Friday, February 1, 2013

Bariatric 2.0 - Blood Work

I got some fabulous news today....thought I was home sick from work today, I did get fabulous news that all of my labs for my 2 year post-op visit were perfection! It made my day! With all the struggles of eating, RH, and changing supplements last year I was really worried about my absorption, but I am so happy to be able to report for the first time since my surgery - my vitamin levels and all the other tons of tests they run are PERFECT! I never in my wildest dreams imagined that it would happen because we are all human and forget a dose here or there, but I try very hard to take things and stay on schedule. This just makes it even easier to  take my vitamins and supplements like I need to be doing and to keep on keeping on!

Some of you might be wondering - what is all this blood testing for and what are they checking? I don't think I've ever really shared what they test for outside talking about my B12 and Vitamin D3 levels. It is so important to educate myself about what they test for as well, but to give you a glimpse into why these labs are so important for us I am going to share a few things.

1) With RNY it is super important that we are taking the right amount of supplements. Why? because we are in controlled mal-absorption so for RNY'ers need to take double sometimes triple the regular supplement to absorb the amount we need. For non WLS you would take one multivitamin. For me I take 2. For non WLS my mom for example takes 2 calcium (due to her age) I take 4 500mcg calcium to absorb correctly. B12 can vary from person to person, but my body does well at 1000mcg per day and my Vitamin D3 has been historically low from the beginning so I take 50,000 mcg via chewable over 5 days a week.

2) Blood testing....what do they test us for? This list came off the ASMBS site which is the national organization of metabolic disorders (aka - obesity). So when I say the vampires come for me - this isn't a 2 tube blood test this is always the big one of 30 to 32 tubes to run the amount of vitamin break downs that we need and sometimes one tube is literally used for a specific test. I learned this by asking because after the first initial test done in the summer of 2010 I wanted to know why I couldn't just give a pint and they measure it out!


LAB TESTS
suggested for gastric bypass patients
Regularly (every 3-6 months depending on your previous results)
• COMPREHENSIVE METABOLIC PROFILE (sodium, potassium, chloride, glucose, BUN,
creatinine, calcium, total protein, albumin, total bilirubin,alkaline phosphatase, aspartate
aminotransferase) (Nc,K,C1,CO2,Glu,BUN,Cr,Ca,TP,Alb,Tbili,AP,AST,ALT)
• LIPID PROFILE (cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, chol/HDL ratio) (Fasting specimen) ,
Tchol,Trig,HDL,Calc,,LDL)
• ALT (SPGT)
• GGT (important if liver, renal or pancreatic issues are suspected)
• LDH
• PHOSPHORUS – INORGANIC
• URIC ACID (to determine if a patient has gout)
• CBC (HEMOGRAM/PLT/DIFF)
• B-12
• FOLATE
• HOMOCYSTEINE
• IRON
• TIBC
• % SAT
• FERRITIN
• VITAMIN A
• VITAMIN D (25-hydroxy)
• THYROID PANEL (T3U, T4, FTI, TSH)
• SERUM INTACT PTH
• THIAMINE (B1)
• COPPER
• ZINC
• MAGNESIUM RBC
• A1C (only if history of diabetes)

My blood tests put me in the normal range of everything with nothing being low = HOORAY! My A1C they still run since I was one diabetic is the lowest it has been in my life and even though my cholesterol is in a good range with my tryclycorides being the concern I'm still staying on a lower level statin drug as a prevention to do genetics and family history. My liver is doing really well and I am well enough to not be classified with fatty liver disease. In 2 years time the fat is gone out of my liver and now my depression medication is not a concern in hurting my liver because my liver is healthy! I'm not anemic which can also be a concern at this time and I do not have to take additional iron (thank goodness because it is gross) and finally, my vitamin D3 is good. I'm the most happy about this one and I have two ideas behind the factor of it being normal - 1) I'm on a supplement that works and absorbs well and 2) I live in a sunshine state of TX and am outside alot more! So not only am I getting natural vitamin D I've got the supplement as well.

So there is a little tutorial of the blood draw....next one July!

1 comment:

  1. You are the woman! If they tried to take 30-32 vials of blood from me I would have passed out cold. I hate having blood drawn and the more they take the worse it seems to get for me! Kudos and I am so excited to hear that everything is perfect! Feels good doesn't it?

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