The dread of going for my blood test, at GP's as shielding

[Poshcards]

first time actually posting, hope this helps others who are shielding too. After many phone calls to GP and Rheumy nurse, I had an answer about going to GP's for my 4 weekly bloods for methotrexate usage. Rheumy nurse said as I hadn't had one since February I did need one, she said its between the devil and the deep blue sea, either covid will get you or your liver may fail!! So please have one, so plucked up the courage. Got there and had to ring bell, a nurse came out and gave me a mask and sanitizer for hands. Only two allowed in surgery , a good 10 feet apart, all surfaces in phlebotomy room cleansed and sanitized between each patient, all staff and nurses in full ppe gear. It did reassure me some what. Mind you glad to get out and home, first time out in nearly twelve weeks as shielding. Came home all clothes into washing machine and back in comfy pj's !! Hope this helps all you peeps who are panicking over going for their blood tests, so stay safe and take care everybody xx

[Froggie70]

That sounds very well organised. I haven’t had mine done since beginning of March and when I checked with Rheumatology dept at hospital was told they’ve decided to move to 6 monthly testing 🤔. Becoming clear there is no standard decision making across various hospitals. Take care 🤗

[MEGS53]

Well done! And welcome to this lovely, friendly forum.

Take care and stay safe.

[Poshcards in reply to MEGS53]

Thank you, I have been on this forum for years but only doing replies etc x

[Sara_A]

That's good, the gp surgeries are being very careful. My surgery has the hca come out to my house in ppe and does my bloods at my front door.

I'm a nurse and my friend works for that practice and I'd kind of suggested it before as I said I didn't want them coming into the house after being in other people's houses too, so that's what they are doing x

[Poshcards in reply to Sara_A]

Mine wont come to me for anything sadly xx

[buzzards]

Good to know. I received a text from Guy's Hospital yesterday asking me to ring to arrange a blood test. I am not looking forward to travelling into London Bridge, it's not far for me but I haven't been out since I had my shielding letter about 8 weeks ago.

[Babs511]

I had the exact similar situation last week and continued over into this. I’d been shielding for 12 weeks and I got a call from blood monitoring at my hospital. Unfortunately I’d missed my appointment, basically a letter hadn’t been sent out. She asked if I’d like to attend and I was rather apprehensive and said I’d rather wait a while. Then later that week I had a lot of kidney pain, so contacted the G.P. She asked me to come in the next day and that would give the nurses and surgery team time to properly prepare for my visit. When I arrived I had to ring a bell, stand behind a white line and was greeted by a nurse who stood well back in PPE. I sat in a waiting room for 5 minutes, totally alone and everything spotlessly clean. I then was taken by my nurse to the room for bloods, again she was in full PPE. Unfortunately the bloods came back with a couple of anomaly’s so a nurse then had to come to my home on the following Tuesday. This I think was the worse part as nobody had entered our home for over 12 weeks. She again sanitised everything she used and touched and was in full PPE. Unfortunately my veins collapsed and she couldn’t get blood. So yesterday another nurse came same procedure. The nurse thankfully got the samples she needed. But she looked exhausted and I said to her this must be very hard for you emotionally at the moment. She said she had suffered a lot of abuse as people accused her of thinking they were dirty. These nurses are trying there best, battling ignorance and going home to their families exhausted and emotionally wiped. Was I scared this last week yes, was I unnerved definitely. Did I feel reassured during these interactions, definitely . This is a surreal time for everyone right now, but the staff I came across took every precaution necessary. So if something is wrong please make that call. If you’ve missed monitoring like me don’t be scared to call your G.P. Stay safe and well everyone.