So I know the lavender tube uses EDTA as the anticoagulant. And if they suspect that you may have an issue with platelet clumping they will try the green tube, which uses sodium heparin instead...the theory being that if you're platelets are clumping, the green tube would produce a higher number, since the heparin would help alleviate the clump. So....what if you get both a lavender and a green and the green count is one tenth of the lavender? The exact reverse of what you would expect? No lie. My platelets have been all over the place...always are. The first week we tried this, my lavender tube was 660 and my green was 70! The following week my lavender was 320 and my green was 160. For fun, last week we did lavender and blue (sodium citrate) and they were the same. (As an aside, my lavender top counts are correct. We sent them out to an independent lab to see what might be going on.) I'm on NPlate so test weekly. I haven't had to get a shot in a month, due to high counts. But I can go from 600 to 2 in one week. Or go from 400 to 900 in a week with no treatments. Sigh.
