LAb Results!!!

susiestar

Roll With It
We just finally got insurance coverage through the state because our income hit bottom. Had to change docs and while the doctor is about 30 mins away, I love him and his PA. They really understand that sometimes strange symptoms occur and must be managed even though a cause isn't clear.

I had the PA (lovely lady who really explains but tells it like it is, up front) run some blood tests. Then today I had to go in for results. I was worried because usually you only get called in if they are bad.

My A1C/hemoglobin test was exactly in the middle of the normal range!! I have an uncle who is diabetic and this is a good predictor/diagnostic tool for diabetes. He almost had my mom convinced that my health problems were because I am diabetic (he tends to "diagnose" the rest of the family with whatever problem he just got diagnosis's with or read about, always has.). As I am very allergic to all artificial sweeteners and I have a sweet tooth, I was NOT wanting to find out I am diabetic!

In the past my cholesterol and triglicerides were sometimes quite high, but they would be very low on the next test. This time they were right there in the normal range!! The bad cholesterol is higher than the PA would like, but the good cholesteral is at a good level. So I will watch the saturated fats but won't have to take medications or drastically change anything!!

My calcium level was in the middle of the normal range!!!!!!!!!!!! This is truly awesome because it has been incredibly low for most of the past 5 years. Vit D is still very very low, but choking down those calcium and D supplements is having some payoff!!

My thyroid was the only problem. It was WAY out of line, like 12 times higher than it should be. That I expected and it was the main thing I wanted to have tested. My immune system has killed my thyroid, but it is the BEST thing to have your body attack because it is fairly easy to replace the thyroid hormones.

This is not only likely the reason that even a 1000 calorie diet for 6 weeks didn't budge my weight but also the reason why my body can swell up more than 20 pounds in an hour or two. I cannot take any type of water pill for that because my blood pressure is actually on the very low side!

So I am healthier than I thought and have the answers to some questions that have bugged me for a while (the swelling drives me nuts because a week or two after I swell I end up spending a day using the potty every 10 min and whizzing like a racehorse each time).

Now it is time for ALL of you to go and get these things checked if at all possible!!! I don't want any of you to get sick because you ignored these things!!!
 
H

HaoZi

Guest
Did blood tests at a health fair 2 years ago, whole panel, and the only worrisome thing has been my cholesterol. Had it checked again last year and I'd brought it down from 273 to 227 (the lowest it's ever been is 205).
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
Sooooooooooo what are they going to do to help you with the weight loss? Or isn't that a problem? I thought I read you wanted to loose. Maybe that wasnt' you? I dunno. In any event - what about your thyroid? How do they get you well for that?
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Hmmm.

Did the last doctor office send labs out or do them in the office?

I'm asking because sometimes you can get a bad lab tech (especially in an office) and get wonky results. We have this problem with our local hospital lab. Techs either don't care or haven't got a clue what they're doing. Either way their results aren't consistant.......enough that I won't use them unless I know who is on duty. This is why we had trouble with the doctor treating Travis' polycythemia.......she insisted on using the hospital lab, which stinks, and his results were all over the place. Super high one visit the next normal. Uh, no.........not when you're not doing phlebotomy to remedy the situation. Next visit super high again. ugh I'm hoping to find a doctor that uses a good independent lab, or one that has their own really good lab. easy child and Nichole's fam does has an excellent lab in his office. But everytime Travis' lab work is sent to an independent in cincy it's always sky high.....yet at the lab here, it's a yo yo. Sends up a red flag.

Glad your blood work came back good. And glad you got a good doctor, too.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
Thyroid is an easy fix. There are several brands of replacement thyroid hormones. I have an rx, $3 per month to fill it. The lack of thyroid hormones are why I cannot lose weight. making sure diabetes isn't a factor is important, of course. esp since I had polycystic ovaries. If you don't have enough thyroid hormones, your body just packs weight on regardless of what you do to diet. I was on them before, and it is a major reason I wanted to change docs. The doctor said that she only needed to see me for problems or once a year for a checkup and lab work for thyroid. But every time I had the pharmacy contact the office for a refill the nurse would say I had to come in. It was about every 3 months. We had a lot of doctor visits for the kids and couldn't afford to just keep going in to the doctor to have her write an rx that she could call in. NOt with the PT for Jess and all fo the medications for Jess and I. WHen I would ask if the doctor could order the blood work with-o an office visit before they were ordered and one after to get results (even if normal results the nurse insisted on an office visit to get them after labs also). and I would explain that we just could not afford it, the nurse told me I needed to go check into a psychiatric hospital.

I have no idea how not being able to afford so many doctor visits (would have been8 per year just for thyroid) relates to needing to go to a psychiatric hospital, but I got tired of it real fast. Esp as the doctor kept telling me she didn't need to see me to do the labs or results - but the nurse kept refusing to give results or give messages to the doctor. Even intercepted a fax to the doctor and a letter to her - and called me both times and told me that I wasn't "allowed: to send faxes or letters, esp if they had problems with her (the nurse) listed. I just don't have hte interest in dealing with bad staff, esp as this was the 3rd problem nurse the doctor had in 5 yrs.

As for the lab, not sure but the results were in line with what I had expected for the most part.
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
What was your Vitamin D level? I just got my results back and mine is 26, and that's with takign 50000 units of vit D every other week.

Nancy
 
H

HaoZi

Guest
I thought you had to take in at least 1200 cals/day in order to keep your body from going into starvation mode and holding on to everything you put in it.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I now have cholesterol, thyroid and Vit D problems. I am not sure what my D level is but my doctor has started me on 50,000 IU's for 6 weeks then I will go on 5000 a day until I get rechecked along with daily Citracal. At least that is the plan...could change.

Im also on synthroid and lovastatin.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Susie

Some good advice per the thyroid issue, go to be treated with an endocrinologist if your insurance will let you. Dosing is better. Not that a fam doctor can't do it after your dose has been determined and is working well for you over a period of time........but at first it's hard to regulate it, and the specialist is usually easier, quicker.

easy child eats a normal healthy diet. As long as her dosage is correct and she's not splurging on foods she should be avoiding.......she does fine. Unfortunately due to work she tends to grab fast food instead of a healthy home cooked meals at least 3 times per week......it's making losing extra pounds tough even with the high amount of physical activity. But like I said to her, at least she's not gaining.
 

flutterby

Fly away!
I'm glad your results were good. I'm really glad you have a doctor you like. It's so important.

My vitamin D is also, and historically has been, very very low. This most recent bout - cause my doctor checked my calcium and it was low so I asked her to check my Vit D - started at 4. A month of 50,000 IU/week and it went to 8. Three months of 50,000 IU/week and it went to 10. I'm still doing 50,000 IU/week until I get to 30. I know it's only once a week, but I dread taking that pill. It makes me really sick - and I wait until I'm about to pass out and take it last thing before getting in bed to try to sleep through it. Bleck.

My cholesterol is checked every 3 months. My overall cholesterol is good, and my triglycerides are great, but my bad cholesterol (LDL) needs to come down some and my good cholesterol (HDL) needs to come up some. Thryoid was just checked a couple weeks ago. My kidney function is tested a couple times a year, as is my sugar.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
She didn't test my Vit D but the last check it was 4. Yes, I know that is super low. I am still vomiting up vit D in most forms. I seem to be able to handle orange cream yoplait yogurt. Only that flavor and brand. So I try to eat at least 1-2 per day. Once in a great while I can keep a glass of chocolate milk (must be homemade and skim milk) or carnation instant breakfast mixed with skim milk. Maybe a couple times a month.

I cannot do the 50,000 IU Vit D pills. They simply will NOT stay in my system. I did shots of Vit D that were 500,000 IU (ten times more than the rx pills) for 3 rounds. 1 shot a week for 6 weeks at a cost of $$300 for 6 shots and even after all those shots my level only came up to a 9. I was working with an endocrinologist who is really good but he couldn't figure out why I didn't respond or why it made me so sick - esp when the shots made me vomit for at least 24 hrs. Then he said he really didn't know how to help and unless I found a treatment I wanted him to rx, or he found one he thought would help, the visits to him were not worth what we were paying. He said he would happily keep me as a "regular" patent that he treats but doesn't have any real results for if we wanted to keep paying for visits every 3 mos, but he didn't think it would help me. I respected him a lot for saying he just had no clue and the visits were not getting us anywhere.

The 1000 calorie diet was a sugggestion from my previous doctor. She mostly wanted to see if going on a very low calorie diet would kickstart my system into losing weight. It didn't work at all.

If I have problems getting the thyroid levels right then I will see the endocrin doctor. Otherwise I will just go iwth the doctor I have.
 

flutterby

Fly away!
Isn't it odd what we discover we can eat when we can't seem to keep anything down? When I'm nauseous from a migraine, the only thing I can keep down is a McDonald's plain hamburger. I think that is just weird. But, I'm thinking your orange cream yoplait yogurt is as weird - or more.
 
Top