Chloe Gray5 said:Last week I went in for some routine blood work and my liver enzymes came back pretty high—specifically AST at 195 and ALT at 111. I’ve honestly never had any issues with them, or my liver for that matter.
Then I went back today for more tests, hasn't even been a full week, and look at that—everything is back within the normal range. I'm wondering if there was just a mistake in the measurement last time? Or can they really drop that much in a single week? It feels like they point toward liver damage, but does the liver actually recover that fast, or was it just an error?
Thanks 🙂
It’s totally possible you’re dealing with "lab error"—it happens more often than people think, though it's hard to say if it was a fluke in the first test or the second 🤔. The thing is, the liver has this incredible capacity to regenerate itself, so we shouldn't rule out that being the reason behind the sudden drop.
A third checkup (ideally at the same lab) should probably clear things up for you. 👍
Sean Harris93 said:Does anyone have any idea what might be causing high bicarbonate levels in my bloodwork? I’ve also been dealing with a super stiff neck and some pretty nagging headaches lately.
Sean Harris93 said:It didn't just hit me out of nowhere, either. This has been building up for a while now, and I don't have a fever or anything—my temperature is totally normal. The weirdest part is that when I'm just standing still in one spot, I get this bizarre sensation, almost like all the blood is just draining down out of me or something. I honestly can't wrap my head around it. I can go out for a run or even pull off a full-on sprint without any issues at all; it’s strictly those static, standing-still positions that really mess with me.
Honestly, if I were you, I’d head in for a full physical with your doctor and just ask them to take a closer look at your lungs and kidneys. It might be worth getting some extra blood work or maybe even some diagnostic imaging done, too—just whatever your physician thinks makes sense after they check you out. Better safe than sorry, right? Look, just because your bicarbonate levels are running a bit high doesn't mean they're actually the culprit behind everything you're feeling. It’s easy to jump to conclusions when you see something flagged on a lab report, but honestly, those elevated numbers don't necessarily have a direct line to the symptoms you've been dealing with.
Sean Harris93 said:Does anyone know what might cause elevated bicarbonate levels in the blood? I'm dealing with a stiff neck and some pretty bad headaches.
Honestly, a stiff neck paired with a headache is never a fun combo to deal with.
You really need to get in touch with your doctor ASAP! (Especially if that headache hit you out of nowhere like a freight train, or if you start running a fever or feeling super groggy/disoriented).
Roger Sanders said:Blood work can show certain markers—like CRP or white blood cell counts—that suggest there’s some kind of inflammation going on in the body. That said, I’m not entirely sure if those specific levels catch every single inflammatory issue out there, or if they only pick up a fraction of them.
For instance, if someone is dealing with an inflamed prostate or a bladder infection, would you actually see those red flags pop up on a standard blood panel, or do those kinds of issues sometimes fly completely under the radar of a routine test?
When it comes to prostate inflammation, your CRP doesn't necessarily have to be elevated for it to be a factor.
Folks went ahead and checked in with their doctors, got some solid advice, and now we can finally put this whole thing to bed. Huge thanks to everyone for keeping the discussion helpful and actually productive 👋
Brandon Perez5 said:Hey everyone... Last year I went in for a checkup, and my spirometry results showed significant obstruction. I was referred to a pulmonologist (maybe asthma?) and prescribed Singulair 10 mg tablets. After taking them for a month, I went back for a follow-up, but the results were identical to the first test. I went in again three months later, and once again, nothing had changed. Since I don't actually have any symptoms, they told me to just keep taking the Singulair. I'm wondering how long you can stay on this medication. I've seen info online where people take it for years—is that actually the case?🤔 Thanks
Years old..
Singulair is a pretty selective medication; they have kids on it from a really early age, and even within the medical community, it's treated with a specific kind of focus. Just checking in to see what's current. I mean, honestly, I reckon it’s a pretty safe bet for a medication. 👍
If you’re thinking about taking a break from everything, you should probably have a real conversation with your doctor about it—maybe aim for those windows when your symptoms aren't hitting you quite as hard and things feel relatively chill.
Patrick Thomas29 said:Thanks for the reply, but I honestly think there’s more going on here. I’ve got a slight fever and the doctor said there’s some kind of congestion in my lungs. I’ve been an asthmatic for years now, and with the therapy I'm on, my asthma should be totally under control, but clearly it isn't... anyway, I have an appointment with a Pulmonologist in a month, so I guess I'll just try to survive until then.🤣no, but I'll give your advice a shot🙂
Given how messy and inconclusive the data looks, you really can't rule out pneumonia as a super common complication of Asthma—especially when you're dealing with COPD too.
So, anyway, As soon as possible. Honestly, if I were heading into my next appointment, I’d tell my doctor that just doing a standard lung auscultation isn't quite cutting it. It would be worth getting a CRP and a full CBC/differential done, too. Plus, grabbing a chest X-ray to check out the heart and lungs seems like a no-brainer, and honestly, it wouldn't hurt to run an ABG and some respiratory gases while we're at it just to get the full picture.
I’m honestly pretty stoked you guys started a thread about one of those meds that gets handed out way too easily here in the States.
Long story short, the drug is actually top-tier, provided you’re using it for the right reasons and aren't abusing it by taking it every single night—keep it to maybe two or three weeks, maybe four if things are really rough.
If you're just popping a couple of Sanval pills a month, there's basically zero chance you'll end up hooked or build up a tolerance.
Your main goal should be tackling whatever is causing the insomnia in the first place. Get some regular exercise in. Work on your sleep hygiene—you know, hitting the sack and getting up at the same time every day. Sometimes it takes six to eight weeks (or even longer) before you actually start feeling the benefits of that routine. So, just stay patient and you'll get there.😉
Like someone else mentioned on the forum, if you've been on Sanval for a long stretch and suddenly stop, the withdrawal symptoms can genuinely feel like you've caught a nasty flu. And honestly, sometimes the symptoms are so weird and all over the place that they end up confusing 😵 the entire triage team at the ER, at least until the patient finally admits they've been living off Sanval (or Helex or whatever) for the last few days.
Since anxiety is such a huge driver for insomnia, in those cases, it might actually be better to stick to short-term use of a standard anxiolytic (like Normabel or Praxiten)—but again, only if you follow the stuff I mentioned earlier.
vividgardener7 said:Back at it again, digging up this old thread. Bronchitis finally caught up with me. I first dealt with it back in early January, and then just ten days ago, my doctor gave me the diagnosis all over again. 😢
I’ve noticed that humidity and steam—like when I'm boiling water for pasta—really mess with me, but it doesn't really hit until later in the evening. Right before I try to crash for the night, I start wheezing and coughing like crazy.
On top of that, I had some sharp pain on the left side of my chest yesterday. Please tell me I'm not having a heart attack at 27.😁
I honestly can't find any solid info online about whether I should be staying cooped up indoors or if it's okay to head out for a light walk?
So, what did your heart and lung X-ray actually show?
Did they run an EKG or check your blood work, maybe for something like a high CRP?
And what was the doctor hearing through the stethoscope? Like, were there extended expiratory phases, wheezing, or crepitations?
Also, do you have any mold growing on the walls in your place?
If you've been coughing for a while, that chest pain—especially when you're breathing deeply—could just be a side effect from the constant coughing.
Richard Doyle11 said:I’ve actually had this happen to me three times over the last few months... just seconds before climaxing, I get the most intense headache of my life. It hits out of nowhere, like someone is crushing my skull between two massive millstones. It’s horrific. The pain is at its peak in the occipital region of the right side of my head, just above and slightly behind my right ear. Once the encounter ends after maybe 3 or 4 minutes, the pain subsides, leaving a dull ache for an hour or two. I haven't bothered checking my blood pressure during these episodes, so I can't say for sure. I’ve read online about "pre-orgasmic headaches," though those supposedly mostly affect men (and I am a woman). For context, I’ve been hypertensive for the past five years. I take Concor 5mg and Ramipril 5mg. Ever since my blood pressure spiked, I've dealt with frequent headaches too. My doctor diagnoses them as migraines, even though my own tracking shows a clear pattern where the high pressure and the headaches coincide perfectly. I don't have any other underlying conditions. As a child, I suffered a concussion from a bad fall, and two years ago, I was in a car accident—a car hit me while I was cycling—which resulted in a head injury, a concussion, and amnesia. I had a CT scan back then, and everything came back normal. Is it possible for an aneurysm to develop later on and trigger pain during high-pressure situations? (And let's face it, sex definitely spikes my blood pressure!) Given how excruciating the pain is, I need to know: how dangerous are these types of headaches? Could they lead to a stroke or something similar?
vividsailor7
Our colleague is currently indisposed, but we’re all looking forward to having him back.
I'll take the liberty of stepping in to answer this one.
It is entirely possible that you're dealing with an aneurysm, which under certain conditions could rupture and cause serious chaos in the brain.
You really need to be monitoring your blood pressure regularly (aim for at least 5-6 times a day and keep a written log) and adjusting your management accordingly, perhaps with a Holter monitor. You absolutely must see a neurologist—you need to re-evaluate that migraine diagnosis—and you should seriously consider getting a CT scan plus an angiography. That previous cranial and cervical spine trauma could definitely be making your current situation worse in several different ways.
Hospital labs—my bad, I didn't really nail the wording there, sorry 🙈
I mean, looking at the price tag on a machine like that, it’s pretty steep 🤔
So you really have to sit down and crunch the numbers to see if it actually pays off in the long run.
That being said, it's one of those tests that comes up constantly in emergency rooms, and if you're a pulmonologist, it's basically sitting on your desk every single day...
Are you talking about checking acid-base balance and pH levels from a capillary blood sample?🤔
Honestly, it’s pretty much standard procedure in almost any medical lab you’ll find around here. And you really just need a tiny little drop or two from a finger prick to get it done.🙂
Now, if you're looking at arterial blood, that’s usually a different story—you’d typically only see that being handled in a hospital setting under more controlled conditions.
George Sanchez59 said:Well, I wasn't exactly going to give you the "for dummies" version. 🙂 But fine, if you want the version you'd hear from some old ladies gossiping at a local farmer's market, here goes nothing:
If you have a weak spot in a blood vessel in your brain, the blood pressure spikes there because everything is rushing downward, and that little weak spot can just snap. Then you end up having a stroke—which might leave you pretty messed up—or you just check out for good.
Hope that "market-style" explanation works for you. 😉
Grace White66 said:I wanted to throw a question out there. Is it actually possible to have really intense sinus inflammation without a blood test picking anything up? Like, no viral infection and no bacteria. If that's the case, what on earth would be causing it?
Yeah, it's totally possible. Clinical situations are always moving targets, and blood work isn't always going to catch everything in real-time. So, my advice? Go ahead and get the CBC redone. Also, how is the CRP looking? 🤔
It could also be some kind of post-infectious thing—basically just your body still reacting after you've already fought off a bacterial or, much more likely, a viral infection.
But hey, we can't forget about allergies either. 🤔
Basically, you’re looking at rising intracranial pressure here. If there’s already a weak spot—like an unruptured aneurysm—that extra pressure just ramps up the odds of it bursting. And if that happens, things can go south fast, either becoming fatal or leaving someone dealing with some pretty heavy, permanent neurological damage.
You got the answers you were looking for. Just follow the protocol laid out by our buddy 84737. And hey, if all else fails, let’s be honest—the kettle just looks way more impressive when it’s actually clean. If you’re planning on swallowing all that limescale buildup stuck to the bottom, you’re gonna need a heavy-duty screwdriver, a steady hand, and a stomach made of pure steel—so yeah, this definitely wasn't an accident; it was clearly a calculated move.
Using ProSure + EnsurePlusAdvance before starting chemo. The idea is to try and get ahead of the game by fighting off catabolism and giving anabolism a bit of a boost. There’s really no point in just sitting around waiting for the nausea, the vomiting, the weight loss, and all that other misery to hit...
Henry Rodriguez4 said:A pregnant woman at 21 weeks is dealing with constant trips to the bathroom over the last few days. She went to see her OB/GYN, who did an ultrasound and said everything looks fine—apparently, the baby is just sitting right on top of the bladder—but he still wanted a urine test done just to be safe. Here are the results: leukocyte 8 Erythrocytes 20 Squamous epithelial cells 10 --------II------ round 5 bacteria mass mucus mass
Any advice?
It definitely makes sense to get a urine culture and sensitivity test done ASAP. Based on what the primary doctor thinks, they might start an empirical course of antibiotics right away, then tweak the prescription once those lab results actually come back.
rapidcanyon5 said:Does anyone know if Singulair causes weight gain?
Well, look, people have definitely tried to link it to weight gain, but honestly, some researchers think any obesity seen in folks taking montelukast is more about the underlying condition itself—you know, dealing with asthma usually means you aren't exactly running marathons every day.
When it comes to putting on pounds, the math is pretty straightforward: you gain weight when you eat more than you burn. 🧐
I highly doubt a single pill of Singulair packs more than 2 calories.🤔