Has anyone ever had an urgent call following a blood test?

[HariboFrenzy]

Idly musing as went for a blood test this afternoon. I know I'm anaemic (keeps coming back when I stop iron supplements). Just wondering how serious it would have to be to get an urgent call from your GP if something serious showed up? Has this happened to anyone?

The day after blood test my GP rang and said they were pretty certain my cancer had returned, but they thought it was bone cancer this time. Turned out after many tests it was breast cancer that had spread to my bones.

Going by these responses no news is good news. Hope your recovery goes well

So sorry. Not a call you want to receive (huge understatement there)!

Yes me and my dad

My dad had an ambulance and the GP turn up at the pub he was managing
Dad "can I not just finish at 3 and go then?"
I think they manhandled him in and he had two blood transfusions

Me - phone call from the GP asking where I was and sounding a bit panicky
"Out for a meal..."
Nope, straight to haematology please
Found everyone in masks (pre covid) and turned out I had virtually no neutrophils
Thank you to the locum GP who found what everyone else had missed and why I was so sick all the time

Yes. I was actually sitting at my dad's deathbed at the time. The surgery rang me out of hours to tell me to go straight to them the next morning.
Turned out that the nurse had injected into the muscle in error so potassium was showing in my blood sample.
Scary stuff
I was absolutely fine.

Should add we both had calls the same day as bloods done, mine was within about 5hrs

Went for pre-op checks including bloods before a planned gallstone operation the next day. The hospital rang my GP, who rang me and asked me to pop to the surgery that evening.
I was pregnant.

@TeamLoganHuntzberger hope your ds is ok now

The MIL's gp turned up at her house due to some results. She wasn't picking up her mobile or answering the home phone (she was driving home from work at the time). This was before in the car blue tooth and handsfree. She was ordered to pack a bag, and the hospital would be expecting her. She was in for 3 weeks after that with a liver issue.

I had a call after a blood test to go into hospital to have a unit of blood removed as I had a high heamatocrit . My husband had a call to say his PSA was high and he was on a 2ww for urology . Neither turned out to be serious .

Yes, full blood count and every number had come back out of range. I had cancer (lymphoma). I'd felt fine when I went for the test! Also once during treatment they called me into A&E at midnight when they saw my blood test results, because my phosphate levels were zero

Yes. Blood tests in the morning. Results with GP by afternoon, GP called that afternoon to say I was very anaemic and more blood tests were needed.

Happened to me after I got home from hospital following the birth of my oldest. Panic phonecall because my clotting factors looked dangerous. Turned out to be heparin contamination in the tube they used.

I had bloods done in the morning and got a phone call later that day to say there was a bed for me and to go straight to the hospital. My liver was close to failing as I had gallstones and they were blocking my bile duct.

Yes, about 5 years ago I went for a blood test to check for infection (diverticulitis flare up). Went about 4pm on the Friday, 8.30am the next morning, on a Saturday, NHS Direct rang me and said I'm seriously anaemic, life threatening levels, go straight to hospital for an urgent blood transfusion, call in at the medical centre on my way for my notes and the hospital were expecting me

I know someone that arrived home after the ambulance arrived to pick him up. That was serious leukaemia though and they said if they hadn't started treatment quickly he'd have been dead within the week (amazingly though he's still alive 20 years later!)

However I did once have an "urgent call GP back immediately" which turned out to be minorly low on iron and vit D. I did suggest that perhaps they hadn't needed to make such a panic over it.

Similar, I had blood tests went off on holiday and was told I urgently needed to attend the surgery. Not going to happen.
My cholesterol was 5.1, hardly life threatening and a follow up test was well below 4. That was not the relaxing fortnight I had imagined.

My DH got called for an urgent GP appointment after a blood test result so he left work in a panic, 30 miles away, didn't tell me as he was so worried. Got there to find his cholesterol was 'on the higher side'. He was so relieved that he wasn't angry but it was such a bad way of handling things.

There seems to be a lack of pattern, which is worrying 😟

I had this with DD. Urgent call at 10 at night asking if she was ok and saying that we had to go to A&E straight away as there were possible heart issues. I was told that they would call ahead and let them know what was happening. They told me that if anything happened on the way I was to call 999. Scared the shit out of me.

After a 50 minute drive to our nearest A&E we got there and no-one had a clue what was going on. After we had sat there for a couple of hours they eventually tracked down the results after a very grumpy doctor who looked at me as if I was making it all up managed to get into the right system.

Turned out that as DD has very fine veins and a complete phobia of blood tests there had been some issue between taking the blood and getting it into the container which had produced the dodgy results. Of course this meant another blood test for DD (she has learning disabilities and was really upset that she had to have another test).

After 4 hours we were finally able to leave after much apologising from the nurses and got home at 4 in the morning. Not an experience I would care to repeat.

My mum got a call at 10pm that night to say she had to go to a&e as she might have sepsis.

@FloofyBird this happened to me this weekend, blood test Friday, emergency transfusion Saturday. Did it resolve your problem?

Yes turns out I was mildly anaemic. Exh who has a blood disorder so his levels are never typical had a panicked phone call from GP regarding one of his. Was sent to A&E, repeat test showed previous test had recorded false results.

My Dad got called at 3am to go straight to a&e for a potassium issue. He'd had a blood test late in the afternoon at his gp surgery. He had to have an infusion.

We were advised to book early morning blood tests from then on so it wouldn't be such a shock if he was called in again.

Yes I woke up to several missed calls, which had happened throughout the night, and at 7.30am my GP called to tell me I was was seriously anaemic and needed an urgent iron infusion.

The most embarrassing was when the GP wanted to see me and it turned out to be about my alcohol levels in my liver. I don’t drink that often at all but went away for a hen weekend and got really drunk…and then had my blood test the following Monday. Not sure if he believed me when I said it was a one off!

blood tests don’t measure alcohol levels in your liver. They look at raised serum and transaminases caused by liver damage.