Posts by amberfox99

Hey Sophie, if your blood sugar hits anything over 11.1 at any point, that's enough for an American doctor to diagnose you with diabetes. What kind have you been dealing with? Since it looks like diet alone isn't cutting it to keep your numbers in the normal range, you'll probably need to start some kind of medication pretty soon. I’d suggest taking that logbook where you track your levels and heading straight to your primary care physician; they'll likely get you started on a treatment plan right away.

Betty Howard38 said:I just realized I wrote down the wrong reference range. My bad. So, the basophils are at 0.13, but they're flagged as high because the normal range is actually 0 to 0.06, not 0.6. Basically, they're double what they should be...

I honestly wouldn't try to interpret that myself since I don't know enough about it. It’s always a bit risky to just grab one single number and start worrying. Based on what you wrote, it isn't really clear if your dad has already seen his doctor or not. If he still has that swelling, I’d suggest he goes in to see his physician so they can decide if any follow-up work is needed.
I'm a pretty young doctor and don't have tons of experience yet, so I'd rather not speculate—especially since I haven't actually examined the patient.

Carol Mitchell68 said:Thanks so much for explaining that. Honestly, seeing that troponin level really spooked me because it was way outside the normal range, and I've read that elevated levels can be a sign of heart failure. When they first brought me into the ER, they ran D-dimer tests too, and those were super high—around 10.1 mg/L. They didn't bother re-checking the D-dimers later on, so I’m guessing they were mostly useful for ruling out a PE initially, and then they just weren't a priority anymore.
They also sent me over to get some outpatient bloodwork done at the clinic to check for thrombophilia: Factor V, F II, MTHFR, PAI 1, PAI 2, LAC, JAK 2 mutation, plus flow cytometry for PNH, Homocysteine, protein C, and protein S.

Look, D-dimer levels are really only useful for making the initial diagnosis. Basically, if they aren't elevated, you can pretty much rule out deep vein thrombosis or a pulmonary embolism. The real mystery here is why someone your age—only 43—ended up with a PE in the first place. Usually, an embolism happens when a tiny clot breaks loose from the deep veins in your legs and travels up to the pulmonary artery, but since you mentioned they couldn't find one there, I guess that's why they're running this whole battery of tests. They're basically trying to figure out if you have some kind of underlying blood clotting disorder.

Betty Howard38 said:amberfox99 thanks so much for the reply. His left side isn't hurting as much anymore, but since the swelling in his neck was pretty significant, I went ahead and had him get blood work done—CBC, CRP, and sedimentation. What came back elevated were the basophils at 0.13 (ref: 0-0.6), while the neutrophils were down at 46 (ref: 50-75), and for the CRP, it says Could someone please weigh in on these numbers? Based on what I've gathered through some amateur Google searching, maybe it’s an allergic reaction, parasites, or something like that, but I can't really tell if these values are actually concerning enough to worry about or if I'm overthinking it. The swelling actually looked a bit better today compared to yesterday.

You mentioned the basophils are 0.13, which is totally fine according to the reference range. As for the neutrophils, they aren't actually low; most labs use 40-70% as a standard range, so being off by a few percent usually doesn't mean anything. The CRP is normal, which suggests there probably isn't any acute inflammation going on. All in all, this looks like a normal set of results. The swelling will likely go down completely in a couple of days. If it hasn't subsided by then, Dad should just check in with his primary care doctor.

Peter Ramirez2 said:Good evening, I was hoping someone could give me some advice. My dad (65+) mentioned yesterday that he had this pain on the left side of his back, moving toward his heart, specifically when he takes a deep breath. He thinks it might be because he used an electric massager on that spot for the first time the day before. Honestly, I’m a total worrier, so I immediately jumped to conclusions about his heart or maybe a pre-infarction state. His blood pressure and heart rate were totally normal, though. He doesn't usually have issues with blood pressure, but his blood sugar and triglycerides are high, so he's supposed to watch what he eats (he says he does, but we all know how that goes). Today he says the pain is gone, but now he has swollen lymph nodes on the right side of his neck (which I assume isn't anything else).

So, I'm planning to send him for some blood work tomorrow just to start, hoping it's just some kind of inflammation. I found a general panel that includes cardiac markers, glucose, cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, AST, ALT, and GGT.

I noticed that if you suspect a heart attack, there are other cardiac enzymes you can look at as indicators. Could anyone tell me which ones those are? (I found CPK, AST, and LDH—is AST the same thing as the one in the general panel, or is that a different abbreviation?)

Thanks in advance

Chest or back pain is actually super common. It's easy to get spooked by pain on the left side since people always worry it's a heart attack. But there's one question we always ask patients: does the pain change when they move or change positions, like when breathing in or out? If the pain is tied to breathing (and you mentioned it hurt him when he inhaled), that points more toward simple musculoskeletal pain rather than anything involving the heart. Since the pain stopped yesterday, there isn't much reason to suspect an active heart attack right now, so those specific cardiac enzymes probably won't tell you much anyway. As for the lymph nodes, if he isn't dealing with other symptoms—like a nasty sore throat or a fever—I'd probably just wait and only send him for blood work if things get worse in a few days. I don't think there's any real reason to panic.

Carol Mitchell68 said:Woman, 43 years old. Diagnosis: bilateral pulmonary embolism (I.26.9).

Nothing major to report regarding these results. Most of everything is just hovering right on the edge of the normal range.
The troponin levels are up because during a pulmonary embolism—you know, when that artery coming out of the right ventricle gets blocked—the heart is under massive stress. It’s basically struggling way harder than usual to pump blood through. Usually, you see elevated troponin with a heart attack, but in this case, I guess it’s just part of the whole pulmonary embolism picture.

Grade 1 dysfunction just means your ejection fraction—that EF value you mentioned being at 60%—is slightly on the lower side. Basically, ejection fraction is just the percentage of blood that your left ventricle pumps out into the aorta with every single beat. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure why they gave you that specific diagnosis, though, since most doctors consider an EF between 55% and 70% to be perfectly normal.

So, an MRI showing minimal mitral regurgitation basically means there's a tiny bit of backflow. Think of the mitral valve as the gatekeeper between the two chambers of your left heart—it opens and closes to keep everything pumping in the right direction. Regurgitation just means that gate isn't sealing perfectly, letting a little blood leak backward. Honestly, though? Finding out you have minimal mitral regurgitation is pretty much a non-issue. A huge percentage of totally healthy people have this exact same thing on their scans. It’s really nothing to lose sleep over, I guess.

Honestly, you shouldn't sweat these results too much. What really matters is that you're on the right anticoagulant therapy. If you're taking Warfarin, just make sure you're getting regular blood work done so your doctor can keep a close eye on your INR levels.

Maria Gray45 said:So, does this mean everything's fine?
If things are okay, why did my numbers come back lower than expected?

The general rule of thumb is that you want to see values north of 90. Since yours is sitting at an eGFR of 85, your kidneys are almost certainly doing their job just fine. I don't know how old you are, but honestly, those numbers tend to dip a little bit naturally as we get older. Just so you know, eGFR isn't just one single number; doctors use two different formulas—CKD-EPI and MDRD—that factor in things like sex, age, race, and your blood creatinine levels. All in all, I don't think you have anything to worry about with this result.

John Martin18 said:I've got a pretty straightforward question... basically, if the white blood cell count or the lymphocyte count is high in a blood test (I might be mixing them up...) — could that possibly point to some kind of inflammation? Like, either somewhere inside the body or maybe an external inflammation that you'd actually be able to see?

Lymphocytes are actually just one type of leukocyte. Usually, when white blood cells are significantly elevated, it’s a sign that there's some inflammation going on somewhere in the body. A blood panel gives us a general overview of how things are looking, and then depending on what symptoms are present, we can start guessing at the cause. For instance, if someone has a really sore throat, a fever, and high white cell counts, we'd probably suspect a bacterial infection like strep throat.
A slightly elevated white cell count (like 11) usually doesn't mean much of anything, honestly.

Sarah Williams37 said:My white blood cell count is 11.5, just saw it now.

That’s a little high, but honestly, it's pretty minor. Most doctors look for anything under 9 or 10 to call it normal. If there was actually something worth worrying about, I guess those numbers would be way higher than that.

Sarah Williams37 said:Can someone please help me out? Are these numbers
Neutrophils 76.7 and
Lymphocytes 16.3
actually fine, or am I looking at some kind of issue? Everything else looks normal, thanks a ton.

Honestly, if your total white blood cell count is within range, you’re probably fine. Neutrophils and lymphocytes are just different types of leukocytes—basically, different kinds of white blood cells. These percentages just show how much of your white cell count belongs to each specific group.
Usually, when white cell counts spike, it's because of some ongoing inflammation, and typically, you see higher neutrophils if there's a bacterial infection involved.

Maria Gray45 said:It says up to 90, but my value is 85. I showed my doctor the results and they just said everything looks fine. Should I be worried?

No reason to worry, those results look perfectly normal to me. 🙂

Maria Gray45 said:So, what's the deal with eGFR?

It's just shorthand for "estimated glomerular filtration rate." Basically, it's a way to measure how well your kidneys are actually doing their job—like, how fast they're "cleaning your blood" and flushing out waste through your urine.
If that eGFR number drops, it usually means someone's dealing with some stage of chronic kidney disease (there are five stages, I think), which just means the kidneys aren't performing at full strength for whatever reason.