A Little Worried
I've been put on a few new meds in the past few months and just before Christmas went for routine bloodwork for different doctors. I got a call from my dermatologist about some abnormal results (kidney function). It surprised me , first of all that results for HIS labs would include that rather than specialist or family doctor, but at least he caught it. He said he was going to forward the results to her as well and I told him I do have a scheduled appt for her on Jan 8th. But you know me, I have had some issues since I've started different things, but never said much because I figured it was something to do with something else.
So I am magnifying every little thing to try to recall when it started and looking up things online. Yes , I know how BAD that is to do. I have decided to try to stop that for now and just focus on symptoms of late. You all know how little patience I have and I do believe I get tested to try to make it a little better (would be nice if that did eventually take. lol) Please cross your fingers and say a prayer that I can hoiang on til the 8th.
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That appointment is right around the corner. Put a pin in your research to self diagnose because your doctor has about 8 years ahead of you:) plus experience. The best thing you can do is keep a good health journal. Basic, short entries. Woke up today early, had toast with eggs and felt x. By lunch time I felt x. When I sit down and then stand up quickly I feel x. This way you are going to be more aware of your symptoms and will be prepared to really assist the doctor. You’ve got this!
I literally had a patient this morning who has panic attacks. Called 911 and when I got there told me that he was getting stressed because his BP was high and his heart rate kept going up every time the monitor beeped. So I slowly walked him to the ambulance, took a few minutes in the fresh air to chat. Five minutes later his vitals were normal!
Hopefully it's a mistake. That's what happened to me. I had to have some blood work done for a routine yearly physical that was coming up. A day after I had my blood drawn, I got a phone call from my Drs. office telling me I had elevated potassium in my blood and I would have to go to a different place to have blood drawn and have it rechecked to verify. So now I'm worried because elevated potassium is a kidney issue. I had been feeling fine. No fatigue, no problems whatsoever. When I went to my regular appt a few weeks later, first thing Dr says is everything is normal. Potassium is perfect! Dr told me first one was a mistake which can happen if the vial containing my blood is shaken and it doesn't take much to give a false reading. She said, it happens alot so that's probably what happened. Hopefully that's all it is in your case....Hugs
Bill , it would be great if just a mistake, but can't count on that.
jason, That's a good idea about the journaling for now. I just have to breathe. wait and see.
A lot of times a single wonky test result can just be a one off anomaly and results are normal next time you are tested. Or the doctor looks at it in conjunction with other lab results, holistically, to see if anything jumps out as a concern. In a lot of ways, I think there is a bit of an art to interpreting results.
I recently went through something like this with a different lab test. I saw the result before my doctor had and was freaked out. My doc didn’t comment on it. Just said things look good. I don’t think he was being careless. I think he just looks for red flags and didn’t really see one.
Hope it’s just a big nothing!
Thanks.