General Medical issues thread

[rogerkambah]

I’m pretty sure when I turn 91 then I wouldn’t want to be brought back

But you've lived hard. (runs)

 

[cove]

At 91 you would have only had your specialist geriatrician for 6 years (in Sydney).
It is true it gets lonely in those years 90 to 100 as most of your school chums and friends are gone.

 

[drron]

It depends on your health.I had a 93 year old patient who needed an eye kept on a few problems but physically she was pretty good.
Used to save up her pension then go to BNE and take a flight to wherever she could afford for the fare and 3-4 nights accomadation.
Used to do that 3-4 times a year.She enjoyed life and made new friends.

 

[Renato1]

Our health fund just sent us an information statement about how much money they had paid out for my wife and me for the period 1/11/2016 to 31/10/2017. It was the most miserable year of our lives with both of us having major back operations, and my wife having three other significant operations.

For Hospital the fund paid out $102,872.85 and for Medical $12,708.55.
And I was out of pocket nearly $8,000.

Given that we had Foxtel movie and general channels in our hospital and rehab rooms, I think private health insurance is pretty good value.
Regards,
Renato

 

[cove]

Gee Renato1 I used to be embarrassed that I had cost my Private Health Fund a bit over $20,000 in 1994 for my heart operation.
I go to a hydrotherapy pool 5 days a week at 5.30 am and mostly walk in it for between an hour to an hour and a half.

 

[love_the_life]

Interesting to see the difference 20+ years made to the cost of health (accepting that operations were different though)

 

[Pushka]

It depends on your health.I had a 93 year old patient who needed an eye kept on a few problems but physically she was pretty good.
Used to save up her pension then go to BNE and take a flight to wherever she could afford for the fare and 3-4 nights accomadation.
Used to do that 3-4 times a year.She enjoyed life and made new friends.

Yes. Understand. But in a flash it can all go to carp. Mum was very healthy until she was 85. I took her overseas with me when she was 82. Then at 86 had her first stroke completely out of the blue. She recovered kind of from that then had to go to a nursing home. I loathed the place. She was there for 18 months and then died an awful death after a stroke even though on warfarin. I am a visual person and am still a bit haunted by those last 10 days. I plan on organising things when I see fit.
Watch ‘Still Alice’.

 

[Renato1]

Gee Renato1 I used to be embarrassed that I had cost my Private Health Fund a bit over $20,000 in 1994 for my heart operation.
I go to a hydrotherapy pool 5 days a week at 5.30 am and mostly walk in it for between an hour to an hour and a half.

Thanks, yes I am feeling a tad guilty about the cost we've inflicted on our health fund, though there was nothing we could have done about it, as all the operations were necessary and fairly urgent.

Fortunately we've now recovered enough on our backs that we don't need the hydrotherapy anymore - though my wife is now at her physiotherapist doing work on her knee.

One odd thing though. When we went to Bali nearly four weeks ago, we weren't in good shape if we did anything physical, and I seriously doubted that we would be doing anything much - as we were having a hard time walking any moderate distance or being driven in a car for much more than an hour before our backs started aching. My concern was so great that I paid $50 a day to upgrade from a Garden View to an Ocean View room, since I figured that as we weren't going to be doing much, we may as well look at the view for our stay.

As it transpired, both my wife and I had a remarkable improvement on landing in Bali. We could walk a whole lot further before our backs got sore, and we could happily be driven around in a car on day trips without discomfort. And I stopped using Tramadol every day, and switched to a couple of Ibuprofen tablets instead. I guess it was sort of the atmospheric equivalent of hydrotherapy.
Regards,
Renato

 

[JohnK]

I’m pretty sure when I turn 91 then I wouldn’t want to be brought back

You keep saying that. We obviously see life differently. Even though I may sound negative I'd never give up. I'd want to hang on to every breath of life.

 

[Pushka]

You keep saying that. We obviously see life differently. Even though I may sound negative I'd never give up. I'd want to hang on to every breath of life.

Nah. Not if you see that. I saw mum having to do that. I’m not going there.

 

[Renato1]

At 91 you would have only had your specialist geriatrician for 6 years (in Sydney).
It is true it gets lonely in those years 90 to 100 as most of your school chums and friends are gone.

But one can still watch The Punisher or Star Trek or whatever on TV, and muck around chatting on hobby discussion sites on the internet, or comment on political sites, or chat with other ancients of Facebook - life is different nowadays when all one's friends pass away.
Regards,
Renato

 

[love_the_life]

But one can still watch The Punisher or Star Trek or whatever on TV, and muck around chatting on hobby discussion sites on the internet, or comment on political sites, or chat with other ancients of Facebook - life is different nowadays when all one's friends pass away.
Regards,
Renato

My mother is 95 and didn't ever manage to get into the technology age. She doesn't have an iPad or computer or the internet. She has arthritis in the her fingers anyway. She keeps busy but it is lonely when most of her friends and siblings have already gone. She watches sport on TV between frequent cat naps. It takes her a long time to do things as she needs to sit down often. She is also worried about falling and so she doesn't garden anymore. She is generally happy but I don't think she is frightened of dying. She sees it as a natural part of life and accepts that her body is wearing out. I know she didn't expect to live this long at all.

 

[tgh]

My mother is 95 and didn't ever manage to get into the technology age. She doesn't have an iPad or computer or the internet. She has arthritis in the her fingers anyway. She keeps busy but it is lonely when most of her friends and siblings have already gone. She watches sport on TV between frequent cat naps. It takes her a long time to do things as she needs to sit down often. She is also worried about falling and so she doesn't garden anymore. She is generally happy but I don't think she is frightened of dying. She sees it as a natural part of life and accepts that her body is wearing out. I know she didn't expect to live this long at all.

An ipad might be a revelation for her if you got her going and past the I can't /won't stage…..

 

[Renato1]

My mother is 95 and didn't ever manage to get into the technology age. She doesn't have an iPad or computer or the internet. She has arthritis in the her fingers anyway. She keeps busy but it is lonely when most of her friends and siblings have already gone. She watches sport on TV between frequent cat naps. It takes her a long time to do things as she needs to sit down often. She is also worried about falling and so she doesn't garden anymore. She is generally happy but I don't think she is frightened of dying. She sees it as a natural part of life and accepts that her body is wearing out. I know she didn't expect to live this long at all.

She sounds like she is in not too bad a place, with you and your family around.

If she had an easy to use Smart TV like my old Sony Bravia, accessing Netflix and Youtube would be a cinch for her and keep her entertained very well using either the complex or simple remote control that came with mine. Though many Smart TVs have the Android set-up, and are very annoying to use (I know that Sony have changed their Smart TV set-up, and don't know if they are still as easy to use).

The other thing I found with my parents (who are now departed) was that they were having a hard time listening to TV when the speakers were behind the TV and sound bounced off walls. So I was buying them TVs with speakers at the front, which they enjoyed a lot more. Nowadays, most flat sceen TVs have the speakers at the back. The solution to that is to buy a sound-bar which has speakers at the front, and just leave it on all the time. The cheap $120 one that is sold occasionally at Aldi, does a great job of enhancing talking-sound quality, after a bit of experimentation with its settings.
Regards,
Renato

 

[JohnK]

It would appear wife has picked up another cold/flu. Gets fever, shakes and dizziness. Is that normal for cold/flu? I don't remember getting those symptoms with any of my cold/flus.

Blood test, urine tests and ultrasound clear last week.

 

[Quickstatus]

It would appear wife has picked up another cold/flu. Gets fever, shakes and dizziness. Is that normal for cold/flu? I don't remember getting those symptoms with any of my cold/flus.

Blood test, urine tests and ultrasound clear last week.

These are in industry parlance " non specific symptoms". May mean a not or not a lot.
Do you have a thermometer. Fevers shakes tend to go together and usually related to fever.

 

[JohnK]

These are in industry parlance " non specific symptoms". May mean a not or not a lot.
Do you have a thermometer. Fevers shakes tend to go together and usually related to fever.

Generally 37.6° but was 38.9° the other day.

 

[Quickstatus]

Ok so there is fever. Can be anything but it is significant.
Need to have it checked out. Could just be flu/ other non significant infection but hard to say.

 

[Milboo]

Had a minor panic today. Physio was concerned over appearance of lump, tenderness and warmth at the back of my knee given I'm not long back from overseas. Luckily my doctor was working and within a couple of hours was able to rule out DVT.

 

[Pushka]

Had a minor panic today. Physio was concerned over appearance of lump, tenderness and warmth at the back of my knee given I'm not long back from overseas. Luckily my doctor was working and within a couple of hours was able to rule out DVT.

You can imagine my panic therefore when a DVT was found in my jugular vein