So after the appointment was over I headed down to the lab to have my blood drawn. That place was a zoo. There were probably about 55 people actively having blood drawn. The woman taking my blood was a little bit rude. Giving me a lecture on not drinking enough and fasting the day before. But I did learn that you should drink on the day before giving blood. Drinking on the day of blood does nothing. I did not know that.
I left, got my car from the Valet Parking, and was home by 11:15 am. At which time I was shocked to find 1/2 my lab results on my portal.
They were all amazing.
My CBC was 100% normal. And my Red Blood Cells were lower than the last time I had them, IMHO owing to my blood donation in April.
My CMP was 100% normal (which is good to know given my fasting) but my BUN and Creatine were less low than I would like them to be. Time to drink more water.
My LDH was once again at the very bottom.
I had a new test that I never had done before BETA 2 MICROGLOBULIN -- which was normal. I am not sure how to evaluate that one.
Finally, my light chains came back and they were higher than I would like.
But I have to say I do think it is caused by the blood donation.
The last time I donated blood was October 12th of 2020. I had the light chains tested December 7th, 2020. The result:
FREE KAPPA LIGHT CHAIN 17.5 mg/L
FREE LAMBDA LIGHT CHAIN 9.2 mg/L
FREE KAPPA LAMBDA LIGHT CHAINS RATIO 1.90
I had another blood test in February where it went down to Ratio of 1.42. (normal)
Around April 14th of 2021 I donated blood. And here about 60 days later.
FREE KAPPA LT CHAIN 17.6 mg/L
FREE LAMBDA LT CHAIN 9.6 mg/L
FREE KAPPA LAMBDA RAT 1.83
Almost exactly the same. It is my theory that the light chains remain constant it is the blood level around them that changes. You will see the measurement is 17.6 mg per Liter of blood. To me, this says that I have less liters of blood. There are about 5 liters of blood in the body. But it absolutely varies.
Lets say that now, I have 4.8 liters of blood. The amount of light chains is going to appear to be bigger than if I had more blood.
I can test this theory by not donating blood before my next measurement and making sure to drink plenty of water before going for my appointment.
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