I got the lab results from the hopsital today

[momof3boys]

and it says I have three things that are not normal....

Magnesium was 1.6, which is low (suppose to be between 1.7 - 2.5)
Carbon Dioxide was 31, which is high (suppose to be between 22-29)
Creatinine was 0.57, which is low (suppose to be between 0.67-1.17)

I keep googling the results I have, and its lists diseases and such! Im kind of getting freaked out! Has anyone here had results like this and the outcome was ok?

I forgot to add, these were from November 25, 2011. This was when my primary care dr had prescribed me the Hydroco liquid medication to help with the chest pain I was having with being dx'd with bronchitis. I was on the Hydroco for a few days, with the GERD medication, and it caused seizures to occur. Along with the irregular heartbeats, thats the reason I went to the ER that night. That was the last time I took the Hydroco and GERD medication together.

 

[Nakamova]

To be honest, none of the numbers are extreme enough to worry about. You can be below or above the "normal" range and still be fine. And the ranges can vary from lab to lab Normal magnesium levels are usually listed as between 1.5 - 2.5 mg/dL. I've seen the normal range for creatinine listed as .60 to 1.10 for instance (makes your .57 less worrisome, right?). And your bronchitis was most likely responsible for the slightly high CO2.

That said, with magnesium it's hard to gauge body magnesium levels based on blood plasma, since most magnesium is found in your cells. You can have a deficit of magnesium in your body, but still have a normal plasma concentration.

 

[Endless]

High, mom,

Most of the results are pretty okay, but I'm not a doctor. The CO2 level is an indicator of the ph level of your blood, and can point to acidosis or alkalosis. A level that is just a tiny bit off like yours can be caused by just holding your breath or under-breathing when they take your blood. If your doc was really worried about the CO2 level, he'd have an arterial blood sample taken. They get that from a big artery in your wrist, not a vein in your arm (or wrist). Trust me, not fun.

Creatinine is one of the tests that shows how well kidneys function. It's used together with the other measures - BUN, eGFR. How did those come out?

Talk with your doctor about the test results. He or she can put it all into perspective - not a problem, just watch, or needs investigation. The doctors tend to want something to be significantly out of whack before they think something is amiss.

Kidney function tests:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003435.htm

 

[Endless]

Momof3boys,

I thought this might be helpful:

The standard definition of a reference range for a particular measurement is defined as the prediction interval between which 95% of values of a reference group fall into, in such a way that 2.5% of the time a sample value will be less than the lower limit of this interval, and 2.5% of the time it will be larger than the upper limit of this interval, whatever the distribution of these values


Reference ranges that are given by this definition are sometimes referred as standard ranges

...and are sometimes termed normal ranges or normal values (and sometimes "usual" ranges/values). However, using the term normal may not be appropriate as not everyone outside the interval is abnormal, and people who have a particular condition may still fall within this interval.


Reference ranges aid in the evaluation of whether a test result's deviation from the mean is a result of random variability or a result of an underlying disease or condition. ...a test result... that turns out to be lower or higher than the reference range can be interpreted as that there is less than 2.5% probability that this would have occurred by random variability in the absence of disease or other condition, which, in turn, is strongly indicative for considering an underlying disease or condition as a cause.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_ranges_for_common_blood_tests


Sorry about the underlining. Couldn't get rid of it for some reason.

 

[momof3boys]

Thanks! I just didnt know if those being low or high was something I should be concerned about. Im going to make a copy of the lab report, and send it to my neurologist so they can have it on hand. I just wanted to get a repeat done of my magnesium since I had been experiencing more seizures during that time period, along with the clinching that started in January. When I looked up low magnesium it had alot of the low magnesium side effects listed that Ive been having. So I just wanted to make sure it hadnt dropped or got worse since November. If everything comes back fine, that would be great to hear. But I just wanted to be safe than sorry.

Thanks for all that good information! Once the kids are in bed Im going to log back on and read more details.