upset about labs

i am mad!  i did my 2wk labs about 2 1/2 wks ago. i got a copy of my lab info about 3-4 days later, wbc, rbc, hemacrit and platelets were low. the VL was still pending. so , i call my GI yesterday to ask for results and when i call the office, i say i am calling for my bloodwork results from 2 wks ago. the front desk girl puts me on hold and comes back and says, "everything's normal". i say, no, nothing is normal, first off being my VL, cuz i shouldn't have one to begin with, then i tell her i am looking at copies of my cbc, lft's and alot of them are NOT normal, but what i need is my VL. after a very long wait on hold, she says labcorp notified them that they didn't take enough blood from me to run my VL. now i am fuming! she asks if they contacted me to do a repeat blood draw to which i say no. so i went in yesterday (to labcorp) for my 4 wk labs. now if they mess this up, i will be postal! has this ever happened to anyone?

[Lady E]

Yes! The same thing happened to me today!! I did my 3 month PCR labs 2 days ago. Today I get a call from the lab that they didn't taken enough, so I had to go back. They said that they thought they were supposed to take 3 and they found out they were supposed to take 5!!
They screw my labs up everytime I do my PCR. I told them they are all vampires! LOL

[Myown]

I'm telling ya,,that is so unreal,,,,NO, ya know what??its par for the course. These labs all stink. Quest had lost a 6 hr test on me already. Imagine sittin there 6 hrs getting blood drawn every hour and then you go for the results and your doc tells you the lab lost them!!

sorry to hear this,Aquarius. I would be so mad too. That is why I am freaking out waiting for my TMA. hey ya know,,they could have lost that too. I'll be up a creek without a paddle.

I guess we have to be on the phone all the time and stop worrying about if we are being a pain in the rear end. The doctors office  should understand why we are so neurotic, cuz they KNOW how labs mess things up and so does the doctors offices too. No one called you tho, thats unreal!

I can't stand it anymore. Hope they get your 4 week one done right. Hang in there!

[mikesimon]

No, that never happened to me but I think it is deplorable and inexcusable that it happened to you. Am I surprised? Not terribly. I have learned to trust no one or nothing when it comes to this stuff. When they tell me something I repeat it back to them and then I ask them to repeat it back to me. At a restaurant when they make a mistake it's annoying but with this stuff when a mistake is made it can be dangerous to our health. Just make sure they've got it right this time and try to relax about the 2 week labs. There isn't anything you can do about that now. Good luck with these labs - the result that is because I think they'll get them done this time. Mike

[nygirl7]

Are you sure you were having a PCR that early?  Most people have to fight and argue to get a 4 week PCR - doctors didn't do one at all until week 12 until very recently.

I never heard of anybody having a 2 week PCR before?

[Kalio1]

Similar thing just happened to me. NP tells me they are doing a full test, all the bells and whistles this time so I call for my AFP measurement ( important as my CT showed cirrhosis last year) and not only did they "forget" to test for that, they also "forgot" to do the CBC. I mean, COME ON!
I called her and said, look, I am to have my AFP checked and ultrasounds regularly, and I am behind on that schedule. She says "why do you need those?" then I told her the CT discovered cirrhosis and she says "really?"
I sort of went off on her and said "I come to YOU for care, why is it I have to alert YOU to my care regimen?" It should not be that I am the one dictating when these tests need to be run, YOU ARE. I finally said could you just please leave the doc a note and have him call me? She calls back and had the ducks in a row but I tell ya, if we don't take charge of our own medical care we are in many cases just screwed.

Aquarius, if you weren't on top of it, you wouldn't even know which tests were being done right! So kudos to you for being on them. I feel for any patient who isn't doing their due diligence, they are walking a dangerous road there. So many of these NPs who are basically in charge of all of this test scheduling are either HCV idiots or so swamped with work they can't properly monitor what is going on! Some docs aren't much better! They should all be required to study all the ino at clinicaloptions.com!

I don't blame you for being upset, it is damn upsetting to pay through the teeth for medical care and then have it be handled in such an inept way. GRRRR

Guess I got that off my chest!
Unfortunately, in pressing her for info I finally found out that my AFP HAD been checked in 05 and was HIGH, too high for comfort. and NO ONE EVEN MENTIONED IT TO ME.
That did not inspire confidence. I will head over there today and get the ultrasound arranged and more blood taken and HOPEFULLY finally get my hands on the final written report from my CT scan that was done 8 MONTHS AGO. I am STILL waiting on the detailed report.
It's ridiculous.
If I was you, I'd write a written complaint. I did that, I finally had had it with the crappy unprofessional way some of the people in the blood draw arena were preforming and complained in detail. Trying to draw blood without gloves, geez, to me that is grounds for dismissal.
I did receive a letter from the hospital saying they would work on it. Not that it seems to have made any difference!

[sambone martian ambassador to earth]

  You knnow this si the pitts, These geniuses need to start hiring people with brains. First they build A "mistake proof system" then they hire larry,curly and Moe to run the store. Allot of these peopl are callus and have no compassion. From working in their health care community I can say its how they deal with the sress
of seeing people get sick and die. Me i am still effected by the ones we lost and left the field in 2002.
  I hate to see us treated badly like this and it tends to make me jump on my soap box and go to town.

[jmjm530]

That's a real drag. Some of the people should be shot. I know they messed up my CBC's more than once because they probably didn't turn the vial up and down a few times at the draw site to mix in the reagent.

I had my VL's drawn at Quest drop off facility and from the beginning learned that it was the (it's been awhile so not 100 per cent sure) purple top vial that was needed for Heptimax. So, I always made sure they pulled that one out. I also knew the specimen had to be "split" to go to the right place and then refrigerated. So, if it was a new person taking blood, I'd make leading but not too obnoxious comments like..so I hear you need to refrigerate one of the tubes? Is that the one that gets sent somewhere else? Etc. Trust me, if they didn't give the right answers, it would have been S U P E R V I S O R !!! Bottom line is you got to watch the process every step of the way and even then it's somewhat out of you control. Still, with dozens and dozens of labs done over the past couple of years, the only thing Quest screwed up was a couple of CBC's, so I feel fortunate.

-- Jim

[FlGuy]

That could be insulting to chimps

[sambone martian ambassador to earth]

yea we could train a group of wild chimpanzees to do A better job...

[aquarius64]

thanks for all your comments. yes, i pushed for the PCR at two weeks cuz i hadn't had a VL for about 6 months before starting tx. i wanted it done before i started but my GI said it didn't really matter cuz i had it recently and it wasn't very high. i know it changes all of the time, so i wanted at least some baseline idea. now, tomorrow i SHOULD have my CBC and CMP. sorry for whining, but they are getting on my nerves. and then to not call me and let me know. yeah, i love just sitting around on pins and needles, no pun intended. well, i hope you all have more competent lab workers and docs thatn i do. have a great evening!!!

[wyntre9]

Sorry, Acquarius.

I'd be going nuts, too.

Hopefully you can straighten it out tomorrow.  

[dperry10]

Sorry to hear that happened to you.. I have had the same thing happen before , a few years back regarding the lab not taking enough samples, or losing the ones they took.

Bad part was my Medical insurance I had was awful.   It was limited to $1000.00 a year.. and one referral to the lab from my dr cost $ 850.00, for a whole bunch of tests.. and then they lost them.  I had to pay double.   Well they finally credited me, but took forever.  at that point, I was done for the year, with the charges for the doctor that referred me to the lab.    It was about 3 years ago, and they found the active HCV at that time, and diabetes.   I had to put it off till now, guess I was hoping it was  mistake and would go away on its on. As I went thru treatment 14 years ago, and it was SVR for about 6 mos after and I never went back to the doctor till about 3 years ago.     Now I have better insurance and have my STD benefits that I am now eligible for at work.  So decided now was as good as ever.    Now after reading SVR of my genotype 1a, I see again chances are not so good.   Some days I wonder if I even made the right decision to start tx now.. But I will be 47 on saturday, and since my bx said grade 2 stage 2,  Dr said it was a good time to do it again.

[dperry10]

And it happened to be LabCorp too.. Thats why I go to quest now.. I can go to either..  but...., which reminds me I need to call the dr and have them fill out another standing order.    They wrote every 2 wks x 12.  

Quest would not take that , says can only be for no more than 6 months.  I said thats what that equals.. still would not take it..  So now gotta get thru the darn gate keepers at the doctors office again.. What a mess.   And I need my labs sent from last friday, so I know where my HGB is now.  

[Myown]

First they build A "mistake proof system" then they hire larry,curly and Moe to run the store
-------------------------------------------------------
lol SO TRUE!!!!!! I always say they hire $3.00 help,,,I like your analogy better. Scary, but true.

[sfbaygirl]

I hear you all on these labs. It is unforgivable IMO. HR and I called the lab about my 10 week PCR and were told it was UND. We spoke to several people in the lab....the lab made a mistake. Then HR and I called back a few months later and ask for the supervisor. We were told that the test was detectable and I asked for a written confirmation of this, since my doc also believed I was UND. I wasn't. It is so important to get these labs faxed or sent to you by mail as soon as they come out. I usually get them before the docs, if not I call the lab and say I should have them by now...they sent them immediately. A CBC only takes about a day. A PCR takes about a week. Unfortunately we as patients HAVE TO keep on top of our own labs. It has been the case throughout my 44 weeks and I doubt it will change. Aquarius, at least you knew what to do...get your labs and did. A 4 week PCR will be great! Wish I had known this at four weeks. You are doing great!