Stupid Lab

[spencoid2]

I just got the PSA test results from the local lab. It was 156 no decimal point and exactly the same as the last test. I have been seeing a doubling rate of about 2 months so this was a surprise. I called the lab and they actually allowed mt to talk to a tech. This is difficult to believe. Anything 15 or above is just called 156. This is the limit to the test so what they should do is dilute the sample, lets say 1 to 10 and then multiply the result by that same factor. Well they didn't. Fortunately they still had the sample so they could rerun the test. Not the case for the last one so there is no way to plot the change other than leaving out last month's value.

It was lucky that I thought the value was suspicions and called and that they let me talk to the tech because by Monday they probably could not use the sample and I would have to drive 4 hours to get a real test.

How can a lab have suck a stupid policy to not redo the test with a diluted sample? The results are meaningless.

[Oldie68]

Very unfortunate! Very do you live? Hope your get an update. If not you should just redo the test, preferably at a new lab. Good luck.

[spencoid2 in reply to Oldie68]

july 24 106,61 (aug 30 146 s 20 146 ) BOTH BOGUS BECAUSE LIMIT IS 146 Sept 20356.41 real reading after testing again correctly so the doubling rate between aug and now is actually 1.09 months when i calculated it in august with the wrong value it was more like 2 months. that is a huge difference and could have changed my treatment making it more urgent to start on pluvicto again.

It is absolutely amazing that they could be so careless with important tests. I am going to make a big deal about this.

[j-o-h-n]

Life is really a bitch....

Redo tests............. (ask for refunds) Ask your Oncologist's office staff to inform you of different lab(s) you can use which are hopefully less than 4 hours driving time away.

p.s. Where do you live?

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n

[JohnInTheMiddle]

This sounds like the miniseries about the Russian nuclear power plant disaster at Chernobyl - their radiation detection badge is topped out at, say, a 1000. So that's what all the politicos reported. But the reality when you had a more sophisticated radiation detector was something like 100,000. Corruption shows up anywhere.

[MJCA]

Hi,

I recently encountered something screwy with my labs. I had blood drawn and rested the same day for 3 doctors. The lab ran my PSA twice. One result was 21, the other was 30. I called the lab and was told they could not answer me because I was the patient, not the doctor. Best of luck !

[Don_1213 in reply to MJCA]

Same thing a number of years ago - one report was 0.17, the other was 0.24 - I reported it here. The lab just shrugged their digital shoulders. Same day, same blood draw, same lab, as far as I know same machine and tech. Shrug.