Fasting Blood Test

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LittleSunflower

LittleSunflower

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi all, I have my first HBA1C in nearly a year next week.
I’ve been told it’s HBA1C, Kidney and Liver Function, Cholestrol, Thyroid, Anaemia and Full Blood Count (no idea if these fall into the same catergory of each other) but I was asked to fast for at least 12 hours.
Being Type 1, I have this overwhelming feeling of anxiety in regards to this. I usually have a bedtime snack which is fine as this falls just before the fast should begin but I drop a lot in the night (no long acting, just honeymoon period). What if I have a hypo? I also have a history of passing out and the nurses always having trouble finding my tiny veins!
I know my blood sugar could also drop after the blood is taken but my mind is just a bit all over the place. They could also rise due to the anxiety though.
Any advice? Thanks
 
Firstly make sure your test is done asap after waking though I think you need to call and explain to someone about your frequent lows during the night. I have not had a fasting blood test for years now. Although I had bloods done for all those things only last week. No one suggested I fast.
Also when you go to get your blood taken go to the hospital, not your surgery and ask for a senior pathologist to take your blood if they have problems. Ask for them to use a butterfly needle, much finer. I always do that now since being traumatised by a very nasty ’bloodsucker’ who would not listen to me when I tried to explain the best ways to get blood from me. She was fired! So don’t let them decide, you know your own body.
 
@LittleSunflower I’d check that. I’ve never been told to fast for those tests. On one occasion, I turned up and the nurse asked if I’d fasted. I said No and that was the end of it. I’d just do what you’d normally do during the night.
 
Definitely worth asking the question about fasting. Like others have said as far as I know it‘s only the lipids/cholesterol checks that can be affected. And most surgeries seem happy either way, though mine do like to know whether I have fasted or not.

Oh… and if you hypo - TREAT! Don’t fuss about worrying about a fasting blood test!
 
Thanks all.
She said Cholesterol is most likely to be a fasting one but the one for Anaemia is usually a 12 hour fast too.
It is booked at the hospital, not the GP although I’m having another issue as the GP surgery also want me to have a HBA1C and won’t allow me to book in for my diabetic check with them until I do. Which makes no sense as I’m having my HBA1C done next week and surely they can check this on my records when it is done (facepalm)
Do they not communicate with each other?

I will ring the hospital and double check Monday morning. I did phone the receptionist of my consultant but I know how busy they are so I haven’t heard anything back as of yet and not sure I will in time!
I appreciate your input.
 
LittleSunflower said:
It is booked at the hospital, not the GP although I’m having another issue as the GP surgery also want me to have a HBA1C and won’t allow me to book in for my diabetic check with them until I do. Which makes no sense as I’m having my HBA1C done next week and surely they can check this on my records when it is done (facepalm)
Do they not communicate with each other?
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Hi @LittleSunflower ,
Interesting question. Certainly a Surgery can access your Hospital records, including blood tests. So there is probably just a glitch in the internal thinking at Reception. Normally the blood tests are done (and paid for) by a request from the GP in the first place.

However, I live in Bucks and have my HPB Surgical, Oncology and recently Endocrinology managed by Oxford. There is a long-standing nonsense (if it doesn't make sense it must be nonsense) that Bucks can't electronically see Oxford and vice-versa. Neither set of Trusts will allow the other to see their records - Trusts don't trust. The latest nonsense for me was I wanted an HBa1c for a forthcoming Endo consult, asked my GP to raise the paperwork so I could go to my local hospital rather than travel 40 miles for a blood test in Oxford. The results came back from Bucks hospital to Bucks GP, I asked Reception if they could be forwarded to Oxford and was told to do that myself. I checked there hadn't been a misunderstanding about my request and Reception emailed back the result to me confirming I could send that to Oxford. So now even my GP surgery has decided to stop sharing with Oxford - something a GP can easily do within their digital system. Bizarre, yes. Frustrating, yes. Inexcusable, yes.
 
Proud to be erratic said:
Hi @LittleSunflower ,
Interesting question. Certainly a Surgery can access your Hospital records, including blood tests. So there is probably just a glitch in the internal thinking at Reception. Normally the blood tests are done (and paid for) by a request from the GP in the first place.

However, I live in Bucks and have my HPB Surgical, Oncology and recently Endocrinology managed by Oxford. There is a long-standing nonsense (if it doesn't make sense it must be nonsense) that Bucks can't electronically see Oxford and vice-versa. Neither set of Trusts will allow the other to see their records - Trusts don't trust. The latest nonsense for me was I wanted an HBa1c for a forthcoming Endo consult, asked my GP to raise the paperwork so I could go to my local hospital rather than travel 40 miles for a blood test in Oxford. The results came back from Bucks hospital to Bucks GP, I asked Reception if they could be forwarded to Oxford and was told to do that myself. I checked there hadn't been a misunderstanding about my request and Reception emailed back the result to me confirming I could send that to Oxford. So now even my GP surgery has decided to stop sharing with Oxford - something a GP can easily do within their digital system. Bizarre, yes. Frustrating, yes. Inexcusable, yes.
Click to expand...
Gosh that sounds confusing and very frustrating! They made that more complicated than need be, didn’t they?
 
Update on my blood test query;
I phoned the receptionist of my consultant again this morning, she did her very best at trying to help. She questioned the full Lipids profile and said this is usually fasting but there was no note on the request for my blood test for the consultant.
She told me to make the decision as I mentioned the lady who booked the blood test said it was a 12 hour fast.
My consultant is very busy (like they all are) but the receptionist I spoke with said she would try her best to ask him and give me a call back.
5 minutes later, my consultant phones! I couldn’t believe it, honestly.
He asked where I got the idea of fasting bloods from and that he wasn’t sure why the lady who booked my appointment told me that.
He continued to inform me that we do not fast for bloods unless we are told to do so by our consultant and in this case, my blood test is NOT fasting.
Let’s hope the ‘bloodsucker’ knows this too.

I dislike how much we have to fight to get an answer but it paid off.
Thank you everyone
 
I think it is old school thinking that cholesterol tests need to be fasting and as with anything, when the guidelines change not everyone gets the message, so an experienced nurse or receptionist who has been doing/booking fasting blood tests for cholesterol much of his/her working life will have difficulty adopting a different approach. It may be that he/she hasn't got the message that this is no longer necessary or it can sometimes be that they think that because they have always done it that way, that it must be better and they should continue to do so without realizing the stress, anxiety or inconvenience that this can cause some people.

I am pleased that your consultant was able to clear the matter up for you but I imagine frustrating for him, hence his remark, when I imagine there have been circulars sent out to GP practices etc telling them that cholesterol tests no longer need to be fasting.
 
I wish I still lived in Scotland. There are no Trusts in NHS Scotland. Given your NHS number, and unique Hospital number, any GP or Hospital can access your records and all blood test results. The problems described by @Proud to be erratic simply don't exist. That's how I discovered that I didn't have pancreatic cancer while at an orthopaedic clinic in a completely different hospital. We were discussing a hip replacement, and I made a comment about it not maybe being worth the money due to my diagnosis. The consultant simply showed me the letter on his computer screen from the pancreatic consultant to my GP contradicting the report from the Ultrasound to say I had Chronic Pancreatitis.

If anyone can explain to me what Hospital Trusts are for other than jobs for the boys I would be glad to hear it.
 
I have records in four different systems, two completely different GP software systems that don't talk, but need data imported from one to another, then old paper records that have gaps where they were supposedly put on the first system and transferred to the second.
Hospital system that talk to neither, but do send letters to other hospitals and my GP still. And old hospital records that are still on paper.
And of course, all I can see now is what's in the system from my present surgery, the old imports are in a different database to the new data.
 
rebrascora said:
I think it is old school thinking that cholesterol tests need to be fasting and as with anything, when the guidelines change not everyone gets the message, so an experienced nurse or receptionist who has been doing/booking fasting blood tests for cholesterol much of his/her working life will have difficulty adopting a different approach. It may be that he/she hasn't got the message that this is no longer necessary or it can sometimes be that they think that because they have always done it that way, that it must be better and they should continue to do so without realizing the stress, anxiety or inconvenience that this can cause some people.

I am pleased that your consultant was able to clear the matter up for you but I imagine frustrating for him, hence his remark, when I imagine there have been circulars sent out to GP practices etc telling them that cholesterol tests no longer need to be fasting.
Click to expand...

I still have fasting tests.
There is a difference in results, particularly in the triglycerides results.
But so long as you know which one, it still works.
 
Just chirping in, my tests are never fast, and my doctor also cannot access my hospital results.
 
LittleSunflower said:
Hi all, I have my first HBA1C in nearly a year next week.
I’ve been told it’s HBA1C, Kidney and Liver Function, Cholestrol, Thyroid, Anaemia and Full Blood Count (no idea if these fall into the same catergory of each other) but I was asked to fast for at least 12 hours.
Being Type 1, I have this overwhelming feeling of anxiety in regards to this. I usually have a bedtime snack which is fine as this falls just before the fast should begin but I drop a lot in the night (no long acting, just honeymoon period). What if I have a hypo? I also have a history of passing out and the nurses always having trouble finding my tiny veins!
I know my blood sugar could also drop after the blood is taken but my mind is just a bit all over the place. They could also rise due to the anxiety though.
Any advice? Thanks
Click to expand...
Hi, regarding your full blood count. No these are separate results to the ones you listed. See photo for what these are, ignore my dodgy results I have anaemia So mine are a bit off. Also I know you lovely people may worry about my platelets, these have since come back down, it’s due to the joys of being female and my ever decreasing cycle
 

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Any idea on how long it would take to be informed of any results? I understand the NHS are behind due to the pandemic but it’s been a week now and I’ve still not heard anything. I’ve rang the secretary of my consultant on two separate occasions who has said she has printed the results off and my consultant will phone once he has reviewed them.
I’ve never had to wait more than 3 days for a result so obviously my anxiety is increasing!
 
Yes the results themselves would be ready in a couple of days. Waiting on a consultant is a different matter. I had a c peptide done a few weeks ago, my consultants secretary said the same to me about the results. The same consultant that said he would see me for an urgent review in 3 months… that was Jan 21!
 
I have never had Liver function tests as part of my HBa1c but maybe its because I am type 2?
 
pinkjude said:
I have never had Liver function tests as part of my HBa1c but maybe its because I am type 2?
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I was diagnosed via routine health check and my liver function tests were abnormal in the same batch of bloods.

To be honest, I would think liver function tests are more necessary for T2 than T1, since fat around the liver is usually a factor in the development of the insulin resistance of T2 - and that fat may interfere with the liver's other functions as well as its role in glycaemic balance. Do you have access to your blood test results to be sure they weren't find, or is it possible they were but were normal so you weren't specifically given the results?
 
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