Bloodwork - What do the Oncologists look for?
 

On Valentine's Day, I was given the gift of having a clean mammo. Both my regular Oncologist and my Surgical Oncologist met with me. Moving forward, they will alternate seeing me every 6 months. I told my Oncologist I was going to have my port flushed one more time as I have scheduled it to be removed mid-March. He gave me three orders to take to the Nurse's stations for bloodwork. Now I wish I had asked what he was checking. I am now comparing myself to an old car that needs a PM every 6 months, but I am wondering what exactly are they checking once you have completed chemo and Herceptin besides the white and red blood counts. I am just curious.

Louise

Don't stress too much about it. When you go in for the first lab, ask them what tests they are running... I am only guessing, but I would guess that they are (and possibly have already been the whole time) monitoring a preferred tumor marker. But verify that with the lab when you go in.

Just a personal aside, but when I finished my initial treatment after stage IIB DX, my doc said that he was going to see me and do labs/TMs every 3 months (and most scans either at 6 months or a year, depending on the scan) for at least 5 years. In my case, when we discovered my first recurrence, the 3 month schedule made the difference between catching it in its earliest stages or 6 months later...

Louise,
Normally the blood work consists of a CBC ( complete blood count, which includes red and white count with their breakdowns ) hemoglobin, hematocrit. etc. the tumor markers which I'm learning varies from Dr. to Dr. as to the types, and often ...lft's ( liver function tests)
Your Dr. may order more dependent on diagnosis but I believe that these are pretty standard.
Carol

Louise, this is a p.s.
Follow up testing eg. scans, mri's, etc. are largely dependent on your MD.'s protocol ( they seem to all vary somewhat )as well as diagnosis.
Carol