The set up was decided by DocJohn and the admins at that time long ago when we first started here.

The time limit was decided upon to prevent destruction of threads, from spurious editing out of anger or conflict. Some people can get upset easily and then decide to remove all their posts. Some may flame others, and then remove the evidence, but that is less common here. Also editing at later dates, can confuse the content if opinions are then changed and the other following posts can't or don't reflect that. Threads then would become hard to understand when parts of the conversations are removed from view. DocJohn understands the net very well, and wanted to keep things here as stable and readable as possible.

If you have a good reason to edit or remove something you can always contact one of us on the community team, to do it for you. A common reason we get is from someone who puts too much personal identifiable information up, and then decides later to remove for safety's sake. Some people find relatives or their doctors reading here, and don't want them to know about it. Things like that.

I personally find dead links problematic for myself...because the net does change and links change. But not many people post as much data as I do, so that is not a big problem for everyone.
I can update my own posts luckily and have done so on 3 long threads recently. If you have a dead link, you can contact one of us to change it for you, or remove it. When contacting us give your post ID address and the new links you would like substituted.

Sorry to hijack your thread, Krista!

Thanks for all the information.

Went to the GP to get test results

Lyme disease and chest XRay were negative. I can't believe the rest are STILL not in! They're cancer tests for Pete's sake. Making someone wait over 3 weeks for cancer tests results is just cruel. They're only blood tests. Even if they sent them out it should not take 3 weeks! That's the last time I go to the hospital blood lab unless I really have to. The secretary said she would try to track them down. I will call her tomorrow and see if she has found out what happened to them, if not, I'm calling the lab myself. Sheesh. Also she booked me for an ultrasound at the hospital and it's going to be 6 weeks! I should ask her to try a community clinic. It shouldn't take that long to get in for that either. The hospital services suck by the looks of it.

Some blood tests take a while. The electrophoresis types, and antibody types take a while. Sometimes they run out of the special reagents and have to reorder them, etc. These are more complex tests than the chem panels or CBC's.

If a lab does not do some of those special tests, they may send them out. That would be another delay.

It took six months to track down my glucose tolerance test. I was pretty sure it was negative, but every doctor wants to run their own when you have neuropathy because it is the easiest thing to blame it on. Despite an existing file of negative tests.

Yeah? I had to talk my doctor into doing a glucose tolerance test. She seemed quite sure I wasn't diabetic (and she was right.) I called the hospital where the tests were done. They sent them out. They said to give it a few more days which will make it 3 weeks which seems like a long time. I also found a place that will do my pelvic/abdominal ultrasound next week instead of the Dec 31st I was booked for at the hospital. I'm just getting so impatient about wanting some answers, perhaps because of my worsening symptoms. If I was continuing to improve, I wouldn't care how long stuff was taking at all. It seems like I may be developing a relapsing/remitting pattern which suggests autoimmunity which brings me to my next question:

Does anybody know where in Toronto Canada I can get screening for anti neuronal antibodies of the NOT paraneoplastic kind, like anti-proteinemic ones such as anti-MAG, or anti-sulfatide, anti-HH3, anti-GD-1b etc. I've tried the community blood labs and the local hospital and can't find them. Any suggestions on where else I can look? Maybe a downtown hospital like Toronto General or Western or Sunnybrook? Maybe Western would have them because they have a major neurology department there that takes neurology patients from all over the city. They saved my best friend's life actually. She had an aneurysm and was rushed there for emergency surgery. She made an amazing recovery and is back to work as a special ed teacher. I'll try them tomorrow. Anybody have any other ideas?

You will want to look for LOWS on that test, as well as highs which indicate diabetes.

LOWS starve neurons, and indicate insulin resistance. This may occur long before diabetes occurs. It is also called "impaired glucose utilization".

So get a copy of your test results. You can compare them to this:
http://hypoglykemie.nl/gtt.htm

I was 4.7 mol/L to start and at two hours was 4.0 mol/L. These were the only two measurements. 3.6mol/L is hypoglycemic. I might be mildly hypoglycemic with a lower number at two hours but I think I've been mildly hypoglycemic my whole life. It's a family trait and nobody ever develops diabetes. If I ask my GP for any more testing on this, I don't think she'll give it to me. We've done two fasting glucoses, HbA1c and glucose tolerance. She'll get annoyed that I'm still not reassured at this point.

So this was only a two hour test? That is really only enough to show highs. Doctors do not attend to LOWS. A 4-5 hr is really necessary. Also helpful would be a fasting INSULIN done at fasting also.
But many doctors don't understand this test either.

If you have hypoglycemia, and know this for a fact, you need to adjust your diet so the swings into lows do not occur.

Lows starve neurons just like highs do. (highs mean glucose is NOT getting into tissues.). Lows are the same, glucose is not getting into tissues because it is not there.

This is very stressful on the body. Don't expect most doctors to understand this. They have learned only to pay attention to highs.

No I can't say I know for a fact that I'm hypoglycemic. I only suspect it. I do feel a lot better if I eat small meals frequently. i had a test for hypoglycemia in my twenties though, because I suspected it back then too and it was negative. (I don't know what the actual numbers were though.) i doubt that this is the source of my neuropathy.