Author Topic: The health and fitness thread about random things (Read 475967 times)

chrisbainbridge · « **Reply #2350 on:** 28 October, 2018, 09:59:29 pm »

Montgomery would suggest that taking blood without ascertaining your wishes and desires re the blood test is poor medical care and therefore an assault.

Mrs Pingu · « **Reply #2351 on:** 28 October, 2018, 10:18:59 pm »

Quote from: Si S on 28 October, 2018, 07:23:22 pm

Quote from: Mrs Pingu on 28 October, 2018, 06:10:21 pm
How did it get in there?

Optimistic idiot in charge of stepladder and hedgetrimmer, so all in all could have been so much worse.

Hopefully you learned a valuable lesson today?

hellymedic · « **Reply #2352 on:** 28 October, 2018, 11:34:08 pm »

Quote from: chrisbainbridge on 28 October, 2018, 09:59:29 pm

Montgomery would suggest that taking blood without ascertaining your wishes and desires re the blood test is poor medical care and therefore an assault.

Making an appointment (first appointment was two weeks ahead) would imply consent for the sampling but the lack of information in the initial letter REALLY rankles! I don't see why the initial letter failed this way.

My monitoring blood tests specify, my invitation for smears/flu jabs/mammography specify.

GRRR...!

rafletcher · « **Reply #2353 on:** 29 October, 2018, 08:01:20 am »

My wife got the same sort of thing recently. She has quarterly blood tests to monitor medication and other levels, but still got a separate "invite" for the "well woman" clinic tests. At least the practice nurse said that next time they'd do them together - we'll see.

EDIT: And she went in again yesterday, part of a new scheme to check the health of those on long term medication. Presumably another Government initiative. At least no blood tests, just a questionnaire plus a repeat of height/weight/BMI etc etc she had in the "well woman" check last week. Why it needed a GP to waste 15-20 minutes rather than the nurse I cant imagine.

ian · « **Reply #2354 on:** 29 October, 2018, 09:42:17 am »

I confess, as I crossed the forty-year boundary, I expected to deluged calls for tests (probably a symptom of being a once-upon-a-time American, I'd get a full body MRI for a headache over there).

A good few years later, nothing. I'm not sure this is good or bad news. Probably good news for the bits that don't like being poked and jabbed (all my bits, really).

Si S · « **Reply #2355 on:** 29 October, 2018, 10:50:33 am »

Quote from: Mrs Pingu on 28 October, 2018, 10:18:59 pm

Quote from: Si S on 28 October, 2018, 07:23:22 pm
Quote from: Mrs Pingu on 28 October, 2018, 06:10:21 pm
How did it get in there?

Optimistic idiot in charge of stepladder and hedgetrimmer, so all in all could have been so much worse.

Hopefully you learned a valuable lesson today?

Go ride my bike and GAMI?

Kim · « **Reply #2356 on:** 29 October, 2018, 12:48:20 pm »

Quote from: rafletcher on 29 October, 2018, 08:01:20 am

My wife got the same sort of thing recently. She has quarterly blood tests to monitor medication and other levels, but still got a separate "invite" for the "well woman" clinic tests. At least the practice nurse said that next time they'd do them together - we'll see.

My repeated attempts to combine my yearly asthma review with my yearly repeat prescription review (which is of course mostly asthma/allergy related) have been only sporadically successful.

hellymedic · « **Reply #2357 on:** 29 October, 2018, 01:36:03 pm »

I seldom have occasion to see my GP. My MS is under annual review at two hospitals but I don't have any need for other regular medication.

As a woman of 601 summers, there are bits and pieces they wish to check or maintain, which is fair enough.

A little explanation would go a L-O-N-G way!

Come to think of it, if they are looking for an excuse to put me on statins, I might be dismissive. My last cholesterol was low and my only risk factor for heart disease is my age.

ElyDave · « **Reply #2358 on:** 29 October, 2018, 01:46:06 pm »

Quote from: Kim on 29 October, 2018, 12:48:20 pm

Quote from: rafletcher on 29 October, 2018, 08:01:20 am
My wife got the same sort of thing recently. She has quarterly blood tests to monitor medication and other levels, but still got a separate "invite" for the "well woman" clinic tests. At least the practice nurse said that next time they'd do them together - we'll see.

My repeated attempts to combine my yearly asthma review with my yearly repeat prescription review (which is of course mostly asthma/allergy related) have been only sporadically successful.

I've been largely sucessful in limiting my specialist diabetes appointments to two a year - pump clinic in June and Consultant in December, well planned in advance.

My GPs surgery kept sending me reminders to book an annual review with them, but I ignored them and they went away. I attended in year one, which was a useful learning experience for the practice nurse in how to manage T1D and do exercise.

T42 · « **Reply #2359 on:** 29 October, 2018, 02:04:09 pm »

Our quack has a simpler system: every consultation I get a prescription for 3 months' worth of meds, then I have to go back again. If I run out of something - because some pills are 28 to a box and some 30 so they get out of step - I can get a fill-in prescription without seeing him, but only if I set up the next consultation at the same time.

essexian · « **Reply #2360 on:** 30 October, 2018, 10:33:45 am »

Sigh.... my family as a tradition of hearts stopping at unexpected times so whenever I get a chest pain, I worry.

This has resulted in me having two stress tests and several ECG's over the last 10 years all of which have shown nothing is wrong.....

So, about a week ago I started to get some light chest pains and a little breathlessness. I also noted that my power when cycling was a little lower than normal but the pains didn't increase when out on my bike. I did just over 5 hours on the bike last week. I also have had an irregular heart beat over many years. This comes and goes and is no worse now than it was previously.

Recently I also noticed some pains in my wrists as well at the same time as the chest pains. As I do a lot of typing, I wondered whether these were linked, but also know that pains in the arm can be linked to heart issues.

Anyway, CBH suggested it would be worth heading to the ~~vets~~ doctors. So I phone them for an appointment...nothing available until next week. If I am worried, they suggest I go to A&E.

Sigh. I am not going to sit around in A&E unless I really need to. I am going to phone back tomorrow morning at 8am to see if they can free anything up for me then but not really a good service is it.

T42 · « **Reply #2361 on:** 30 October, 2018, 11:23:14 am »

Re irregular heartbeats, El Prez has an implant that registers the last n minutes of ECG in a ring buffer. If he has heart pain he slaps a USB-stick-sized device over the implant, presses a button and the recording is transferred over. Once he gets home he plugs it into his computer and transmits it to the cardiologist. Rather nifty, that.

His problems were happening when he pushed his heart much over 100 bpm. It dropped suddenly to around 40 and he had quite acute pain. He got an eBike a few months back, and he told me the other day that recently he's been reaching 140 bpm without hurting.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #2362 on:** 30 October, 2018, 03:41:41 pm »

essexian, get tested for anemia when you go in.

essexian · « **Reply #2363 on:** 31 October, 2018, 07:05:40 am »

Well, that was interesting....

After having spent the majority of yesterday feeling crap I decided to take myself to bed early and listen to some football on the radio before dropping off to sleep. Still awake a couple of hours later due to the chest pains, I decided to look on the NHS 111 website to see what it suggested which was to go straight to A&E

Not liking that idea, I phoned 111 instead to take some advice. After a few minutes questioning, they said I would need A&E so sent an ambulance! Approximately 10 minutes later they arrived and did some tests. It seems I wasn't having a heart attack but would still need to go for further tests given that my BP was 230/140.... "Impressive" they said!

Now since the great NHS closures under this Government, Stafford County (the old Mid Staffs which was, despite what you read, an excellent hospital) A&E closes at 10pm, so it was a blue light rush to get me there, otherwise it would be a ride to either New Cross in Wolverhampton, 20 miles away, or the same to Stoke.

Thankfully we arrived and after some more tests, my heart was declared to be in excellent shape as are my kidney's etc. Indeed, the doctor described my lifestyle as: "ideal."

However, my BP was still and issue but had come down to 210/120 when they discharged me. I must admit I thought I was there for the night!

A nice 3 mile walk home at midnight followed....get a taxi? Nope, I hate them and would rather walk.

Today then, its phone my GP for some BP meds and no doubt further tests. I still have the chest pains but am glad its not my heart.... now, can I avoid a stroke something that two of my sisters and my dad had all had by the time they reached 50 which for me was many years back!

PS: Of course in the three ECG's they did, there were no irregular heart beats. "They sometimes hide from us when we are looking for them", the Doctor said!

SteveC · « **Reply #2364 on:** 31 October, 2018, 07:26:43 am »

That sounds really scary. Look after yourself!

T42 · « **Reply #2365 on:** 31 October, 2018, 08:05:11 am »

A systolic of 210 is what I hit when I'm pushing out 180 - 200 W during a stress test. OTOH my diastolic is usually 70-80, at rest or under effort. Cardiologist says that if I ever hit 250 he'll put me on BP meds.

Take care - you don't want to blow a gasket.

Greenbank · « **Reply #2366 on:** 31 October, 2018, 10:38:09 am »

Player collapsed during 5-a-side last night in the game after ours. 10+ minutes of CPR and multiple ambulances. Don't know the outcome but hoping for the best obviously.

Stark reminder of the fragility of life.

[EDIT] Email from the league, he didn't make it. :(

barakta · « **Reply #2367 on:** 31 October, 2018, 02:14:07 pm »

I should trust my instincts when I'm not being properly listened to in a medical consultation. I sincerely hope the Prof is less arrogant than his senior physio (who sneakily introduced the female colleague in the consultation as name+physio but only gave me his name and not his role - so I assumed he was an SpR - I am happy to talk to physios, on average they're easier for me to deal with than doctors!).

Despite PALS' best efforts the clinical history I prepared so I didn't have to do verbal coherence under audio stress and indeed my deaf awareness info did not get to the clinic which I'm pissed off about. I spent AGES preparing it carefully and Mr Arrogant Would Not Read my printed copy. Next time I'm going to refuse consent for examination till clinicians read the fucking info - and properly, not just glance and fob-off!

My clinical history is 38 years long, includes related ortho stuff, my syndrome and what I do and do not know, treatments and indeed "opportunities for treatment" which were missed. All in a logical order + dated excerpts of medical letters in medicalese so clinician could see that my function used to be better. Or indeed what the specific shoulder issues are cos it's beyond my understanding and I didn't want to misrepresent it.

PALS are meeting me in person for tomorrow's hip appt to help "transmit clue to clinicians" which will be a bit simpler (less relevant history) but still needs me to prepare a single A4 sheet of history + thoughts I have about why things like my balance and different length arms mean I am sitting or standing oddly A Lot... Cos they have to look at WHOLE ME to understand why I use my body like I do...

PALS have also asked about the shoulder imaging on my request... See if that nudges Mr Arrogant into sorting it...

And people wonder why I find hospital appointments TEETHGRINDINGLY stressful and lose a day to exhaustion after each one. I don't need and can't use a sign language interpreter. Text to Speech is hard work cos I can't PROCESS the information even with captions... I can hear or I can think... I can't really do both at the same time, especially when under stress.

barakta · « **Reply #2368 on:** 01 November, 2018, 12:20:23 pm »

Well bugger.

Today's hip Xray shows some degree of hip dysplasia and something else about the femoral head rotated wrongly in relation to my pelvis. It was clear that doc knew something was wrong the minute he looked at my Xray and me walking nevermind examination where he said my hips had hyper-extended ranges of motion (I said I didn't know what 'normal' was other than the right one going the wrong way)...

So much for a 2008 pelvis Xray being "normal", there's simply no way that could have been the case. I am extremely pissed off with my ex-GP in That London and will be asking current GP if they can see the records and wtf actually went on. I have spent a decade misinformed and assuming my poor mobility wasn't something medics were interested in and my belief that the Xray was normal also misinformed my attempt at getting physio which was a very painful disaster (which today's doc was NOT surprised about at all after examining me). This just didn't get to the top of the "medical TODO" which is still too long and growing...

Next steps are a CT and MRI of my hips, one (both?) of those is going to be whole legs I think and injection of steroid into both hips + Xray "examination" cos doc wanted as much data as possible.

PALS lady turned up and made sure data was IN my notes and said hello while I was fighting with the stupid "assess your state iPad on a stand which kept crashing me out" - she was as nice in person as she is by email. Doc had clearly spent time reading all the shoulder stuff as well as my new hip stuff that I gave the nurse on arrival -- before I went in. That definitely helped, he could go and Google my syndrome and it was clear he had a sense of "you're weird, you have epic history, we'll be thorough and go from there".

I really wasn't expecting an abnormal Xray. Radiography is going to be *sick* of me...

I have also emailed my audiologist as radiography would only let me in the 1.5T MRI scanner for shoulders but hip doc REALLY wants a 3T MRI. While the BAHA abutment is rated for 3T, apparently there's other things like gauss level and SAR or something... See what they say. I dunno also if the pins in my arm are an issue for this too.

Thank the deities for the NHS and indeed 2 NHS trusts/hospitals with clinicians who use EMAIL sensibly so I can coordinate clinical stuff sensibly! If this was OtherTrust I have to deal with I'd be going insane by now. And that I have flexible work and a boss who I think will be reasonable about it when I talk to her next week (I may need to change some work at shortish notice if I get offered appts etc).

hellymedic · « **Reply #2369 on:** 01 November, 2018, 01:07:11 pm »

I am SO pleased you've seen someone SENSIBLE and there's a chance of reasonable management!

HOW LONG have you been banging your head on a metaphorical brick wall?

sojournermike · « **Reply #2370 on:** 01 November, 2018, 01:34:16 pm »

Indeed. Pleased for you.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #2371 on:** 01 November, 2018, 02:05:12 pm »

I diagnose that hip dysplasia and femoral head twist has been caused by years of kicking down barriers.

Kim · « **Reply #2372 on:** 01 November, 2018, 02:06:18 pm »

You should have seen a ballet tutor back in 2008, I reckon.

barakta · « **Reply #2373 on:** 01 November, 2018, 02:58:41 pm »

Yes, it's looking very sensible for investigations and at least they're taking me properly seriously. The steroid injection will both allow them to inject air into the joint while taxing Xrays at weird angles I suspect and whether or not I get improvement/relief and improved mobility will be diagnostic in itself.

How long I've been having legs issues that should have been picked up? Debatable. I had issues throughout my childhood. Ballet tutor probably assumed it was under the hospital like everything else (I've had other stuff people just assumed I knew was wrong but unfixable or being dealt with when I didn't even know X was wrong). 2008's GP can get in the sea tho, they were sooo bad on so many things. Having a decent GP who pays attention and doesn't just decide "too long, boring" is vital for me. I won't put up with a poor GP again.

matthew · « **Reply #2374 on:** 01 November, 2018, 09:28:35 pm »

Barakta

Sorry to hear your diagnosis is significant but glad to hear you have a clinician who has seen something is wrong and will investigate it thoroughly. I hope that your imaging can happen, though take care with the high power MRI. I think my last one caused some issues in my left elbow where the pins are, I also felt some tingling in there during the final imaging.

As for my hip, it has recently been much better, pain medication is rarely required whilst walking further. The latest set of images are clear as a bell which is reassuring. Certain hobby activities that use a kneeling stool seems to be great core exercise which is useful and helpful.