August 31, 2018
It was a lazy morning at home, with no particular rush to get to the Kaiser Laboratory, except that I couldn’t eat anything or drink coffee because I had to have a fasting blood draw for the lipid panel. As I waited, I absentmindedly watched the digital screen that displayed various Kaiser ads. But one caught my eye. It was promoting video appointments! Well, that would be an improvement (for me) over telephone appointments, when I can’t see the face of the person talking.
When my number was called to Reception B, I handed my Kaiser card to the young man at the desk. He entered something at his workstation, printed out labels to give to the phlebotomist, then paper clipped it to my Kaiser card and handed it back to me. It felt strange that he did not ask me to swipe my credit card. Then I remembered. The Medical Financial Assistance program, in addition to co-pays for prescription medications, also pays co-pays for lab and x-rays.
My phlebotomist today was a gentle, young Sikh who was pleased that I had a “good vein” in my right arm. He worked quickly and carefully, made sure that I squeezed my fist while he poked me, and filled two tubes of unequal size, affixing the printed labels to the tubes.
No one asked me to give a urine sample, so I wondered how they were going to run the urine micro-albumin test that Dr. Chan had ordered on 1/3/18.
LAB TEST RESULTS:
First, the lipid panel:
Total Cholesterol – down from 224 to 199
HDL – down from 58 to 56 (but still above 50!)
LDL – down from 141 to 121
Triglycerides – down from 123 to 86
Woo hoo!
Next, the TSH: Value given was as 0.41, with a normal range given as 0.10-5.50 uIU/mL. I don’t know what that means in terms of adjusting my current dose of levothyroxine, so I’ll just wait to see if anyone says anything about it.
