The health and fitness thread about random things

[Mrs Pingu]

+1 to Epsom salts, my mum swears by a paste of it - it drew some marram grass out of the dog's leg years ago....

[campagman]

Had to Bail out early from my trip to the Welsh Cycling Rally due to a painful lump developing on my backside. Caught the train home and went straight to the Walk-in Ctr. They put me on Antibiotics and drained some 'Cottage Cheese' (their words) from said lump. They put on a dressing to help draw out the muck, gave me another to replace it with and told me to make an appointment with the GP practice nurse on Tue/Wed.

[campagman]

Well, this morning I felt that the original dressing was leaking from the side as the CC built up so showered and changed it ( was told it would be less painful to change after showering but no). I now see that the new dressing is pretty full so will need changing in the am. Hopefully I will get an am appointment to see the practice nurse tomorrow.
What about removing the dressing and putting on some shorts with the back filled with tissue or other absorbant material. If I then do a w/o, you know squats, lunges, burpees, etc. Would the pumping of the legs and glutes help to clear away the CC without needing to apply another, very painful to remove, dressing?

[hellymedic]

Tissue disintegrates when wet; do not use!
Making your own gauze dressing would be OK.
Maybe secure this with sticky tape.

Exercises which 'encourage' the CC to come out will do no harm but may hurt.

[L CC]

Because it is only 2 weeks since my last UTI, I haven't restocked the emergency antibiotics and will have to sit outside my GP from 8:30 in the morning.
Grrrreat.

[hellymedic]

GWS fboab! Touch wood, I've not had a full-blown UTI for yonks. Smelly wee without symptoms yeah but no proper UTI.
Used to get loads.
Sympathies!

[tiermat]

Roll on Friday.

I am on week 12 and everything has been a struggle since about Saturday evening...

Even getting to work today took a lot longer than expected (though turning the alarm off and going back to sleep didn't help!)

[rogerzilla]

Off to see the opthalmic surgeon tomorrow to see if he agrees it's time to give me at least one new cornea (or endothelium, if he thinks that approach will work better).  It's got to the stage where I can't drive at night (riding a bike on dark cyclepaths is a nightmare too, since I can't see peds and unlit oncoming POBs against a background of headlights), reading a computer screen is very difficult before about 11am and it's all fog and rainbows until 3pm or later on some days.  The only treatment possible other than surgery is 5% salt eyedrops, which do work, but only for about five minutes at a time

He is the best in the country and work will pay for it to be done if theatre availability is the contraint, but it's not elective surgery because you need donor material.

The downside is that I will need glasses ever after, because it's never a perfect job, and my current vision (at the right time of day and in flat lighting) is extremely good.

[rogerzilla]

Good news - the right eye is being done this year and I might not need glasses because I get to keep my own optics (which are all 20/20 bar the waterlogging).  General anaesthetic and a fortnight at home with bi-hourly eye drops (day and night!) afterwards.  The guy is probably the best in the UK and did my father's eyes for Fuch's a few years ago.  Night rides might be back on next year...

[barakta]

Good news Roger, hope it goes as smoothly as poss and lasts a while too.  I know how important it is to have trust in the slicey docs, I tend to be rather picky myself.

[tonyh]

Good news...
The guy is probably the best in the UK...
Night rides might be back on next year...

 

Eye surgeons are brilliant.

[campagman]

Thanks Helly a diy Gauze dressing has been good.
I have been seeing my GP practice nurses each day this week to have my dressing changed, my bum squeezed/kneaded to extract puss and monitor progress. The dressings that are now being used are virtually un-noticeable. A swab of the puss taken on Mon has identified MRSA and the Flucloxacillin Anti-B’s that I had been taking since last Thu to be wrong. I am now on Erythromycin Anti-B’s.
As it’s now the w/e I have been back to the WiCentre this am. The HCA there was surprised that they have been using some Inadine gauze and that I haven’t had the Abscess opened and drained. Not wanting to cause trouble she just changed the dressing. She also said that this dressing should be good for two days so should not need to go back tomorrow. I will mention to the GP nurse on Mon about opening and draining. Although the dressings are covered in puss, squeezing /kneading has not produced any extra puss on the last two visits.

[barakta]

I appear to have or be developing an ear infection which is both making my balance worse than usual (baseline is pretty shite) AND painful and setting off TMJ pain I've historically had a lot of problems with.

*WHINGE!*

I am now eating all the drugs that might possibly help degunk that part of my anatomy and or kill pain. Even eating paracetamol which I don't usually bother with.

[hellymedic]

GWS barakta! I can't remember ever suffering anything more painful than an ear infection so you have my sympathy!

[Ruthie]

I appear to have or be developing an ear infection which is both making my balance worse than usual (baseline is pretty shite) AND painful and setting off TMJ pain I've historically had a lot of problems with.

*WHINGE!*

I am now eating all the drugs that might possibly help degunk that part of my anatomy and or kill pain. Even eating paracetamol which I don't usually bother with.

How thoroughly grim Barakta.  Fuck off ear infections.  You are not wanted here.

[T42]

^^^Sounds vile. GWS.  I noticed my own balance was a bit iffy walking across the supermarket car park this morning: had an old-fashioned peeler applied the old-fashioned walk-the-line test I'd have been ruled incapable. Hot weather, sloppy sandals & low blood-sugar the culprit, sez I.

[matthew]

Yesterday I ended up helping my brother-in-law pour the footings for his extension, this involved three of us stood astride the trench with shovels assisting the flow of concrete to the furthest ends of the footings. This has set off my hip so I am now glad to be off work, sat with my feet up and generally doing nothing.

[hellymedic]

It was always my bugbear working as a doctor in an area where kids' home language was not English that the kids learnt good English at school but missed out on colloquial 'toilet' and 'body' vocabulary.

[Kim]

It was always my bugbear working as a doctor in an area where kids' home language was not English that the kids learnt good English at school but missed out on colloquial 'toilet' and 'body' vocabulary.

That (and the reverse language barrier) seems to be a recognised issue these days, at least amongst the more clueful providers of sexual health information.  I think the smoking cessation people have re-branded on a similar basis (ie. that an awful lot of smokers don't know what 'cessation' means).

I think barakta has written before about how our level 2 BSL tutor made a big deal about the importance of Deaf people being able to access medical information, with the seriousness of someone who'd obviously experienced the AIDS crisis of the 80s when the only source of information was misheard scary TV/radio adverts.  Vocabulary and an idea of how to wing it when necessary, but also more subtle stuff, like how 'positive' implies 'good'.

(The class demographic meant the lessons repeatedly deteriorated into an MMR/autism argument, but we were on the side of SCIENCE and were better at sign than the anti-vaxxers, so they were pwned if not actually convinced.)

[mrcharly-YHT]

As of tonight, I'll be on beta blockers as well as the amitriptyline (mostly so the dose of amitriptyline can be reduced).

I already have slightly low blood pressure, so this will be interesting . . .

[citoyen]

I've been suffering from strange tenderness in my nose for a couple of days - it feels a bit like I've taken a punch to the face. The pain is in the bit that wikipedia tells me is called the lateral nasal cartilage.

It's most odd. And quite unpleasant. I don't recall actually having been punched. My only thought is perhaps that some creature has gone up my nostril and bitten/stung me, causing inflammation. I suffer from hayfever, so it could be related to that, but I've never had symptoms like this before.

Hmmm. If it doesn't clear up in a day or two, I might have to visit the doctor for the first time in several years, but in the meantime, if anyone has any thoughts...

[Kim]

Mk 1 zit inside the nostril?  Those can be unreasonably painful.

I had one just inside my ear canal last week, which hasn't happened to me before.  Possibly initiated by a biting beastie.

[Ningishzidda]

A 3/8 reamer might do the trick.

[citoyen]

Mk 1 zit inside the nostril?  Those can be unreasonably painful.

Quite possible. I've had that before (and yes, unreasonably painful is right) but usually in the lower reaches of the nostrils - this feels much deeper inside.

[citoyen]

A 3/8 reamer might do the trick.

You are to ENT surgery what Laurence Olivier is to dentistry.