The health and fitness thread about random things

[Basil]

Turned over in bed and got the worst vertigo I've ever experienced without the aid of playground equipment.  Turned back and it did it again, but worse.  Had to wake barakta and get her to grab the bin while I kept my head extremely still.

And then it stopped.  No head movement seems to reproduce it.  Autonomic nervous system now hates me (went hot and dripping with sweat, now tired and cold), but seem otherwise okay.


WTF?  This had better not be BPPV.  I've got mild snot, which I take to be early-season hayfever, but ears seem okay.  COVID test in progress negative.

Blimey Kim.  How are you now?

[Kim]

Blimey Kim.  How are you now?

Absolutely fine!   

[Gattopardo]

Hope you stay that way.

[Kim]

Happened again at bollocks o'clock this morning.  I quickly moved my head in the opposite direction and the spinning reversed and then stopped before the nausea got too bad, but couldn't get back to sleep as I kept jolting awake with a falling sensation.  I don't feel too bad now, but fail the stand-on-one-leg-with-my-eyes-closed test.

I happened to have a pre-booked phone appointment with the GP this morning because medications, so mentioned it to her and she's told me to come in later this afternoon so Dr Locum can check my blood pressure and peer in my lugholes.

Barakta is being about as unsympathetic as you'd imagine.  I pointed out that we really need one of us to have a working vestibular system, so it's not allowed to be BPPV or Ménière's or cholesteatoma or any of that shit.

[andrewc]

Sounds horrible.  I have to spend serious money on boozeahol to get that feeling.    I hope they can pinpoint what it is & suggest a solution. 

[hellymedic]

Hope this resolves.

Might need a neurologist.

Do you get nystagmus when you have the vertigo?

[Kim]

Do you get nystagmus when you have the vertigo?

Impressively so.  Even with maximum willpower, I couldn't fixate on a point.  It was like the horizontal hold knob^[1] needed adjusting.  Unfortunately barakta wasn't awake to see it, and my attempt to reproduce it with assorted head movements only achieved mild dizziness.


_{[1] Teenagers: Ask your grandparents.}

[Kim]

Blood pressure a bit low, but the machine hates me.  Ears inconclusive, maybe some pressure on the left.  Did the Epley manoeuvre, but it didn't seem to achieve anything.  Basically, wait and see what happens, and if necessary refer to ENT otolaryngology the snot doctors.

[barakta]

I didn't think I'd been that unsympathetic  , just figuring Occam's Razor suggests snot as cause and worrying about BPPV, Choleasteatomas, Menieres, Schwann's Neuromas, etc etc wasn't going to change anything - just make Kim anxious.

At least we know about vestibular-re/habilitation in this house, so keep trying to move around and stay active, zap the snot with extreme prejudice, do vestibular rehab exercises and don't ever take fucking prochlorperazine which is evil and stops the brain rehabituating or betahistine which is pointless.

[Gattopardo]

Blood pressure a bit low, but the machine hates me.  Ears inconclusive, maybe some pressure on the left.  Did the Epley manoeuvre, but it didn't seem to achieve anything.  Basically, wait and see what happens, and if necessary refer to ENT otolaryngology the snot doctors.

To make you feel better, my coccyx is still sore...  Had another moment of everything going dark when I got up from my bed.

EDIT Try not to stress and maybe makes things worse.

[hellymedic]

I think I had a shot of Stemetil when I was on a drip, puking my guts out, with brainstem MS badness, giving me a similar constellation of symptoms.
Mine were persistent but abated.

But that was me and I knew I had a BIG brainstem plaque that hitherto had given no grief.

[ElyDave]

big news in the treatment of Type 1 in England (not sure about the wider UK)

https://www.nice.org.uk/news/article/thousands-of-people-with-diabetes-set-to-benefit-from-real-time-information-after-updated-nice-recommendations

Looks on the face of it as if CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) is now available for all.

[giropaul]

big news in the treatment of Type 1 in England (not sure about the wider UK)

https://www.nice.org.uk/news/article/thousands-of-people-with-diabetes-set-to-benefit-from-real-time-information-after-updated-nice-recommendations

Looks on the face of it as if CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) is now available for all.

They seem to be being widely advertised in the cycling ( and no doubt other sport) media. That’s despite the devices being banned for racing.

[T42]

big news in the treatment of Type 1 in England (not sure about the wider UK)

https://www.nice.org.uk/news/article/thousands-of-people-with-diabetes-set-to-benefit-from-real-time-information-after-updated-nice-recommendations

Looks on the face of it as if CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) is now available for all.

Yet more big T1 news.  I'm waiting for a T2 breakthrough that would allow you to eat reasonably without blowing you up with weaponized fart. Be nice if it didn't grow warts on your liver, too.

[ElyDave]

big news in the treatment of Type 1 in England (not sure about the wider UK)

https://www.nice.org.uk/news/article/thousands-of-people-with-diabetes-set-to-benefit-from-real-time-information-after-updated-nice-recommendations

Looks on the face of it as if CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) is now available for all.

They seem to be being widely advertised in the cycling ( and no doubt other sport) media. That’s despite the devices being banned for racing.

I can't understand why a device telling you what your blood glucose is would be banned, I don't see how, in the case of a T1 racer it's anything other than a safety device.

[Pingu]

big news in the treatment of Type 1 in England (not sure about the wider UK)

https://www.nice.org.uk/news/article/thousands-of-people-with-diabetes-set-to-benefit-from-real-time-information-after-updated-nice-recommendations

Looks on the face of it as if CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) is now available for all.

They seem to be being widely advertised in the cycling ( and no doubt other sport) media. That’s despite the devices being banned for racing.

I can't understand why a device telling you what your blood glucose is would be banned, I don't see how, in the case of a T1 racer it's anything other than a safety device.

Confusing with this: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/01/hundreds-fitted-with-artificial-pancreas-in-nhs-type-1-diabetes-trial ?

[barakta]

That continuous glucose monitoring on NHS is long overdue, a friend has been paying privately for years because it was lifechanging for them.

[ElyDave]

too fecking right, the flash glucose monitoring had become available, but with conditions (>8 tests per day I think, was the one I was looking at), adn I would have had it at my next pump change in December.  With this news however, I'll be giving the team at Addenbrookes a nudge for an early pump change

[Cudzoziemiec]

A friend I met from Shropshire I met at the w/e was on the trial and is now on this permanently. It sits on his lower arm and has to be changed every two weeks or so, which I think he said he does himself. He has covered his with a patch (self sourced) because otherwise it gets knocked off (he's an electrician, so can get knocked at work, in addition to cycling, hiking and so on). It sends an alarm to his phone if he exceeds high or low limits and he's delighted with it.

[MikeFromLFE]

The tinnitus is turned up to MAX this morning.

(Overdid the walking yesterday, was shattered in the evening, slept unusually well until I was woken by the cat fighting outside at 5ish, went back to dozing - not sure that's correlation)

AAARRRGGGHHH!

Hope it settles soon!

[Gattopardo]

big news in the treatment of Type 1 in England (not sure about the wider UK)

https://www.nice.org.uk/news/article/thousands-of-people-with-diabetes-set-to-benefit-from-real-time-information-after-updated-nice-recommendations

Looks on the face of it as if CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) is now available for all.

Big news or is it cheaper than strips, lancets and device (as well as any issues with test and injection sites) with any over or under insulin dose issues.

[Kim]

It's a Big Deal because it gives you the rate of change and automagic alarms, rather than just an instantaneous reading when you remember to take one.  Which can be invaluable if your diabetes is hard to control.  (It's also a Small Matter Of Programming to close the loop and use the CGM data to control an insulin pump, but that's still quite rare.)

It's also a game changer for young children, as you can wave a phone at them rather than stab them.  And presumably useful for people with vision or dexterity issues for similar reasons.

It's more expensive than traditional solutions, because the manufacturers have taken a lesson from the inkjet printer industry (cheap monitor, expensive sensor patches).  But the expense is worthwhile for better health outcomes.

[Gattopardo]

Ah looks like I am coming over as flippant, I was part of the campaign to bring insulin pumps on to the NHS.  From when I was first diagnosed over a decade ago.

Yes, they are a game changer, but to look at it from the NHS level of short term cost over long term cost reduction (cos we are customers sorry service users of the NHS)  Which is what any campaign was based on the cost merits.

Anyway how are you, Kim.  Any reoccorance of the illness?

[Kim]

I haven't had a recurrence of the horrid spinning effect, but I've been mildly dizzy for almost 3 weeks now.  Worse when I lie down.  Disappears completely when I'm riding a bike (which is an effect I've noticed before when I've had ear grot - I assume that bicycle riding is inherently about learning to use torque from the handlebars for balance rather than what your vestibular system is telling you).  Reading (especially from something held in my hand, rather than a screen in front of me) makes me mildly travel-sick, I need some light on to not fall over when I get out of bed (which has been annoying barkata), and I feel a bit unsteady in the shower, but that's the worst of it.

I've been trying to ignore it and hoping it will go away, on the basis it might be viral labyrinthitis or similar.

[T42]

Try using a rear-light as a torch when you get out of bed. You should see enough to have a visual reference and the light won't be powerful enough to disturb barakta. Won't clobber your night vision either.  I also have dodgy balance and it works for me.