General Medical issues thread

[andye]

Even worse if C diff needs treatment with antibiotics, it's one you really can't drink with

 

[prozac]

Even worse if C diff needs treatment with antibiotics, it's one you really can't drink with

Was sent home from hospital on one occasion with a course of antibiotics and the advice "It's ok, you can have a drink with this" (really?). So I did, and it tasted horrid so I didn't have another.

 

[Pushka]

Was sent home from hospital on one occasion with a course of antibiotics and the advice "It's ok, you can have a drink with this" (really?). So I did, and it tasted horrid so I didn't have another.

Alcohol is banned with Flagyl. Not that you’d want to drink anyway. It’s almost like the medication wages an internal war on the bugs. And everything tastes metallic. Horrid stuff. But just marginally better than the illness it treats.

 

[prozac]

When taking antibiotics for a prolonged period though there can be complications. I am currently on antibiotics for cellulitus of a finger after the fall earlier in this trip. However in the last 3 days severe diarrhoea has developed which is exceedingly likely to be due to Clostridium Difficile infection a recognised complication of antibiotics. On to the probiotics and will cease the antibiotics tomorrow.

Guess you won't be queuing to view Her Majesty's coffin?

 

[Pushka]

Guess you won't be queuing to view Her Majesty's coffin?

The line up of necessary facilities was very extensive across St James and Hyde Park for the recent platinum jubilee celebrations so these would be brought in as needed.

 

[prozac]

The line up of necessary facilities was very extensive across St James and Hyde Park for the recent platinum jubilee celebrations so these would be brought in as needed.

Don't think @drron in a position to queue for these either.

 

[Pushka]

Don't think @drron in a position to queue for these either.

Sounds rather dire then

 

[JohnK]

When taking antibiotics for a prolonged period though there can be complications. I am currently on antibiotics for cellulitus of a finger after the fall earlier in this trip. However in the last 3 days severe diarrhoea has developed which is exceedingly likely to be due to Clostridium Difficile infection a recognised complication of antibiotics. On to the probiotics and will cease the antibiotics tomorrow.

Sorry to hear @drron but how would you define prolonged period?

I guess I've been on antibiotics for 22-23 days which is not uncommon with some of my previous infections. If I remember correctly with one throat infection we tried 3-4 different antibiotics but I've never had the side effects you describe. If anything it has gone the other way with constipation.

One thing I don't miss are the fungal infections on the tongue/throat due to prolonged use of antibiotics. There were times when I wanted to bite my tongue off. I had to use fungilin with any antibiotic but thankfully that has stopped.

 

[drron]

I was on my 13th day.
Fortunately conservative measures working. No visits for 7 hours!

 

[JohnK]

Life is really strange.

Leg infection almost 4 weeks, no golf but not much time rest as we've been looking and buying things for house. Not much of a holiday. I really should have taken some losses and postponed for 1 month.

Anyway during the worst part of the infection most other chronic conditions were dormant or not noticeable.

Past 2 days lower back has flared up. Can't walk more than 500 metres without stopping for a rest for 5 minutes. Wife, daughter and nephew walking 10-15 metres in front of me and stopping to wait for me. Just as well they are patient.

Life has a lots of ups and downs but boy the downs can drain the life out of you.

 

[prozac]

...

Past 2 days lower back has flared up. Can't walk more than 500 metres without stopping for a rest for 5 minutes. Wife, daughter and nephew walking 10-15 metres in front of me and stopping to wait for me. Just as well they are patient.
...

Likely you have been standing & walking differently since the cellulitis started, favouring that leg, and this has upset your back. Do you think you could get a massage in Thailand?

 

[JohnK]

Likely you have been standing & walking differently since the cellulitis started, favouring that leg, and this has upset your back. Do you think you could get a massage in Thailand?

Still limping but that would more than likely be due to osteoarthritis in hip. When I'm sitting and move the left leg or try to get up there's a lot of pain from hip down the thigh.

Lower back issues have been there for over 30 years thanks to sacroiliitis and ankylosing spondylitis. The pain doesn't usually bother me but it's been quite severe past few days. I'll take anti-inflammatories for a few days and see how I go.

Funny story about massages in Thailand. There's one across the road from golf bar. Many golfers go there and swear by it. Wife had problems wife calf a few years ago and had a couple of visits. Useless was best way to describe them.

I had neck pain a few years ago. Used massage place near Holiday Inn, Chiang Mai. Seriously couldn't move my neck for 3 days.

I'm reluctant to use massage places in Thailand as it can take a long time to find anyone that knows what they are doing.

 

[Flashback]

Still limping but that would more than likely be due to osteoarthritis in hip. When I'm sitting and move the left leg or try to get up there's a lot of pain from hip down the thigh.

Lower back issues have been there for over 30 years thanks to sacroiliitis and ankylosing spondylitis. The pain doesn't usually bother me but it's been quite severe past few days. I'll take anti-inflammatories for a few days and see how I go.

Funny story about massages in Thailand. There's one across the road from golf bar. Many golfers go there and swear by it. Wife had problems wife calf a few years ago and had a couple of visits. Useless was best way to describe them.

I had neck pain a few years ago. Used massage place near Holiday Inn, Chiang Mai. Seriously couldn't move my neck for 3 days.

I'm reluctant to use massage places in Thailand as it can take a long time to find anyone that knows what they are doing.

I suspect the one across the road from the golf course ended very happily, hence the golfers swearing by it

 

[MARTINE]

I suspect the one across the road from the golf course ended very happily, hence the golfers swearing by it

@Flashback - settling into your new abode has put you in a happy frame of mind. Your post articulated my very thoughts!

 

[Gladstone Tim]

@Flashback - settling into your new abode has put you in a happy frame of mind. Your post articulated my very thoughts!

I’m guessing possibly takes the place of the 19th hole??

 

[MARTINE]

I’m guessing possibly takes the place of the 19th hole??

Boom boom

 

[JohnK]

I suspect the one across the road from the golf course ended very happily, hence the golfers swearing by it

Nah that's not the case for this particular place.

Faced with a dilemma. What do you do when you're limping and the other leg is also sore? Woke up today with sharp cramp in right calf just below the knee.

I'm certain this is a simulation. There is no other logical explanation.

 

[Pushka]

Visited the GP today for usual checkup etc. hadn't seen her for over a year but had used Telehealth. Of course talk turned to Covid and implications. She ordered some overdue general tests and said that right now she was seeing the evidence of the other side of the covid lockdown. Thought of you @drron Unfortunately for her she is now seeing women with significant breast cancer that would have been picked up months ago but well, covid restrictions scuppered those things. She reckons she and breast cancer nurse at the local PH talk to each other much too frequently. Her demeanour and words suggested we went too hard for too long and as a result we will pay for the medical consequences of non covid issues for years.

 

[OZDUCK]

My last 2 days in Munich on our recent trip were 'interesting' in the apocryphal Chinese curse way. When I went to bed my eye started to itch and water and I woke up a few hours later with a stinging eye that was becoming bloodshot. By the morning it was a bright shade of red, closed up and extremely sensitive to bright light. I thought that it was an attack of conjunctivitis so we went to a nearby Apotheke. The woman who talked to me immediately said that there was something nasty going on and that I needed to see a Doctor ASAP.

She told me that, in a stroke of pretty incredibly good luck, there was a Teaching University that had an Emergency Eye Clinic open 7 days a week about 500 metres away. We walked in and got some exemplary treatment. Firstly I had to see a nurse and explain, by showing, what was wrong. I then had to pay 100 Euro up front as a foreigner and got processed incredibly quickly. A nurse did the usual eye checks and then sent me off to wait. I was then called in to see a Doctor who spent about 20 minutes looking at my eye. There was another Doctor who also gave me an examination. Eventually they decided that it was not Conjunctivitis but probably Keratitis and due to an infection. They took swabs of the eye but as I was leaving the next day they were never processed. It was decided to to give me an intensive course of antibiotic eye drops. They applied some every 5 minutes for half an hour. I was then sent off with a prescription for 3 vials of the drops. The first two Apotheke's didn't have enough in stock but the second one ordered some in and they arrived within an hour - on a Saturday morning. It cost 60 Euros for them.

I had to use the drops every 15 minutes for 6 hours and then every half hour and after that every hour - I was allowed to sleep but if I woke up in the night I put the drops in. This meant that the sightseeing and shopping we had planed for the last 2 days in Munich went out the window. I used them all through both flights. The eye is still inflamed but not nearly as bad as before but is still more sensitive to light. I appear to have lost some sight but, again luckily, I have been nearly blind in that eye for 60 years. I probably have gone from about 6% vision to 4% vision. Currently I have been put onto steroi_ eye drops with a review due next week.

My Travel Insurance gap means that it is not worth chasing them up for a few dollars - especially as the hospital receipt is almost just a Cash Register docket with no information on it. I was very impressed with my treatment at the Eye Clinic. In a little over 2 1/2 hours, including waiting for my eyes to dilate, I was seen by 3 nurses and 2 doctors and received treatment for 30 minutes.. The ability of the Apotheke to source the drops so quickly on a Saturday morning was also impressive.

 

[prozac]

My last 2 days in Munich on our recent trip were 'interesting' in the apocryphal Chinese curse way. When I went to bed my eye started to itch and water and I woke up a few hours later with a stinging eye that was becoming bloodshot. By the morning it was a bright shade of red, closed up and extremely sensitive to bright light. I thought that it was an attack of conjunctivitis so we went to a nearby Apotheke. The woman who talked to me immediately said that there was something nasty going on and that I needed to see a Doctor ASAP.

She told me that, in a stroke of pretty incredibly good luck, there was a Teaching University that had an Emergency Eye Clinic open 7 days a week about 500 metres away. We walked in and got some exemplary treatment. Firstly I had to see a nurse and explain, by showing, what was wrong. I then had to pay 100 Euro up front as a foreigner and got processed incredibly quickly. A nurse did the usual eye checks and then sent me off to wait. I was then called in to see a Doctor who spent about 20 minutes looking at my eye. There was another Doctor who also gave me an examination. Eventually they decided that it was not Conjunctivitis but probably Keratitis and due to an infection. They took swabs of the eye but as I was leaving the next day they were never processed. It was decided to to give me an intensive course of antibiotic eye drops. They applied some every 5 minutes for half an hour. I was then sent off with a prescription for 3 vials of the drops. The first two Apotheke's didn't have enough in stock but the second one ordered some in and they arrived within an hour - on a Saturday morning. It cost 60 Euros for them.

I had to use the drops every 15 minutes for 6 hours and then every half hour and after that every hour - I was allowed to sleep but if I woke up in the night I put the drops in. This meant that the sightseeing and shopping we had planed for the last 2 days in Munich went out the window. I used them all through both flights. The eye is still inflamed but not nearly as bad as before but is still more sensitive to light. I appear to have lost some sight but, again luckily, I have been nearly blind in that eye for 60 years. I probably have gone from about 6% vision to 4% vision. Currently I have been put onto steroi_ eye drops with a review due next week.

My Travel Insurance gap means that it is not worth chasing them up for a few dollars - especially as the hospital receipt is almost just a Cash Register docket with no information on it. I was very impressed with my treatment at the Eye Clinic. In a little over 2 1/2 hours, including waiting for my eyes to dilate, I was seen by 3 nurses and 2 doctors and received treatment for 30 minutes.. The ability of the Apotheke to source the drops so quickly on a Saturday morning was also impressive.

Sounds like exemplary treatment. For others I will relate MsProzac's experience in Germany last year, maybe it was 2020, when she needed to see a doctor. She had been living in AMS because of covid restraints but traveling to neighbouring countries. Whilst in NL she relied on the reciprocal medical agreement between AUS and NL. Germany has no such agreement with AUS. She visited a doctor and was told she needed German health insurance in order to see the doctor. It is available to non-Germans at eu60 for the month. She bought the insurance and the doctor was able to see her. She had a Euro passport, might be different for Australian PP travelers. This might explain it: Travel insurance for Germany | From 0,99 €/day | AXA