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fasting blood tests

Tipetoo said:
I should have said in my previous post, that the pathologist's are open from 7:00 am for the people who are getting a fasting blood test and have to go to work. They can grab a coffee and a sandwich from the bistro that is in the private hospital.

I normally get there around 7:30 when the rush has died a down.
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Now that is what I call organised. We were at Heartlands in Birmingham a few months ago for a camera down the throat appointment. Afterwards we went for a coffee. Neither the patient or I could find anything edible for our respective diets but there were plenty of the prepacked muffin type stuff. It was lunch time and quite busy when all of a sudden the staff pulled the shutters down and closed the whole restaurant! No idea when they planned to reopen it because we left 20 mins later. Cannot imagine them opening for 7am.
 
Our surgery opens at 7-30am and closes at 7pm. In addition to normal opening hours, a limited number of appointments are available with a doctor on Monday evenings (6.30 pm to 8.00 pm), Tuesday and Wednesday mornings (7.15 am to 8.00 am).
 
AndBreathe said:
Covknit - Some time ago I started a thread describing my "adventure" surrounding my discussing with my GP around my inconveniently high TC score, versus the components and rations. I can't recall what I called the thread, but you could have a trawl if you feel like it.

I certainly did ask my GP for the scientific papers illustrating the positive impacts of statins for "women of a certain age", as the vast majority to participants in statin research are males (probably due to their higher incidence of CVD in the total population). She couldn't come up with any.

I left her with some links and we now seem to be more aligned. To be fair, the NICE guidelines have also changed from "all diabetics should be offered lipid lowering medication" to referencing rations. To look at your ratios, the following websit calculator is a great starter.

http://www.hughcalc.org/chol-si.php
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I could debate this with the GP but since I rejected her theory of carpal tunnel syndrome I have a hip problem diagnosed as a sprained wrist. I am only making headway now because of the diabetes diagnosis. So I will just do my own research and smile sweetly. I do have a bloody minded attitude to risk. I was not expected to see 20 and I am triple that age so I am content to call it a day whenever. My last figures were not great chol 5.6. HDL1.3. ldl3.8 which makes tc 1.09. My qrisk is 11% . I would like to do more exercise but I manage to do what most people would consider a lot of gardening so I am on my feet a lot. On the other hand my mum is on statins and she has gone gaga. I have experimented with a couple of statins and both times felt dreadful. The side effects were as if someone has kicked me in the kidneys, I have a sprained left wrist plus tingling on the right side. I did some online self diagnosis and found a complaint involving loss of muscle tissue dissolving in the blood stream leading to kidney failure. Add in I am lame on the right side and my eye clinics concern about my kidneys and I am not a happy bunny. If I could spell and pronounce rhabdomyolysis I would ask about it but it is very rare and I expect my problem is something a lot simpler. I have seen a lot of videos and read a number of threads about statins and so far am inclined to the argument of someone senior in the world heart organisation in the video posted by bulkbiker . The suggestion was that cholesterol and ldl are not the problem. We have to beware the very small, glycated, oxygenated, rusty ldl molecules that have lost their receptor cells and are therefore not being eliminated from the body. Several people state cholesterol has never killed anyone. I expect that statement is too generalised a claim but I think it is nearer the truth that any of the claims about statins improving my quality of life.
 
AndBreathe said:
@covknit - If you car bear to read more of my ramblings, this is the thread I mentioned in my earlier post:

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/anything-else-update.63298/
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I certainly can and that is great. I shall take questions based on that format with me on the 9th. I have no idea what they will actually be looking for then but it will be a good opportunity to practice for my next diabetes review in September. By that time I will be gathering enough data to create a credible table of my results.
 
covknit said:
I certainly can and that is great. I shall take questions based on that format with me on the 9th. I have no idea what they will actually be looking for then but it will be a good opportunity to practice for my next diabetes review in September. By that time I will be gathering enough data to create a credible table of my results.
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I'mm a real data geek, covknit. I have an Excel spreadsheet, collating all my blood test results since diagnosis, including trend lines. Too much Six Sigma in my working life methinks.
 
Tipetoo said:
You spelt it right @covknit and here's the Wiki article about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhabdomyolysis
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trouble is there is nothing in there that does not fit with my symptoms of rhab caused by crush injury although if my urine was ever that colour I would drink so much water I would have to add loss of salts to my complaints. Can I keep telling me it is merely pressure on the nerves in my legs please? Hubby massages my thigh to make it better.
 
AndBreathe said:
I'mm a real data geek, covknit. I have an Excel spreadsheet, collating all my blood test results since diagnosis, including trend lines. Too much Six Sigma in my working life methinks.
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It is years since I have used spreadsheets. I have become a luddite and reverted back to index cards because I am so fed up with losing data as each machine has to be replaced because of the demands for more and more memory. Back in the day I could create access databases from scratch and do all sorts of graphs on excel. Nowadays even tables in docs are getting clumsy.
 
covknit said:
It is years since I have used spreadsheets. I have become a luddite and reverted back to index cards because I am so fed up with losing data as each machine has to be replaced because of the demands for more and more memory. Back in the day I could create access databases from scratch and do all sorts of graphs on excel. Nowadays even tables in docs are getting clumsy.
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If you worry about the integrity of your machines and data loss, you could look into something like Dropbox. We do a lot of travel and Dropbox allows me to have access to some of my data (I don't upload everything for obvious reasons) from anywhere in the world, on any machine. It also works on my smart phone and tablet. Erm,.... we also have a NAS drive here where all our machines are incrementally backed up.

Did I mention data geekery? :borg:
 
Google drive, SQL database, and a NAS drive, on a desktop running Linux, as a server, then it's time to worry.
SQL runs rings around Excel.
But maybe a bit too extreme.

Nowadays I keep my CD's and DVD's on the NAS drive.
But I can watch films on my tablet when I'm away, and listen to music on my phone when it's raining.
 
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AndBreathe said:
If you worry about the integrity of your machines and data loss, you could look into something like Dropbox. We do a lot of travel and Dropbox allows me to have access to some of my data (I don't upload everything for obvious reasons) from anywhere in the world, on any machine. It also works on my smart phone and tablet. Erm,.... we also have a NAS drive here where all our machines are incrementally backed up.

Did I mention data geekery? :borg:
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Nah just the evergrowing demands placed on them by the IT industry and the associated expense. Hubby learnt two of the computing base languages so we had a computers in 1982. The BBC one was over raied in his humble opinion so we went Apricot. We did our OU courses using display write 4 on 5 floppy discs and the functionality of that program has still not been superceded despite hysterical paper clips, flash points and other geeky imagery. I am on google cloud so I get everything backed up, I am nifty at handwritten documents and DH at technical drawing because that was the way we were taught. We put key data on index cards which are rarely accidentally deleted although they can find their way into the wrong box sometimes. Instead of press print I can take the card in my pocket or rewrite it in less time that it takes microsoft to update. I have a PAYG mobile with no IT. I know too many people who have had a surprise bill for IT use off their mobile. We have two £50 tablets from China and a £80 chromebook so we can check emails, print stuff and do documents. One of the tablets does searches, plays youtube and the other is the cats. He gets very stroppy if he wants to watch his birdies and we are doing something else.
 
douglas99 said:
Google drive, SQL database, and a NAS drive, on a desktop running Linux, as a server, then it's time to worry.
SQL runs rings around Excel.
But maybe a bit too extreme.

Nowadays I keep my CD's and DVD's on the NAS drive.
But I can watch films on my tablet when I'm away, and listen to music on my phone when it's raining.
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and that reminds me of those awful mp3 players. We had those apple ones when they were all new. The idea was we should put all our music on a white apple music device and throw away our CD's. Within a year or so the original player, the size of a hand had packed up so we got the smaller one and then a really teensie one. Then we had to join Itunes and that took up so much memory on the PC we would have had to replace the computer but we never did work out how to get rid of itunes so we branded apple evil and the work of the Devil. Then Apple went into the phone market. Lol Guess what:- we never managed to transfer all our CD's onto those fiddly little machines and I boxed our CD's and put them in the loft. So pleased I did because I still have my CD's. Actually we no longer seem to have a working MP3. Our video player packed up a couple of years ago and the cassette player about 5 so i suppose I need to throw our tapes. Shame some of them are irreplaceable.
 
I think it depends on how much the blood test is for. My blood tests are always fasting ones and show kidney and liver function...because I take blood pressure tablets... and cholesterol as well as my HbA1C.
 
covknit said:
and that reminds me of those awful mp3 players. We had those apple ones when they were all new. The idea was we should put all our music on a white apple music device and throw away our CD's. Within a year or so the original player, the size of a hand had packed up so we got the smaller one and then a really teensie one. Then we had to join Itunes and that took up so much memory on the PC we would have had to replace the computer but we never did work out how to get rid of itunes so we branded apple evil and the work of the Devil. Then Apple went into the phone market. Lol Guess what:- we never managed to transfer all our CD's onto those fiddly little machines and I boxed our CD's and put them in the loft. So pleased I did because I still have my CD's. Actually we no longer seem to have a working MP3. Our video player packed up a couple of years ago and the cassette player about 5 so i suppose I need to throw our tapes. Shame some of them are irreplaceable.
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I still have the tape player, and record player.
Although they are linked to a pc, so I have backed all of them up as mp3's.
(Which I have to burn back to a CD to play in the car, my fleet is still in the stoneage, the newest one only plays cd's, one has a cassette player, the oldest one has an 8 track, cartridges for that are amazingly rare now)
 
Pinkorchid said:
I think it depends on how much the blood test is for. My blood tests are always fasting ones and show kidney and liver function...because I take blood pressure tablets... and cholesterol as well as my HbA1C.
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Isn't it odd how some areas have routine fasting tests and others have decided they are either not necessary or an appropriate risk for people with diabetes. There does not seem to be any national guideline. How long do you fast for? Are you allowed any drinks? My walk in centre said water only. I am going to have to ask for kidney and liver function or far an explanation as to why they are not being tested. At the moment it appears I need to refer any future appointments I get to the gp receptionists with a request they match my test and appointment requirements. It would be easiest if I can get a blood test form I can take to Boots.
 
douglas99 said:
I still have the tape player, and record player.
Although they are linked to a pc, so I have backed all of them up as mp3's.
(Which I have to burn back to a CD to play in the car, my fleet is still in the stoneage, the newest one only plays cd's, one has a cassette player, the oldest one has an 8 track, cartridges for that are amazingly rare now)
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Oh my poor vinyls. I do still have a few but once we started to get CD's I stopped expecting them to be returned when I lent them. A lot got disappeared when we moved house. There was a time when kids were destroying vinyls for scratch music. Sob. The record deck is under the ottoman in the bedroom. Part of the sony stack system. Now that is a music system worth mourning. Celeston speakers, legato linear amplifier, sodium heatpipe cooling to its transister bridge I am going to have to stop typing now because hubby is going into melt down recalling all these obscure features
 
My GP's surgery will no longer do fasting blood tests on anyone with diabetes because of the possibility of severely disrupting blood glucose levels. I have random cholesterol done instead but I am not sure how reliable the reading then is.
 
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