The health and fitness thread about random things

[mrcharly-YHT]

I would give that a little bit longer.

It looks still a little raw.

Swimming pools are cesspits. You really don't want an infection in there.

[woollypigs]

Go swim when you are ready but outdoor swimming in the UK ain't a thing to do while the tories are keen on flooding the waters with poop over profit

[Auntie Helen]

I would wait a bit - that looks purple not pink

[chrisbainbridge]

If you put a dry dressing on it or a clean hankie, do you get any discharge onto the hankie?
If not the wound is sealed.
People seem to think wounds need days to weeks. Actually the wound is watertight within 30 minutes.

If you are worried get some waterproof dressings from the chemist.  Go swim

[Kim]

Barakta was in the hydro pool as soon as her morphine levels precluded falling asleep mid sentence and drowning (so maybe a week or so after she was discharged).  Those posh unobtanium waterproof dressings are amazing, and managed to contain ooze without taking on pool water.  I may have secreted some away for times of road rash...

I don't judge these things using colour vision, but I'd say that looks well beyond the leaky stage.

As for swimming pools being cesspits, at least they're chlorinated cesspits.  Have you seen what's been happening to BRITISH waterways recently?   

[hellymedic]

If you put a dry dressing on it or a clean hankie, do you get any discharge onto the hankie?
If not the wound is sealed.
People seem to think wounds need days to weeks. Actually the wound is watertight within 30 minutes.
If you are worried get some waterproof dressings from the chemist.  Go swim

… which reminds me of the nurse's advice I ignored.

Had scalp cysts removed.
Stitches removed after a week.
Told not to wash my hair for another week…

Couldn't see how this could be a problem under a shower immediately but waited until evening for convenience.

[L CC]

I like the surgeon's advice best. There is no seepage at all. Just need to check the pool entry- I won't manage steps in the wall.
I've been semi-regularly swimming at all 3 local pools- Stanley, Consett and Durham but can't remember which has which steps.

[chrisbainbridge]

Many pools now have disabled seat access

[L CC]

I've never needed to know so have not really noticed. I think there's steps out in the wilds but the City serves the Uni so has assumptions of fitness, except for special occasions.

[barakta]

I'd expect a uni pool to have basic disability access by now. It can be worth asking maybe by phone about hoist access which is how I got into the pool until about 4 months post-op due to weightbearing limitations.

[L CC]

It's not a Uni pool, it's a council pool in a massively Uni dominated town. It also has expensive parking.
I'm going to Consett, as I remembered how annoying it was that the stairs to get in stopped you turning effectively at that end of the lane.

I'm a bit nervous that it will be almost as disappointing as riding a bike/using the loo /sitting at a table were, in terms of the pain afterwards vs the joy of independence and a return to normality.

[Kim]

The posh way to do it is to have a corner of the pool with a movable floor, so you get to re-enact the end of Terminator 2 in slow motion on the way in, and freeze to death on the way out.  This is an expensive retrofit, so is more likely to be a feature of a newish pool.

The more common approach is a sort of ducking stool arrangement, which like all good disability equipment can be wheeled out of the way and forgotten about when not in use.  Bonus points for fucked batteries and the one member of staff trained on its use not being in that day.

If the pool hosts regular sessions for some sort of disability swimming group, that's a good sign they'll have something and know how to use it.

If you're currently on crutches, they may require you to use a wheelchair-shaped-object (they've likely got one that they've wheeled out of the way and forgotten about) at the poolside.  Crutches don't react well to wet floors.

[L CC]

Swimming: success.

Fortunately I can't do breast stroke as that isn't allowed. It was quiet (apart from the 40 women of a certain age doing aquafit in the small pool) so I did the swimming equivalent of a bimble up and down for half an hour. I thought I'd be out again in 10 minutes but it was absolutely fine.
I'm on 2 sticks as much for confidence as anything else but you are correct, Kim, they do not interact nicely with wet floors. The out of the pool bit was much more difficult than the swimming part.

[Flite]

Pleased to hear that went well.

[Kim]

One of the features of barakta's many hydrotherapy sessions was occasionally watching the staff drop whatever they were doing^[1] and go into intercept mode whenever it looked like someone with crutches might be heading towards the pool.  They had an array of walking frames on standby, as well as the detachable chair for their (inferior, manually-cranked) ducking stool, and staunchly encouraged people to use them.


_{[1] Unless it was a patient.}

[barakta]

Glad the pool went well, hope you don't get delayed "ouchies" and are able to find this as a way to start to rebuild strength etc.

[Wowbagger]

I went to the dentist's this afternoon for a filling on a tooth. But when I sat in the chair I realised that she was intending to fill a wisdom tooth that her predecessor wrote off several years ago as unfillable, given that there was so little real tooth left to attach a filling to. So I declined the invitation to have it filled. It's been crumbling away for years and so far hasn't given me any pain so we'll eave it as it is. Dog knows how much she would have charged me for a massive filling of that monolith.

The other piece of info I gleaned was that if I ever do need an extraction, it will have to be under general anaesthetic as I was on alendronic acid for so long (about 8 years) that my teeth must be well and truly welded to my jaw bones now. It seems that the welding-in effect never wears off.

[andrewc]

About a month & a half ago I began to feel some discomfort.  Mild pain in my right hand side,  occasionally spreading to the lower back and on a few occasions up to the right shoulder.  A feeling of something being swollen.  Googling suggested gallstones,  the GP agreed when I filled in an online form & spoke to him on the phone.   Blood tests & an ultrasound scan were arranged. 


There was a 2 week wait for the bloods, which shocked me.  It's never taken that long before.  Results were on the NHS app the next day, together with a SMS from the GP saying nothing wrong, bar slightly high cholesterol. 


By this time all of the pain & discomfort had gone.


The 1st ultrasound appointment appeared to have got lost in the post.  I rearranged it for today.  The woman doing it was very thorough, but couldn't find the pre-existing polyps* in my gallbladder until a colleague pointed them out.  Nothing else looked out of the ordinary.


SMS from the GP later today.  Slight fat infiltration of the liver,  losing weight was suggested.... Given my vino consumption it's reassuring to know it's still there!


* These were spotted several years ago after a previous episode of discomfort.  I was on annual scans up to 2020 after which they said nothing was changing so it was a waste of time.  Being 2020 I suspect they had other stuff to deal with...   

[rafletcher]

Gallstones would have been a bit more than slight discomfort. Well, fucking agony is closer to the mark. This I know…

[andrewc]

I've had one episode which had me rolling around the floor in agony & contemplating A&E.  Fatty lamb chops I think.     This was nothing like that,  a dull ache around the side & mild pain up towards the shoulder.  However she had a good scan around  & couldn't see anything that worried her. 

[barakta]

I dunno, I have had the severe pain version which GP told me to medicate with codeine and diclofenac which cleared up after 2-3 days but got infected after and needed antibiotics. Had to eat a low fat diet for a while to avoid annoying it. I was on a next-week scan which came through 5 weeks later, no stones to be found anywhere.

On Friday I got severe nausea which I blatted with epic anti-emetics which I think may be gall-bladderous nonsense again. As long as I kept the antiemetics up it's been "ok". Stopped eating and went to clear fluids for 24hrs as well. Just about been able to eat without topping up the antiemetics. Hoping to avoid GPs as I expect it wouldn't be useful unless persistent and not self-improving.

I have a strong family history, especially maternal side (which is apparently higher risk factor), for gallbladder nonsense.

[andrewc]

"went to clear fluids for 24hrs"

White wine or gin ?   Hope you feel better soon.

[Kim]

Gallstones would have been a bit more than slight discomfort. Well, fucking agony is closer to the mark. This I know…

But may not rate that highly on your personal pain scale.  This I also know.

[andrewc]

People treat pain & discomfort differently.  I had a minor op done under local anaesthetic. The surgeon & nurses seemed very surprised at how indifferent I was to the discomfort* (surgeon said it was at the limit of what he’d do under local).  They were horrified when I said I was walking to the station for the train home!


Kim was kind enough to change the dressing a few days later. 


*for a long time my main, none cycling hobby involved being punched, kicked & slammed into a mat, whilst wearing white pyjamas…

[Kim]

Indeed.  Unfortunately, not all of the medics have got the memo, and may consequently miss gallstones if you neglect to scream.