Weekly Blog 6 - Medical Tests

They tell me medical tests are necessary for my well being. So I have to wonder: why do they upset me so much and why do none of the terrible things they predict ever seem to materialize?

Take last week. I was feeling fine, doing well, perhaps even over-doing. Driving, chores, went out with my husband for a little while, normal stuff. Until I got home from the library and found two voice messages from two doctors.

It seems my liver numbers were very naughty. Three times what they are supposed to be. The doctors wanted to know if  I experiencing any symptoms of this or that? (It would have been helpful to know what those symptoms were actually.)
I guess I have the advantage and I use the word loosely, if not sarcastically, that I have actually worked in a lab. And I know a little about what goes on sometimes. There's a little thing called "sink tests" where exhausted medical technicians, working several jobs, will dump all the samples down the sink drain and mark them all negative. For anyone who has had a lot of lab work done, this will probably explain some mystifying results.

I was once discharged from the hospital with a raging urinary tract infection. I knew that's what it was because 1) I'd had a catheter and they are notorious for causing those infections, and 2) my symptoms, of which I am going to spare you (you're welcome) told me so. Twice I crawled over to the national lab chain. Twice the results came back clean and clear. I managed, with my husband's help to get to the doctor's office where his nurse, the Remarkable Kerri, ran the test herself.  The results were really bad. Yes, they agreed, I really did have a raging infection. The doctor wondered how the lab missed it, twice, but I was far too sick to explain.

Now there is concern and fear over my liver numbers! I'm not going to stress over them. I figure chances are they are someone else's test results. If my liver has anything to say to me, it can tell me directly.