Arthritis?

[JayCeeDee]

It was only when the wife was referred to a pain clinic that she was MRI’d – it’s a requirement apparently – and they discovered that it was a sequestered disk laying on the sciatic nerve that was giving her all the grief of cramps, numbness, pain, leg giving way etc.

This had not been apparent from the x-ray that they did 5 years previously, from which they had diagnosed arthritis on the base of the spine and wear and tear. As she said at the time, you don’t stand out in all weathers for 40 years without getting some sort of problems.

 

Good luck with it PM and persevere!!

[Bob Williams]

Nolan, that guy sounds like the only decent surgeons/consultants I ever met. The first was 20+ years ago in Notts and he said straight out that, at that time, they could do nothing for me, but there were advances being made all the time and someday they might be able to help me. He was right, but he retired and I suffered 2 more INsultants before I found the right guy and the right treatment. Both of those, as you say, actually spoke TO me and in layperson’s language. I had been bamboozled with Medi-speak too many times.

There is another good consultant, that I saw a few years ago and is now seeing my missus. Grimsby hospital lost all SWMBO’s documents and he went bananas. He had 4 different admin staff in the office, questioned them all and made them apologise to SWMBO. Eventually they found the docus, he had the offending woman in (a surly moo) and made her apologise again. Then he told my missus to ignore what the last insultant told her and arranged the right treatment, which has made her handle things much better.

There are not enough of them like that, unfortunately.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[PlaneMan]

As you say Bob, not enough of them.

About my age and was confused about my pain. Then I told him about the MRA I had and he had to access a different system and drill down through various levels of shite to get to the results.

The arse doesn’t know what the elbow is up to.

[JayCeeDee]

@bullstuff2 – Bob, wasn’t SWMBO due to have her hip ops Tuesday?? Hope she’s all OK.

[Bob Williams]

JayCeeDee wrote:

@bullstuff2 – Bob, wasn’t SWMBO due to have her hip ops Tuesday?? Hope she’s all OK.

Cancelled, JayCeeDee, thanks for asking. Poor lass now has an infection of the pipes and is undergoing twice-daily tests of every fluid you can name (and some I won’t because know nowt about them ??) Car knows its way to the Surgery now.

My poor old Gert is in constant pain and really does not need to go up there twice a day.

But you can’t show sympathy, it makes them worse!?

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

Must be in the air bob, mines got an infection too atm. She don’t arf bang on about it.

[JayCeeDee]

She has my sympathies – since coming back from holiday on the 18th last month I’ve had a week of flu, a week recovering while the wife had it – and she ended up on anti-biotics for a chest infection –  another 10 days of cold/flu and still now I’m left with a persistent silly cough. I didn’t think it would be a chest infection and this was confirmed by the Marsden’s CT scan ( 6-monthly check-up which was all good and showed the lungs clear ).

They were baffled and could only suggest that as I been on a cruise, it could very, very possibly – but really unlikely – be Legionnaire’s Disease. As they had a urine sample for some of their usual tests they would include one for that too. They really are great!! They said if it persists for another week or so to get down the GP’s. Deep joy!!

 

You’re right – they think receiving sympathy is a sign of their weakness, not your caring!! We can only turn up and do what’s needed!!

[Richard]

Yes these things are a bummer, and it sounds a bit worse than my wife’s case. Sent home from the Hospital at the beginning of the month as she ‘was too ill for the investigation planned’. She is a bit better now so hopefully it can go ahead next week*.

Hips are more intrusive so it is important that you are well enough and without any infections. Hopefully she can be cleared up in the near future.

* A bit better = not throwing up and coughing all night.

[Bob Williams]

My Gert’s infection is in the waterworks department, she is currently having to wait ‘to go’ until she can provide a specimen no more than 20 minutes before 9 am and 12 noon. What with the hip pain, the itchy infection and having to wee to order, my life is not at all peaceful atm.

And do she consider my feelings, listening to her moaning? Do she heck as like! I have removed my hearing aids…

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[D-Dan]

I feel her pain. After a third visit to the docs, the first identifying an infection that had gone into my left lung, a course of antibiotics cleared it up. The doc wanted a sample, which I was unable to provide, but the follow up visit that got fixed, and whilst the lung had cleared up, seems I also have a water infection, so another course of a different antibiotic.

What’s more annoying is that neither infection has exhibited any symptoms of it’s own, but both have played havoc with my diabetes. 🙁

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[Richard]

D-Dan, Wearing my conspiracy theory hat could there be more of a connection between all of these things? Is there something else that is affecting all three issues, like your general health making you prey to those other issues?

The ‘hat’ off again now.

[D-Dan]

@Richard. I wish. Generally, I’m the fittest, healthiest chronically ill person I know.

Just a run of bad luck, I guess.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[Ed P]

I think Richard was alluding to possible outside factors. When I was overseas a whole spate of problems was eventually traced back to poor air-con hygiene. I’m not suggesting that as a cause, but one more likely area to look at is your shower system – bacterial build-up (say) in the shower head is a well-known source of nasties including Legionnaires disease, it can even cause other body ailments of eyes, and bladder. You can Google it yourself but this is a typical Mirror journo pseudo-science article.

[Richard]

Yes Ed I was suggesting something like that.

I also had a left lung infection a while back, it was painful and caused me to go to the doctor at the time.  Had the full TV camera and other works, without sedation as I had another urgent appointment in the afternoon, (ever been tickled from the inside?)

The cause was suggested to be nasal issues and I now take a range of tablets. However I still have the cough and sore throat and will finally see an ear nose and throat person next week. I have measured that the air inside the house is very dry i.e. low humidity. Then I had a mega nose bleed while I was sorting out the plumbing under a kitchen sink perfect timing – not. Drop the job to fee hands and half a kitchen roll, half a loo roll, two new red sinks a red back splash for each and a nice(?) new red floor I decided enough was enough.

After finding that low humidity can encourage some of the effects I have I started to insert Vaseline into my nose to keep the membranes from drying out. The nose is noticeably more comfortable, I still have a sore throat and cough but hey, any progress is good progress. I do have a couple of ageing humidifiers so that could be a next step, but do not want to cause damp issues.

Sometimes it is just hard to win.

[Ed P]

Richard, if you have any gastric reflux problems then they can cause nasal/catarrh/throat/cough issues. The reflux will irritate the top of the throat and trigger the above. (Been there got the biscuit).

[The Duke]

Yesterday we picked the wife’s weekly prescription up from the docs, and there was a generic leaflet in it warning of overuse of antibiotics, informing the reader that you shouldn’t go the docs for any old sniffle.

My first thought was, tell the doctors to stop handing them out, not the recipient that will follow the docs orders.

They must of been putting in all prescription bags, as my wife can’t have them no more as she had Cdiff last year twice.

Strange leaflet indeed.

[Bob Williams]

Ed P wrote:

Richard, if you have any gastric reflux problems then they can cause nasal/catarrh/throat/cough issues. The reflux will irritate the top of the throat and trigger the above. (Been there got the biscuit).

I second that: I spend up to an hour every morning coughing up gastric cattarrh. The continual acid reflux is what gave me Barretts Oesophagus – a stomach lining in my gullet, which decreases the diameter of the oesophagus/gullet, and leads to food being trapped there. Which exacerbates the coughing and the cattarrh, by the irritation and the formation of more mucous around the trapped food. It’s a vicious circle.

Steve: I suspect that Surgeries and GP’s get a kick-back from pharmaceutical companies. Ask the Duchess to confirm that with Mrs. Bishop – John was a Pharma Technician, before he was a comedian. (From his autobiography, which is entertaining, interesting and just as funny as you would expect.)

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[JayCeeDee]

The Duke wrote:

Yesterday we picked the wife’s weekly prescription up from the docs, and there was a generic leaflet in it warning of overuse of antibiotics, informing the reader that you shouldn’t go the docs for any old sniffle. My first thought was, tell the doctors to stop handing them out, not the recipient that will follow the docs orders. They must of been putting in all prescription bags, as my wife can’t have them no more as she had Cdiff last year twice. Strange leaflet indeed.

 

On TV at the moment there is an ad campaign to stop people thinking anti-biotics are a universal panacea for everything. The problem is our bodies adapt to them and they become less effective ( or next to useless ) over time. They should be used sparingly for specific urgent medical treatment, not just handed out ad-lib to get the patient out of the surgery in double quick time. But you’re right, it’s only when the GP’s get the message that any changes will come about.

I’m not advocating against them btw, just their unnecessary over-use.

[The Duke]

I’m in total agreement. But the only place to get them (bar vets) is the doctors. Surely it’s cheaper to tell the docs to curb their defacto reliance on prescribing them

As I said earlier, if a doc gives them you, you’ll take them. My wife with all her ills, was given them on a monthly basis for years. I always went mad about how many and regular in ever increasing doses. Eventually she got C diff, however before the realised what it was, they fed her yet more strong antibiotics, which is the opersite of what should be done. C diff feeds on the stuff.

Even now, they try to giver her the crap monthly. I have zero time for GPs. 20 years ago I figured this out. If you have an issue, read up on it, then when your at the GP, carefully explain what you need. As all gps do is read up on your symptoms, guess, and give you antibiotics and hope. They are useless.

 

Bob- yes the the phara industry is based on back handers, and what makes money, not what is the best for the patient. Just like life, if your not bent you’ll go no where in life. Sad but true.

I know many people with great life’s, that have less than ligit incomes. The majority of us tey to stick to the rules (as close as possible), but  only ever tread water.

[Ed P]

Steve I’ll defend GPs as being generally caring people who try to do their best in difficult circumstances with a lot of accompanying stress and long hours. If they were just in it for the money they would have gone the Consultant route.

That said, I do agree with carefully detailing all symptoms and observations/concerns. They only have 10minutes per patient and often spend most of that time trying to get a clear description of why the person has even bothered to come along.

I also agree re antibiotics, they are the lazy GPs panacea and all too often the patient complains if they do not receive them. Maybe there should be a ‘new’ antibiotic placebo instead!

The other strike against antibiotics is that they frequently trigger destroy all the good gut bugs and trigger major gastric problems.

[Author]

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