POZ Community Forums
Main Forums => Living With HIV => Topic started by: Lovinglife on June 14, 2006, 03:07:36 pm
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This may just be a coincidence but when my lab work is taken in the morning my T-cells are significantly higher than if when they are taken in the afternoon. Do we lose T-cells throughout the day?
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they can change greatly throughout the day.
Many people here recommend taking your labs at the time of day for the most consistency, but even doing so, there can still be a great variance.
That's why trending is so much more important than any individual snapshot of your cd4's.
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Was told by the nurse who do that the whole day ( means she pokes people the whole day)
the best time is around 11 am, something about the blood being 'full' . I did not offer anything much, i just listen, wishing that she does what she need to do ASAP so i can be out of there.
Siang
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My Dr. always wants me to be there in the morning before 11:00 and not eat anything after mid night the night before....This makes for some consistency in the conditions......but there are still variances....not much but some ups and downs....The lab is located in his clinic so the same persons do the tests most of the time......
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Funny i asked the question about the eating part that u said, i was told for HIV it make no differences, maybe someone could advise better !!
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I always manage to get my appointments in between 9:00 and 10:00Am.
Which is also a about an hour after taking my AM dose. I have often wondered about getting the blood drawn, that close to taking the first dose, and if anything is affected,(viral load in particular) or if results may vary because of it.
As oters stated, viral may vary throughout the day.
Have a great day------Ray
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I've wondered about this and even played with it. I ususally see me doctor in the afternoon around 3pm. I've worked out and had a big lunch. CD4=411. And then I just ran out of time and didn't have a big lunch and no work out. CD4=380. That freaked me out. So the next time I worked out and had a big lunch. CD4=430. But my VL was 69,000. I can't win. Am I spiking my results when I workout before the blood draw? I don't know. I guess I'd just rather see how high I can get than how low if it is even having an effect.
brian
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Remember that the labs collected are more than just cd4 / VL %. Usually you also have a basic CBC w / diff included to show your doc a lot of overall numbers beside just the cd4 or cd8 numbers. For people on meds usually a set of specific labs are also included to see things that show how some sides are effecting them (lipids, cholesteral, liver function, kidney function, etc , etc) - this is actually good even for non-med patients too if your doc will order them.
I always get my labs done on the same day of the week (Wed) and close to the same time of the day (around 11:00 am). I must be fasting (water only) for 12 hours prior to labs. I was told many years ago to never get labs on Thurs or Fri's (I think it was due to freezing of labs and weekend shipping). It may no longer really be applicable, but I just stick to my Wednesdays just the same.
Getting labs drawn / processed by the same lab is important for consistency too - some labs report or process a little differently which could skew some lab results.
In any event the most important thing to pay attention to is your overall trends in different areas vs the numbers of any single test.
Good luck and happy testing.
Chris