[Becky]

If they are in the normal range, they are in the normal range. Mine flip all over the place. Everytime I get blood work, I put it in a graph and then the paperwork goes into a folder. Once, I did a graph of the pertinent cancer things only when I had a normal onc appointment and he said lots of stuff affects the readings. For example, he told me that caffeine affects the CA 27/29 (makes it go up) and mine whip around the normal range all over the place (up and down - 11, 18, 14, 28, 21 etc). He said normal is normal and there is only so much one can control prior to taking blood.

For example, you could always fast and do nothing prior to blood work even if your blood work does not require fasting but then he said, what did you eat and do before that? Do you always eat the same things in the days before fasting - no, of course. Did you exercise the day before? Easy or hard. Who knows so just go with normal. Normal is normal even though we cancer folks do look at things differently.