Thyroglobulin (Tg) Blood test

Hi Learningtobepositive 

I'm sorry to read about the difficulties you're having getting a thyroglobulin blood test. It sounds like it's been a very frustrating time.

I’m Anne, one of the Community Champions here on the Online Community and, although I'm not a member of this group, I noticed that your post hadn't had any replies yet. Responding to you will 'bump' it back to the top of the discussion list again.

While you're waiting for replies, it would be great if you could put something about your diagnosis and treatment into your profile as it really helps others when replying to you and also when looking for someone on a similar pathway. It also means that you don't have to keep repeating yourself. To do this click on your username and then select 'Profile'. You can amend it at any time and if you're not sure what to write you can take a look at mine by clicking on my username.

I live in a large village of about 6000 inhabitants. Our GP surgery is twinned with another village. Between the two surgeries, I wouldn't be surprised if they have 10000 patients on the books. My guess would be that among those 10000 or so patients, I'm probably the only person who gets a thyroglobulin test. The very fact that they could get you the Tg Antibodies test means your GP MUST be sending samples to a lab that can also do the Tg - they use the same sample vial to do both. If you are also currently under a hospital doctor, I would suggest to speak to them at your next appointment - or if you feel really brave, call the consultant's secretary) and ask for a letter from the consultant to your GP asking them to do Tg tests for you twice a year. My guess is that your phlebotomist doesn't know what it is, the GP doesn't understand its importance, and quite possibly the lab they routinely send bloods to doesn't do the test. BUT, in the war against recurrence, the Tg test is the secret weapon and you deserve to have this test.

Sorry to hear you are having problems with this.

My hospital team do my tests not my GP. Can you ask them about this?

As you are aware TG rises are often the first sign of a reoccurrence,  so it is really important to have tg and to antibodies checked regularly.

I do hope you can get somewhere on this. 

Best wishes

Jenny

Thank you for your reply Barbara! As you said there are so less people getting this test done and it is shocking. So after all the chaos I checked through the website and managed to decode the lab code they used to do the test for Tg testing in that private lab and I had to literally tell them the code name and repeat the blood test. The trauma I underwent those few days was unimaginable! I really need to speak my hospital team as you suggested to arrange this test for me atleast twice a year just to be safe. So beautifully said, and the war against recurrence is a war we fight each n everyday I guess. Hopefully this never happens again. 

Thank you for your reply Jenny! Yes as you mentioned it’s a very important test to know if we are on track.. by god’s grace I managed it through. But waiting on some change to this system delays in healthcare 

Thank you for the kind gesture Anne♥️