Hello.
My husband, was diagnosed (we not sure the dx is correct until we see a myeloma specialist, but....) with SMM in Nov 2006 was recently hospitalized with sepsis/bacterimia. He picked up the bacteria 'strep pneumoniae) in his sinuses, and it went to his bloodstream. A week on IV antibiotics, and it's cleared up, though still being rechecked weekly.
While in the hospital, they also ran an SPEP, knowing his MGUS/SMM history. Interesting result...
Let my start by saying that outpatient, we always use the same lab (Quest). His IGg's have been (since 2006) 2460, 2550, 2612, 2880 (6 weeks before hospitalization). At the hospital lab, we were told that his IGg's dropped to 2200!
How different can labs be? Could it have dropped due to the infection? I would think that the antibodies being produced to fight the infection would have raised it, but I'm not sure about that. He's been on curcumin for 3 months (8g/day), and we were hoping for drop, but this seems too good to be true!
Anyone have experience with how different lab results can be at different labs? Then the question I want to ask is - so which one is right??? If the hospital lab is, he may not have SMM at all. That's been based only on his IGg levels increasing, while IGa and Igm decreased. (bone marrow results were 10% even, right on the line...).
Could it have been affected by his illness? I'd love to have it done again when he's well by both labs in a similar timeframe. However, our insurance will only pay for one lab, and I understand that the SPEP is a bit pricey....
Any suggestions? I asked the oncologist who visited him (once) in the hospital and got nowhere. He spent 5 minutes smiling & nodding, telling us nothing! He did tell us the IGg's had gone down to 2200. I said, "that's good, right?", and he just shrugged and smiled! I asked what the total protein level was, and he said it was up to 8.9 (it wasn't, it was 8.6 per the hosp records I got). I asked what the M-spike was, and he got very angry, and said that he hadn't had a chance to review the chart, and walked out! And for that he's probably going to charge our insurance $300! Needless to say, we won't be seeing that oncologist again (and yes, he is the HEAD of Oncology at this particular hospital, but we're a small area, and if his whole practice of 7 docs has 15 myeloma patients, I'd be surprised).
So what has been anyone's experience with fluctuations in lab tests??
1 worried wife