Watch out for THIS problem!!

[star0210]

Here's how it worked...my past experience with the Quest forms taught me that there were not enough blank spaces available. Med. Assts. always tried to make it all fit and it didn't and it was a big mess with missing Dx codes or missing tests and mostly illegible.

Sooooo...years ago, I took my surgeon's annual lab order, used WhiteOut on his identifying info, and took a copy of it to my PCPs. They loved it, because they could see what I needed to be checked for malabsorption and such and the Dx codes were there and all they had to do was add what, if anything, THEY wanted to add and put a label from their office on it and sign it.

I took the form I had prepared and the order from my cardio to my new PCP. She made sure that everything the hospital needed was already included...it was...put her office info on it, signed it and attached it to the lab order requisition. (It may have been from Q, they have a draw facility in the same building, but I'm not sure. It could have been from LC.)

In MY feeble mind, it was going to be better to have the PCP order it because she could send info to other specialists...that is part of her job, and she is willing to do that. And then I would need to get stuck only once.

NOW...the LC CMP does not include Mg testing. That should not have mattered, since ALL that the lab's printed requisition said was "see attached," and the form I provided says, "CMP (Comprehensive Metabolic Panel) including Lytes, BUN, Cr, Ca, Mg, Albumin, Total Protein and Alkaline Phos." That should have covered it...and the CSR said so!

I'm supposed to get a call from an Area Manager. We shall see.

Yeah the CMP-14 from LC...that's the one we sell...doesn't include mg. As far as I know, none of the different chemistry panels do.
I'm gonna tell you though that expecting the phlebotomist to look at all of that and recognize that mg isn't included is, in most cases, asking too much. They really aren't trained to "think" or paid enough to really care.
It would be helpful to have all of the LC test numbers included instead of just names and DX codes...that way you make sure nothing gets left out.
If it wasn't run though, have your PCP's office call and have it added on. We do that ALL of the time....presuming the blood is still good. They keep it usually for 7 days. Some things have to be run within a particular timeframe though. For example, a lavender top whole blood tube is only good for 48 hours. SST's at least 7 days.
Can't remember about mg off the top of my head.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Yeah the CMP-14 from LC...that's the one we sell...doesn't include mg. As far as I know, none of the different chemistry panels do.
I'm gonna tell you though that expecting the phlebotomist to look at all of that and recognize that mg isn't included is, in most cases, asking too much. They really aren't trained to "think" or paid enough to really care.
It would be helpful to have all of the LC test numbers included instead of just names and DX codes...that way you make sure nothing gets left out.
If it wasn't run though, have your PCP's office call and have it added on. We do that ALL of the time....presuming the blood is still good. They keep it usually for 7 days. Some things have to be run within a particular timeframe though. For example, a lavender top whole blood tube is only good for 48 hours. SST's at least 7 days.
Can't remember about mg off the top of my head.

But...but...this phlebotomist also missed the PTH, Intact...and that, I think, has to be spun. Or maybe that's the B6, which has also been delayed. Either way, I have to go for another draw. (I've been using this form at a hospital-owned lab group in So. Cal and Quest in Nevada for a total of NINE YEARS!! I never had any tests missed since I started using it. But I will highlight that for the future.)

BUT WAIT! There's more! I just noticed...she wrote in the comments section, "pt not fasting and rude"

ROFLMFAO!! I was not rude. I was insistent that she did the correct Vit D test, because all she wrote was "Vit D." And I wanted to make sure it was the right test. She said there was only one Vit D test and I told her that there were several Vit D tests (because you said so...lol) and that's what made me rude, I guess. (Your fault, for providing me with accurate info.)

You know...I wasn't going to mention the husband/boyfriend bit and that she was just pissed in general that we got there close to the end of her day. Now it will be a couple of bullet points. And I think a copy may have to go to corporate HR or someplace.

Luckily, there are three other PSCs in this town and maybe ten others in the general area. And Quest, too.

What a day!

 

[Larra]

She called you rude - them's fightin' words! And she had no idea who she picked a fight with.
No one disses our Spiky and lives to tell the tale.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

She called you rude - them's fightin' words! And she had no idea who she picked a fight with.
No one disses our Spiky and lives to tell the tale.

Lol

 

[Spiky Bugger]

She called you rude - them's fightin' words! And she had no idea who she picked a fight with.
No one disses our Spiky and lives to tell the tale.

My daughter said that I was "snippy." But she and Mr. Sue agree that I got snippy when I was told that there was only one test for Vitamin D. I was challenging her.

But I've always had a problem with the incompetent-arrogant combo. And that's what she was giving me. So I was "snippy," but only because she's, you know, a moron.

 

[DianaCox]

Sigh - I go there too, SB, but not nearly as fiercely or funnily as you do. But I can't hold my tongue either.

 

[robs477]

All I can say is...I wish you the best! I LOVE your posts Sue!! Happy New Year to you Darlin!! You know that, I think you are the shit!!! Someday, I wish we could all meet in person and have a party and all meet!

 

[Spiky Bugger]

All I can say is...I wish you the best! I LOVE your posts Sue!! Happy New Year to you Darlin!! You know that, I think you are the shit!!! Someday, I wish we could all meet in person and have a party and all meet!

Let me warn you, Robs, about bariatric surgery patient gatherings. They are, for me, to be avoided at all costs. There are people there who, in their youth, never had a social life...aka sex life...who want to try all that on...AND...who get drunk off their asses in no time flat. Being in a room full of drunk 30-, 40- and 50- year olds who are behaving like 15-, 16-and 17-year olds is a scary thing.

There was a great book, about Prozac, called The Prozac Diaries, written by a patient whose psych disabilities kept her in-patient and under care for her adolescence and young adulthood. She was one of the first Prozac patients and the drug yanked her out of her isolated world of going back in the house and checking to make sure the gas stove was off, fifteen or thirty times, to being part of a world she didn't grow up in. She figured she was having a bit of an adjustment problem when she was out one night getting laid across the hood of some stranger's car...by the stranger. That's what I see or read about at wls patient gatherings.

A gathering of three, four people at a time? Probably doable. A big party? Wait until you experience being a half-a-drink asshole. Then imagine a room full of them!!

 

[DianaCox]

Small groups of DSers are OK, starting with support groups. But remember - some bariatric patients are on heavy psych meds for a reason, and adding alcohol to the situation rarely improves their personalities.

I had a 5 day house party in the summer of 2008 that unfortunately eventually led to a really horrible situation when I tried to help one of the people who attended - there are sociopaths in the DS world too, users and abusers. But I also have met a few cherished people along the way, and on balance, I continue to be willing to take the risk of meeting new people.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Small groups of DSers are OK, starting with support groups. But remember - some bariatric patients are on heavy psych meds for a reason, and adding alcohol to the situation rarely improves their personalities.

I had a 5 day house party in the summer of 2008 that unfortunately eventually led to a really horrible situation when I tried to help one of the people who attended - there are sociopaths in the DS world too, users and abusers. But I also have met a few cherished people along the way, and on balance, I continue to be willing to take the risk of meeting new people.

Me, too...one or two at a time...lol. First time WE met...remember? Mr. Sue and I had eaten lunch elsewhere and had only enough time to meet folks and then we had to go. (Actually, we DID have to get to the Valley.) But if we hadn't had somewhere to go, I would have invented one.

I "missed" the party where the handicapped cane-using drunk, used her cane to beat the crap out of another drunk, in the hotel hallway and then locked her out of their shared room...so she (the locked-out, beaten-up dunk) slept in the hall. If I had wanted to live that way, I'd have stayed in the army.

 

[DianaCox]

Hmm, IIRC, there were at LEAST 12-15 people at the restaurant, including Leslie, Ocean, Laurie, and Stephanie (I think). Around 2006? or 2007? I remember it was March, but not the year. But the second time I met you, I had forgotten the first time! (I'm terrible with names and faces - I had to be reminded.)

Holy crap - I don't know if I ever heard about the second incident! An OH convention?? Names?

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Hmm, IIRC, there were at LEAST 12-15 people at the restaurant, including Leslie, Ocean, Laurie, and Stephanie (I think). Around 2006? or 2007? I remember it was March, but not the year. But the second time I met you, I had forgotten the first time! (I'm terrible with names and faces - I had to be reminded.)

Holy crap - I don't know if I every heard about the second incident! An OH convention?? Names?

It was right after my cousin's step-father died...I'll go look it up.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

@DianaCox He died 27 Feb 2008. We had to go up to that house and help my cousin. Probably March?

THAT event was long ago, from Spotlight Health. I'm SOOOOO glad I never even considered that one. What a cluster....!

And I'm shattered...I thought I was unforgettable!

 

[DianaCox]

Do you mean I didn't admit it at the second meeting? Wow, I'm usually not slick enough to cover my embarrassment at not remembering names and faces. I have a vague recollection of being embarrassed at the second meeting when you REMINDED me that we had met before ... probably right after I said something graceless like "It's so good to finally meet you!" (Meh, I might be mixing that up with some other time I made an ass of myself because I forgot meeting someone - I have lunch about once a year in DC with some of my male college classmates, none of whom I knew back then, but we now know each other online on a listserv [no pix] and EVERY.DAMNED.TIME I forget their names/faces - they all look like generic interchangeable pleasant-looking middle-aged men to me.)

OK, so I'm off by the year - I remember that Charles and I stayed at a fancy schmancy Santa Monica hotel for a business meeting I was attending. One thing was for sure - it was well before the second meeting at the end of October 2009, right after I evicted the sociopath, and just before the stalking (and the fun!) began.

 

[southernlady]

Small groups of DSers are OK, starting with support groups. But remember - some bariatric patients are on heavy psych meds for a reason, and adding alcohol to the situation rarely improves their personalities.

I had a 5 day house party in the summer of 2008 that unfortunately eventually led to a really horrible situation when I tried to help one of the people who attended - there are sociopaths in the DS world too, users and abusers. But I also have met a few cherished people along the way, and on balance, I continue to be willing to take the risk of meeting new people.

The meet up of DSers this summer went well. And thanks again for hosting that one, Diana