Testopel 9 Month Update

Hardasnails · March 2, 2012, 1:35pm

[quote]jonboyohboy wrote:
Matty I also recently began seeing Mellinger. I like him.

I am a little concerned about the way he monitors blood though.

After the insertion in December he just mailed me a prescription to go get a blood test to see where I’m at, but on the script all he wrote was “Total T and CBC”
My prior doc would check liver kidneys glucose cholesterol etc. And he didn’t even put E2 which is concerning tome because my E2 was 65 back in January. Im going to call him and ask for another script with a more detailed blood test.

I live in the Bronx so I’m also pretty far.

Im curious; does he do the same thing for you as far as blood work, or do yo have to request E2 and the rest?

I had 12 insertions. So now I have a script for a new blood test and basically it seems like its my call as to when to go and get the blood draw.
I don’t know if I should do it at the 12 week mark (which is in 4 weeks) or should I wait until I begin to feel shitty.

Hardanails: My insurance (Aetna) covers the entire procedure thankfully. My E2 was 65 and although a little high, its much lower then it was on gels. My hematocrit runs high, but even thats a little better on pellets then when I was on gels. Overall I love the pellets.[/quote]

If it ant broke do not fix it, just monitor is what I suggest

jonboyohboy · March 2, 2012, 1:59pm

[quote]Hardasnails wrote:

[quote]jonboyohboy wrote:
Matty I also recently began seeing Mellinger. I like him.

I am a little concerned about the way he monitors blood though.

After the insertion in December he just mailed me a prescription to go get a blood test to see where I’m at, but on the script all he wrote was “Total T and CBC”
My prior doc would check liver kidneys glucose cholesterol etc. And he didn’t even put E2 which is concerning tome because my E2 was 65 back in January. Im going to call him and ask for another script with a more detailed blood test.

I live in the Bronx so I’m also pretty far.

Im curious; does he do the same thing for you as far as blood work, or do yo have to request E2 and the rest?

I had 12 insertions. So now I have a script for a new blood test and basically it seems like its my call as to when to go and get the blood draw.
I don’t know if I should do it at the 12 week mark (which is in 4 weeks) or should I wait until I begin to feel shitty.

Hardanails: My insurance (Aetna) covers the entire procedure thankfully. My E2 was 65 and although a little high, its much lower then it was on gels. My hematocrit runs high, but even thats a little better on pellets then when I was on gels. Overall I love the pellets.[/quote]

If it ant broke do not fix it, just monitor is what I suggest
[/quote]

Yes this is a GOOD point! ITs like CT scans. I once asked my doctor about having a full body CT scan just for the sake of seeing if there was anything abnormal. He advised not to because there will always be some abnormalities like a cyst here and and there, then once they find an abnormality they have to do further testing, next thing you know your having biopsies and exploratory surgeries. So in other words, too much testing can lead to more unnecessary testing.

I am involved with quite a few of these testosterone forums and one thing I do see, people in these forums tend to be a little over-obsessive about their health and labs and ratios ets etc.

Im sue Dr. Mellinger is competent and knows what he’s doing. I’m relatively new there, but more then likely a full panel would be ordered annually or semi-annually.

When you first went there did he do a full panel? I bet he did at that point, He probably does one every year. Theres probably also an expectation that you see you primary for things like cholesterol etc.

My only complaint was that he doesn’t look at E2. I was surprised that he didn’t take that into consideration, especially since he gave me a-dex 3 months ago because my E2 was 75 on the blood that I recently had done on my own. But perhaps that was an oversight.

The CBC I assume is something more critical because that would be used to monitor hematocrit levels.

Dr M is in netwrok and takes my insurance. I was seeing another doctor last year who didn’t tai insurance and charged for every little thing, even the blood work since he had his own in-house- lab. I was getting blood tests almost every month and the blood test was 7 pages long. Was all that necessary? No I doubt it, I believe it was just a way to pad the bill. When I asked him why he can’t just send me blood out to a lab like Quest which my insurance will cover, he replied that his lab was more accurate and reliable, lol

jonboyohboy · March 2, 2012, 1:56pm

[quote]MattyXL wrote:

[quote]jonboyohboy wrote:
Matty I also recently began seeing Mellinger. I like him.

I am a little concerned about the way he monitors blood though.

After the insertion in December he just mailed me a prescription to go get a blood test to see where I’m at, but on the script all he wrote was “Total T and CBC”
My prior doc would check liver kidneys glucose cholesterol etc. And he didn’t even put E2 which is concerning tome because my E2 was 65 back in January. Im going to call him and ask for another script with a more detailed blood test.

I live in the Bronx so I’m also pretty far.

Im curious; does he do the same thing for you as far as blood work, or do yo have to request E2 and the rest?

I had 12 insertions. So now I have a script for a new blood test and basically it seems like its my call as to when to go and get the blood draw.
I don’t know if I should do it at the 12 week mark (which is in 4 weeks) or should I wait until I begin to feel shitty.

Hardanails: My insurance (Aetna) covers the entire procedure thankfully. My E2 was 65 and although a little high, its much lower then it was on gels. My hematocrit runs high, but even thats a little better on pellets then when I was on gels. Overall I love the pellets.[/quote]

Thats a good point, I asked for my results last time and all it showed was total test, I guess I was of the if it aint broke dont fix it ilk, so I didnt bother to request a full panel test as I may begin to question every thing Im feeling.

I do believe it is in my (and our) best interest to request a full panel BT, I guess for me ignorance is bliss, but I also do not want to be blindsided by an issue that I could of saw coming if I hadnt chose ignorance.

But to answer your question yes that all the usual Blood Test script is for, Total T and CBC.

He advises me to get the Blood test approximately 1 week before the appointment of the new insertion. [/quote]

Matty when you first went to him did he do a full panel? I remember on my first visit I brought my recent full panel in from my other doctor which was only a month old so I didn’t need it, but he did do a urinalysis which was surprising. My other doctor never bothered to do a urinalysis.
Last insertion my total T was up to 950 with 12 pellets. I am feeling that may be too high for me. I was getting a lot of acne and cysts on my back and chest and even my scrotum. I also felt a little flushed. that was the first month after the insertion. Now at 8 weeks I feel about perfect! I would love to know what my total T is right now since I feel good. My guess is probably somewhere around 700 which is where I think I should be. Only problem is, if I tell him to insert 10 pellets instead of 12, I may be good for the first month but I’m worried I will decline to quickly and feel like shit by the second month.
I will have to ask him

MattyXL · March 6, 2012, 12:46am

[quote]jonboyohboy wrote:

[quote]MattyXL wrote:

[quote]jonboyohboy wrote:
Matty I also recently began seeing Mellinger. I like him.

I am a little concerned about the way he monitors blood though.

After the insertion in December he just mailed me a prescription to go get a blood test to see where I’m at, but on the script all he wrote was “Total T and CBC”
My prior doc would check liver kidneys glucose cholesterol etc. And he didn’t even put E2 which is concerning tome because my E2 was 65 back in January. Im going to call him and ask for another script with a more detailed blood test.

I live in the Bronx so I’m also pretty far.

Im curious; does he do the same thing for you as far as blood work, or do yo have to request E2 and the rest?

I had 12 insertions. So now I have a script for a new blood test and basically it seems like its my call as to when to go and get the blood draw.
I don’t know if I should do it at the 12 week mark (which is in 4 weeks) or should I wait until I begin to feel shitty.

Hardanails: My insurance (Aetna) covers the entire procedure thankfully. My E2 was 65 and although a little high, its much lower then it was on gels. My hematocrit runs high, but even thats a little better on pellets then when I was on gels. Overall I love the pellets.[/quote]

Thats a good point, I asked for my results last time and all it showed was total test, I guess I was of the if it aint broke dont fix it ilk, so I didnt bother to request a full panel test as I may begin to question every thing Im feeling.

I do believe it is in my (and our) best interest to request a full panel BT, I guess for me ignorance is bliss, but I also do not want to be blindsided by an issue that I could of saw coming if I hadnt chose ignorance.

But to answer your question yes that all the usual Blood Test script is for, Total T and CBC.

He advises me to get the Blood test approximately 1 week before the appointment of the new insertion. [/quote]

Matty when you first went to him did he do a full panel? I remember on my first visit I brought my recent full panel in from my other doctor which was only a month old so I didn’t need it, but he did do a urinalysis which was surprising. My other doctor never bothered to do a urinalysis.
Last insertion my total T was up to 950 with 12 pellets. I am feeling that may be too high for me. I was getting a lot of acne and cysts on my back and chest and even my scrotum. I also felt a little flushed. that was the first month after the insertion. Now at 8 weeks I feel about perfect! I would love to know what my total T is right now since I feel good. My guess is probably somewhere around 700 which is where I think I should be. Only problem is, if I tell him to insert 10 pellets instead of 12, I may be good for the first month but I’m worried I will decline to quickly and feel like shit by the second month.
I will have to ask him
[/quote]

I didnt have any superficial issues with like you had on your skin, but my levels did drop to low at the 12 week mark so we had the insertions done at the 10 week mark in which it was in the high 500s. I did have a full panel from my internist that he used during my first visit. I would just call him and voice your concerns, he seems approachable with issues like that.

jonboyohboy · March 6, 2012, 1:00am