Polymyalgia hit me out of nowhere......

Hello Granny Moss

They say knowledge is power !! You do feel better with talking to the Dr when you know a lot more about everything and if they dont give you the checks you should have you can give them a nudge !!

Your Dr seems very determined how your reductions will go my Dr is much more flexable and says as long as you are going down that is the most important thing

Take it easy and try not to worry to much and I am sure you will feel better as stress is a real enemy of PMR

Best wishes Mrs G

Thank you Mrs G ! I have followed a bit of advice I read on a Woman's Magazine. When you go to the doctor, it is very helpfull to write down the questions you like to ask. Usually, by the time one is at the surgery ( and like me, last evening, had a wait of ONE HOUR !.....) before I was called !...... One may forget to ask some of the questions.....That is why we are called PATIENTS..... I have this morning (I was much to tired last night to do it...) read the form for my blood tests. I wonder if I may get some help ? J have to go to the University Hospital for them, which is unusual, as normally I go to the Community one, that I can walk to, or the Walk in Clinic at the city Mall, that I take the bus to. This is directed to: CLINICAL BIOCHEMISTRY,HAEMATOLOGY & IMMUNOLOGY REQUEST.

AND IT IS FOR: tEST iTEMS : L , UE, FBC, T, RPGL, CHO, ESR ( Not on thyroxine = Not on Carbimazole ) :? I would be so relieved...if someone could explain all this to me !....Thank you. Granny Moss

Hello Granny Moss

You better wait for Eileen on that one !!

I could guess but that wouldnt be right I always have ESR and CRP and for diabetes cholestral at reg intervals Last time I went the nurse said Ali is testing you for almost everything there is this time !! Possibly because 2 years was up My Dr was at one time concerned about my salt levels and she said if they were low once again she was going to refer me but luckily they stabilised I didnt want kidney problems as well !! It doesent help to take extra salt unfortunately

My Dr always passes me her pen so I can write my bloods down now I always have to wait for my Dr but she always gives you plenty of time so I dont mind I would rather wait an hour for her than see someone else on time

Off to the Drs for a blood test this morning Hoping the cold cough etc I have had wont effect my bloods

Best wishes

Mrs G

Eileen just posted an explanation but must have done it at the same time as MrsG and it crashed! There's still something not right about this site.

I'm off out just now but will redo it when I come back as it is long!

Nothing to worry about though - all perfectly normal tests while they are at it!!

EileenH

Right - here goes again!

Every hospital has its own abbreviations for their tests so this may not be 100% accurate but there's nothing obscure amongst them so I should be correct:

L: liver function tests - all sorts of enzymes and things

UE: urea and electrolytes, which are things like sodium, potassium, and tells you a lot about kidney function

FBC: done in the haematology lab, counts how many red cells and white cells, what sort of white cells and how many of each, what size the red cells are and what your haemoglobin is (are you anaemic, is your bone marrow working right)

T: thyroid function tests - about 10% of older women develop a thyroid problem and if you have one autoimmune disease you are more likely to get another.

RPGL: I think may be a Random Post-prandial GLucose - i.e. a blood sugar level taken any time of day when you have had something to eat at some point - if it is first thing in the morning before you have breakfast it is a Fasting blood glucose. They should have told you which it is. If it isn't blood sugar (which should be included somewhere as you are on steroids) then it might be an immunology test but I don't know what - you say the sheet mentions immunology but there is nothing else you've listed that would be done by them. Ask what it is and I'll tell you about it! Or it might just be that is the standard form and these 3 departments are on it.

CHO: cholesterol - everybody knows about that, right?

ESR: or sed rate - they put some blood in a vertical tube and wait to see how quickly the red blood cells fall to the bottom. Often increased in PMR but also goes up in any infection or inflammatory process.

Most of these tests are done on computer-run machines nowadays. You probably have to go to the Uni hospital as there are several different bottles of blood needed - not a lot in each - but it is important as the right bottles are needed and the phlebotomist (who takes the blood) knows without having to ask which is which plus the samples get to the lab quicker which is important for some of the tests. And they are less likely to get lost (maybe! :roll: ) so you shouldn't have to go back to be stuck again.

It sounds like lots but each of the machines may do a whole battery of tests and if they've been done you might as well know what they were - you only get back what you ask for usually. These are perfectly usual tests to ask for if you are sending a patient to have some blood taken - get it all done at once! Nothing to worry about at all.

The \"not on thyroxine/carbimazole\" is info that you don't take anything for your thyroid at present - one is for an underactive thyroid and the other for a too active thyroid.

BTW - the salt levels are less about kidney function than adrenal function. Very, very basically, it's the adrenals that secrete the hormones that keep that regulated and send messages to the kidney to get it sorted out by making you pee more or less and change the amount of water in your body. High or low sodium or potassium levels are really not very good for you - your heart is very fussy about potassium, for one thing. Getting very dehydrated increases the levels in your blood and that's what causes the problems. Very common in LOLs (little old ladies) who don't drink to save them having to go to the loo if they are a bit unsteady on their feet - LOMs have it easier (think about it) and are more likely to have a beer! Then there is the problem with nursing homes and patients in hospital who can't reach the drink the assistant placed JUST out of reach and didn't check the patient had drunk it before clearing it away. And the lazy nursing home staff who don't want to do the whole commode duty which might disturb their sit down on night duty (or day duty come to that). But I won't get into that any further!

Does that help? Ask again if anything isn't clear or you want to know more - if I know, I'll tell you! I'm copying this this time!

EileenH

EileenH, Thank so much for your very long posting ? You are amazing at how much knowledge you have on this subject ! And with the support from the other lovely ladies, this is a site that gives tremendous encouregement to the faint hearted .....(like ME......) I thank you very much for the time you have taken in writing ALL the information. I noticed this item on the form given to me by my doctor : SPECIMEN COLLECTION INSTRUCTION - 1 x 3ml grey tube, 1 x 3ml purple tube,

1 x 6ml yellow tube. PS. I lived in Ilford for about 6 years, when I worked in London....near St Pauls...small world...Thank you again, Granny Moss.

I used to work in clinical biochemistry! Easy-peasy! And I worked at St Bartholomew's Hosp - also near St Pauls!

really small world!

EileenH

My husband has PMR and his eye specialist says that prednizone is known to cause cataracts. There is nothing like a little knowledge so I just thought I would mention it here for fellow sufferers so that they can be on the look out for that problem.

Are you still feeling it? I was hit May 2014 while on a road trip. I thought it would resolve in a year. Not so! I see my bicycle languishing in my garage and get really depressed.

I tried 10 mg. prednisone and it worked. I tried to taper off but 5 mg. was a bit borderline. I'm not on anything right now except NSAIDs and I'm going to have to fold and go back to the roids. Blood test was great when I went of them last Fall but now it is high again.