Saturday, March 13, 2010

Anemia & Abnormal Blood Lab Results

This is definitely not adding up. I just got bloodwork done and I'm anemic. I was anemic when I was trying to give blood for the Red Cross and that made sense to me, because of all the bleeding I had in Seattle, but then I went to the clinic and that's when I got the Army nurse from Alabama and they came back telling me I wasn't anemic and lab results were normal. I said, "How could my blood go from being anemic to being normal in one week?" and he said yeah, it was like gaining a pint of blood, but, he said,, the Red Cross results were probably not scientific or accurate and their labs WERE.

Only one month later, after taking a prenatal vitamin to get my iron and potassium up, I am testing anemic.

You don't go anemic and then not and then anemic again. The body doesn't work like that. If you're anemic, it takes time for the body to build back stores because it's been depleted from even your bone marrow!

I'm wondering who was in charge of the labwork now, when I got it done at the Wenatchee Valley Clinic. Because this doesn't add up at all.

I AM surprised my potassium is showing normal right now. Because I'm having the benign fasciculations in my legs today. Someone said it might be dehydration but i don't know. My results today are:

Oh, I just realized I don't have any results for potassium. So I asked for the charts and they're looking for it. I was told they were going to do a CBC and electrolytes.

I'm checking the records. If potassium is K+ I think it was done and it's really borderline, like one point away from abnormally low. And then, too, I'm looking for alkaline phosphate and I don't know where this is. I don't think this is on the chart at all. But looking still and they're checking for me. It looks like just the basic electroytes were done and then no liver checks, like alkaline phosphate or anything, were covered. So I'm wondering about this.

For electrolytes I have:
borderline Sodium 137 with a normal range as 137-145
borderline Potassium 3.6 with a normal range as 3.5-5.1
CL- 105 with normal range as 98-107
CO2 28 with normal range as 22-30
abnormally low Anion Gap 8 with normal range as 12-20
Glucose 71 with normal range as 65-105
BUN 10 with normal range as 7.0-17.0
CREAT (IDMS) 0.70 with normal range as 0.52-1.04
eGFR >60.0 (normal)

I looked up low Anion Gap and it's related to hemmorhage and a couple of other things. The only hemmorhage I've had was the abnormal bleeding that happened in Seattle, which I went to the ER for (this was where they claimed I was delusional and claimed they didn't believe I'd been bleeding rectally--I was discharged with "psychosis" when I wasn't, and hadn't been psychotic)

Anemia will show up after such an episode at approximately the same time it occured with me.

My RBC is:
RBC 3.72 out of normal as 3.9-5.2
HGB 11.9 out of normal as 12.0-15.6
HCT 34.5 out of 35-46

I haven't had heavy periods. They have been normal to light. The first one after I had the bloodwork done at WVC, where I met the military nurse, was completely normal and then my last one was lighter than usual without any normal clots or anything. In general, they have been uniformly normal like I've had my whole life, a couple months since my separation from my ex and that's been almost a year. After I had the MRI done I had a very light one, but I thought maybe it was from the injection of contrast. Then back to normal and then recently, my last one was very light and this was after all of the technology problems I wrote about having, with the overheating and serious issues that affected my health.

Certaintly no hemmorhage or heavy periods. I became anemic after I was bleeding in Seattle. Then, I feel, some people may have tried to cover this up or mask evidence which would corroborate what I said happened.

Go figure.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have low potassium but I don't have twitching, I have a lot of cramping in the legs, arms and back. I also have experienced muscle weakness. About 4 months ago when I was tested, my potassium level was fine. It all depends on meds taken and what you eat. I should be taking potassium but if I do, I have trouble so I'm hoping by eating more food with potassium, my levels will go up.
It's all body chemistry, etc.

Mama said...

Hello,

I hope that you'll be back to your healthy self soon!

I've had the benign fasciculations, and sometimes in the past I've had bad cramping such as my feet would curl up, literally. This happened a LOT at one point.

What isn't known (what I didn't know!) is that low potassium, abnormally low potassium, is actually very rare. It's not common, because they say most foods contain potassium and anyone with a normal diet should be fine. So if when it occurs, it's something to be aware of. To have it often is a problem I think. I've had it often and I know what I believe it's tied to, but anyway...

I wonder what foods are highest in potassium? Let me check...Oh my goodness...coffee?! After looking at this list, there is no good reason for me to ever have low potassium. Especially considering what I eat, this is very abnormal.

I will post a new post with this information I just got about high potassium foods and their nutrient values.

:) Hope you'll be in good rank again. I was thinking, if you're really active, some of that potassium may be lost through sweating.