♥MeL♥

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Wk6 Dy3

People always say phlebotomy is painful so I was normally quite scared of it. But after having seen, people getting their blood drawn 2 times 2 weeks ago, I've became interested in learning how to draw someone's blood. Well....today, I've finally got the chance to have my blood drawn! I've never had a blood tests before and I don't even know my blood group! haaha......I wish I could draw someone's blood, but no........

6 of us decided to get our blood drawn, so we did! Miss K, the haematologist, helped 5 of us while PY drew Mr.Y's blood! I was the last person to get their blood drawn by Miss K. The blood was drawn from the middle vein of my left arm. Just a poke and Ta-da! you can see blood liao! It doesn't hurt when the needle pokes in, but it hurts a little when the needle is being removed. Ta-da!! 10ml of fresh blood!!! haahaa.....the part where your blood gets drawn is the happy part! The worst part of all is when your about to get your results!

So yea, right after I got my EDTA tube, I did my full blood count and.....AAAAAAHHHHH!!!! YYY!!!!! eeee....YYY am I the only one with abnormal result!!!??? All the high high and low low!! eeee.......My haemoglobin level is low. HCT, MCV, MCH are all low!!!! Then my RDW-CV, MPV and PCT are high!!! eeeeee.......y????

Well when your haemoglobin, MCV & MCH is low and you're a female, it normally indicates menstruation or if you're and old man, internal bleeding. It might also be caused by anemia or thalassaemia. Elevated RDW indicates iron deficiency(microlytic) anemia. MCV lower than 80 shows microlytic anemia. I thought mine could be because I just finished mine few days ago. But no......there's other causes!

Since my full blood count was abnormal, Miss K did a blood smear slide for me to check on my blood cells. Guess what!!! They're not normal too!! aaahhhh!!! There's many target cells, eliptocytes and some tear drops, cell fragments and ovalocyte!!! These are not normal ok.....normal rbc are disc shaped! Normally when I'm doing the FBC for other people's blood, I will just do it and think oh, this and that! But when it's your own blood....it's like AAAHHH!!! YYY!!!!?? *sniff*

So the normal comment for my blood smear slide would be, (Miss K and I gave the comment) "Mild hypochromic microcytic picture with eliptocytes, target cells, few teardrops, ell fragment and ovalocytes. Platelet adequate. Impression of iron deficiency/ thalassemia trait. Suggest for iron status and Hb electrophoresis." This is the normal kind of comment, they would put on patient's medical report.

So yea, PM ran our biochem tests and it's shows that my serum iron is way below normal!! The normal range is 6.6 to 26.0 for females....and mine is....4.4!!!! It's way below the lower limit summore!!!! *faints* I should seriously start taking iron pills!!! Maybe I should take folic and Vit. B12 supplements too.......just in case!!! I need to go to the pharmacy!!!

Ok....so my test results shows that I'm anemic!! I don't look like I am!!! But test results shows otherwise! I'm scared now.....

Based on the FBC, SI and blood smear results, it seems I should really do hb-electrophoresis to check if I really do have thalassaemia. Miss K suggests that I do a family profile together with my parents. I might be only a carrier or something.....I don't know!

So what is thalassaemia??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalassemia
Credits: Wikipedia

"Thalassemia is an inherited autosomal recessive blood disease. In thalassemia, the genetic defect results in reduced rate of synthesis of one of the globin chains that make up hemoglobin. Reduced synthesis of one of the globin chains causes the formation of abnormal hemoglobin molecules, and this in turn causes the anemia which is the characteristic presenting symptom of the thalassemias."

My haemoglobin levels are low.......which I don't know the cause. Together with low serum iron, it shows I'm anemic!!! arrghh!!!

"There is no cure for thalassemias, and the besttreatment available today consists of frequent blood transfusions (every two to three weeks) with iron chelation therapy (e.g. deferoxamine) administered subcutaneously or bone marrow transplants."

*faints* bone marrow? *faints* that is probably the most painful procedure!!!

There are 2 types of thalassaemia and the only way to differentiate the 2 is to do the test. Thus I will have to go and get it done somewhere........I think alpha is more serious than beta.

"If two of the four α loci are affected, the condition is called alpha thalassemia trait. Two α loci permit nearly normal erythropoiesis, but there is a mild microcytic hypochromic anemia. The disease in this form can be mistaken for iron deficiency anemia and treated inappropriately with iron. Alpha thalassemia trait can exist in two forms: one form, associated with Asians, involves cis deletion of two alpha loci on the same chromosome; the other, associated with African-Americans, involves trans deletion of alpha loci on different (homologous) chromosomes."

Note: microcytic hypochromic.....that's what my blood smear is!!! and I'm Asian!!! Plus, I thought I might be having iron deficiency anemia.......but these 2 diseases can be mistaken for one another!

Target cells or codocytes liver disease, post-splenectomy, iron deficiency or thalassaemia. I didn't have any spenectoomy. My immuno test for AFP is 0 thus not liver disease. Left with iron deciency(proven) and thalassaemia.

Look here:
Better Health
It states that the symptoms of thalassaemia includes, sleep difficulties, poor apetite and failure to grow and thrive. I can sleep. I think I'm grown ok.....getting a bit over weight summore! Plus my appetite is.....super BIG!!!! So yea, I might be just having iron deficiency.

The normal ESR rate for females in their 20s should be 15, mine is 10. Thus pretty close, but ESR is also lowered by anemia.

I feel like I'm doing clinical biochem test now, trying to diagnose this and that and figure this and that out!

Overall, my biochem tests are all pretty normal, except for my serum iron which was way below normal! Thus I need to eat more seafood or red meat. My uric acid is also a bit low, so I should increase my protein intake. I didn't fast before drawing my blood because I didn't know I would be doing it today. Thus my lipid test should be off, but based on the results, they seem ok, might be because it's already 1pm and everything I ate got absorbed already. Thus my serum didn't look lipemic.

I also asked Miss K to help me to DC(differential count) for me. My lymphocyte level is quite high and my lymphocytes appear bigger than normal under the microscope. Plus Miss K said that many of my wbc are young cells, not mature cells.

High lymphocytes normally indicates virus infection of accompanied by low wbc levels, but my wbc level is normal....thus I don't have any virus infection.

I have 3 eosinophils in my count. I wonder if it's because of the rashes on my hands now. Both PM and PY have eczema and they have high levels of eosinophils. Plus I got 2 basophils! Must be because of the allergies on my hands now.

I just found out that I'm allergic to LATEX!!! not just minor itch! But it's really SERIOUS!!! It itches, there's numerous bumps......itches really badly!!! and now there are scars!! lots of scars!!! due to the scratching and both my hands hurt when I rub them or wash my hands. I seriously think I need to rethink my career!!! Nobody asked me to do an allergy test before choosing my course!!! I really need to do an allergy test!!!!

Plus I think because the air in the lab is not all that clean and fresh....they are affecting my eyes too. The air stings my eyes and tears will keep flowing out! Seriously......not a good sign!!!

When I applied for the course, no one told me that I would need to suffer like that.....as in physically!!! haaha....

Also my immuno test shows 0 for SAG and SAB. 0 SAB means 0 antibodies....I need to get a shot soon.....actually it's 3 shots. I should have gone and get the shots for protection before my training! Waiting for mummy to get back from Ipoh! I really need that shot! I keep scaring myself every time a test is done and the results are out! My CEA and TSH are normal! Negative for RPR(syphilis), RF(Rheumatoid Arthritis) and PYO(H.Pylori). 0 for AFP(alpha fetal protein) for liver. Yay!

Tomorrow morning I'm running Immuno Assay so that means I'll be doing the tests for tumour markers for all of us! eeee...........soooo kan cheong!!!! The scariest part is when your doing the test for your self and your the one looking at the results!!!!!!

Forgot to blog yesterday because I wanted to finish HP!!! which I finally did!!! I need to spam on HP too!!

Plus I've finally finished learning all the Elisa tests except for Rubella which I hope I will learn too!

Last night after training, I went to Pyramid with PM and CY for movie-Bee Movie!!! cute little bees-movie! It's been a really long time since I went for movies. Ifeel like watching Enchanted too. It seems different from the normal Disney movies. Wanna know how it'll turn out!

Oh...and I forgot!!! yesterday was my cousin, PuiYee's Bday!!! eeee....I forgot to give her a call!

Labels: Industrial training

- ❤~~~Mel ;