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So a couple of years ago, Paul wasn’t feeling well after he’d been sick with a cold for awhile and his doctor wanted him to get some bloodwork done. Why, I never could figure out, but he’s the doctor, so I guess he must have a good reason.

A few days after the bloodwork was done, Paul got a letter from his doctor on a Saturday (of course), telling him that the doctor wanted to talk to him about his test results. Naturally, all day Sunday (and Monday, because he couldn’t get an appt) was spent with him doing his best George Costanza impression:
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He called me after his doctor’s appointment and told me that his “C-Reactive Protein” test (it measures inflammation) came back with a high enough number for his doctor to want to change his cholesterol meds.

Mind you, he didn’t have a lipid profile done, AND HE WAS SICK WHEN THEY TOOK HIS BLOOD.

His doctor told him that a high CRP level is indicative of clogging in the arteries, which had Paul all wired up.  He told me to “do some research” (“You’re just sitting at home, and you’re already on the computer anyway…”).
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So I did.

Turns out there are TWO different types of CRP tests, and I didn’t know which one he had.

If you’re sick, the test results may skew high – said so on every single site I looked at.

I told him that perhaps he should wait until he knew that he is better, and have the test run again BEFORE he made any drastic changes to his medication.

To which he replied, “You’re not a doctor – what do you know?”
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