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Increase In Calcium Level. Advised To Wait For Few Months. Right?
Question: In february 2013 my calcium level was 10.6 last month 10.8 the doctor wants to wait 4 months and take it again. does this seem like the right thing to do or should more testing be done now?
Dear friend, welcome to Healthcaremagic!
I am Dr. Prasad Akole (Critical Care Expert- http://bit.ly/Dr-Prasad-Akole) and am glad to address to your query here.
You seem to have an autoimmune disease and your calcium levels are normal.
Minor fluctuations will occur.
Your doctor is right in rechecking it after a few months.
You have not mentioned if you had lower levels of calcium or vitamin D or if you are on calcium supplements. Do you have osteoporosis?
In any case, no change is needed in the ongoing regimen for calcium.
I hope to have answered your query satisfactorily. I would be glad to answer any further queries. Take care and please keep me informed of your progress at http://bit.ly/Dr-Prasad-Akole
Good Luck!
As it helps us to improve continuously, may I request you to write a rating review before you ‘accept’ and ‘close’ the query anytime.
Thank you!!
I am Dr. Prasad Akole (Critical Care Expert- http://bit.ly/Dr-Prasad-Akole) and am glad to address to your query here.
You seem to have an autoimmune disease and your calcium levels are normal.
Minor fluctuations will occur.
Your doctor is right in rechecking it after a few months.
You have not mentioned if you had lower levels of calcium or vitamin D or if you are on calcium supplements. Do you have osteoporosis?
In any case, no change is needed in the ongoing regimen for calcium.
I hope to have answered your query satisfactorily. I would be glad to answer any further queries. Take care and please keep me informed of your progress at http://bit.ly/Dr-Prasad-Akole
Good Luck!
As it helps us to improve continuously, may I request you to write a rating review before you ‘accept’ and ‘close’ the query anytime.
Thank you!!
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Dr.Akole,
I do not have osteoporosis and I do take 1000 units of vitamin D daily as my vitamin D level was the lowest my Doctor had ever seen a few years ago. You state that my calcuim is not high but on my blood work it says 8.2 to 10.2 is normal and my doctor said it's high. I read on line that if your calcium is 10.8 and your doctor says to wait and just watch it then you should find another doctor that's why I was worried. I know I have some type of auto immune disease but no one can tell me what it might be,which is very frustrating.
I keep having these cycles of pain and then feeling better (never really good) are you thinking the auto immune disease is making the calcium high? My doctor mentioned maybe a problem with the parathyroid.
Thanks for the update.
well every lab reference range is a bit different. We consider upto 11 as high normal. Yours is 10.8 and is high as per your lab reference range.
Are you sure you are not on calcium supplements (mostly vitamin D is combined with calcium in tablets)?
Auto immune disease work up needs a battery of stepwise evaluation and some are complex and difficult to find out.
If sedrate that you mention is ESR, its normality is non-specific and you need specific tests. Did you have osteoarthritis and osteoporosis (needing knee replacement).
Parathyroid disease can elevate calcium levels.
by your lab's reference range your calcium is high. Calcium metabolism is complex and depends on many factors.
You may need further work up including ionic calcium, parathyroid hormone levels, reckecking vitamin D levels, tests for auto-immunity (RA factor, anti CCP, CRP, XXXXXXX anti-DS DNA, cANCA, p XXXXXXX etc) depending on clinical findings.
You may seek a rheumatologist's help for this.
Do not get frustrated. Get evaluated.sometimes apart from lab values and warnings, medical judgement is also important. Pl. ask your doctor if he/ she thinks it is safe to wait long. It MAY be OK to wait, if there are no immediate concerns.
If you can upload all your reports here, could offer additional help.
thanks.
well every lab reference range is a bit different. We consider upto 11 as high normal. Yours is 10.8 and is high as per your lab reference range.
Are you sure you are not on calcium supplements (mostly vitamin D is combined with calcium in tablets)?
Auto immune disease work up needs a battery of stepwise evaluation and some are complex and difficult to find out.
If sedrate that you mention is ESR, its normality is non-specific and you need specific tests. Did you have osteoarthritis and osteoporosis (needing knee replacement).
Parathyroid disease can elevate calcium levels.
by your lab's reference range your calcium is high. Calcium metabolism is complex and depends on many factors.
You may need further work up including ionic calcium, parathyroid hormone levels, reckecking vitamin D levels, tests for auto-immunity (RA factor, anti CCP, CRP, XXXXXXX anti-DS DNA, cANCA, p XXXXXXX etc) depending on clinical findings.
You may seek a rheumatologist's help for this.
Do not get frustrated. Get evaluated.sometimes apart from lab values and warnings, medical judgement is also important. Pl. ask your doctor if he/ she thinks it is safe to wait long. It MAY be OK to wait, if there are no immediate concerns.
If you can upload all your reports here, could offer additional help.
thanks.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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