Help understanding labs?

Nursing Students Student Assist

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My patient has partial duodenal obstruction secondary to pancreatic mass in head of pancreas. She has had bilious vomiting and nausea for 1.5 weeks prior to being admitted. She also has a UTI. All of her labs seem consistent with that to me except that her RBC, hgb and hct are all a little low.

Yesterday they were:

RBC 4.08

Hemoglobin 13.1

Hematocrit 38.3

But today they have all dropped to:

RBC 3.43

Hemoglobin 10.8

Hematocrit 33.2

Ive only ever experienced these drops in a bleed but there are no mentions of bleed anywhere in the chart? I haven't actually met the patient, this is my night before work-up and I'm just wondering if the vomiting could be causing this? If not what could it be?

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

there are many factors that you will need to look at. A big one would be....were IVF added or increased? Lab Tests Online: Welcome!

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What happens to your hematocrit when you are dehydrated, as might be expected if you've been vomiting a lot?

Then what happens when you go to the hospital and somebody plugs an IV into you?

If you can't find the answer to that, come back and let us know.

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