Mobile phone photo
On the second morning of testing I was scheduled for the blood tests. I had to fast from midnight the night before for this list:
FASTING BLOODS AT OUTPATIENT PATHOLOGY
Blood: U+E'S, Cr, Glucose, LFTs, Mg, Ca, PO.
CRP,B12,Folate,Iron Stud ies
Cholesterol HDL + l DL. Triglycerides, V1T D, TFTs, HbA1C
PSA (>age 50 males) Testosterone (males),
FSH, LH (females)
Immunoglobulin levels, protein electrophoresis
FBE, ESR. APTT. PTIiNR. Blood Group. TPMT ACTIVITY TEST
Hepatitis B surface antibody, surface antigen and core antibody, HepC, HIV1&2,
CMV IgG, EBV JgG ,Herpes Zoster IgG (discuss with consultant if patient on
Intragram therapy)
Quantiferon Gold, baseline save (for future serology etc).
Arterial blood gases (room air x15 minutes first if possible)
Oral Glucose Tolerance Test with Insulin levels at the time of glucose levels
2hour test. patients must be fasting : blood at baseline, 1hr and 2 hrs.
So at 7.30AM the nice lady from pathology came in and emptied a bag full of blood tubes that needed to be filled. I'd just woken up, sitting in bed bleary eyed (with bed hair) in my pyjamas.
I asked how many - she said 18. I couldn't resist taking a photo of them. She laughed!
While she was filling tubes, I had to drink a 300mL bottle of glucose syrup for the glucose tolerance test. I didn't mind that bit - it just tasted like flat sweet lemonade, but afterwards - bellyache. Blergh!
For the glucose test she had to come back at 8.30 for more blood, and then 9.30 for even more blood.
By this time, I was absolutely dying for a cup of coffee! I only had a chance to drink a super quick coffee before my chariot arrived to whisk me over to the physiotherapy department for the next appointment....
.... details in the next post.
4 comments:
I did a glucose tolerance test last year, and found it dizzying enough getting three blood draws while fasting. Can't imagine what it would be like with eighteen! I can't look at the tubes once they're full. It's not so much the sight of blood as knowing they're body temperature.
Blerrgghh .... not a huge fan of the glucose tolerance test. And 18 vials .... seriously?! That's a lot of blood. I hope they let you have a bucket of coffee after all that!!
well, that beats my record of 13 viles of blood taken o.0
At least the vials look small??? Yucko, at least these days it's only one hole and they switch the vials in and out, in the old days it would have been one hole per vial. Either way: OUCH!
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