Over the interpretation of blood tests?

[MyOtherCarIsAPorsche]

A blood test result taken last night has shown a level which is concerning.

So hospital want another blood sample the next day. So they get a better result for themselves so they don't have to take action?

Why?

Don't they believe their own blood tests?

So, say your grandson was tested and it came back with signs pointing to him being diabetic. The doctors didn't have diabetes in mind when testing and just want to check the result is correct before starting a child on a lifelong path of daily insulin injections.

You'd prefer they did that than recheck for a false positive? You're a loon.

Better to check again rather than treat unnecessarily (likely resulting in more trauma for the child?).

The huge number of blood test beads in my daughter’s beads of courage collection says otherwise!

I know it’s stressful but it has to be done (if a child is seriously unwell and needs a lot of needles they will usually have a central/hickman line inserted to minimise the trauma going forward, but that comes with infection risk).

Coagulation probably means the blood clotted too quickly to test it accurately.

Because tests are not infallible. The results can be wrong.
And the treatment is not without risks or side effects so they don't want to treat if itsnot absolutely necessary.

According to this post I am an arse, wild, crazy, ridiculous and a loon.

I'm just a nana. 🥺

I find that with children and if they have a very unusual result, they repeat incase there was something within the lab that through the result off. More data is better to have, especially if a child is needing treatment.

It's not to put the child through more trauma although I appreciate it does seem that way as it is traumatising for them.

But if they just wanted to avoid acting they had already sent him home and could have just left it.

Children’s wards are usually pretty good at bribery (they often have a box of things the child can pick from after the test is over) and distraction (play specialists). Some hospitals will have a roving team of expert paediatric phlebotomists who are often worth an additional wait for.

Alternatively there is usually a staff member who is known to have ‘the magic touch’ when it comes to getting blood samples (usually an older/semi retired nurse, in my experience!) worth asking around to see if there is anyone like that about (the experienced nurses are often far better at getting bloods than junior doctors).

Best to double check than start potentially difficult treatments which aren't needed.

So he has had another blood test. He had play leaders trying to distract him. He had four tubes of blood taken. He was hysterical and still trying to climb up mum whilst being held down.

So he has a very high coagulation time.

Which is the exact result they got last night. Apparently they repeated the test four times last night from the same sample.

He now has to have another blood test.

Haven't been told what this means.

Your assumption is correct. Which is why there’s probably a good reason for this second test.

yes, seeing him hurt and scared must be horrible. But they really wouldn’t do this if they didn’t consider it necessary!

Sorry for what you are going through.

However, the medics need to get the right info to make the diagnosis and treat if required. There are lots of different clotting tests, and more tests they might do to help identify the cause of abnormal clotting. So the repeat blood test might be to A) confirm the first result, but also B) include lots of new tests that need done given the first abnormal result to give more information. Clotting is a complicated business I'm afraid.

No, you’re not “just” a nana. You’re a woman making shit up.

You may care about this kid but hospitals don’t redo tests for no reason. Stop being combative.

So, the tested the same sample to confirm the first result. Brill, that's what they should do and rules out a mistake on the analysis.
Then they need to test a different sample to make sure there's no mix up and it wasn't just a passing/temporary thing.
Which they have done.

High coagulation time sounds like a possible bleeding disorder....but could be an indication of something else.
Why did his mum call the gp in the first place?

They may not have got all the sample they needed because he was to distressed, or they may have run a whole load of tests for the most common things but now need to look at the less common things. Or they may think they know the cause and are expecting an improvement.

Contrary to shows like House, ER, CSI and silent witness, one little test doesn't have all the answers. Often the result of a test can just throw up more questions.

They often have to redo them. I had around 70 blood tests including ones sent off to Bristol for some reason and another random lab before I got my diagnosis
They won't take blood just for the sake of it

Tbh I think this makes sense to check again and I’d say pretty standard for most things not just medical that you’d check again and it can change.

I had a c section and had a blood test after that showed my iron levels were fine. I then got light headed and nearly fainted, so they re tested and turns out my iron was low. So they can give different results.

@MyOtherCarIsAPorsche So he has a blood clotting disorder and now they'll do more tests, blood and potentially MRI/ultrasound etc to find out what type and how this affects him.

It's never nice seeing medical procedures on kids but unfortunately it's the only way to diagnose and you'll be glad of it when he's in treatment.

Try not to panic, he’s in the right place to get answers.

Blood samples are horrid for little kids (especially when they are too small to really understand how important the tests are) but they have to be done to get the info required.

When my DD first got ill (rare haematological disorder) she was like a pin cushion, so having a Hickman line fitted was a relief (although she hated that too, just in a different way!)

Thankfully she’s in remission now so only has blood tests every 6 months.

I'm combative?

Why didn't they believe the first result if it was repeated four times from the same sample last night?

My grandson has had a second epilepsy drug added to his regime in order to build it up to a level where the first drug can be reduced and then stopped as it has increased the frequency of his seizures.

He's been on the second drug for just short of two weeks.

Last Thursday my daughter left a message with the epilepsy nurse to say he was having nose bleeds, rash, high temp at the same time each day, vomiting, refusing food (very unusual), constantly falling over, eyes frequently rolling upwards, more subdued than usual, racing heartbeat. She heard nothing back.

On Sunday evening he was choking on the amount of blood coming from his nose and it was being coughed/spraying all around the bathroom. He then vomited a large amount of blood that he had swallowed. She rang the children's ward and they advised that because the flow had slowed to go to the GP in the morning.

My daughter took the leaflet from the box of new medication to the GP and pointed out all the side effects he had (more than listed above).

She then waited until 8pm on Monday for a blood test.

She's been contacting the hospital since last Thursday only to be told that the epilepsy team are short staffed and will get back to her.

His nose is still dripping small drops of blood quite frequently.

They've just took a third blood test and sent them home.

She is to carry on with current drugs until the epilepsy team get in touch.

I feel very uneasy.

He's lost quite a bit of blood from nosebleeds this last week and they've taken countless tubes in less than 24 hrs. My daughter said that there was probably about ten tubes on the last (third) test and it took ages to get them all.

And how upset would you be if they didn’t do the necessary tests?

Epilepsy drugs aren't easy. They are ensuring the blood tests results are exactly correct - and the difference in 12 hours can make a big difference. They don't take blood for fun, and they certainly don't do it to try and avoid treatment.

The likelihood is that they don't know enough about epilepsy, and have done exactly the right thing in saying that is who they need to speak to. Not every doctor or nurse can be an expert in all things. I would suggest she chase the epilepsy team if they haven't got back to her yet. They're probably incredibly understaffed sadly.

Do you think they would test ten tubes of blood if they didn't really need to? That's a lot of people's time and expense for something that you clearly think is unnecessary, but literally everyone on here tells you is for the welfare of your grandson.

Yes, you’re being combative and ridiculous. None of the stuff in that last post is at all relevant.

Hospitals don’t do tests for no reason. It’s as simple as that.

It's not about "not believing the results", it's about being clinically sound.

As gently as possible, you don't know enough from a clinician point of view to entirely understand what is happening, and so you are reacting with anger and yes being very combative. It's not an unusual reaction to stress, but you are accusing health care professionals of doing their job incorrectly simply because you aren't clinical qualified to know.

@MyOtherCarIsAPorsche I’ve seen your previous threads and I think your view is being coloured by the struggles to get appropriate treatment and recognition of issues that have gone before.

The hospital are doing the right thing in double checking the results.