do you get bloods every 7 months or only when something changes
#bloodwork 2026-03-11
Wednesday23 messages5 participantstimes are UTC
Highlights from this day
- acetate_ash — a1c is a ninety day average. retesting at week six tells you almost nothing 22:08
- acetate_ash — coming back to this anyone had a result that turned out to be a lab error 22:10
- acetate_ash — if a result frightens you, that is a conversation with a clinician. we will help you read it, we will not tell you it is fine 22:45
quick one i pay privately for fasting insulin because nobody will order it for me otherwise, anyway
ferritin is low, is that the drug or the not eating
📉1
right so if your glucose is in mg/dL the divisor is 405. if it is mmol/L it is 22.5
get a baseline
homa-ir is fasting glucose times fasting insulin over a constant. the constant differs by unit system
crp is worth adding if you can, it moves in a useful direction on this
if you only get one thing, get a fasting insulin. it is the one that becomes impossible later
thats the 90 day thing
a1c is a ninety day average. retesting at week six tells you almost nothing
| Test | Why now |
|---|---|
| Fasting insulin | impossible to get a true baseline afterwards |
| Full lipid panel with apoB | the comparison is the whole point |
| HbA1c | 90-day average, so it lags your start |
| CMP + CBC | cheap, and the reference for everything after |
| Ferritin, B12, TSH | these fall quietly on a low intake |
baseline, three months, then twice a year is what i settled on
coming back to this anyone had a result that turned out to be a lab error
📉18
a single weird electrolyte is very often a handling artefact. retest before you worry
while im here my potassium came back weird and the retest was normal, whats that about
post the numbers
✅4
right so is there any point getting a1c if i am not diabetic
too early for a1c
update on the earlier thing most of the lipid improvement in my panel tracked the weight, not the drug
if a result frightens you, that is a conversation with a clinician. we will help you read it, we will not tell you it is fine
the most useful thing i did was get a full panel before i started. everything since has been comparable
thats normal
the FLOW result is why my nephrologist changed her position on this entirely
lab error maybe