Drum roll please... my labs are in, and my t-cell count when the blood was drawn last week was 590 (30%), with a less than 48 copy detectable viral load. Which, for those of you who don’t understand HIV lab talk, are very good numbers.

So I’m doing alright! But enough about me. Who guessed the closest? Who is the new champion? (Sorry Justin Starkenburg, you’ve been dethroned.)  Well, it is none other than the wonderful Bob Geise, who registered a guess of 595 and missed the actual count by a gaggle of 5 t-cells. Impressive work for a competitor in the contest who has tried to win this title before. I caught up with Bob earlier on Facebook to get his reaction to the victory and how it came to be.

“I actually did use a formula to figure it out. I wish I could remember it. It had something to do with averaging your numbers and then averaging the amount of change from test to test. Somehow I figured for outliers and made an educated guess.”

Impressive stuff! 

If you recognize Bob on this blog, it may be from last year when I posted one of his poems about Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas.  Bob writes extensively on his Eloquent With Rage Facebook page, I strongly encourage everyone to Like this page because Bob has a big heart, an open mind and an incredibly deft grasp of the English language.  A literary triple threat!
 
And now he is the Labtest Contest Champion of my T-Cells.

So a big congratulations to Bob, who has opted for the signed copy of My Pet Virus because he lent his to someone and never got it back. Perhaps that act of treachery inspired the demented formula that led to this rousing victory?  Thanks to everyone who participated in the Contest.  Per standard protocol, I cannot honor your request for a recount... just come back in June and try again!

Positively Yours,
Shawn
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