Labs

I have a copy of last years labs and I am going to have labs drawn again this week.  What should I do with the information I have.  I am not really sure how to read the lab work, please some help.

I see you had surgery last year?  I hope you had lab work done more than once last year, as the first 12-18 months PO DS is very stressful on the body until the body adapts to the intestinal bypass.  Take all your results put them in a spreadsheet, look at any trends and have them addressed, especially malabsorption vit/min/protein potential issues.   your lab work will have an established reference range use that to help.  try using the same lab for your lab work as methodologies are different depending on where they are performed and it is difficult to trend.  also use the same lab as they establish different normal values based on population mean.  hope that helps....you have to advocate for yourself, as health care professionals (most) will only notice if there is an abnormal results, but as a DSer (and any other proactive patient) you should always look for emerging trends and address them before a full deficiency develops...

You should have more then 2 sets of labs at this point right?  

You need to start tracking and trending your laps in a speadsheet so you can see where you are moving from lab draw to lab draw.    Just because we are "in range" or told we are "Great" by our surgeons office ... all they are looking for is being within normal ranges.  We are not normal and must be higher in some ... but most important is to catch a decline in a area before it become a big issue.  the only way you can do that is by tracking and trending.

There are spreadsheets out there.   I'm sure others will post links to them.

Tom

there are oodles of spread sheets out there, most on Excel. I made one on Word and you are welcome to it, just pm me your email addy and I'll send it to you. Mine is hyperlinked to labtests online so you can easily click the link and read what that particular test means. I kept it simple-stupid...in other words "me" proof. *lol*

As others have said - I hope that you've had more than one lab draw in the past year.  I had mine drawn every 3 months my first year and every six months there after.

Here's the link to the lab spreadsheet
Here's the link to the labs we should be running each time.

I hope very seriously that you are supplementing well.  Here's the link to basic Vitalady DS Supplement Schedule

I had labs drawn today and May 2010, I cannot remember if I had any drawn before that.  I really do not think that I did.  I am going to call the nurse later and find out.  

Thanks for the links.

I have a pile of pills next to me to take today.    

Thanks for taking time to post.

 I believe you are celebrating your SECOND surgiversary, yes?  There are some great spreadsheets and ways to track your labs, some in Googledocs, some Excel or Word.  Always make sure you get a hard copy of all your labs after every draw.  Then come post em here, and you can glean some advice from others here that know more about our specific needs as postops.  As far as frequency of lab work, after the first year to 18 months, getting them drawn once every 6 months to a year should be sufficient.  Caveat is- this in ONLY as long as you don't have ANY deficiencies and are meticulous about your protein and vitamin regime.  

Hello,

Yes I am celebrating my SECOND surgiversary!!!  

I just had my labs drawn a few hours ago.  When I was at the doctor's office on Monday they only gave me a copy of the labs from 5/2010.  I do not think that I had any other labs drawn: I am going to call and bug the nurse today.  

I will work on getting last years lab work into a spreadsheet and posted here.

Thanks for taking time to reply to my post.