Blood Work

In this case, "blood work" involves not only a phlebotomist taking my blood (which one did on Monday), but also the blood I've been sweating for work. I've been preparing a brief for Dr. Somoroff, the civilian head of the Naval Air Systems Command (the organization for which I work), on the current manning status of the Research and Engineering Group, the group for which I am the Chief of Staff. Basically, the task was to summarize (but be ready to provide details) on the shifts and projections of a workforce of over 10,000 civilians and contractor personnel. This for a man with a staggering intellect, an incredible memory, and an insatiable love of data.

This put me fairly high on the "stress-o-meter", but thanks to a great staff, some good advice, and about 15 extra hours of work over the weekend and last night, we pulled the brief together and successfully conducted same this morning.

That said, I also had my first blood draw on Monday and got the results today. So far everything looks pretty good. Almost every test came back normal. The only areas where I was out of tolerances were:

Red Blood Cell count, where I was a little low;

Mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) where I was just out of 'normal', but within normal averages I found online;

Mean platelet volume (MPV)was a little low;

Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatine level--which tell you how well your kidneys are working--were slightly high;

and a few others.

Nothing unexpected or worrisome.

So, so far, all is well.