Checking the results of my tests.

[Mytical]

Ok, this irritates me to no end. I have a web address to check my tests from my doctors, but I gave up checking it because I have NO clue what they mean. I am NOT a doctor. Still, my mother wants me to check every time I get tests back, despite having LESS of a clue then I do about what it all means. What is the point, when we have no idea what the results mean?

[crashhelmet]

Can you Google the results?

[Gravekeeper]

They put your test results on a website? The fark.

You can't get your test results from anyone but your doctor up here.

[KitterCat]

I'm guessing Mytical is regarding phlebotomy, Gravekeeper. You can get your test results sent to you by mail with your doctors knowledge. All it takes is a check mark in the appropriate space on the test paperwork. If theres anything you dont understand I always just checked the internet. Sometimes this was wonderful, in that if there was something that my doctor would just gloss over I could ask more questions about or bring up if they deamed it not important enough to even mention.

Mytical you can all ways demand copys from your doctors office. Then show them to your Mom and ask her if she can make heads or tail of them.Maybe that would get her to stop telling you to look them up.

[Gravekeeper]

I'm guessing Mytical is regarding phlebotomy, Gravekeeper. You can get your test results sent to you by mail with your doctors knowledge.

Yeah, I suppose, you can request that with blood work up here. Though it still strikes me as strange. Doc gets the results first and knows what they mean. Up here the doctor will ask you to come in for your test results so they can explain them. They would never recommend self interpretation.

[Mytical]

All the tests results I can get access to on the website. CT scans, Ultrasounds (for my liver), blood work, etc. It doesn't list my name or anything like that, but I have the link to go to my results directly (so even if somebody hacked the site, they would just get the statistics, not who they belong to). My mother knows we can't make head or tails of it, because she usually hovers when I access it just to appease her. I guess I will look up the info and get informed, but knowing me I will forget it easy. Dang memory.

[s_stabeler]

Yeah, I suppose, you can request that with blood work up here. Though it still strikes me as strange. Doc gets the results first and knows what they mean. Up here the doctor will ask you to come in for your test results so they can explain them. They would never recommend self interpretation.

I think it's less for interpreting your own results and more so you can check your doctor isn't glossing over something- that, and it'd make it a bit easier to get a second opinion ( in that you can show another doc the test results on the website)

[Gravekeeper]

I think it's less for interpreting your own results and more so you can check your doctor isn't glossing over something- that, and it'd make it a bit easier to get a second opinion ( in that you can show another doc the test results on the website)

The doc doesn't keep the results from you or anything. You can have a copy if you want. With my doc if the results are good, he goes over it with me in his office. If they're bad, he goes over it with me and gives me a hard copy with notes on whats bad and why.

My last doctor did that as well, which is how I got a second opinion from my new doctor about my previous results.

I'm still off work and fubar, frankly. I don't talk about it on CS but shit is still pretty bad and I ended up in the hospital a second time a few weeks back. So I'm having lots of fun in labs with needles right now. >.>

[HYHYBT]

It seems to me a lot like getting a prescription filled: the first time, it's great for the pharmacist to explain in person how to take it, what to avoid, side effects, other medications that might interfere, etc., and you should read the printout if they give one as well. When you're getting the same thing you always take filled for the umpteenth time, you only need that if there's something new, and having to listen to the whole thing every time would make it less likely you'd notice if and when that new information came along.

Likewise, if you have to get the same tests done routinely and you already know what they mean, it makes sense, unless you prefer hearing it in person every time, only having to return to the doctor's office if there's a significant difference.