Reminder: drink water before any lab work!

[karen_marie 220]

Seeing as it didn't even occur to me, and it wasn't mentioned to me when I made the appointment, make sure you drink Water during the day prior to any lab work! I had decided to treat myself to an iced coffee this morning after dropping one of my dogs at the vet. Was sipping on it all morning prior to my lunch time appointment. When they went to stick me for the blood samples for the A1C and Vitamin D tests, they had a hard time hitting my veins because they were basically flat and shrunken. WHOOPS hahaha. Learned a lesson I didn't realize I needed, so thought I would pass along! They were able to get the blood samples in the end, but I've got a few extra holes in me that I could have avoided

[Myaiku_Kuraitani 245]

They told me to fast the night before I got that done. They still remind me to do that when they need blood work.


----------------------------

HW- 273
Pre-op Wt- 230
SW- 226
CW- 170
GW- 130
Ht- 5'2.5"
DOS- April 26th, 2017

"Only those who try will become." ~FFX

[karen_marie 220]

I'm thinking they may make me fast when I do the labs right before my surgery date (or when getting labs afterwards), but this was the very first set I've done. They said it wasn't necessary. Kind of hoping fasting isn't required. It would be hard to not eat or drink anything from bedtime to lunchtime (or later) the next day.

[Angie's_Ocean 213]

For A1C you should fast 12 hrs. prior. It sucks but it's the only way to get accurate results

[karen_marie 220]

I'll have to ask my doctor about it before my next labs. No one mentioned needing to fast, only that I should have had Water to make it easier for them to take blood. This bariatric program has been around for quite some time, so I'm assuming there's a reason behind them not telling me that I would need to fast. Thanks for the extra input!

[crocodoxie 223]

Yeah, as a diabetic, I'm used to fasting bloodwork. I just saw my endo, and he's going to run all my Vitamin labs with my thyroid and A1C from now on! He goes, might as well keep an eye on those, too. I was thrilled it was his idea, and I won't have to overthink it.

[karen_marie 220]

Got my lab results back in my online patient portal. A1C is at 5.6, so on the high end of normal but not quite pre-diabetic levels. I'm close to straddling the fence on that (pre-diabetic would be 5.7-6.4 range) so I'll want to keep an eye on that. Vitamin D came back at 21, and it really should be at 30 or above. I tend to be low on my Vitamin D levels though, so I was expecting that. I'll see if they have any requests when they call me, other than probably taking a Vitamin D supplement.