Arthritis?

[The Duke]

That’s my issue Ed, their reliance on antibiotics for all common stuff. If your issue isn’t common they just refer you. And usually give you some AB anyway.

Iirc isn’t the the guidelines, max twice a year?

For the longest time now, we have seen reports saying in 20 years (or something ) if we keep eating AB as we are, they just won’t work anymore. Then we will be in trouble.

Maybe that’s the gran ‘population’ plan, kill us with kindness.

[Richard]

Ed, Steve, Bob, Yes I take omeprazole  to manage gastric issues though they can be stirred up by poor choices-by-mouth. Since using the Vaseline things have considerably improved in the nasal region, morning blockages are a thing of the past. It could be that my sinus issues are connected to erratic gastric stability, but pinning it down is a challenge that has defeated past medical interventions over nearly 50 years. The sore throat could be a result of accumulated damage though the recent investigations suggested only minor damage low down and not in the cough area.

At least Vaseline is not an antibiotic!

[Ed P]

Richard, unnoticed over-night reflux is not uncommon. Rather than increasing the dosage of my ppi my Consultant recommended taking Gavescon just before retiring for a period until things stabilise. He also prescribed domperidom to be used when bad food/drink choices were inevitable. This speeds up the gut process so reducing reflux risk. It is a mild laxative so regular use is not a good idea. I will not say these measures solved all problems but it certainly reduced them.

He is an anti-pill man, and tries to minimise their use/dosage unless absolutely necessary. Unfortunately he nags me about my weight and tells me that even the upper end of the bmi range is still too much. (he is a thin as a rake so it is hard to give any push-back). He is the first gut consultant that I have ever seen who examined everything from reactions and dental health to memory before getting down to business. (In retrospect he was probably eliminating alcoholism as a factor)

[JayCeeDee]

My remedy for nasal blockages, whether they be cold/flu related or not, is a hankie on my bedside table with 8 – 10 drops of Eucalyptus Oil and 6 -8 drops of Lavender Oil. I always get a good night’s sleep ( courtesy of the Lavender ) and wake up with a clear nose in the morning.

[The Duke]

Eucalyptus oil (obus) is great, use that often in the inter months I just sprinkle it on my pillow.

As to bad foods, u love a cheese and onion pasty. But oh boy puff pastry hates me. But it’s soooo nice. Could just do a sayer C&O now. Yum yum,followed by “I’m dying” lol.

[Richard]

I’ve made use of Olbas a lot in the past along with steaming, but it did not touch my issue. There is no very polite way to say this but the issue is nasal clots which build up during the night and sometimes during the day, they usually have to be cleared out as best I can, but this has not been an issue since the Vaseline therapy.

Apparently the low humidity desiccates nasal passages with less good effects.

We had to use humidifiers for the babies during the dry season in Japan, one was severely premature though not any more now! They machines are still in the loft having last been used when the children were ill years ago. The GP came, took one look and decided that they were better off here than the set up they could get in hospital.

[Bob Williams]

My Barrett’s problem, causes Gastric mucous/cattarrh, not that caused by a sinus or any other breathing passage problem. No amount of Vaseline, Vick, Eucalyptus or other substance to ease breathing, can stop this. The mucous comes from the Barretts condition, which is the oesophagus/gullet defending itself against acid reflux, by creating cells to line the gullet which are indistinguishable from the cells that line the wall of the stomach. In the stomach, these cells continually produce gastric mucous, which coats food with a lining to help digestion. These cells are also created in a Barretts oesophagus, but in that case they also trap food particles, which produces more mucous. As I said before, it is a vicious circle. My neighbour once heard me coghing for so long in the bathroom, via the vented window, that he came round to ask SWMBO if I was OK.

My condition was complicated by scarring of the pleural cavity some years ago after a bad bout of pneumonia and pleurisy. This scarring has gradually healed over time. However my Barretts consultant here in Lincolnshire, who gave me the above explanation, believes that the scarring and associated breathing problems masked much of the gastric cattarrh caused by reflux and the Barretts condition, for many years. They gave me an inhaler in Notts hospitals, which is something else they should not have done.

I have to say that I have never had a GP that I did not believe in. The one back in Notts was actually a personal friend, who fought for me to get Incapacity and DLA. Every GP here in Lincs, has been fine. The two I see regularly now are the guys who wrote (together) to another consultant, to have my infected gall bladder removed after 13 months of severe illness.

In Notts, I was once MOT – testing my GP mate Terry’s* Land rover. After I finished, I told him about some painful pimples. He told me to remove my overalls and gave me an examination bent over the Headlamp alignment beam tester! “Come up to the surgery tomorrow: you have Shingles!” That was my first attack of Shingles, I had the Shingles vaccine a few years ago and never had another dose of that very painful condition since.

*RIP Terry, a good mate and a very good, old school GP. Warm your stethoscope, mate.

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

[Tippon]

Richard wrote:

I’ve made use of Olbas a lot in the past along with steaming, but it did not touch my issue. There is no very polite way to say this but the issue is nasal clots which build up during the night and sometimes during the day, they usually have to be cleared out as best I can, but this has not been an issue since the Vaseline therapy. Apparently the low humidity desiccates nasal passages with less good effects. 

I bought cheap and cheerful humidifiers from Amazon a few years back. They’re basically just small vases with a clip to hang them on a radiator. As the radiator heats up, so does the water inside the vases, which then circulates as steam / damp air.

When we were using them, they were great. Unfortunately the animals kept trying to play with them, so they were put somewhere safe and never seen again!

[Richard]

Bob, you have my sympathy that is clearly a long lived and far more acute issue, as are many of the others you currently suffer. I know from my wife’s state and my own lesser one that the sufferer ends up feeling that you don’t just want treatment you want solutions. Sadly no solution appears to be anywhere to be found with many long term problems.

[Bob Williams]

Thanks Richard, there is an alternative to living with it all but I don’t fancy it. After being revived 3 times within 5 hours in a German operating theatre in the 70’s, I developed a different outlook on life and how good it is, disregarding any and all health issues. Today I took my youngest gdaughter out to a film after a beach visit: blue sky and my favourite young person to share a lunch, a cinema visit and lots of interesting conversation with. Happiness!

I live by my old dad’s Secret Of Life rule: you just have to keep waking up every morning.

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

[Richard]

I had an interesting ENT visit today. There is still evidence of reflux so more will have to be done to control that part of the issue, however there is also an ENT issue with my nose. His first question after a video look was have I ever had any nose operations? So I now have an action plan and will see him again next year when he might decide on an operation. He endorsed the Vaseline ‘if you had not said that had been started, I would tell you to start now’ and I will have to alternate it with another treatment to see if this start to improve. He is also testing for a condition rather like one of my wife’s issues.

So Bob, the problems keep grinding my way, still the plumbing issues are finally all closed off. The last one was a brand new ‘I’ll have the more expensive one with the faulty olive, not the cheap one with probably OK olives‘. I only found the issue when I just would not seal up properly. Life just keeps going that way for the moment.

We managed a pleasant meal out, tonight, that was a bright light on a cold dark evening.

[Bob Williams]

I am recalling up some of my own older problems whilst reading about yours Richard. Some time ago, I told the story of my encounter with a hit and run stolen car in Germany, which led to a 3 day coma, fractured skull, cracked ribs and 2 broken legs. I was fortunate in being taken by a German ambulance to a German hospital and had a series of 3 brain operations, performed by a very good German surgeon. That was the time when I vacated my perch 3 times and was revived. My nose had been flattened, part of the bridge was replaced by a plastic compound and the sinuses still bother me today. For almost another year I had literally blinding headaches and kept asking the Army medics to send me to ENT. Eventually a new young M.O. took over the garrison Med Centre and agreed: they found a very tiny sliver of bone from the accident, pressing on a nerve intermittently, which gave me the headaches. Removal of that cured the headaches but I am left with a sinal cavity on the left which is smaller than the right. My nose is always dry, never found relief for that, but I am going to try the vaseline and see if it helps: no one has ever suggested it, as it was always thought that the Barretts was causing most of my problems in that regard. Thanks for the tip!

Glad you enjoyed the meal. I am due to take out my grandsons on Saturday, it is haircut and meal time for us lads. Steak & Ale pie for me and a monster burger for them, but real beef burgers at a local restaurant. No McDonalds for us!

 

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

[PlaneMan]

I’ve been looking for some large handled cutlery for when my hands are ruined, like today.

Thing is I can only find very expensive stuff that looks like a nursery school kid should be using it.

I use a cleaver for chopping stuff as the handle and weight balance means very little effort on my part, I just kind of help it along.

I don’t mind paying a little over the odds of normal cutlery but about £9 for a fork/spoon/knife is a bad joke and I’ll need 2 sets, one each for my place and mum’s.

Any recommendations?

[The Duke]

Go the pound shop by a couple wooden rolling pins,  incert cutlery into one end. Job done. ?

[Bob Williams]

A mate with Parkinson’s gave me these links, Nolan.

http://tinyurl.com/y9jb7rge

http://tinyurl.com/y7ekskvf

Says he found something useful in both places. Our Gert has a right hand destroyed by a botched operation and the other affected by a spinal problem. The only thing she has real difficulty with, is taps, so we had all taps replaced with lever high neck pillar taps. Our landlord replaced them in the days when they were still getting funding for stuff like that. These are an example, there must be some cheaper elsewhere:

http://tinyurl.com/ya5jayrv

The only problem we faced with using them, was due to a dumb plumber making the bathroom sink taps turn on/off opposite to the kitchen taps. We kept forgetting and turning off the wrong way: with our high pressure water, we kept getting drenched. I sorted that myself.

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

[Ed P]

Sugru may be of interest but you would need someone to help.

link

or you could gut your bike!

link

[PlaneMan]

Thanks for that Bob, I might go down the local rip off, staffed-by-idiots disability shop to see if they have any out to try, then buy elsewhere.

There are a few on those links that look promising.

[Bob Williams]

We are lucky in Louth Nolan: our Disability shop is run by one man and his wife, they take turns to be there during opening hours. She is in her “Very late 50’s” now (her words, probably means 60’s) and he is in his mid-60’s. They are making noises about retirement, with no others to take their places it will mean the next place is a shop much like you describe in Mablethorpe.

That is a town infested with very large people of indeterminate gender, rolling around narrow pavements on electric scooters until they get to a shop they want to enter. Then they get up and walk in without any discernable problem. One consultant some years ago, advised me to buy one. I advised him to do something else. I have great sympathy for those who need them such as my BIL and a mate with MS, but it is obvious that many would live longer if they determined to stay on their feet.

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

[The Duke]

The suglu ed speaks of would be perfect to make custom handles. However it would cost some, unless you could get a job lot.

Also you can mold it over and over, by setting it in warm water. (though that may be another similar compound).

They use it on the know how pod(video)cast often.

[Ed P]

Ooogru is a very cheap usable alternate to Sugru, but messy as hell. Needs a lot of experimentation to get the mix right and patience in cleaning hands and everything after!

As the man says in his step by step, make  sure the silicon glue is acetic acid based. (I use the transparent one from Wilco). One little American translation is required Corn flour = corn starch, and it is not necessary to use Gorilla products. If you use acrylic paints for colouring the setting times can be super-fast and make moulding difficult – caution in adding colour is needed to get right mix.

I had not thought of using warm water – I’ll try that next time, thanks for the tip.

One little tip from me try adding a tiny niobium magnet to anything you make with Sugru/Ooogru – great for giving you a handy place for steel pins/nails/screws (stick a patch on the back of a work glove etc.)

[Author]

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