Submitted by megan on Tue, 07/15/2008 - 12:21
Dear Health Professionals,
During a call to someone about the results of their various blood tests, after you have informed them that their ferritin is low and they need to go for more tests, it is perhaps slightly unwise to start a sentence with "Oh, and your syphilis and HIV tests came back and ".
It might be rather less palpitation-inducing to instead begin by saying "Oh, also, we received negative results from your..."
Thank you for your time. As you were.
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3 comments postedI don't think there's a sensitivity requirement for any of the medical professions. We're just lucky they've agreed to have anything to do with us regular human beings in the first place.
at least you were told your results verbally!
i had to practically beg to get std testing and then no one called with the results. apparently, i am supposed to assume that no call means all tests came back negative
grrr...
what's ferritin? is that related to iron levels? or vitamin B?
I should re-iterate that in general, my practice is great. All the doctors and nurses I've seen have been kind and personable, and even though I had to point out to them that I was queer, they didn't care once they knew.
Yeah, it's the norm to not get results. Generally, if you haven't heard by two weeks, you're clear. I give it three, but just because that's the way I roll.
I only found out about the STIs because of the ferritin (yes, iron stores). If it had been normal, they wouldn't have called and I would have waited three weeks and been all like, "Wicked."