False-Positive

March 26, 2008

Good afternoon my casual interested reader. The above is an expression (I have learned) that doctors use when they 'goof up' or do doctors make mistakes. How did all this begin?

If you have read my chronicals of pain and tests and just bad stuff going on right now, we wonder in part as to how does this begin. It begins with the usual physical done by your GP on a regular basis. It is blood tests, xrays, usual exam, and his or hers listening to your complaints or symptoms. All seemed to go alright and I left with a pretty good feeling about my physical.

Ring! Ring! I answer the phone just as it flips into the answering machine. But I am one click away from talking to the doctor and it is the doctor calling, not his nurse! Believe me when the doctor calls and not his nurse, something is wrong. I called the number that came up on my caller ID, and after 3 or 4 rings, I get his answering service telling me his office is now closed.

Just how much anxiety is associated with the unknown is unfathomable. I talked to Karen about this when she got home and she said I was building bridges of worry across rivers that were not there. Good advice, and I am reasonably content to call his office the next morning.

The next day I called and my blood study is out of the norm. My liver functions are now changed, and instead of my PSA being less than <1, he tells me it is now 2.6. Four (4) or less is still considered normal but for me, 2.6 is greatly elevated and indicating something going on.

I am saying now some of the tests were needed but some were not. I talked again to to the doctor and he tells me later to come by his office and have the blood work done again. I told him I would be there the next morning. The took blood again, but told me it would be several days before they got all the results back. This delay (I was told later) was sent to a different lab, making sure we got good and accurate testing.

Some days later, I called his office and ask his physians assistant if she had the results back on the second blood test. She had pulled my file and then she said "Jeff, I should have called you?? The PSA was <1, the kidney and liver functions were all normal, and everything looks GREAT!"

I thanked her and call my wife of the good news as I had worried over a week about the 'bad tests results' they first told me. Now I am wondering who they gave the good results to if they tested my blood and got mine mixed up with someone elses? I would guess they need to retest all the blood they took that morning, as someone else got the wrong tests results.

Thanks for reading my message today....

Jeff the Knutt in the Ham