Been back to the doctors and confused

You want the lipids done as a fasting test or the triglyceride result will be useless.

I'm no expert but I think it doesn't matter if a non fasting test is taken after fasting, but it does make a difference if you have eaten before tests that are supposed to be fasting tests.

I am always told that I am better to fast before a blood test as they tend to do the range of tests in one go but to let the nurse / doctor know if it wasn't a fasting test so they can read and mentally adjust the results accordingly. It always gives the impression that they would rather a diabetic ate something than risked going hypo just because they had wait to have blood taken, but know it will skew the results.

fionamarie said:

Will i need to tell them? I am new to all this, and dont understand what lipids and triglyceride are

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Lipids are cholesterol. Sometimes you will only get the total cholesterol reading which is of no value whatsoever. You need the breakdown: LDL, HDL and trigs. At least.

My phlebotomist also always asks whether it was a fasting test (or more simply if I had anything to eat or drink except water since the night before) when filling in the card that goes with the blood samples. My best advise is to get an appointment as early in the morning as you can and then only have water to drink and nothing to eat between getting up and the appointment and let the nurse taking the blood know.

Then go and treat yourself to an all day breakfast if you know anywhere that does them close by.

fionamarie said:

Will i need to tell them? I am new to all this, and dont understand what lipids and triglyceride are

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You might as well get used to it since I have tried to re-train my DN on this point and I have never made headway.

They always say that it is a fasting test if I need to fast and in the early days I got used to that. Then one letter never mentioned it and as far as I was concerned I was going for my regular blood test. I thought I would fast anyway since it was an obvious error. I mentioned it to DN and she said I had no need to fast on that occasion since they were not doing my triglycerides. I told her I didn't know that and no-one had mentioned it and I didn't know what a triglyceride was anyway. She started to look at me as though I was an imbecile.

I asked her if it would be possible to give me a positive indication of what to do instead of "no mention". Now she looked at me as though I wasn't talking sense and I asked if it would be possible to ask the office to put "Eat and drink normally before this test" in the letter. I could see I was not getting through. Later it turned out that she cannot divert the office from what they have always done.

The issue remains unresolved and I alway miss breakfast on those days just in case.

It gets worse. After a change of medication I had to go in for a blood test to see if my kidneys were rotting. As I left I asked how they would let me know the result. If we don't phone you then it's ok I was told.

in a half hour, you will know as much as anyone else

jack412 said:

in a half hour, you will know as much as anyone else

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Yes but can he get the nurse to alter the wording of that letter.

Squire Fulwood said:

Yes but can he get the nurse to alter the wording of that letter.

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they are changing the way they do lipids..they are doing them nonfasting...to see what fats you had for breakfast, bacon and eggs or an apple will give very different triglyceride readings
w'knows why?

fionamarie said:

Will i need to tell them? I am new to all this, and dont understand what lipids and triglyceride are

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Better to take the increased dose of Ramipril as your bp is rather high, as for wanting to know about lipids and trigs, take a read of the following from Diabetes UK:

Blood fats (lipids)
Lipids are the cholesterol and triglycerides in your blood. Cholesterol is a type of fat found in all of us. You may be familiar with the term blood cholesterol, but what you may not know is that not all cholesterol is bad. Some of it, HDL (high density lipoprotein), can actually protect against heart disease. Low levels of this protective HDL cholesterol increase your risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, LDL (low density lipoprotein) cholesterol is the bad form of cholesterol in the blood. It is high levels of this type that are linked with an increased risk of heart disease. Triglycerides are another type of fat in the blood. If you have raised cholesterol and raised triglycerides you have an increased risk of CVD.

• Your total cholesterol level should be below 4.0mmol/l.
• LDL levels should be less than 2.0mmol/l.
• HDL levels should be 1.0mmol/l or above in men and 1.2mmol/l or above in women.
• Triglyceride levels should be 1.7mmol/l or less.