PSA 0.05 from unrecordable

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User

Posted 27 Jan 2022 at 16:07

Hi, my partner had a radical prostectomy in October 2020 his PSA levels have been unrecordable at all his 3 monthly checks. He has just had the result from his first 6 monthly bloods and its now 0.05 I know that's only a tiny increase but should we be worried ? Thanks in advance for any replies

User

Posted 27 Jan 2022 at 16:59

No need to worry but if it gets to 0.1 and then continues to rise, ask for a referral to oncology. Have you seen the result or just been given it over the phone? Is it possible that whoever gave the result didn't know what a < sign meant? Or the < sign wasn't transferred from the digital report into his medical record? It does happen!

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

User

Posted 28 Jan 2022 at 17:21

Thankyou for the reply, the result was given over the phone so hopefully they just missed off the <, his specialist nurse is off for the next 3 weeks and I just had a moment of blind panic

User

Posted 28 Jan 2022 at 17:45

I got the result of my blood test yesterday and the nurse said 0.03 PSA. I queried if it was <0.03 and she apologised saying yes.

User

Posted 29 Jan 2022 at 08:53

Lots of people are not very competent with numbers, including some support workers and receptionists. Quite often when I ask what someone's PSA is, I'll get answers like:
00.1
0.0.1
>0.1

I recommend always asking for the printout.

User

Posted 29 Jan 2022 at 22:40

I’ve had a similar issue with missing < signs. Best thing I found is to ask them to print out a copy of the blood report and pick it up in person. Then at least you have the lab report so hopefully less scope for important details missing.

User

Posted 31 Jan 2022 at 09:41

Happened to me too, the receptionist at my local GP surgery didn't notice the "<" sign or didn't know how to interpret it. Had a retest at the hospital who reaffirmed PSA was still undetectable. It could also be due to a change in lab e.g. if you've just moved from hospital testing to local testing.

User

Posted 18 Jun 2024 at 15:05

I know this is in the future now but if you set up an NHS My Care account you can log in and get all of your blood test results and everything else you see the doctor/hospital about in one place. This cuts out the middle person and allows you to view the results in a graph over time for comparison as well.

User

Posted 18 Jun 2024 at 15:29

I have a Mycare account but most of the results, from the many tests I've had, have never appeared on it.

The account is certainly capable of showing test results but this appears to depend on somebody proactively putting each result onto it, when the information comes back from the lab. It doesn't seem to be automatic.

Earlier this year for example, I asked the CNS if there was any news on PSA from the blood sample I'd given 4 weeks before, as it wasn't showing on Mycare. I assume she then enquired on my behalf, as next time I looked on Mycare, it had appeared.

User

Posted 18 Jun 2024 at 17:43

Not in Labour run Wales you can't, still in the stone age here.

User

Posted 13 Jul 2024 at 15:01

Another post from the AI Bot - reported!

User

Posted 14 Jul 2024 at 09:18

Originally Posted by: Online Community Member

I'm hoping that's what happened to me - 2.5 years of hospital testing all <0.01 ng/mL followed by my first local test being 0.03 ng/mL. On repeat it was <0.03 ng/mL, which has me smelling a rat. Another repeat due in a couple of weeks. Just as I was beginning to get complacent, too...

Cheers
Ian

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