Always Ask For Copies Of Your Labwork!

[StacyA]

I'm sure a lot of people on this site often ask for copies of their labwork, but I definately think everyone should every time. I was having a lot of symptoms of fatigue, dry hair, getting cold. So I asked my doctor to check for anemia, vit D deficiency, my thyroid, and anything else she thought appropriate. They called the results to me and said everything looked okay except for mildly low white blood cell count, and told me to come back a month later for repeat WBC.

I was happy I wasn't anemic or deficient in vit D... (I was already taking iron every day and 1000 vit D every day in addition to other supplements.)

...Until I went in a month later for the blood draw and asked for a copy of the first labwork. Right there on the labwork, even marked with an arrow by the lab because it was outside of recommended thresholds, was my vitamin D at 29, when normal is 32 to 100.

I asked my doctor about it, and she said: 'Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see that.'

I'm glad I saw it. Now I'm on 2000 vit D. (My WBC count was just fine with the repeat labwork.)

[nicolebeth]

I agree, but for different reasons. I used to be told my thyroid status was "normal"--and then found it was over 3.0 (no wonder why I was exhausted!) Similarly, my Vit. D levels were 38-39--also "normal", but not ideal. The lab value ranges of "normal" don't always match up to a healthy level.

We also had this happen with our son's total IgA. His pediatrician described it as "ever-so-slightly" low. When we saw the reference range, we realized it was more than 20 points below low-normal. That wouldn't have happened if we just listened to her. (We are now taking the results to a GI.)