XPost / Original September 25, 2008
My telephone rang bright and early this morning. The research coordinator at my rheumatologist's office (who is a very perky person) was calling about one of the blood tests they did last week. Specifically the CRP Test. My understanding (from her and my own quick googling), it is a test to determine the level of C-reactive protein (produced by the liver) in the blood. The result is an indicator of inflammation, appropriately designed to determine a person's risk for heart problems. The lower the number in the result, the healthier the blood. For RA, it is used to assess the effectiveness of RA medication. This result can fluctuate just like the physical symptoms of the disease - with medication, humidity, barometric pressure, etc. Optimal result is less than 2 (mg/L). In order to qualify for this study, patients have to have a number greater than 1. The morning I went in, I was actually feeling pretty good .. and I scored a .8 (yes, POINT EIGHT, eight-tenths, whatever). Fabulous, now I get to retest, and if I don't get that number up, I'm not in the study group. So, I'm skipping my med the night before, crossing my fingers that it will rain, and waiting until the "bad part" of my day to have blood redrawn next week. This is just ridiculous.
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