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Tracking lab results

I have seen it mentioned in posts, but I can not find the info...

How do you track the lab results to see trends and when things are in or not in normal ranges? Is there a good app or spreadsheet?

Thanks
 

Crohn's Mom

Moderator
I think what you might be referring to is Tesscorm 's spreadsheet she made herself...I think she mentioned that she would send it to whomever wanted it by PM. Maybe she'll jump in here and verify this for me ? LOL
 
I made a spreadsheet and tracked Badger's labs for several years. I did the same thing for his height and weight which I also recommend when you have a kid with growth failure who may or may not be in remission.

There are a couple problems or choices to be made about this that will influence how you set the spreadsheet up. This information will help explain why you may want to set up your own spreadsheet or at least expect to modify anything you get from someone else like Tesscorm or me.

First you need to decide which labs you are going to include. May seem obvious but there will be labs that your doc only runs once in two or three years - or once ever. Do you want that taking up a line on your spreadsheet? Or do you want it included - because chances are it may not be listed on a spreadsheet that shows standard labs.

Second, do you want abnormal values highlighted in some way? If so how? Red for low and blue for high? or vice versa? or what?

It is often helpful to know the reference range for a given lab value but...these change. They change from one lab to another and even from one time to the next at the same lab. Or the units of measure will be different. How will you incorporate that information or will you?

My experience was that it worked best for me to set up my own spreadsheet since I could make changes to it as needed and customize it as needed. But I realize not everyone feels like they can do this or has the time.
 
Thanks Patricia56. Do you know the easiest way to find the normal reference ranges? Thus far all our results are thru the childrens hospital lab so at least that portion is consistent...I hope!
I am pretty good with excel so I could probably figure something out...however I am happy to piggyback if someone has created the wheel. Perhaps I could create a data tab with dates, tests with results and normal reference ranges. Then create pivot tables and graphs off of the data tab that would allow flexibility to create comparisons adhoc if wanted
I was kind of hoping there was an app out there that could track and fill in normal references as well...but that may be difficult if ranges vary by labs.
 
I am willing to PM folks a spreadsheet that has probably every single lab finding/result you are likely to see. I just set it up with conditional formatting so that if you include a "?" in a cell it will highlight that cell. You can use this to highlight high and low results - just include the ? in the cell value.

The normal reference ranges are always shown on the lab results print out if you are getting that.

If there's an app I am not aware of it but I am not the most savvy user out there. But I would think it would be hard to create one since the reference range is a moving target. That's why you need both the result and the range and sometimes multiple results to interpret a given result. If you just track normal, high, low then there may be an app for that but you will probably have to do some searching to find it as I doubt most individual patients are going to want/need such an app.
 
I would like a spreadsheet, I always work better if I can copy or start with a reference. I haven't done this previously but I really feel like it would be a beneficial thing to have.
 

Tesscorm

Moderator
Staff member
I do have an excel spreadsheet that I can forward to whomever would like. But, as Patricia said, you may/shud customize it...

My spreadsheets 'features' :) and limitations are:

- I hv included normal ranges according to what I hv seen from our labs. Values do vary a bit btwn labs, so I hv taken the lowest 'low' or highest 'high'.
- I hvnt included measurement/units. I plan on adding these at some points bcz they do matter as these sometimes vary as well.
- I hv formatted it so that when you enter the value, if it is outside of normal it will show up as red bold. But it doesn't differentiate btwn too high or two low.
- I hv included a 'mini' definition of what the test is for. Very basic, I'm talking a 10 word defintion just so I hv any idea of what the test indicates.
- I've grouped them partly by the way the lab report groups them and partly by what makes sense to me.
- as its in excel, its certainly easy to customize and I'm happy to help if you hv specific questions of how to change something.

I probably can't send it out tonite... For those who know the story, my dads back in the hospital and will most likely hv surgery this week. But, I will try to send you the file thru PM asap. (Does anyone know... Can I attach an excel file in a PM?)
 
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