General Medical issues thread

[TheRealTMA]

Absolutely, although it's dependent on it not having spread anywhere. If so, then will need to assess the options then. The PSA levels were quite high from previous advice received on here, so hopefully not an indication of that.

Immunotherapy is also possible if spread.

 

[Quickstatus]

A relative had a brain mri

In general:

Dementia
Previous head injury
Neurodegenerative
Stroke

Look up frontal lobe syndrome.

 

[TheRealTMA]

FWIW bought one of these

Luna Treadmill by Tread Ezy

The Luna Treadmill offers a compact, high-performance workout solution with speeds up to 14km/h, a 15% incline, and a 10.1" touchscreen. Perfect for home use, it combines space efficiency with engaging features to help you meet your fitness goals.

mrtreadmill.com.au

 

[tgh]

The incline is fixed @15% ?
If y…did you not consider variable incline necessary ?

 

[TheRealTMA]

The incline is fixed @15% ?
If y…did you not consider variable incline necessary ?

No. It’s adjustable up to 15%.

 

[Pushka]

Usual monthly blood tests for PMR results back in and Rheumatologist appointment this afternoon.

My LDH has spiked well up with a warning notice on the report. Everything else (blood count, biochem etc) are unremarkable. This period I haven't been unwell, no infections, no broken bones etc.

Is this something to watch for?

 

[prozac]

Usual monthly blood tests for PMR results back in and Rheumatologist appointment this afternoon.

My LDH has spiked well up with a warning notice on the report. Everything else (blood count, biochem etc) are unremarkable. This period I haven't been unwell, no infections, no broken bones etc.

Is this something to watch for?

Anything unususal going on in your life like Efudex (Flourouracil)? My LDH steadily increased over the 4 months I was applying it. I had a PET scan and nothing so I suggested to my haematologist by email it could be the Efudex. No response yet but I see her tomorrow.
Meanwhile I was back at my Dermatologist and mentioned it to him. He replied "I have never seen that happen before", so I asked him if he had ever called for blood tests on any of his patients applying Efudex. He admitted he had not, , but now I mentioned it he would check the research.

 

[Pushka]

Anything unususal going on in your life like Efudex (Flourouracil)? My LDH steadily increased over the 4 months I was applying it. I had a PET scan and nothing so I suggested to my haematologist by email it could be the Efudex. No response yet but I see her tomorrow.
Meanwhile I was back at my Dermatologist and mentioned it to him. He replied "I have never seen that happen before", so I asked him if he had ever called for blood tests on any of his patients applying Efudex. He admitted he had not, , but now I mentioned it he would check the research.

Not for a few months. When I was on it back a year ago everything was fine. It was also fine when I had a weird set of blood results back in June and I had the really nasty RSV thing.

 

[Cossie]

So it would seem my sister has had another lucky escape. She has been having headaches for quite a few years and now balance problems, doctors have been saying get over it, everyone gets headaches.

A few months ago she was down here and her and swmbo went for walk, my sister came back with her face covered in blood. She tripped.
Anyway off to the hospital, cleaned her up, no permanent damage but was told to get an MRI back in Sydney.
Did that, seems she has a brain cyst, probably since birth. Normally they drain themselves, apparently, sometimes, however, like this case they don't.
Had it drained a couple of weeks ago and it's benign and so far all seems good. If she hadn't fallen over she wouldn't have had an MRI.

Quite a few years ago she went into have a hysterectomy, when she was seen by the surgeon after, he said that she should have a glass of champagne.
He had discovered an ovarian cyst, so the ovaries were removed as well. A specimen was sent off to the States as it was so unusual.

She was told that women that had this cancer had about a 45% chance of survival after 5 years. Again, very lucky.

 

[JohnK]

I'll keep getting covid boosters for as long as the government keeps paying for it.
The last 2 boosters were done at the same time as flu shots, which work paid for. I've only been getting the flu shots because work has paid for them.

I'm the same but everyone telling me not to bother.

We're going back to Thailand early April. I'll look at next covid booster but I'm not sure they'll have the flu vaccination available then.

 

[Katie]

FIL last night discussing he's finding it hard to sleep. Has some sleep pills (not sure where from), but won't take them so he doesn't get addicted to them.



He is 85, has heart failure, GP just refused to certify him for his driver's license ... at this stage of his life, addiction to sleeping tablets should be the last of his worries! I encouraged him to try melatonin (and not the bottle of melatonin MIL bought in SIN on our trip in 2011 that she still has!!!) or better yet - speak to one of his doctors.

 

[Pushka]

FIL last night discussing he's finding it hard to sleep. Has some sleep pills (not sure where from), but won't take them so he doesn't get addicted to them.



He is 85, has heart failure, GP just refused to certify him for his driver's license ... at this stage of his life, addiction to sleeping tablets should be the last of his worries! I encouraged him to try melatonin (and not the bottle of melatonin MIL bought in SIN on our trip in 2011 that she still has!!!) or better yet - speak to one of his doctors.

It's something that older people may do. My 85 mother said she was stopping salt, and sugar in her tea even though she loved them both. Because they might harm her health. She'd already had a very bad stroke and multiple health issues and nothing was going to help her health by then.

 

[prozac]

It's something that older people may do. My 85 mother said she was stopping salt, and sugar in her tea even though she loved them both. Because they might harm her health. She'd already had a very bad stroke and multiple health issues and nothing was going to help her health by then.

In 2015 my cousin in NL had prostate cancer that spread throughout his bones. He had just months left to live but his doctors recommended he stop smoking cigars. I visited to say goodbye and drive him wherever he wanted to go. We smoked boxes of them and enjoyed ourselves.

 

[drron]

In 2015 my cousin in NL had prostate cancer that spread throughout his bones. He had just months left to live but his doctors recommended he stop smoking cigars. I visited to say goodbye and drive him wherever he wanted to go. We smoked boxes of them and enjoyed ourselves.

In that situation i always asked the patient what they had most wanted to do but hadn't. when they did tell me I would say go and do it. A lot took my advice.
I remember one 65 year old I was seeing for his heart. He became constipated and investigations revealed a bowel cancer. Scans showed it had spread to most bones in his body. even a plain Xray of his pelvis showed muliple secondaries. In answer to my question he said start smoking again so I said go ahead.
However he didn't tell me he also wanted to run off with the 16 year old girl next door which he did.

He came back about 12 months later wanting to know why he was still alive. I got an xray of his pelvis and it showed no abnormalies. He had had a colostomy because of the obstruction and said if things are good I want to get rid of this bag. so i sent him back to the surgeon who first looked down the colostomy. No sign of a mass. So opened him up,couldn't find anything so reversed the colostomy. He had had several lumps biopsied and all had shown cancer.

Unfortunately his new life caught up with him 3 months later when he died suddenly of a heart attack.

Despite that experience I didn't once after that tell any patient with a terminal cancer to run off with a 16 year old.

 

[prozac]

In that situation i always asked the patient what they had most wanted to do but hadn't. when they did tell me I would say go and do it. A lot took my advice.
I remember one 65 year old I was seeing for his heart. He became constipated and investigations revealed a bowel cancer. Scans showed it had spread to most bones in his body. even a plain Xray of his pelvis showed muliple secondaries. In answer to my question he said start smoking again so I said go ahead.
However he didn't tell me he also wanted to run off with the 16 year old girl next door which he did.

He came back about 12 months later wanting to know why he was still alive. I got an xray of his pelvis and it showed no abnormalies. He had had a colostomy because of the obstruction and said if things are good I want to get rid of this bag. so i sent him back to the surgeon who first looked down the colostomy. No sign of a mass. So opened him up,couldn't find anything so reversed the colostomy. He had had several lumps biopsied and all had shown cancer.

Unfortunately his new life caught up with him 3 months later when he died suddenly of a heart attack.

Despite that experience I didn't once after that tell any patient with a terminal cancer to run off with a 16 year old.

The 16yo might be what gave him new life but then didn't.

 

[JohnK]

Your favourite outspoken billionaire appears to be doing something. Maybe not new bodies.

I often tell patients that the best thing is to get a new body. Can't fix the current one.

You'd think getting a new body would be easy living in a computer simulation. Way too much pain to deal with daily.

 

[VPS]

FIL last night discussing he's finding it hard to sleep. Has some sleep pills (not sure where from), but won't take them so he doesn't get addicted to them.



He is 85, has heart failure, GP just refused to certify him for his driver's license ... at this stage of his life, addiction to sleeping tablets should be the last of his worries! I encouraged him to try melatonin (and not the bottle of melatonin MIL bought in SIN on our trip in 2011 that she still has!!!) or better yet - speak to one of his doctors.

I used to fight with my mother - dad in his 90s and she said he can't have wine and ice cream etc WTAF

 

[MelMel]

So it would seem my sister has had another lucky escape. She has been having headaches for quite a few years and now balance problems, doctors have been saying get over it, everyone gets headaches.

A few months ago she was down here and her and swmbo went for walk, my sister came back with her face covered in blood. She tripped.
Anyway off to the hospital, cleaned her up, no permanent damage but was told to get an MRI back in Sydney.
Did that, seems she has a brain cyst, probably since birth. Normally they drain themselves, apparently, sometimes, however, like this case they don't.
Had it drained a couple of weeks ago and it's benign and so far all seems good. If she hadn't fallen over she wouldn't have had an MRI.

Quite a few years ago she went into have a hysterectomy, when she was seen by the surgeon after, he said that she should have a glass of champagne.
He had discovered an ovarian cyst, so the ovaries were removed as well. A specimen was sent off to the States as it was so unusual.

She was told that women that had this cancer had about a 45% chance of survival after 5 years. Again, very lucky.

Sometimes things are just meant to happen, I had a large ovarian cyst removed - unknown initially if cancerous. Apparently some ovarian cancer can start in the appendix so they swung over to the other side to check out my appendix. I had acute appendicitis which probably would have blown in a couple of weeks. I had absolutely no symptoms at all.

 

[Katie]

It's something that older people may do. My 85 mother said she was stopping salt, and sugar in her tea even though she loved them both. Because they might harm her health. She'd already had a very bad stroke and multiple health issues and nothing was going to help her health by then.

I think the topic came up because he’s decided to start drinking wine again. Mr Katie was in trouble last year for giving FIL wine at the weekly dinners at ours.
I’m going to get into trouble for encouraging wine, sleeping pills and chocolate crackles. Then FIL will probably bloody live another 5 years!
He’a lasted longer than the doctors were thinking last year; though after getting a skin cancer cut off his wrist last week, he’s said he won’t bother with any more excisions.

 

[Pushka]

I think the topic came up because he’s decided to start drinking wine again. Mr Katie was in trouble last year for giving FIL wine at the weekly dinners at ours.
I’m going to get into trouble for encouraging wine, sleeping pills and chocolate crackles. Then FIL will probably bloody live another 5 years!
He’a lasted longer than the doctors were thinking last year; though after getting a skin cancer cut off his wrist last week, he’s said he won’t bother with any more excisions.

It all gets back to quality of life versus longevity. At a certain age quality will win every time.