kitanzi, posts by tag: medical - LiveJournal (original) (raw)
Missing: Three teeth
February 29th, 2008
No reward offered, thank you very much, I just paid a good chunk to have the dental surgeon take them out. One wisdom tooth went a couple years ago as an emergency procedure when the gums got infected, but the rest finally came out this morning. Apparently my teeth are awesome, but my gums suck, and the worst of the decay was between the molars and wisdom teeth. Keep them all now and lose my molars later, or pull the wisdom teeth now and keep (hopefully) everything else later? Well when you put it like that, sign me up.
( For dentalphobes, which I'd go back to being if I couldCollapse )
Has anyone else out there had multiple wisdom teeth pulled? Honestly, to hear the stories I was told at work I expected this to be MUCH worse. I'm very pleasantly surprised. (Now watch me get infected and regret all this.... NOOOOOOOOO)
The Tuesday that wanted to be a Monday
January 22nd, 2008
Crappy cold's been dragging me down all weekend, mostly just tired and irritable and stuffy. Yesterday I had off anyhow (Martin Luther King's day is a holiday at work as of last year) and convinced myself I felt better enough to keep my dentist's appointment. That was almost certainly an unfair thing to do to a couple of nice dental assistants, since I felt crappy again shortly after. I took it easy most of the day, went to bed early, and woke up with morning with dripping down my throat, a horribly stuffed nose, and a choking cough violent enough to make me worry about vomiting. I just called in sick (15 minutes before I planned to leave for work!) so I could take a dose of Nyquil and hopefully go be unconcious some more soon. I hate calling in sick the day after a holiday, it looks lousy and makes me cranky and will make catching up tomorrow that much worse. Add in cramps and PMS and I'm probably not fit for human company anyhow - pity poor ACat who feels like crap himself for all of his own reasons, and has promised me he will talk to his doctor today about switching his meds.
Clearly the warranty has expired on this body. Bleah.
It's all just a bad joke
October 1st, 2007
Sometimes I feel like I've had just one nebulous, frustrating health issue after another since I turned 30. It's not really true, and it's not exactly the doctors' fault either, but sometimes it feels that way.
Today's installment was my lower back. I have had minor lower back issues for as long as I can remember, and didn't really think enough of it to mention it to a doctor. Random pain, a spot around the base of my spine that was excrutiating if anything put pressure in the wrong place, things like that. Everything seemed to move okay, just don't touch it and it's fine. Well, lately that's not been true. Over the last few months it's become more of a problem in sleeping, with some relief from putting pillows under my knees to change the angle of things (although that seems to eventually cut off circulation to my legs - can't win some days) and finally I made a doctor's appointment for this morning after enough days of waking up very early and in pain.
The result appears to be a set of XRays, many questions from everyone in sight on how I hurt myself (I didn't! Or if I did, I was ten years old at the time or something!) and a doctor who was very, very repetitive in asking if I had pain or tingling in my legs. (She was also rather confused that I can touch my toes and do a pretty deep backbend without pain. I don't get it either, I just demonstrate it since it's true.) The patch of "don't FUCKING touch that" seems to have grown, too, as she thoroughly proved by POKING all over my lower back to find out where it hurt. It still aches - but if this gets me long term help, it's worth it. I also have a couple of prescriptions, they have several vials of blood and a cup of urine, and we jointly have an appointment for me to get a complete physical the week after OVFF. (That will also address a possible blood sugar issue and get my yearly birth control prescription taken care of.) *sigh* I'm not a good patient, I know. I stubbornly want to just cope with things right up to where I can't anymore, and then I want it fixed, dammit. I'm just a little scared this will somehow follow the same progression my shoulder did - months of pain, pills, shots, physical therapy that does piss all, and then surgery. Granted, it did make all the difference in my shoulder, but I really don't want to do that again, and the idea of doing it on my spine this time makes me shiver.
Killing me slowly...
March 30th, 2007
So, apparently this is supposed to be the worst year for pollen and hayfever around here in decades. This is both unsurprising (everything has a coat of dusty yellow) and good to know, since now that the Nasonex has (thankfully!) stopped the nosebleeds and the desperate desire to simply CUT MY NOSE OFF RIGHT NOW WITH MY NAILCLIPPERS I DON'T CARE, I tend to overlook that I get a lot of other, more subtle symptoms of hayfever, too. This was vividly illustrated to me today when we finally got a good rainstorm, and even fully medicated and inside my airconditioned office building I could feel the difference - my eyes stopped itching, my throat stopped feeling swollen, my SKIN stopped itching all over,and my concentration and energy levels immediately started to to improve.
Georgia is beautiful in the spring, but she's trying to kill us all with yellow lung disease.
Perchance to dream...
February 23rd, 2007
Well, the call from the doctor's office said all the lab tests came back normal, so my thyroid is fine, and presumably my insulin is also - they didn't specify which tests but I know the doctor mentioned both. I clearly fixated on this solution more than I thought I had, becuase my first reaction was disappointment - not a really good reaction to someone telling you you're healthy. Oddly enough, I *am* actually feeling much more alert this morning, and I think I have been incrementally for a bit. I think ACat's cpap is making more difference to me than I first thought (I know it's making an enormous difference to him!) I know last Sunday night, the first night that he slept next to me with it on, I slept horribly, and it seemed to me that I was waking up and thinking he wasn't breathing, simply because I couldn't hear it. Then the next few days and nights I was frickin exhausted, but frankly that often happens to me around that time of month. Last night, though.... well, I slept well, and I woke up rested. We're just going to have to see if this actually lasts through the day or if I'm falling asleep at my desk this afternoon (which, frankly, the hurry-up-and-wait doesn't help with either). ACat suggested I might ask for a referral for a sleep study if the blood work showed nothing, and I think I will, but I may wait a bit and see before I schedule an actual study, because if this lasts... well, if this lasts, I may finally feel like I'm actually caught up on my sleep. I'm not sure I remember quite what that feels like.
Also, relevant to nothing at all, I'm driving east for most of my morning drive straight into the sunrise, and at such a time that I was driving in the dark but now it's coming out while I drive, and it's just a little higher and brighter every day. It makes my morning commute almost surreally gorgeous, with silhouettes of trees, buildings and hills against what seems an endlessly varied backdrop of blues, yellows and pale oranges streaked with clouds. It's a really great way to start a morning, and I'll miss it once daylight savings kicks in.
Hurrah for CPAP!
February 16th, 2007
ACat picked up his CPAP today, and a sleek bit of technology it is. A filking friend came up with an appropriate off the cuff response that I just had to share - set to the (I hope) obvious tune:
Leah Leah, give him your answer, do. He stops breathing, and the doctor says so do you . . . It's not silk sheets or satin, or something long and latin, But you'll breathe free, as much as he, with a CPAP that's built for two!
I sure hope this helps him as much as it sounds like it will.
Anyone want a memory foam mattress topper?
October 7th, 2006
For my birthday last year I asked for and got a 3" 3lb density queen sized memory foam mattress topper. I like it and sleep well on it, but very strong circumstancial evidence suggests that it makes ACat's back problems worse. If no one speaks for it I'll put it up on Freecycle but I thought I'd offer it to friends first. I can't very well ship it - it's quite bulky and I have no way to compress it to the level the factory did - but any one who can pick it up in Alpharetta is welcome to it.
Little ado about even less
April 7th, 2006
I just realized I never did say I'm done with my physical therapy. I've spent enough time griping, I ought to be telling all the patient people that YES, I am DONE! My doctor signed off on my progress on March 31st, so I have two more months doing my exercises on my own, and then one more appointment where he'll tell me I'm done all the way. It's great, it's absolutely amazing, there were times where I figured I'd never have this much motion on that arm again, and my strength is what I'm working on building now. Anyone want help moving anything? :)
My only gripe now is hayfever. When the pollen meter consistently tells you that on a scale of one to twelve, you're breathing in air with eleven plus concentrations of pollen you know you're in Georgia in the springtime. Nasonex is keeping me sane and nosebleed free, so my gripes are really pretty minimal this year - mostly just chronic exhaustion. I was amused, when I went out to lunch, to see perfect clusters of fingerprints dusted in yellow pollen around the edge and on the window of my driver side door. I've been printed!
Herpes vaccination study
February 21st, 2006
klrmn pointed me at this, and I'm too old for their purposes but this rates passing on:
http://dawnd.livejournal.com/216750.html#cutid1
Short version: They're looking for women between 18 and 30 for a herpes vaccination study being conducted at 45 locations across the US, and they're having trouble finding volunteers who are not positive for HSV1 or 2 already. If you would fit their profile, this sounds like a really interesting study.
In brief
December 23rd, 2005
I had my first post surgery physical therapy last night. The good news is things are basically healing. The bad news is apparently they are doing so in spite of me.
I had post surgery instructions for the first 48-72 hours, but was apparently unclear on what I should be doing after. I (being a stubborn and impatient type, fancy that) have been pretty much pushing myself as I can tell I'm getting better. In fact, I was quite pleased with my progress. Well, the therapist apparently isn't. I should have been cautious where I was impatient, and resting where I was stretching, and generally trying to make the muscles relax more than they are rather than testing my limits. Her description was that the muscles were extremely guarded, and I didn't have nearly the range of motion she apparently expected. Dammit.
So ACat is back on pretty much the full range of housework, and I'm taking advantage of the 4 day weekend I have (a company that gives Fri AND Mon off for Xmas on Sun??) and hopefully I'll be doing better soon.
I have to admit, it's immensely less painful this way, but somehow I seem to have been raised with the idea that coping with pain is more admirable than whining about it - I am able to see past that for other people, but it's hard to get around it for myself. Having doctor's orders to rest it and avoid the pain somehow doesn't make it feel any less like malingering. I know, I'm much, much better. I want to be well, though. The really depressing part is the thought that I've sabotagued myself.
(Another disconcerting bit - I've been fairly regularly waking up between one and two, in enough pain to want a Percocet pill. No pain last night following PT and the new instructions (and a session of electrostimulus, which is the WEIRDEST damn thing I've ever felt but effective for pain relief like whoa!), but I still woke up about one thirty, very twitchy and tense, unable to sleep and REALLY wanting to go take a pill. I don't like this, I don't like this at all. Fortunately, I don't work today, so I just stayed up until I could go back to sleep without one. My goal today is no painkillers stronger than ibruprophen. So far, not even that - I am warily pleased.)
Edit: Note this doesn't mean I'm going to try and be stupid and stubborn in a different direction and NOT take painkillers when there IS pain. I just don't like the feeling that I have a habit of taking them that's there even when the pain goes away.