On Monday I had a check-up at the hospital. Fortunately my mom had pulled a ticket number for me from the machine because there was a long line at the blood lab.
When the doctor saw me at 4.30, she confirmed that the results were stable. Some values were a bit higher than last time, but still within the margin that she has set for me.
CEA at 8, CA15.3 at 14, Bilirubin at 8
My liver values are always too high, but that’s because my liver has been deeply damaged by the cancer tumors and then by the chemo. Just to share them with you, here are my liver values from Monday, compared to the values from 13 January 2015, and 11 November 2014, and the normal values for a healthy liver.
| Liver functions | Units | Normal values Healthy liver | 30 March 2015 | 13 Jan 2015 | 19 Nov 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilirubine | umol/L | <16 | 8 | 7 | 5 |
| Alkaline phosphatase | U/l | <98 | 304 | 299 | 326 |
| ASAT | U/l | <31 | 105 | 79 | 129 |
| ALAT | U/l | <34 | 154 | 107 | 185 |
| Y-GT | U/l | <38 | 115 | 92 | 98 |
| LD-IFCC | U/l | <247 | 245 | 229 | 250 |
As you can see, the Bilirubin isn’t very high (for new readers, when I was diagnosed it was at 50!)
I thought I’d look up what the Alkaline phosphate values mean. The following Dutch site has a good explanation.
http://www.uwbloedserieus.nl/aanvraagformulier.php?id=130
Or see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaline_phosphatase#Elevated_levels
I found it quite interesting. A high value combined with a high Y-GT means the liver channels are obstructed which can be caused by cancer. If the Y-GT is low, the cause is more likely found in the bones.
Most sites may tell you something about a damaged liver, but rarely did I find a site that explains that this type of liver damage can be caused by (metastasized) cancer.
A well structured site that has information on secondary breast cancer is http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/type/breast-cancer/secondary/
If anyone has any questions for me, you can also contact me via Twitter @sheilaghosh
Sheila Ghosh - blog 