Health Problems

If it's just a muscle strain then count yourself lucky. I've had two separate ruptured disks. The first one I couldn't straighten vertically, was about a 30 degree angle. I also couldn't straighten horizontally, I was at about a 30 degree angle to the left. Constant pain through my back and leg, foot was going numb by the end of it. I was like that for probably 6 months, my doctor was too retarded to use those symptoms to diagnose it as my back and not my hip. To be fair though most of the pain started at the hip and went down the leg.

Also couldn't sleep for more than about 2 hours at a time, and it took about 3 hours laying down and not moving in order for the aggravation to die down enough to sleep. Oh, plus I couldn't walk more than about 20 yards without having to stop and rest. Pain medication (Vicodin/percocet) did absolutely nothing for the pain, but I guess it did help put me to sleep.

The second disk wasn't nearly as bad, probably because I knew what it was pretty immediately and got it fixed before it got to that point.

Got a call at my desk on the 15th from my stepmom saying that my father had collapsed while making his morning coffee, and was being rushed by ambulance to the hospital and was in surgery for a ruptured arterial venous malformation in his brain. Dropped everything I was doing and booked a ridiculously expensive last minute flight to Montreal. By the time I arrived he was in an induced coma in the ICU, with rather vague yet pessimistic information being provided by the surgeon as to his prognosis (wait and see). Two days pass and they do another CT-Scan as he started to exhibit some rather discouraging physical reactions to pain/touch, and it revealed that the bleeding had put pressure on his brain, forcing it down and damaging his brain stem.. Prognosis is that if he woke up, he'd be severely disabled. Spent the next few days arguing with religious members of the family about removing life support (my dad explicitly stated to kill him if ever he became disabled for any reason), and we finally did so on the 19th.

Nothing ages you more than having both parents pass by the age of 41. After dealing with his situation, grief, family, and organizing/paying for a funeral, I feel like I'm 80.

That shit is rough.

Pulling the plug is a lot harder than you think it's gonna be. Organizing a funeral isn't a hell of a lot of fun either.


For now get some good sleep. It'll get better the more weeks you put between it and you. It has aged you though.

Condolences man. Nobody should be forced to go through that decision.

Rough stuff man, sorry for your losses. We have had a shitty year with deaths here, although not as shitty as you, and its certainly not an easy thing to lose your parents.

Kuriin_sl said:

It's good to be an advocate for someone you love. I just did a huge speech regarding physician-assisted suicide and the topic of having a will was brought up, as well. Nothing is worse than seeing someone who you know doesn't want what's happening to them because of a few bastards (Schiavo, for instance).

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Yeah, he supposedly had a will but we couldn't find it. Tore through the entire house and found everything from sexy-time photos from the '70's, to divorce papers from the '80's-- but no will. In the end it was up to me and his common-law wife of 20 years to repeat what he had requested, which was to never allow him to end up an invalid. Now I have to plan a trip to Goa at some point, as that's where he wanted his ashes scattered.

So about 2 weeks ago I noticed I was having some pain/stiffness in my right leg. I didn't think much about it the first week as I am getting older and do things that hurt for a living. Had been doing hand sanding on hardwood just after 2 tile jobs so tons of on the knee crap.
Last Monday I noticed my right leg was about 2-3x swollen over my left leg in the shower. It didn't hurt terribly bad just was massive and stiff. No signs of streaking of veins or anything so I call and make a appointment for my doctor.
I refused many of the tests for now until I collect on these jobs and I didn't have my healthcare stuff set up but basically it's not good whatever is doing it. They started out with Cellulitis of the leg with possible staph in deep tissue in addition to likely Lupus or autoimmune disease and possible diabetic. Another possibility is blood clots which I had before but acted much differently than this.

I was given 4 shots, mostly steroids and antibiotics and anti inflammatory and in pill form 3 days steroids, 3 full course bactrim pills to take, and started on lasix 40mg with 20meg potassium 2x a day and pain medicine.
That was Thursday. Since then the swelling has increased, left side of head feels weird and has for days throbbing thoughout right side of body and I just cant breathe for shit. Been trying to get through to my doctor this morning but I have no idea what is wrong and why suddenly I feel at least I am on death's bed.

Until this I had been feeling much better than I had in years due to quitting smoking back in Feb.

Yeah, it's basically impossible to tell without looking. They threw the damn kitchen sink at you for stuff that it might possibly be, which means it's nothing obvious.

If you had clots before, that's a leading candidate. It certainly sounds like you might have some relatively serious problems with veins. But I mean, that's one of those "well then don't hit yourself in the head with a hammer" sort of guesses. You probably didn't just develop lupus for the hell of it. But you might have, and there are tests to check!

Edit: I hope I'm wrong, but what you're describing sounds serious enough that you might need a surgeon. One leg should not be twice as big as the other one. That is decidedly not something that will "just pass". Either that is the mother of all cases of tendonitis, or you have got an insane infection, or something got pinched and needs to be unpinched. Pretty quick.

It does mean the hospital, olebass. Figure out how to pay for it later. Go take care of your leg.

I had a DVT with PE and when I got to the ER and they saw my leg and saw me they rushed my ass back there immediately. If that's what it is and they haven't figured it out by now then find some new doctors.

It always amazes me when people have something seriously fucked up like that happen and they hold off until they can pay for it

Kuriin_sl said:

My issue is that he has a hard time breathing which made me immediately think he has a pulmonary embolism. That's why I was concerned if it might have been a DVT. Hopefully they get it figured out.

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Yeah, all I meant is that I am not a doctor and that shit sounds bad enough that he needs a doctor, and he needed one a couple of days ago. I dunno either. DVT's can kill.

I hope he managed to find somebody that does know.

My DVT/PE hospitalized me for 3 months straight. It was no joke. Having to learn how to walk all over again is harder than one might think.

So update, off and done with the steroids now. Still on the multi bactrim course, lasix and potassium pills.
Swelling between ankle and knee is down, swelling at ankle and feet and above knee, around waist still roughly the same.
Still cannot walk without being out of breath, and my left side of the head is still buzzing and feeling odd.
Blood pressure remains picture perfect and heart rate and so forth remain good. No longer having fevers and that crap.
At this point exploring several different causes but I'm wondering if when I did that hardwood job refinishing I didn't have a mask on that day due to sweating and if it got into my lungs and it could cause it. I go back on the 4th for a blood panel but really I am not showing signs of kidney/liver failure and with my BP and heart acting what seems straight leads the issue straight to the lungs.

If I get any worse whatsoever though at this point I am just going straight to the ER.

With it only being your left side, it might even be in the lymph. ITS LUPUS.

Hopefully you'll know in a few days.

Glad to hear u survived though. And you're not being paranoid. If it gets worse, the ER is the right decision.

Kind of messed up, yesterday I was cleaning up a job I had refinished and I was so out of breath I was light headed and near passing out just swiffering. Keep in mind normally I do much more physical work without being out of breath. Head felt completely numb still on left side.

Today I put down Hardi backerboard for tile and started tiling a new job and barely got out of breath. Head issues also were mostly gone today.
Whatever had been hitting me hard the past few days has improved 5000% in the past 24 hours, but I am still far worse than I was 2 weeks ago.
Leg is still swollen but it appears it may have gone down some.
spO2 is 96-98% 90bpm somewhat idle and 115-126/ 74-86 BP the times I took it today.
I'm almost convinced I had a blockage someplace or something now. Still doesn't explain leg continue to be swollen though and the skin now is reddish on that leg, but then again it's been swollen 2 weeks so not unexpected. It isn't a bright red, just a reddish hue.