Health Problems

  • Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!



    Go here and give us your nominations!
    Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
pharmakos

pharmakos

soʞɐɯɹɐɥd
<Bronze Donator>
16,305
-2,234
Yeah, even tho I'm probably finally healthy, my retroperitoneal tumors (and subsequent mass of scar tissue) have caused me so much pain over the last four years that I've got a pretty sizeable Oxy habit now. Working on tapering down but after so long, yeah, its rough. =\ always was able to just use opiates sparingly when I was younger, never thought I'd actually be physically addicted. Blah.
 
Kuriin

Kuriin

Just a Nurse
4,046
1,020
Had a patient earlier coming in with pseudo withdrawal seizures - found out he actually has global tremors with no known etiology that I saw. Came in requesting - by name - ativan and morphine. Dude AMA'd when we refused to give him any. Lost his place at his shelter, too.

Drugs make people do some really, really dumb shit. Alcohol, benzos, opiates, and meth are just fucking awful.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user
Frenzied Wombat

Frenzied Wombat

Potato del Grande
14,730
31,803
Tarrant said:
So, the shelter I was managing part-time has joined and merged with another program that provides both housing and crisis counseling to runaway youths and their families in order to help keep them out of the court system, and their sister program that provides housing for young (troubled) adults (17-21) and teaches them how to be productive members of society and out of the legal system. I'm pretty excited and tomorrow is supposed to be my first day with them fulltime.

Today though I just learned I have a very badly herniated disc between my L5 and S1 that caused half my right leg to go totally numb. The doctor doesn't think PT will help much, if at all and suggested that I should still try it, but to prepare myself for it needing surgery. I'm really nervous about going into my first day with them tomorrow. I can't walk without a cane and I'm afraidif I tell them my first day that I'm going to probably need surgery in the near future it'll hurt my future with them.

I'm going to hold off as long as I can, hopefully, the PT will help. In the meantime, I'm taking steroids, hopefully, that helps too.
Click to expand...

I had the exact same herniated disc (L5-S1) with the same numbness/pain in my leg twenty years ago. Developed it after a back injury from picking up a 19" CRT monitor back in the day.

Don't fucking waste your time with a physical therapist. Get a referral to a neurosurgeon and get the minimally invasive discectomy. You'll be on your feet four hours after surgery and the issue will be 100% resolved. Your skydiving days may be over, but otherwise there are no real side effects or negatives, assuming they don't screw up.

The absolute worst thing you can do is medicate this with pain killers. First off they've shown that opiates have very little impact on this type of pain, and second it's simply not needed since there is a surgery that can offer immediate relief with little risk. Prednisone or a similar steroid is your best bet for short term pain relief until they can operate.

Edit: Whatever you do, avoid an orthopedic surgeon or "spine specialist" for this type of operation. There seems to be some contention as to whether this type of operation is the domain of an orthopedic surgeon of neurosurgeon, but you definitely want the latter if possible.
 
C

Captain Suave

Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
5,259
8,954
Frenzied Wombat said:
avoid an orthopedic surgeon or "spine specialist" for this type of operation
Click to expand...

As an ophthalmological surgeon friend told me, "Orthopedists are the carpenters of surgeons." This is kinda literally true. My hip surgeon had a steel-plated Makita rotary saw in the OR.
 
Khane

Khane

Got something right about marriage
20,342
14,006
It always amazes me how long people wait before they entertain back surgery. What usually happens is they wait years and years hoping PT and pain killers will fix it and then it gets so bad they need something as major as disc removal and a fusion
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

<Prior Amod>
15,794
9,205
I'm not gonna wait years. I just wanna see if I can avoid it in the short term. The pain isn't so bad, honestly. The numbness in my foot and leg and the pain THAT causes (that pain killers don't help) is what is brutal, luckily the pain isn't consistent. If the numbness doesn't go away in a few months, I'll entertain surgery. Plus that'll give me a cousin with the new job that I need in order to cement myself into my position.
 
moonarchia

moonarchia

The Scientific Shitlord
23,497
42,716
Tarrant said:
I'm not gonna wait years. I just wanna see if I can avoid it in the short term. The pain isn't so bad, honestly. The numbness in my foot and leg and the pain THAT causes (that pain killers don't help) is what is brutal, luckily the pain isn't consistent. If the numbness doesn't go away in a few months, I'll entertain surgery. Plus that'll give me a cousin with the new job that I need in order to cement myself into my position.
Click to expand...
How did we go from health issues to nepotism?
 
Frenzied Wombat

Frenzied Wombat

Potato del Grande
14,730
31,803
Tarrant said:
I'm not gonna wait years. I just wanna see if I can avoid it in the short term. The pain isn't so bad, honestly. The numbness in my foot and leg and the pain THAT causes (that pain killers don't help) is what is brutal, luckily the pain isn't consistent. If the numbness doesn't go away in a few months, I'll entertain surgery. Plus that'll give me a cousin with the new job that I need in order to cement myself into my position.
Click to expand...

If you really want to go the watch and wait route, pick up an inversion table at your local gym/sports store. Hanging upside down is the best relief therapy you can do.
 
Izo

Izo

Tranny Chaser
19,467
23,530
Tarrant said:
I'm not gonna wait years. I just wanna see if I can avoid it in the short term. The pain isn't so bad, honestly. The numbness in my foot and leg and the pain THAT causes (that pain killers don't help) is what is brutal, luckily the pain isn't consistent. If the numbness doesn't go away in a few months, I'll entertain surgery. Plus that'll give me a cousin with the new job that I need in order to cement myself into my position.
Click to expand...
Hmm. Hit me of for an epidural next time around. Christmas is coming up, I could use an xbox or 3.
 
Borzak

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
25,453
33,207
I'm pretty clueless on this and don't know what I am looking for or how to phrase it. What should I be looking for in terms of some kind of help for stuff. Don't think it would have to be a nurse at all. I know from my grandmother she talks of people having home health to do certain things. I've never had any exposure to any of that because in my family most people have done OK till the day they up and died.

What would I even look under, not really a nurse but someone to come and check and do a minimum of things. Hard to explain really.
 
Kuriin

Kuriin

Just a Nurse
4,046
1,020
Nurse assistants are perfectly fine for those situations. But, I would always recommend a security camera on at all times; especially if the assistant is caring for someone.
 
  • 2Like
Reactions: 1 users
iannis

iannis

Musty Nester
31,351
17,656
Yeah, if you have a local nursing school you could even find student nurses to do it. Mild duty part time in home care is a good fit.

Just make sure they have their CNA cert at least, and make sure to provide yourself for some security. You hate to admit it, but you can't trust them blindly. Not that they'll resort to abuse (they might just out of laziness / ignorance, but probably not)... more likely they'll nip things from you. And that's not very likely but it has been known to happen.

Probably the easiest way for you to find them is to ask your GP's office. It's likely that they keep contact information for this type of thing.
 
Last edited:
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user
McQueen

McQueen

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
3,214
5,777
What are the odds that an increasing dose of Bystolic/Nebivolol is responsibile for weight gain over the corresponding period of time, in an otherwise fit and diet-conscious person?
 
sleevedraw

sleevedraw

Revolver Ocelot
<Bronze Donator>
1,975
5,568
Rapid weight gain is listed as a "less common" side effect of the drug, which usually means 1-10% chance in pharma parlance. I don't know what the mechanism of action of that would be, though, unless the beta blocker sufficiently depressed a person's cardiac output to cause them to start retaining fluid/wind up in heart failure.
 
Izo

Izo

Tranny Chaser
19,467
23,530
There are several interactions with nebivolol. Fluid retention and thus reversal of the antihypertensive effect is seen when NSAIDs are taken at the same time. Ask your GP / Card.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user
Attog

Attog

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,431
1,859
@a_skeleton_03 are you still on statins? If so, any side effects, any long term concerns, will you use them for the rest of your life, etc?

I have had borderline high cholesterol for years, I got my annual physical and all my numbers looked good except for the bad cholesterol which went up from 120 to 175.
 
iannis

iannis

Musty Nester
31,351
17,656
Cholesterol is probably the least important metric.

Arterial plaque is a real thing.. but...

I'm not saying it's not important. Just least important.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user
Kuriin

Kuriin

Just a Nurse
4,046
1,020
Attog said:
@a_skeleton_03 are you still on statins? If so, any side effects, any long term concerns, will you use them for the rest of your life, etc?

I have had borderline high cholesterol for years, I got my annual physical and all my numbers looked good except for the bad cholesterol which went up from 120 to 175.
Click to expand...


The major risk of statins are increased risk of dementia. But...so is long term benzo use. =)
 
maskedmelon

maskedmelon

Orator of Superfluous Nothings
1,893
2,951
Attog said:
@a_skeleton_03 are you still on statins? If so, any side effects, any long term concerns, will you use them for the rest of your life, etc?

I have had borderline high cholesterol for years, I got my annual physical and all my numbers looked good except for the bad cholesterol which went up from 120 to 175.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't worry about that. It's only really a problem when you've damaged cvs most often from sedentary lifestyle and inflammation stemming from chronically elevated insulin levels. Take K2 supplement, do a little HIT, cut the sugar and skip a meal every now and then and you be good to go 👍
 
You must log in or register to reply here.