Health Problems

Frenzied Wombat · Jul 26, 2018

jayrebb said:
Sure you'd be correct-- under the poor care of an uneducated or uncooperative TRT doc.

Most doctors aren't worth the paper to wipe your ass and don't even know what FSH is or will try to get you to stop taking TRT and try to restart your HPTA to get your sperm count up. What's wrong with that? What's wrong is its dark ages bullshit propagated by doctors who can't read good.

Real life, real fertility, real pregnancy while injecting TRT after being sterile-- period. But yeah, keep dealing with dumbass docs (or would-be "forum gurus" regurgitating junk TRT protocols) and you can safely maintain your current position, and your cause for concern.

Misinformation's a bitch!

Yup, I've heard of these drugs before to counteract the effect of TRT on sperm count, and brought them up to both my internist and endocrinologist and the former had never heard of of them before while the latter looked irritated and just said "those are off-label uses for those drugs and are untested long term".

TBH, I'm not planning on having kids anytime soon but I want to keep my options open. I've been on TRT gel for over two years, and I have no idea if the duration of use has any relation to reversibility in sperm count, but if it does I will hunt for a doc that is willing to prescribe them.

Aamry · Jul 29, 2018

Anyone ever had pancreatitis? Can you describe your symptoms?

I'm worried I either have that, or a hernia, though the pancreatitis wouldn't surprise me and the hernia would.

Basically I've had an on-off sharp pain in my lower right abdomen, about even with my belly button, since Thursday.

Feels bad man.jpg

Wrath · Jul 29, 2018

Never had it, but usually its epigastric pain so above your belly button that radiates to the back, nausea, vomiting, and if it's a bad enough attack you would be pretty sick and wanting to go to the hospital for the pain. Lower right abd pain could be anything from appendicitis, hernia, constipation, diverticulitis, kidney infection, and kidney stone. Any fevers? Have you tried doing a hernia exam on yourself?

Razzes · Jul 29, 2018

Frenzied Wombat said:
I think the major factor that goes relatively unmentioned when entertaining testosterone therapy is sterilization-- your sperm count is reduced to negligible levels after taking T for a while, and supposedly you're not guaranteed that sperm count will even return to normal after discontinuing TRT, not to mention going off TRT has all sorts of nasty side effects until your natural T-engine kicks back in-- hot flashes, super low energy, etc. So basically it's only really a viable treatment if you don't plan on having any kids and plan on taking it for the rest of your life.

You can take hCG to preserve testicles function (and size). Luckily in the US (compared to Canada or almost anywhere else) it isn't as hard to get a good doc for TRT.

jayrebb said:
Personally, that's enough for me to further work up the thyroid. However, you are unlikely to get a doctor to agree due to cost and lack of education on TSH. 9/10 doctors are just going to stop at TSH and leave it there.

You'd have to pursue that on your own. Doctors aren't very big on working up thyroid conditions. Its quite a bit more complicated and insurance would be very angry if every doctor was doing a full work up every time TSH leaned this way or that way. In your case-- you have symptoms. I'd work it up.

Testing for hormones is just a difficult problem. Measuring TSH doesn't directly tell you if you have enough of thyroid hormones, it is simply the hormone your brain produce to tell the thyroid to produce the hormones. If it is high, we can suspect organ failure, if it is normal, you could still have other problems. So TSH testing is most informative... when it is high. There is also the question of what constitutes "high"; normal range are based on a 95% interval in the population, which seems really stupid to me.

And even if you were to measure directly the hormones, like testosterone or T3/T4 for thyroid, that doesn't tell you if the hormones are free or binded. For instance, you can have sky high TT and still have symptoms of low TT if all your TT is binded by SHBG. Same for T3 with reverse T3. Binding your hormones and making them temporarily unavailable is a way for your body to ration them out when production is low. But that is gonna be missed by a simple T3 or TT test.

Aamry · Jul 29, 2018

Wrath said:
Never had it, but usually its epigastric pain so above your belly button that radiates to the back, nausea, vomiting, and if it's a bad enough attack you would be pretty sick and wanting to go to the hospital for the pain. Lower right abd pain could be anything from appendicitis, hernia, constipation, diverticulitis, kidney infection, and kidney stone. Any fevers? Have you tried doing a hernia exam on yourself?

Sorry, I was thinking appendicitis.

Minor fever that comes and goes, nausea, occasional dizzyness.

I've passed a kidney stone before, this feels nothing like that. I'm passing meals normally.

How does one do a hernia exam on oneself?

Wrath · Jul 29, 2018

Aamry said:
Sorry, I was thinking appendicitis.

Minor fever that comes and goes, nausea, occasional dizzyness.

I've passed a kidney stone before, this feels nothing like that. I'm passing meals normally.

How does one do a hernia exam on oneself?

Could be an early appy but with it being three days now its unlikely because it would have already become more severe. If you had an appy you would be in the fetal position not wanting to move with more serious fevers. Your symptoms could be many things without actually examining you or doing a workup. Wait a day or two- stay hydrated- and if you aren't feeling better go get checked out. Or if you have severe pain or continuous fevers go in right away. Sorry, internet medicine is hard to give full answers with, maybe someone else has some thoughts.

There are a few youtube videos that will show you the hernia exam, but while standing you palpate your inner groin area and cough- if you feel a bulging when you cough there could be your answer. I've felt many hernias so it may be harder to do a self exam if you haven't felt one before, but if you have a large enough one it would be pretty noticeable.

Kuriin · Jul 29, 2018

Aamry said:
Sorry, I was thinking appendicitis.

Minor fever that comes and goes, nausea, occasional dizzyness.

I've passed a kidney stone before, this feels nothing like that. I'm passing meals normally.

How does one do a hernia exam on oneself?

You really don't even need to palpate yourself to check for hernias. All you have to do is inspect yourself. You will see a bulge anywhere from the abdomen down into the inguinal area. Inguinal hernias are more emergent than abdominal ones, but people do live with them. However, I have seen -- unfortunately -- hernias so large they essentially swallow a person's penis (and I am not kidding).

If you have a strangulated or incarcerated hernia, you will experience pain and an inability to reduce the hernia (push it back in). This is EMERGENT, like go to the emergency to get this surgically corrected as your bowels become ischemic and will likely need resection if it lasts too long.

Appendicitis -- typically RLQ pain though it can radiate elsewhere. N/V and pain when moving is often seen. I mean if you suspect it could be this, don't eat anything and just go to the ER. Nothing worse than a patient coming in eating food just prior and needing surgery and then them having to wait the next day. -.-

Aamry · Jul 30, 2018

Kuriin said:
You really don't even need to palpate yourself to check for hernias. All you have to do is inspect yourself. You will see a bulge anywhere from the abdomen down into the inguinal area. Inguinal hernias are more emergent than abdominal ones, but people do live with them. However, I have seen -- unfortunately -- hernias so large they essentially swallow a person's penis (and I am not kidding).

If you have a strangulated or incarcerated hernia, you will experience pain and an inability to reduce the hernia (push it back in). This is EMERGENT, like go to the emergency to get this surgically corrected as your bowels become ischemic and will likely need resection if it lasts too long.

Appendicitis -- typically RLQ pain though it can radiate elsewhere. N/V and pain when moving is often seen. I mean if you suspect it could be this, don't eat anything and just go to the ER. Nothing worse than a patient coming in eating food just prior and needing surgery and then them having to wait the next day. -.-

I'm not sure it's a hernia. Nothing looks or feels out of place. I've got a gut though, don't know if that would disguise it.

I'll follow Wrath's plan, drink lots of water and rest up, and in another day or two if I'm still having pain I'll go to the doctor.

Dandai · Jul 30, 2018

Aamry said:
I'm not sure it's a hernia. Nothing looks or feels out of place. I've got a gut though, don't know if that would disguise it.

I'll follow Wrath's plan, drink lots of water and rest up, and in another day or two if I'm still having pain I'll go to the doctor.

My wife had appendicitis a few months ago. She insisted she wasn't experiencing any of the classic symptoms (just some minor abdominal pain and discomfort), but I told her she needed to go to urgent care when I noticed she'd barely eaten anything for two days in a row.

Sure enough, urgent care saw her and told her to go to the ER immediately. The hospital admitted her, and she had surgery that night. I picked her up and brought her home the next morning. It was pretty shocking to me how smooth and easy everything went.

In any case, I'm telling you all this because you could have appendicitis without excruciating pain or high fevers. The surgeon said my wife's appendix appeared to have been infected for quite a long time and suspected that something caused it to flare to the point that it was more obvious.

sleevedraw · Jul 30, 2018

From an insurance/UM perspective, the bar for outpatient (not emergent) diagnostic imaging for abdominal pain is set pretty high. Unless your doc has a good idea of the diagnosis, we probably aren't going to approve a CT or MRI (unless an ultrasound or KUB X-ray comes back clean.)

All of the below assume you have simultaneous abdominal pain.

Bad symptoms/signs:
-High-grade/101+ fevers (as already mentioned)
-Not wanting to eat for more than a day
-Pain worsens after eating high-fat foods (gallstones, especially if pain is right upper quadrant)
-Left upper pain that localizes well (stomach ulcer)
-Urinating blood (UTI at best, pyelonephritis, kidney stones)

Really bad symptoms/signs:
-Defecating blood (GI bleed)
-Being nauseated/pain worsens by merely looking at or smelling food (often pancreatitis)
-Worst pain of your life/sense of impending doom (pancreatitis, sepsis, heart attack, AAA)

Aamry · Jul 30, 2018

Well, I went to the ER today:

Blood tests, urine tests, CT scan.

All came back clean. I have a renal cyst and the doctor recommended higher fiber in my diet, but no reason for the pain. No idea what's causing the pain.

Woefully Inept · Aug 1, 2018

Off to have that scope procedure to remove the large polyp today. Reallllllllllllly hoping to avoid surgery for this one. Not too keen on having a chunk of my pancreas removed if I can avoid it.

Woefully Inept · Aug 1, 2018

Alright got the bastard. Huge relief not needing surgery. Heading home to pass out for a few hours.

Doc said it was so large that it left a crater.

jayrebb · Aug 1, 2018

Aamry said:
Sorry, I was thinking appendicitis.

Minor fever that comes and goes, nausea, occasional dizzyness.

I've passed a kidney stone before, this feels nothing like that. I'm passing meals normally.

How does one do a hernia exam on oneself?

I should add you can get RLQ pain from posture especially if you are taller or a bigger guy. If we are talking about the VERY far right about where the appendix is located. I've had to baby it my whole life. My guess is that its from RSI from sitting in a chair. I require very heavy thick lumbar support to keep daily strain off it. If I slouch forward or use muscle in that area, it basically feels the same as appendicitis.

If you don't have any other symptoms, its a possibility.

Erronius · Aug 2, 2018

Had both my saphenous (sp?) veins nuked from orbit this week. Still on the fence whether or not it was worth it; have 2-3 weeks of ultrasounds and injections to go (this was RF ablation because they said veins were so bad?).

The inside of both thighs @ the groin started turning into wobbly, jiggly man boobs from all of the fluid in there. Doc said part of it was probably all the lidocaine. The huge, purply bruises where the actual RF was looks bad, but doesn't really hurt. Some soreness if I walk or bend wrong. Worse thing right now is having to wear those damned compression stockings for the next week. I swear to God, they make it feel 5-10 degrees hotter than it actually is (and I don't work in air conditioned space).

Walking around my shop like I'm an 85yo man, but considering each vein took 60m-90m to do, and I could go work afterwards, I guess it wasn't all that bad. But once my week is up, these stocking are coming right the fuck off.

Kuriin · Aug 3, 2018

Aamry , it could still cause pain. Not too familiar with them. I'm sure our docs on the board can mention more. Do they drain those if they get too large?

Wrath · Aug 3, 2018

Kuriin said:
Aamry , it could still cause pain. Not too familiar with them. I'm sure our docs on the board can mention more. Do they drain those if they get too large?

Depends on if the cyst is causing symptoms- pain, hypertension, changes in renal function- and the cyst itself- complex vs simple with size. Most of the time, renal cysts are simple and asymptomatic so no treatment is required. I'd assume that the ED doc would have told Aamry if the cyst was concerning since CT is often the best modality for imaging of them.

Rhanyn · Aug 11, 2018

Went in for another check up and my a1c is still sitting solid at 5.5, only .1 higher than before. My Endo was pretty impressed until I told her that I had already stopped taking my Metformin, and then she was really impressed lol. I've moved over to taking Turmeric, Cinnamon, and DHEA supplements, I do actual work outs at least 4 times a week, and usually do at least 30 mins on the stationary bike at home daily. She gave me the all clear to stay off meds, just to monitor and keep track of my glucose levels. Sitting at 225lbs, so a bit up from 220, but a lot of that is new muscle, I haven't looked or felt better in as long as I can remember.

I know everyone is different, but being able to manage all of this with just diet and exercise... Now if I could only find a cure for how broken my heart is. My youngest brother was shot and killed on July 23rd, his killer then committed suicide, and it's left all this hard work and pay off tasting like ash.

Erronius · Aug 25, 2018

...even after you die and your corpse is locked in the hospital freezer, you aren't safe, LOL

Hospital security guard discovered having sex with a dead woman

gshurik · Aug 29, 2018

My ear has been completely fucked for about 2 weeks now, and I just finally got them irrigated by a GP yesterday.

Feels so good to actually be able to hear again for the first time in a fortnight. Fuck you earwax.

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