Glucose tolerance tests are awful

[cjsmith]

The bad news: the orange drink is so nasty I gagged. Twice.
The bad news: bruises on both arms.
The sort-of-good news: only one bruise on each arm, after multiple pokes.
The good news: it's over and I'm at work now!

I think I lost about a cup of blood.* The glucose tolerance test wasn't the only thing the doctor ordered; the first draw was something like seven vials... and she forgot one, so the second draw wasn't two, it was three... and the other two draws were two. I need a steak.

*edit: that's an exaggeration.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Isn't it nuts? At what point will they not do the draw if you haven't had breakfast? They won't let you donate blood fasting; that's a pint. They'll take seven or eight tubes fasting without blinking an eye. Somewhere in between, there must be at least a fuzzy boundary.

[recordersmith.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there's a legal limit, and then they'll have you come back the next day or something. Problem is they really do need fasting for a lot of tests.

I worked in a lab that was playing with platelet activation for a while. They needed fresh platelets for that (about three hours after draw, the activity was low enough not to be useful for the experiments). The scientist doing the work was on a drug that depressed platelet activity (theofilin, for asthma). My platelets worked great. So I donated 10cc a couple times a week for several months. Usually fasting, but one day she forgot and ended up drawing me right after I had lunch. It was really interesting--you could actually see the globs of fat in the blood. Really amazing.

[recordersmith.livejournal.com]

Also, a pint is 400 cc. A tube for testing is generally between 2cc and 10cc. So even 10 tubes is at most a quarter of a pint.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ah, that gives me a sense. So I didn't lose a cup of blood today; it was maybe half a cup.

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

but you're a small person - that's a lot to give up at once with nothing to bolster you. i'm pretty good with giving up blood, but 7 vials fasting has me clammoring for water and the nearest edible substances.

Waiter! a cow for the lady, please.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

They did let me have water, at least, which was most welcome after drinking the sugarbarf. As soon as I got to work, though, I was stuffing things into my face!