Great App
First time user, and I am impressed. The results confirmed my suspicions!
Data older than 3 years is ignored; results strange
The app has a lot of useful information in it but the results are strange. I know it’s not a substitute for a visit with the doctor, but the conflicting results it gives didn’t help me figure out my next steps. More confused than ever!
First, your calcium/parathyroid hormone results > 3 years old are ignored when calculating your risk. After digging around, I discovered that’s on purpose. If you start out with your oldest labs first and they are > 3 years old, you’ll get error messages saying you didn’t enter anything when you did. That’s because the app ignores it.
Why use only 3 years of data? The doctors are emphatic that people walk around with this condition for years, and the more information you have, the better.
In addition, it doesn’t seem to factor in that you might be trending worse as time goes on, giving me a somewhat baffling interpretation.
For example, if I enter one lab at a time, look at the analysis with the needle, then delete it and enter the next one so I can see what each one independently says about my risk, I get the following results:
3 years ago = UNLIKELY POSSIBLE cusp, 2 years ago = halfway through POSSIBLE, and in the most recent year = LIKELY/VERY LIKELY cusp. Getting worse, right?
But when these 3 years are all entered so that they are analyzed as a unit, the needle indicates the high end of UNLIKELY, with the needle LOWER than it was for any of the 3 individual entries!
Wouldn’t the most recent year = LIKELY/VERY LIKELY have more weight since it was recent and there’s a worsening trend? Why does it come up with a result that is LOWER than what each individual result says?
My labs from 2018, entered by itself using a fake recent date to work around the 3-year issue, put the likelihood as high as it will go, followed by several years of not-so-certain. Not sure why this bloodwork is not relevant to the app.
So bottom line is, I don’t know if I’m VERY LIKELY to have it or UNLIKELY to have it. So I guess I’m going to wait another few years until everything seems really obvious, right? This is what I’ve been doing for 7 years and I was hoping this was going to help me out, but I can’t make much sense of it.
A couple of small things to make working with this easier.
It would be nice to have the analysis button available after each data point is entered instead of having to back all the way out to get to it. I liked seeing how each entry changed the needle and it was a slog to have to keep backing out and then going back to enter another data point.
When editing the date, it completely jumps back to today’s date instead of keeping the date you had, so if all you wanted to do was change the day of the month, for example, you have to re-enter the entire date. Kind of annoying.
First, your calcium/parathyroid hormone results > 3 years old are ignored when calculating your risk. After digging around, I discovered that’s on purpose. If you start out with your oldest labs first and they are > 3 years old, you’ll get error messages saying you didn’t enter anything when you did. That’s because the app ignores it.
Why use only 3 years of data? The doctors are emphatic that people walk around with this condition for years, and the more information you have, the better.
In addition, it doesn’t seem to factor in that you might be trending worse as time goes on, giving me a somewhat baffling interpretation.
For example, if I enter one lab at a time, look at the analysis with the needle, then delete it and enter the next one so I can see what each one independently says about my risk, I get the following results:
3 years ago = UNLIKELY POSSIBLE cusp, 2 years ago = halfway through POSSIBLE, and in the most recent year = LIKELY/VERY LIKELY cusp. Getting worse, right?
But when these 3 years are all entered so that they are analyzed as a unit, the needle indicates the high end of UNLIKELY, with the needle LOWER than it was for any of the 3 individual entries!
Wouldn’t the most recent year = LIKELY/VERY LIKELY have more weight since it was recent and there’s a worsening trend? Why does it come up with a result that is LOWER than what each individual result says?
My labs from 2018, entered by itself using a fake recent date to work around the 3-year issue, put the likelihood as high as it will go, followed by several years of not-so-certain. Not sure why this bloodwork is not relevant to the app.
So bottom line is, I don’t know if I’m VERY LIKELY to have it or UNLIKELY to have it. So I guess I’m going to wait another few years until everything seems really obvious, right? This is what I’ve been doing for 7 years and I was hoping this was going to help me out, but I can’t make much sense of it.
A couple of small things to make working with this easier.
It would be nice to have the analysis button available after each data point is entered instead of having to back all the way out to get to it. I liked seeing how each entry changed the needle and it was a slog to have to keep backing out and then going back to enter another data point.
When editing the date, it completely jumps back to today’s date instead of keeping the date you had, so if all you wanted to do was change the day of the month, for example, you have to re-enter the entire date. Kind of annoying.
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Feedback
Thank you for creating this tool. It has been very helpful in evaluating my condition. However, one inconvenience I encountered was that the tool does not store the data I input. As a result, I had to input my data repeatedly, which was quite time-consuming. It would be great if you could add a feature to save users’ inputs.
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Measurement Options Won’t Change
I tried to load the Calcium-Pro app to add my information and try to pinpoint if I have PHPT or not as my labs come back, and am not able to add my lab values in, due to not being able to change the unit of measure selection to the correct units of measure. It seems that it is one line off… the selector changes the unit of measure for the next line of data entered below it for some reason (in app on iPhone). Hope they can get this fixed so I can update the review, and add stars/update review after the app is working correctly.
Thank you
Thank you
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Crucial App Self Diagnose
Your calcium numbers are “kinda high”. Nothing alarming.
Maybe just under some range set by the lab but still high.
But go back a few years and compare. Are they always in the 10’s?
Time to get a parathyroid hormone test added to your bloodwork.
Show this app to your family doctor. Show it to
Your friends and family.
You don’t have to live in pain for years.
Maybe just under some range set by the lab but still high.
But go back a few years and compare. Are they always in the 10’s?
Time to get a parathyroid hormone test added to your bloodwork.
Show this app to your family doctor. Show it to
Your friends and family.
You don’t have to live in pain for years.
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Riddled with Bugs
Sadly, the bugs mentioned by some people 2 years ago, have not been fixed. I have also found out that under the “My Analysis” section, the calcium/PTH, Vitamin D, calcium/vitD and osteoporosis sub-sections are not working. The app states: “You have not entered any data to graph “ - or the app does not provide a dot to let you know where you stand. It is very frustrating! Why would a reputable hospital creates an app, but does not follow up on its functionality?! Many patients will rely on an app like this one to convince their primary care physician to investigate their symptoms regarding hyperparathyroidsm because of a general lack of understanding, and then you are also being let down by it. Please, do fix your app!
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Not accurate
Entered all my data from the past 10 years and says I have very low risk of kidney stones and hbp. I have lots of stones. Including one 3cm one and have moderately hbp.
Love Calcium-Pro
Super easy to use and understand!
Great idea, doesn’t work
The description of the app sounds great, but it doesn’t seem to work on the iPad. After entering my test results, I can only click on one analysis tab, then the app locks up and I have to force quit. When I reopen it, I have to enter my test results again. I did this several times to see various graphs, but re-entering the test results every time is not a good user experience.
Don’t suppose I can get my $0.99 back for a non-functioning app?
Don’t suppose I can get my $0.99 back for a non-functioning app?
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KB
App analysis doesn’t work and is wrong. Don’t waste your $1 or your time.
Very disappointed, inaccurate
This app would not allow me to add the - or + to my values. It also determined I was at a low risk for hyperparathyroid disease, rhythm problems, kidney stones, etc. I have been monitored for almost a year for this disease. I also have a heart rhythm problem and have had a kidney stone. As far as the DEXA scan, I lost 10% of my bone density since the past scan two years ago. I may not have the disease, but my doctor isn’t convinced. Sorry I wasted my time and money.
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Forget it
I downloaded it onto iOs 15.3 and entered the data necessary for an analysis. The "My Analysis" button is disabled. The only way to request technical support is to post a message on Facebook, or to write for help via an http:// (INSECURE) page. Oh sure. The insurance companies and identity thieves would LOVE to scrape such data. I called the phone number for the Norman Parathyroid Center & got no help; the suggestion was to delete the app, re-download it, & re-enter my data. I did. Same result.
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This app can save people and is NOT just marketing
This app saved me from years of horrible pain and symptoms and future emergencies. Negative reviews are either from a period of time when they had a few bugs, or from people who have decided to believe what their doctors say over what this app says. That’s their prerogative, but it doesn’t mean this app is worthless or a marketing tool to get business. That’s just not true. The medical community is playing catch-up and do not have paralleled data or experience equal to the amount that this clinic has. That’s just the truth, so of course this clinic is going to want you to either come to them or educate your own doctors with the data that they have. Just ask your doctors like I did. They admit they don’t and can’t show me any data to support their approach to this disease. Some with egos larger than their ethics will go so far to scare you away from this clinic. I spent 9 months letting doctors hem and haw over what might have caused such severe osteoporosis at my age. I had T-scores that were common only to people 30+ years older than me. Young 50-year olds should not have such significant bone loss in the critical range. I was scared to bump into a wall and break my hip or spine! I broke my rib this year simply laying on my stomach. Because of inappropriate blood test reporting and reading, my doctors ruled out hyperparathyroidism in the blink of an eye that first month and almost started to dose me with osteoporosis drugs. They wouldn’t let me share symptoms that they didn’t think had anything to do with osteoporosis, but they did have a lot to do with my endocrine system! Nobody was taking my condition as serious as they should have been or seeing that someone with such low T-scores deserves every possible stone turned over to be absolutely sure of the cause. And I needed aggressive treatment to rebuild my bones, not the kind given to someone with osteopenia. I pushed the matter and new doctors did more testing. But again, there were mistakes reading the sestamibi scan and the doctors trusted what the radiology report said, that nothing was there. Again I was scheduled for drug treatment to rebuild bones, but with a more aggressive drug. But that scared me too. How could they be so sure it wasn’t my parathyroid? Why were they basing it off of a scan that is wrong 50% of the time and my lower end “high calcium” results not being high enough? My PTH was continuously high all year, between 75 and 115, and the highest a 50-yr old should have is 65. But improper lab reports only show normal ranges for a 20-yr old and that placed my result at the high end of the normal green zone or just to the right of it. It caused all doctors I had seen to not think it was my parathyroid and allowed my condition to degrade further. That made me start to search for more information about this disease and I found the NPC website and downloaded this app. I was lucky enough to have years of blood tests to enter into this app, and a full 8 months of multiple calcium and PTH testing results. The result slung the red needle way over into the extremely likely range for having hyperparathyroidism and a tumor. Just out of curiosity, we entered data for my husband, and his needle stayed firmly in the highly unlikely range as it should have. I also have had 16 of the listed symptoms continuously for the past 5-6 years - all having no conclusive diagnosis or any idea what was causing them, but also a tortuous calcium kidney stone that required surgery to remove, broken rib, severe osteoporosis, and losing 3/4 of the hair on my head (something the endocrinologist said had nothing to do with my osteoporosis even though it is common in hyperparathyroidism which causes osteo.) But I had most of the atypical symptoms too. So I pushed with my doctor again, and got an ultrasound of my thyroid, that saw a tumor. If they had not agreed to give me that scan, if I had not researched on my own, if I had just trusted my doctors, they never would have considered parathyroid again and would have given me a drug that would have done nothing except expose me to potential negative side effects. But the radiologist report said, “unlikely to be of parathyroid origin…”. How on earth does he know? He is not an endocrine surgeon and has no experience treating this condition. But finding anything was enough to refer me to an endocrine surgeon finally. Talking with a surgeon, I found the previous primary sestamibi scan of my parathyroid that came back negative was wrong! They could see the tumor plain as day and it was obvious it was my parathyroid. They simply said the radiologist made a mistake. Ya? It cost me months of my life while my bones continued to degrade. But they would only remove what the scan showed and would not test the other parathyroid glands, even though my osteo is so severe and there is a 20-30% chance that there is a second one that does not show on the scan, so of course I chose to go to NPC. This app was the only thing keeping me grounded and not feeling like a difficult to treat hypochondriac, which I often felt like over the past 9 months. It didn’t assume I couldn’t understand medical jargon or testing results. It educated me better than ANY of my doctors, one of which reminded me that I wasn’t a trained surgeon so couldn’t possibly understand their opinions. Seriously? I have a computer science degree, shall I say they couldn’t possibly understand any explanation I give to them about how computers work? That’s insulting their obvious intelligence! Bottom line, I have lower high calcium with high PTH and severe osteoporosis, and it’s because I have a parathyroid tumor that has been growing for several years. It is coming out this week and only because of the education and drive that this app gave to me. I can’t guarantee ALL my horrible symptoms will disappear, but those caused by my tumor will, and that treats my quality of life. Something my doctors forgot was supposed to be their mission.
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100% happy patient
This app and the parathyroid.com website saved my life. Unfortunately with parathyroid issues you need to be an active patient, as so many doctors just don’t understand them. This app gives you the tools to challenge your doctors and keep going until you get the treatment you need.
Totally useless
This is an app your doctor uses. Not user friendly
Nearly Good
Good idea but incomplete functionality. Calcium/PTH and Calcium/Vit D graphs don’t work - doesn’t plot ones data as advertised! Lots of bugs make it unprofessional. Shame.
Calcium star helps
My tendency is to “wait and see” when I have a medical problem. But Calcium Pro has shown me that I need to attend to this problem. Easy to use, too.
Graphs don’t all work
Same experience as dgsocool
Good Evaluative Tool
Being able to enter my lab values into the app and receive objective data regarding evaluation for potential hyperparathyroidism is so clarifying. The data/risks and graphs are formulated from years of data gathered from tens of thousands of patients. Very helpful and also a good tool for all medical providers .
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Does not take into account normocalcemic Hyperparathyroidism
I have had normal calcium with high PTH and have osteoporosis. I was told by a professor at a medical school that he recommends that his patients with numbers like mine AND osteoporosis should be considered normocalcemic Hyperparathyroid, and that a surgical consult would be warranted.