General Medical issues thread

[Pushka]

Pushka,

If you ever develop a DVT in the legs you might have one of these:
Denali® - Bard PV

That looks kinda scary. Lucky they don't have one for jugular veins.

Had a whole round blood tests yesterday for Rheumatologist follow up in December. 5 or 6 vials plus urine. Just weird tests. One of them stumped the phlebotomist - beta2 glycoprotein. (This one is usually negative - I only test positive on the functional coag test and this is an antibody one). Kinda sad when she kept asking me what the tests were and therefore what colour vial she needed to used. I know them off parrot. Every time I tell them the dvt location they look at me in 'horror'. Another viper venom test.

Also hadn't considered that blood donation plasma is used for pathology tests as well as patients needing blood.

 

[drron]

Yes back when I first began having Venesections for my iron overload the Blood bank wouldn't accept it.knew the pathologist personally and my donations were used as the INR comparison as well as fertiliser for his roses.

 

[Pushka]

Yes back when I first began having Venesections for my iron overload the Blood bank wouldn't accept it.knew the pathologist personally and my donations were used as the INR comparison as well as fertiliser for his roses.

Yes - plasma corrections or some such thing. And for the second round they add phospholipid rich plasma to see if things correct.

Such a weird science. Glad they don't do the syphillis test as this condition gives a false positive!

Roses hey? Mmm.

 

[whatmeworry]

Following on with the Thunderstorm Asthma in Victoria yesterday, 2 have died with at least 30 in intensive care, paramedics were overwhelmed with over 1900 calls in 5 hours.

One intensive care paramedic, who did not want to be named, said ambulances had taken more than an hour to reach several urgent "code one" lights and sirens cases during Monday night, and that he'd heard of "numerous deaths".

"It sounds like a lot more than two people died," he said.

Health Minister Jill Hennessy has ordered a review, after hospitals were inundated with more than 1000 people seeking help.

The breakout of "thunderstorm asthma" on Monday night has been described as having put more of a strain on the ambulance service and emergency departments than a mass casualty terror attack.
On Tuesday, paramedics told Fairfax Media that they feared more deaths occurred during the catastrophe which contributed to 1900 calls for ambulances in five hours – six times ordinary demand.

 

[rogerkambah]

..<snip>..... as well as fertiliser for his roses.

So it's blood without the bone.

 

[Quickstatus]

Melbourne and Geelong experienced "Thunderstorm asthma" yesterday with Two dead after the cool change.

I don't have asthma but suffered from Thunderstorm asthma in 2010, the last time it happened in Melbourne.

It's a rare phenomena but has been observed in London and Wagga Wagga.

There is also Bushfire asthma
What about Volkswagen asthma

 

[Pushka]

Yes back when I first began having Venesections for my iron overload the Blood bank wouldn't accept it.knew the pathologist personally and my donations were used as the INR comparison as well as fertiliser for his roses.

I am so glad I am not on warfarin but on Xarelto. Of course that has its risks, but the continual monitoring of INR especially on commencement would be a real annoyance, and then there is the dietary restrictions. Xarelto is new, expensive but thankfully PBS subsidised and still doing the research to see if it is ok with this blood coagulation issue but I really want to stick with it. Just gotta make sure I dont start bleeding as there is no reversal yet.

 

[love_the_life]

I...... Just gotta make sure I dont start bleeding as there is no reversal yet.

and this little black duck is not good with blood :shock:

Be very careful shaving your legs

 

[Timtammi]

[h=2]What causes thunderstorm asthma?[/h]

• Can affect those who suffer hayfever, pollen allergies

Both my husband and 12 year old daughter suffered from this the other night although I didnt realise what was going on at the time. Both suffer pretty badly from Hayfever and are regularly taking Telfast etc at the moment due to bad hayfever over the last few months (pretty typical for this time of year in MEL). But on Monday night both were coughing and daughter complained of not being able to breath properly/coughing and having a very bad night sleep. It was not until the following morning that I heard about the Thunderstorm asthma and realised what was going on. Felt bad once I realised as I had just given her cough medicine and sent her off to bed!
She has NEVER had asthma before, neither has my husband but we went out and got a Ventolin puffer to have on hand "just in case". Daughter is still suffering a bit a
few days later but not as bad as that night, just some residual tightness and minor cough which seems to have calmed down with 1 or 2 ventolin puffs.
I felt nothing, but I dont get hayfever either. Interesting that older daughter (24) that IS an asthmatic (although largely grown out of it now) did not have any asthma symptoms on night of the storm.

 

[Pushka]

and this little black duck is not good with blood :shock:

Be very careful shaving your legs

Trust you to say that!

 

[whatmeworry]

[h=2]What causes thunderstorm asthma?[/h]

• Can affect those who suffer hayfever, pollen allergies

Both my husband and 12 year old daughter suffered from this the other night although I didnt realise what was going on at the time. Both suffer pretty badly from Hayfever and are regularly taking Telfast etc at the moment due to bad hayfever over the last few months (pretty typical for this time of year in MEL). But on Monday night both were coughing and daughter complained of not being able to breath properly/coughing and having a very bad night sleep. It was not until the following morning that I heard about the Thunderstorm asthma and realised what was going on. Felt bad once I realised as I had just given her cough medicine and sent her off to bed!
She has NEVER had asthma before, neither has my husband but we went out and got a Ventolin puffer to have on hand "just in case". Daughter is still suffering a bit a
few days later but not as bad as that night, just some residual tightness and minor cough which seems to have calmed down with 1 or 2 ventolin puffs.
I felt nothing, but I dont get hayfever either. Interesting that older daughter (24) that IS an asthmatic (although largely grown out of it now) did not have any asthma symptoms on night of the storm.

I have only had one incident of asthma and that was when the Thunderstorm asthma struck 2010. Had to call my brother who is a typical asthmatic to bring me a ventolin pump. He also had no thunderstorm asthma symptom.

I have read many reports instances of regular asthmatics not being overly affected by the storm expected they are hayfever suffers.

I guess this is why Thunderstorm asthma can be a problem, as it looks like it strikes people not aware they could suffer an attack but don't know how to treat the symptoms.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Hillbilly heroi_. Endone had little effect on me as well after surgery. But I guess in some it floats their boat.

Miss FM was given endone for her first knee operation and was just about addicted to it in a week! She was 16 at the time. Her next 2 operations she came home with packets of the stuff but refused to take any....

 

[Flying mermaid]

What is it with wisdom teeth extractions. Some people report a terrible experience. Mine was just easy. 4 removed in dental chair no drugs just local anaesthesia. Not even panadol afterwards..

Dr FM is having 4 wisdom teeth out in 2 weeks - we are going up to Sydney to look after her just in case, but I hope her reaction is like yours. Just having a local as well - she avoids generals unless she has to.

 

[whatmeworry]

Another 2 people confirmed as having passed from the thunderstorm asthma event in Melbourne.

'He was a gentle giant': fourth victim of thunderstorm asthma identified as Clarence Leo

 

[suze2000]

Melbourne and Geelong experienced "Thunderstorm asthma" yesterday with Two dead after the cool change.

I don't have asthma but suffered from Thunderstorm asthma in 2010, the last time it happened in Melbourne.

It's a rare phenomena but has been observed in London and Wagga Wagga.

I work in one of Melb's large pubic hospitals. I was on night shift that night. The person I took over from said it was one of the worst days she'd ever experienced and it was frantic for me as well. We had twice the usual number of ED patients and of that, I'd say 50% were due to this event. A very odd occurance which I hope doesn't happen again.

In future though, I think those with grass allergies should arm themselves with a Ventolin puffer (really cheap over the counter) in case it ever happens again.

 

[suze2000]

Had my colonoscopy yesterday. Two thoughts: 1) I think it's unfair that you are not allowed alcohol during the "cleansing" phase of it. I'm going to end up dehydrated anyway, at least let me numb the pain a bit. 2) even the softest toilet paper becomes sandpaper when you've used it ten times in an hour. And baby wipes can sting a surprising amount. :shock: :shock:

The good news is the procedure itself was fairly painless (the worst of it is the big bruise on the back of my hand from the anaesthetic). The doctor presented me with some lovely photos of the inside of my colon afterwards. She took some biopsies, and while it's not the Big C (a big relief) that's been causing my symptoms, she thinks it's Crohn's, which is not something I ever wanted either. I will know more next week I hope when I see her for followup.

(and yes, observant folks will have noticed that on top of that my sister died, but thankfully I heard well after I'd got home and had a decent lunch, and since my bowel was already empty I didn't have to suffer its usual response to stress, so I guess that's something. But not a good day for me and I'm glad MrSuze was home with me at the time.)

 

[love_the_life]

Hope that the results do turn out clear. Agree that Chrohns wouldn't be a great outcome but it would be better than bowel cancer. Have some friends with the former and they are generally able to manage their disease.

 

[Pushka]

When doing the bowel prep for a colonoscopy a few years ago I decided to take a chug of the liquid in one go. Bad move. It came straight back up and I was vomiting for the next few hours and got a bad headache. So no sandpaper for me. Rang the Tel number thinking I would have to cancel. Nup. They gave me an enema. Which was way better I reckon. Although having gone lightly on foods the days prior and nothing the day before there wasn't much happening anyway.

 

[coriander]

I work in one of Melb's large pubic hospitals. I was on night shift that night. The person I took over from said it was one of the worst days she'd ever experienced and it was frantic for me as well. We had twice the usual number of ED patients and of that, I'd say 50% were due to this event. A very odd occurance which I hope doesn't happen again.
.

So we need to keep Cialis on hand as well as Ventolin...........

{:shock:}

 

[JohnK]

Miss FM was given endone for her first knee operation and was just about addicted to it in a week! She was 16 at the time. Her next 2 operations she came home with packets of the stuff but refused to take any....

I had Endone when I had chicken pox ~6 years ago. Very effective but the hallucinations were freaky. I took Endone again later for general pain but it was not as effective so stopped taking it.

Panadeine Forte works quite well for me. Numbs me for ~3h 55m which is a good relief not to have to worry about constant pain. Panadeine Extra and/or Nurofen Plus are not quite enough but I don't want to have to keep taking 60mg Codeine regularly. Shame Tramadol is not effecive either.