Perchance you may be unaware that you can purchase several blood work tests without having to rely on a physician to order them for you, I’ve included a few sources where you can acquire those products below.
I created the habit of participating in at least one self-directed basic blood work test a year, since I entered the realm of young geezer-hood. When I say basic, I mean the Complete Blood Count (CBC) and the Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP). Anybody who has experienced a company physical or general annual physical will be familiar with those basic tests. They also happen to be the most cost effective products that the below companies provide.
If you are interested in being a little more proactive regarding blood work testing, and you don’t want to assume that things under the hood are fine unless a chronic or acute symptom surfaces to tell you otherwise, you are welcome to check out the below sources. Be happy to answer any questions you may have, too, since I’ve taken advantage of all the ones I’ve listed for quite some time.
P.S. It is a helpful practice to also share the results of any self-directed blood work testing with your physician(s), of course.
Good information again Peter! I get my bloodwork done several times a year because I have DM. The lady who draws my blood at the Rheumatologist works for LabCorp, it’s a big outfit in my neck of the woods. I can give myself shots, but how does one draw their own blood?
Thank you for asking your question. Other readers may have the same one in mind. Here is basically how the self-initiated and self-paid process works.
Set up an online account at either of the sources I’ve listed.
Purchase a blood test, and they will place an order for that test into your account.
Print that order and take it to the nearest Quest or LabCorp location.
Hand it to the receptionist there; they will do the blood drawing.
A day or two later (it’s generaly that fast in most cases), you will get an email informing you that your results are in and you can access them in the online account that you set up with them.
You can either share the results via email with your doc’s patient portal, or you can take a hard copy of them with you to your visit.
I hope that clarifies any other question that you may have had. Again, thank you for asking.
P.S. Hope you won’t mind if I ask, “what do you mean by DM?”
DM is Dermatomyositis, but @oct20 made a really good guess! I take more meds for it, then for my aneurysm which is just the 81mg aspirin for my stent😂. I also had to learn to pronounce it correctly which is not the way one would think. I pronounced it Derma toe myositis buts it’s really der- mat- o- myositis. Fortunately, it hasn’t attacked my muscles yet, the Rheum thinks it’s because I’m so active. She told me once she and her colleagues were discussing my case and they all agree I am the most active of all their patients. If I had remembered to put ADM down, I bet @oct20 would have made the correct guess! I didn’t learn to that way from my Rheum, I learned it DM sine myositis but I forgot to put that last part down too. If it wasn’t for my Rheum, I imagine I’d have lost more teeth, I was quite upset to lose two and told her. She upped my methotrexate on the spot and all the pain in my jaw went away. I get severe skin infections easily now and unlike most others, I get very deep blood blisters for no dang reason on my hands. When those go away, my skin develops very deep, thick white tissue. Looks like a callous but white and not yellow. @oct20 do you know what that’s called?
@Moltroub
Thank you for your explanation. It seems difficult to have this condition especially on top of everything else you have to deal with. But some have said that we only get the burdens we can handle…… I don’t know if that is true
The white spots or patches you described, the only thing I can think of is “plaque” …. I don’t know if this is the right word you are looking for ?
I’ve often heard that saying myself. My Dad had SLE (Lupus) so perhaps it’s a genetic thing. I don’t know anyone else in his family who had anything under the autoimmune disease umbrella. I think of myself as fortunate. It didn’t develop until a few years after my pipe popped and if it wasn’t for the GI doc I was sent to, I doubt I would have had the diagnosis in two years. But he told me to tell the PA something who took a biopsy. I have raccoon eyes instead of a butterfly is what I tell people who ask.
I don’t know, it will peel off in layers, does plaque do that? If I scratch it either because of me or on something accidentally. Horses get “proud flesh” when they have an injury and it scars with the results being similar. The PA at the Derm released me soon after I met with the Rheum and the Rheum said she didn’t know the proper name.
