General Medical issues thread

[love_the_life]

Well here is the offending gallstone:

View attachment 83838

Been to the Director of Surgery at PCH, but he won't be taking that gallbladder. Both the patient and I didn't like some of his crude jokes, one in particular was inappropriate for a person of his station.

Back to the GP for a referral to a more appropriate specialist

Seems rather a large blighter! No wonder there was considerable pain. :shock:

 

[love_the_life]

I am delighted to report that I now unbanned from cruising again. My specialist is very happy and doesn't want to see me for another 6 months. He said that if the symptoms reappear, then I should be able to be treated at any decent sized hospital. He thought that Albany, Burnie, Port Lincoln and even Kangaroo Island could be correctly equipped. And, of course, Adelaide and Melbourne.

I am so pleased. I hate being restricted wrt travelling. Still baby steps as I'm not venturing overseas just yet.

Great news - think Cunard is on the itinerary maybe?

 

[sinophile888]

Great news - think Cunard is on the itinerary maybe?

Hopefully, QM2 in February. I'm trying not to count too many chickens till I see how Melbourne and then the the Sun Princess go.

 

[Flashback]

Here you go Pushka.. http://www.itnews.com.au/news/adelaide-hospitals-hampered-by-nine-hour-system-outage-440981

 

[Pushka]

Here you go Pushka.. http://www.itnews.com.au/news/adelaide-hospitals-hampered-by-nine-hour-system-outage-440981

Rogue piece of software my cough.
It constantly fails.

 

[sinophile888]

My +1 has drawn the line at a trip to Melbourne in late November with my daughter and then a cruise to Melbourne in early December with him.
My motto has always been "You're a long time dead," but I will let him have this one as a diplomatic move on my part.

Of course, the Sun Princess cruise in December will definitely not have any bearing on the QM2 cruise in February.

 

[Pushka]

My +1 has drawn the line at a trip to Melbourne in late November with my daughter and then a cruise to Melbourne in early December with him.
My motto has always been "You're a long time dead," but I will let him have this one as a diplomatic move on my part.

Of course, the Sun Princess cruise in December will definitely not have any bearing on the QM2 cruise in February.

Sun Princess is in Adelaide today. A great day for touring. Bright and sunny and not hot.

Yes, best pick the battles to win.

 

[QF WP]

Seems rather a large blighter! No wonder there was considerable pain. :shock:

The pain was from the two that were passed on Monday and Wednesday fortnight ago (both early AM). This one hasn't caused any pain yet, but could if it heads up the top and then blocks the common bile duct (the arm-looking smaller tube on the RHS).

 

[straitman]

Sun Princess is in Adelaide today. A great day for touring. Bright and sunny and not hot.

Busy day for Brisbane today with both Sea Princess and Golden Princess in port with Pacific Pearl having left this morning.

 

[Mal]

Rogue piece of software my cough.
It constantly fails.

“We have backup systems and backup systems for our backup systems,” Le Blanc said.

I think the Titanic was built this way too!

 

[suze2000]

I disagree that 63 is not a high ESR result. Saw the doctor today and she was on the ball again - agrees I don't have asthma, but says there's a thing that happens to the larynx that may explain the feelings of difficulty breathing and coughing. Has ordered repeat bloods including ESR just to make sure it was just related to how sick I was at the time the blood was taken, and not something "hidden" and unnoticed. Sadly she has nothing new to help with my itching - advice is to keep on managing it as I am. I know there's a new treatment which might help but is prohibitively expensive just now (like in the thousands). Maybe if it ever comes on the PBS...

 

[QF WP]

My wife has rushed to visit a good friend in Prince Charles Hospital (next to a hospital that I now know well), she had chest pains 2 days ago and has been diagnosed not with a heart attack (as she thought), but a tear in an artery leading to the heart. Don't have full details, but will be interesting to hear how she sustained that injury. She has lost a lot of weight in recent month, but mainly to do with smarter eating and smaller portions, rather than exercise related.

Edit: My wife just rang. Seems to be a fairly common thing according to the doctors - no idea how she did it. Will be on low dose aspirin for the rest of her life and other drugs, but no surgery - as they think it will heal itself.

 

[get me outta here]

Apropos of the itching, I had terrible itchy skin so much that I wanted to run a serrated bread knife over it. I couldn't figure it out and then I thought about the calcium that I had taken a bit more of recently. I looked at the ingredients and it said fish. So I rang Blackmores and they said it was actually ground up exoskeletons from shellfish. To which I have a mild allergy. I remonstrated with them about that saying that shellfish allergy was actually quite common. And they said that was all the TGA required them to do.

I've cut back the calcium by 50% which did not affect my levels, nor the vitamin D levels.

I disagree that 63 is not a high ESR result. Saw the doctor today and she was on the ball again - agrees I don't have asthma, but says there's a thing that happens to the larynx that may explain the feelings of difficulty breathing and coughing. Has ordered repeat bloods including ESR just to make sure it was just related to how sick I was at the time the blood was taken, and not something "hidden" and unnoticed. Sadly she has nothing new to help with my itching - advice is to keep on managing it as I am. I know there's a new treatment which might help but is prohibitively expensive just now (like in the thousands). Maybe if it ever comes on the PBS...

 

[Flying mermaid]

Yay. Cholesterol ratio down. Still too much LDL but HDL makes up for it. Triglycerides ok now. No statins yet 

glad you are getting it down - just as a matter of interest what were your figures?

 

[Pushka]

glad you are getting it down - just as a matter of interest what were your figures?

Cholesterol 5.1
Triglycerides 1.3 (<1.5)
HDL (good stuff) 1.5 (>1)
LDL (bad stuff) 3 (<2.5)
Chol/HDL ratio 3.4 (<5.1)

It should be a little lower given other factors but hopefully good enough now.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Cholesterol 5.1
Triglycerides 1.3 (<1.5)
HDL (good stuff) 1.5 (>1)
LDL (bad stuff) 3 (<2.5)
Chol/HDL ratio 3.4 (<5.1)

It should be a little lower given other factors but hopefully good enough now.

that's really good - well done

 

[Pushka]

that's really good - well done

And now better than MrP's - which has him a little miffed.

He had his 'secret men's' blood tests done this week with another birthday. His 'secret men's' test was low - . He has taken saw palmetto tablets every day for 30 years now and that seems to be doing the trick. His normal doctor was sick so he saw another one to get results. His sugar level was just slightly above the upper limit and Dr said he needed a glucose challenge. It was still less than 6. I kind of put a kybosh to that idea until he had a repeat test. He knows he eats too much sugar and the wonderful pavlova I cooked for his birthday (but eaten after the test) might be his last birthday treat. He exercises a lot and so far manages to burn it off so he's very slim and fit but I think 'old age' is creeping up on him. 'Twas rather a gloomy birthday.

 

[Cossie]

Miss FM was asked at her first interview for a teaching job, why someone with her atar (year 12) and results from her science degree was going into teaching.....Quite sad that even the people in the profession seemed to feel it was an occupation for people who didn't have the scores to do anything else.

She could earn a lot more money by going into another profession but she really wants to be a teacher.

Daughter of a friend spent quite a few years doing nursing (uni based course, not on the floor training), realised she didn't want to be a nurse after a couple of months, went back to uni and got a teaching degree, which is doing now and loves it.

 

[Pushka]

Daughter of a friend spent quite a few years doing nursing (uni based course, not on the floor training), realised she didn't want to be a nurse after a couple of months, went back to uni and got a teaching degree, which is doing now and loves it.

My SIL who did on the job training despairs at the college based course for exactly this reason. Hopefully they give more practical training during the course now.

 

[Quickstatus]

My wife has rushed to visit a good friend in Prince Charles Hospital (next to a hospital that I now know well), she had chest pains 2 days ago and has been diagnosed not with a heart attack (as she thought), but a tear in an artery leading to the heart. Don't have full details, but will be interesting to hear how she sustained that injury. She has lost a lot of weight in recent month, but mainly to do with smarter eating and smaller portions, rather than exercise related.

Edit: My wife just rang. Seems to be a fairly common thing according to the doctors - no idea how she did it. Will be on low dose aspirin for the rest of her life and other drugs, but no surgery - as they think it will heal itself.

Coronary artery dissection - rare
Manifests just let me heart attack - can lead to heart attack.

Heart attack, myocardial infarction is due to interruption of blood supply to heart muscle whether by blockage (classic) or spasm of artery (rare) or dissection (rare)