VendorMark said:The single most useful discipline is bringing the whole panel to a clinician rather than one flagged value.
This is where I part company with the consensus forming above. I would drop the "get everything" instinct further than this thread does. Every extra test is another chance at a false positive, and incidental findings have their own cost in scans, biopsies and worry.
sarah_nash92 said:My prescriber ordered three tests and this board recommends about twenty, and I would like to know which of those two lists is right.
Shot day Friday report relevant to baseline bloodwork:
Week 38. Currently on 1.7mg. Down 34 lbs from starting weight of 246 lbs.
This week's observations: Slight injection site redness, resolved in 24h.
Labs due next week — looking forward to seeing the metabolic panel. I'll post results in the Lab Results section when they come in.
Dr.BariatricHTX said:I would drop the "get everything" instinct further than this thread does.
PSA: get baseline labs BEFORE starting baseline bloodwork therapy. You need a "before" picture to measure progress. My recommended pre-treatment panel:
- CMP + A1C + fasting insulin
- Complete lipid panel with particle count if possible
- hsCRP, ferritin, B12, vitamin D
- Thyroid panel (TSH + free T4)
- CBC with differential
- Liver panel (ALT, AST, GGT)
- DEXA scan or body composition
Total cost at Quest without insurance: ~$200. Worth every penny for the data.
Sigma-Aldrich — Research-Grade Standards
Certified reference materials, analytical reagents, and research-grade standards for peptide verification. Trusted by laboratories worldwide.
Shop Reference StandardsFollowing on from LindaRN_retired — and this may be the naive question:
How often to repeat it, because quarterly seems to be the convention and I cannot find the reasoning?
Reporting back.
Took the whole panel in rather than the one flagged line, and the conversation lasted two minutes instead of generating three more tests.