Blood Tests
CLL or chronic lymphocytic leukemia is not curable. That is how most of the honest articles on CLL begin. Even so, informed patients find it useful to track the trends of various things in their blood like white blood cells, platelets, and the various indicators of how one's immune system is functioning. When I was diagnosed with CLL I was living in northern Europe. This is a civilized place where virtually everyone has access to health care. So for many years I kept track in a spreadsheet of my various blood tests.
Just over three years ago I early-retired and moved back to America. Of course I was declared to be uninsurable by the fu%&ing insurance companies due to having this pre-existing condition of leukemia. So I have not seen a doctor in several years.
I recently found out that one can get the same blood tests performed, without having to pay an outrageous fee to some greedy hematologist or oncologist. It is neat, you just pay for the blood tests by credit or debit card then go into your local blood lab where they draw the blood samples and do the testing. Here in El Paso, Texas I am using LAB Corp to actually draw the blood and run the tests. Then I get the test results on the web from Personal Labs.
This is how it all should work. The customer is the person with CLL. The service provider or seller is the clinic or the specialist doctor and his staff. The customer pays the bills and calls the shots. The seller does what the customer asks. Just like with a good car mechanic or car salesman. The customer is king.
For $29.95 they are doing a CBC with diff and platelet test. This includes hematocrit, hemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume MCV, MCH, and MCHC, red cell distribution width (RDW), percentage and absolute differential counts, red cell count, white blood cell count, etc.
This is really a good deal. In my judgment it is one of the few reasonably priced services available in America within the medical profession. On the web go to personalabs.com
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