General Chat

Yesterday I went for my six-monthly blood tests. Usually this is just for blood sugar and cholesterol checks.

However, I am now with a new GP my usual one having left this particular Practice.

Possibly my new GP is young and keen. In any event, as well as my usual tests she also requested Vitamin D determination, Thyroid and Prostate tests. I've never had symptoms of any of these latter problems.

Mind you I never had any symptoms of diabetes when it was first diagnosed twenty years ago.

So off I went to the Path Lab and in due time was having the blood extracted. Every few seconds I could hear a new test phial being filled and the whole process took over six minutes.

For the first time ever in all the years that I have been having blood tests, I began to feel woozy from the whole process and didn't even feel like commenting to the Phlebotomist that I was there to give a sample, not a bl**dy donation.

I was also a regular blood donor in the UK, but alas due to the BSE problems in Britain, I am unable to be a donor in OZ, and never experienced anything like it before.

Weird :-S

So a whole arm full?

no tea n biscuits? shame.....

I was just glad to get back into the fresh air.

Mind you, I was given a terrific bruise as a souvenir

I fully sympathise Allan. I usually have what I believe is termed a "vaso-vagal" response. I have no control over it, and it is not fear of needles. I have warned those taking my blood of this, and that I am better lying down, and having it taken from the back of my hand, but will they listen? And then they get ratty when it happens. The last one was one of the worse ever. My BP dropped below about 50/20, pulse racing, and me completely out of it. Nurses, doctor, consultant fussing around, canula pumping something in, ECG attached, the works. Wife sent for. She said "He'll be OK in a minute", which they were surprised at. To make thing worse, they had stuck the ECG pads on the wrong way round, which indicated that I was dead! True to form, within a few minutes I was back to normal, and went home....

...and there's more. A few months ago, my doctor would not repeat a prescription for BP tablets, unless I had a blood test. So I went to see him and explained the situation and that I was not going to subject myself to any more blood tests. To which he informed me that it was "the law". The easy way out of this impasse, I said, was to stop taking them. That is OK by me, he said, and I no longer take them. And, I don't have, and never have had, high BP. He also informed me that it was these tablets that were causing the reduced kidney function which was shown by previous tests.. So, I said, You are telling me that the tablets that were supposed to be keeping me alive are actually killing me. Well, he said, I suppose so.

...so, when we moved up here, I had to sign on at the local surgery, where we went through the whole rigmarole again. I had to keep a record of twice daily BP levels at home for a week, then go back and see him. Average about 135/75 and everyone happy.