My 12-month lab diary — 6 month update

InsuranceTom said:

Quarterly for the first year is convention rather than evidence, and it is defensible for a simple reason: it is roughly the interval over which HbA1c…

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.

If somebody has the primary source to hand I would rather cite it than paraphrase it.

tammy_FL said:

I got a full panel before starting and a repeat at three months, and the second one is more useful than the first purely because I now have something…

Shot day Wednesday report relevant to baseline bloodwork:

Week 45. Currently on 1.0mg. Down 61 lbs from starting weight of 273 lbs.

This week's observations: Mild fatigue day 1-2 post-injection, then fine.

Labs due next week — looking forward to seeing the metabolic panel. I'll post results in the Lab Results section when they come in.

VendorMark said:

I would drop the "get everything" instinct further than this thread does.

Blood work came back perfect. baseline bloodwork + this community = winning. 🏆

Following on from mel_PDX — 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?

Closing the loop on my own question.

Took the whole panel in rather than the one flagged line, and the conversation lasted two minutes instead of generating three more tests.