably be fairly expensive for the centrifuge maybe $300. But it would last you years. I know it sounds complicated but that would be the exact way labs perform the packed cell volume (hematocrit.)

[Alexbits]

This thing is nice sightdx.com but I suspect also pretty expensive.

[Cambrook]

Headaches are my tell-tale sign that my ranges are getting too high.