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Bloods, Where to start!

Alex S said:
get them taken by someone who does it all the time and never by a junior doctor.
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Very good advice Alex. The bloods nurses at UCLH are borderline miraculous in their efficiency. You barely get time to settle in the chair before they're taping a bit of cotton wool to your arm and calling in the next punter. Fantastic. Thank you nurse!
 
bor said:
And it's in my own interests to let medical students have a bash whenever possible.
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good for you.

You are not the anxious, previously traumatised patient that I and Kevinrt were referring to.

I am sure phlebotomists like the comparison with chimps. Most constructive.

(we were mostly referring to cannulation - not phlebotomy)
 
paulfromcamden said:
Very good advice Alex. The bloods nurses at UCLH are borderline miraculous in their efficiency. You barely get time to settle in the chair before they're taping a bit of cotton wool to your arm and calling in the next punter. Fantastic. Thank you nurse!
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I am guessing that they are phlebotomists, not trained Nurses?
 
paulfromcamden said:
I'm guessing you're absolutely right. They're in a hospital doing medical stuff and dressed in nurse type uniforms so I've always just filed them under 'Nurses'. Every day a school day : )
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It is an issue for qualified Nurses who spend nearly three and a half years getting their qualification - Care Assistants, Phlebotomists etc. get lumped together under the same label. No disrespect to ward auxiliary staff, but they are under direction (usually) of trained staff.
Often in the tabloid press there may be a story about a ‘nurse’ doing something or other, and frequently they are not a trained staff nurse. It does no good for the profession.
 
Seeker_UK said:
We have local medical centre with a dedicated team of phlebotomy nurses who draw blood all day, every day. Quick and as painless as possible - even a total wimp like me didn't pass out / throw up, which was nice.
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We have one at our surgery, she’s excellent, you barely feel a thing.

Cheers BB
 
Update..

So, I've had my prostate examination this morning, and it's perfectly normal...are the doctors words.
The doctor is my original male doctor and is such a professional.

He told me (which the other female doctor didn't) that when I'm going for my bloods in 4 weeks time, don't, cycle, don't exercise bar walking, no sexual activitie of any kind for 7 days before test and fasting for 12 hours beforehand.

Why didn't the female doctor tell me this when making my first blood appointment.

The iron levels were 300 and he wasn't too concerned about it, more so I properly prepare for the next blood test.

So, a good start to today.
 
your bloods first time round was a routine screen so inappropriate to go down the whole no exercise/fasting route. this next lot will more than likely be looking for specifics or past false positives.

Rgds
Stuart
 
That's good news. You don't need to fast if it's just a PSA (prostate) blood test (abstain from the other stuff as you've listed) but you do need to fast if you're having your cholesterol checked too.

The PSA number is a good indicator of prostate size ie the bigger your prostate the more PSA you produce but an unreliable indicator of prostate cancer ie a raised PSA level doesn't necessarily mean you have prostate cancer similarly you can have a normal PSA level and still have prostate cancer. But if your PSA number is high you should have further checks as you have done.

Also a 'digital' prostate check (finger up the bum) will temporarily raise your PSA level ...like ejaculation and riding a bike. Hence waiting some time between checks and abstaining.
 
Robert M said:
Update..

So, I've had my prostate examination this morning, and it's perfectly normal...are the doctors words.
The doctor is my original male doctor and is such a professional.

He told me (which the other female doctor didn't) that when I'm going for my bloods in 4 weeks time, don't, cycle, don't exercise bar walking, no sexual activitie of any kind for 7 days before test and fasting for 12 hours beforehand.

Why didn't the female doctor tell me this when making my first blood appointment.

The iron levels were 300 and he wasn't too concerned about it, more so I properly prepare for the next blood test.

So, a good start to today.
Click to expand...

As an aside, do yourself a favour and keep yourself very well hydrated with water before you go, makes the finding and extracting a lot easier.
 
The nurses always take my blood and it's absolutely painless. I've been showing Anemia for 8 yrs now, didn't used to bother me, but now I've started getting symptoms as my RBC continues it's ever downward spiral. I saw a doctor in Renal a few years back, she said as my Creatinine levels were ok, so there was no need to look any further in that area. Apparently the NHS don't do 'whole body scans' (whatever that is, ultrasound, MRI?), so you have to get really sick before they find out the cause I guess. But as things stand, last doc I spoke to (by phone, you get a different one every time too, just to make the process even more inefficient), said he'd refer me to Hematology. Some have mentioned blood sugar on here, with some casualness, I would take it more seriously, you hear some horrible things about the effects of diabetes. I won't pretend it's easy, but there are a lot of foods out there you can be eating apart from your typical carb heavy Western diet fare.
 
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