The Ailment thread

[johnsusername]

Back injury/pain can be a proper nightmare. I can't believe i put up with it for so long. Not long after i'd hurt it we were going on a trip to blackpool. Only an hour or so in the car but by the time i got out i was in agony. The trip back was even worse and i was almost in tears at the end. I should have just took an afternoon off work and put my hand in my pocket for a good physio instead of putting up with it for so long. I ended up spending about £250 on physio and drugs. 

 

The first thing the good physio said was get to your GP, get a few days off work and get some proper painkillers - you need to manage the pain. Got a notepad to plan out a days worth of painkillers (I've kept it for posterity and to remind me how great it is to NOT have back pain) and a day's worth of physio. I was regimented for a good two weeks, stuck to the plan and finally fixed it.

Everyone's problems are different though i guess. 

[Elite]

2 minutes ago, johnsusername said:

Back injury/pain can be a proper nightmare. I can't believe i put up with it for so long. Not long after i'd hurt it we were going on a trip to blackpool. Only an hour or so in the car but by the time i got out i was in agony. The trip back was even worse and i was almost in tears at the end. I should have just took an afternoon off work and put my hand in my pocket for a good physio instead of putting up with it for so long. I ended up spending about £250 on physio and drugs. 

 

The first thing the good physio said was get to your GP, get a few days off work and get some proper painkillers - you need to manage the pain. Got a notepad to plan out a days worth of painkillers (I've kept it for posterity and to remind me how great it is to NOT have back pain) and a day's worth of physio. I was regimented for a good two weeks, stuck to the plan and finally fixed it.

Everyone's problems are different though i guess. 

It depends what it is. I have 2 herniated discs and spinal stenosis, which can be alleviated by physio and meds but it won't fix the problem, so it's like an endless cycle 

[Guest Pistonbroke]

Due to the Heart problems I had a few years ago I have to take tablets which also means I have to have my eyes checked on a regular basis. 6 months ago they noticed my eye pressure was high so I've been taking drops every evening since then. Had an appointment this morning for the usual tests and she said although the pressure has dropped I need to keep on taking the drops. I asked for how long and she replied, the rest of your life as you have Chronic Glaucoma. Talk about just slipping something nasty in. Handed me a pass with all the details in and said make sure you carry on taking the drops or you will go blind. My eyesight is pretty good, don't wear glasses apart from driving and had no symptoms like headaches etc. Just shows you how many people over the age of 50 could be at risk because they don't bother having their eyes checked. 

[Bjornebye]

7 minutes ago, Pistonbroke said:

Due to the Heart problems I had a few years ago I have to take tablets which also means I have to have my eyes checked on a regular basis. 6 months ago they noticed my eye pressure was high so I've been taking drops every evening since then. Had an appointment this morning for the usual tests and she said although the pressure has dropped I need to keep on taking the drops. I asked for how long and she replied, the rest of your life as you have Chronic Glaucoma. Talk about just slipping something nasty in. Handed me a pass with all the details in and said make sure you carry on taking the drops or you will go blind. My eyesight is pretty good, don't wear glasses apart from driving and had no symptoms like headaches etc. Just shows you how many people over the age of 50 could be at risk because they don't bother having their eyes checked. 

Bloody hell mate I didn't even know eye pressure was a thing. 

[Elite]

1 minute ago, Bjornebye said:

Bloody hell mate I didn't even know eye pressure was a thing. 

Have you never heard of Eye High Pressure?

[Guest Pistonbroke]

6 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

Bloody hell mate I didn't even know eye pressure was a thing. 

I've always new it was a thing due to my old dear having glaucoma, but as I said I had none of the tell tale signs. They basically picked it up through chance due to the enforced eye check ups. I'm pretty interested in keeping my eyesight, so just one one more medication to add to the daily routine. 

 

[Elite]

I have a UTI and it feels like I've been booted in the left bollock. Could have been something more serious, so am counting my blessings.

[VladimirIlyich]

19 minutes ago, Elite said:

I have a UTI and it feels like I've been booted in the left bollock. Could have been something more serious, so am counting my blessings.

Usually Prostatitis in men,but the treatment is pretty much the same.

[Elite]

9 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Usually Prostatitis in men,but the treatment is pretty much the same.

Or epididymitis seems to be what Dr. Google brings up, my real Dr just said UTI.

[VladimirIlyich]

Just now, Elite said:

Or epididymitis seems to be what Dr. Google brings up, my real Dr just said UTI.

Yeah,when you mentioned your bollock epididymitis was my thought but I assumed you'd been to a doctor? Epididymitis can be dealt with with by injection of steroid into groin. Had mine done at the Walton Centre at Fazakerley and it worked brilliantly.

[Elite]

1 minute ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Yeah,when you mentioned your bollock epididymitis was my thought but I assumed you'd been to a doctor? Epididymitis can be dealt with with by injection of steroid into groin. Had mine done at the Walton Centre at Fazakerley and it worked brilliantly.

I've been given Ciprofloxcin so hopefully that will help clear it.

 

Sounds like you've had your fair share of bollock issues Vlad.

[VladimirIlyich]

3 minutes ago, Elite said:

I've been given Ciprofloxcin so hopefully that will help clear it.

 

Sounds like you've had your fair share of bollock issues Vlad.

I certainly have mate. An amateur Urologist,but not through choice.

[Dr Nowt]

1 hour ago, Elite said:

epididymitis

Leave Ken Dodd out of this.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

Had man Flu all week, fucking dying this morning though after a shite night. Scared to cough in case my head explodes. 

[Chairman Meow]

Not sure if this is for here or should be in the getting older thread but I've got a hernia for the first time.

 

Either that or the shithouse AIDS is finally doing it's thing. 

[Dr Nowt]

Been telling my clinical team I don’t think I have my condition’s hipster type 1 style diabetes since 2011, after my diagnosis occurred at the same time I was put on steroids - which notoriously elevate blood sugars - for the first time in my life. I stopped needing to inject myself with insulin once I took myself back off steroids to see if what I thought would happen happened. It did.

 

Been having regular blood sugar testing, oral glucose tolerance tests, annual diabetic eye tests etc ever since, and have raised this small piece of context each time.

 

Couple of weeks ago I got my first ever appointment with a diabetes professor. Just the casual 9 years after my diagnosis. I was in his company for 3 minutes, tops.

 

Listed my case as he’d been told it. I said without being pedantic x part is not accurate...yes, my sugars are no longer elevated but that is no recent thing - as he had the impression it was - but has always been the case other than the year or so period referenced when I was being fed steroids, and a couple of isolated instances linked to being otherwise unwell.

 

”Oh. Really?”

”Yes”.

”I don’t think you have diabetes”.

”I don’t either”.

”I think we should test you once more next time and then we can confidently confirm you don’t have it”.

* handshake, consultation over 

 

Never a bad thing to officially lose an illness, but while it’s not massively increased the overhead, fuck if it doesn’t drain your confidence in the efficiency of the health service.

[Dr Nowt]

Speaking of which. Waiting on a phone call off my GP to get the ball rolling on the following. Been raising to my team for over 3 years how I’d like to see an ENT specialist because I have significant issues with my sinuses, re not being able to breathe through my nose etc.

 

Also regularly been telling them I’m dizzy much of the time and have been now for over two years, with major pressure headaches where often, such as today, I can’t leave the house and am all over the shop generally. I have been increasingly asking if they think it’s feasible there could be sinus issues worth exploring which may be affecting that whole vestibular area and having a knock-on effect to my balance via the inner-ear etc. Plenty of fobbing off and non-committal responses with the focus placed elsewhere. 

 

Got fucked off with it and arranged a private appointment last week with an ENT surgeon. I have a severely deviated septum such I’m not getting any air in, and 2 of 3 other issues each also requiring surgery which would likely impact your average healthy person, let alone someone in my position. That whole area of my head is basically permanently alive with inflammation, congestion and infection. Almost of a sort that could keep giving someone repeat chest infections while also making them feel like they’re on a fucking boat in a storm 24/7. It’s a good job there haven’t been any signs something’s up that the hospital could have picked up on, otherwise I might be a shade pissy with them.

 

Fingers crossed I could be back to something approaching semi-normal once I get the operation boxed off and no longer have a nose like Daniella Westbrook’s (errrrr, allegedly not entirely blameless in that bit like...alright...fuck off).

 

[Elite]

5 hours ago, Lizzie Birdsworths Wrinkled Chopper said:

Speaking of which. Waiting on a phone call off my GP to get the ball rolling on the following. Been raising to my team for over 3 years how I’d like to see an ENT specialist because I have significant issues with my sinuses, re not being able to breathe through my nose etc.

 

Also regularly been telling them I’m dizzy much of the time and have been now for over two years, with major pressure headaches where often, such as today, I can’t leave the house and am all over the shop generally. I have been increasingly asking if they think it’s feasible there could be sinus issues worth exploring which may be affecting that whole vestibular area and having a knock-on effect to my balance via the inner-ear etc. Plenty of fobbing off and non-committal responses with the focus placed elsewhere. 

 

Got fucked off with it and arranged a private appointment last week with an ENT surgeon. I have a severely deviated septum such I’m not getting any air in, and 2 of 3 other issues each also requiring surgery which would likely impact your average healthy person, let alone someone in my position. That whole area of my head is basically permanently alive with inflammation, congestion and infection. Almost of a sort that could keep giving someone repeat chest infections while also making them feel like they’re on a fucking boat in a storm 24/7. It’s a good job there haven’t been any signs something’s up that the hospital could have picked up on, otherwise I might be a shade pissy with them.

 

Fingers crossed I could be back to something approaching semi-normal once I get the operation boxed off and no longer have a nose like Daniella Westbrook’s (errrrr, allegedly not entirely blameless in that bit like...alright...fuck off).

 

Bet that wasn't cheap? But worth it to get some proper answers. 

 

I not knocking the NHS but waiting times are ridiculous, I had to have an ultrasound on my bollocks, I didn't think anything of the wait but when I walked in the Radiographer looked at my notes shaking his head and said "31 days, tut tut." Everything was fine but not everyone's so fortunate.

[Dr Nowt]

47 minutes ago, Elite said:

Bet that wasn't cheap? But worth it to get some proper answers. 

 

I not knocking the NHS but waiting times are ridiculous, I had to have an ultrasound on my bollocks, I didn't think anything of the wait but when I walked in the Radiographer looked at my notes shaking his head and said "31 days, tut tut." Everything was fine but not everyone's so fortunate.

Not so much mate, but yeah it’s just one of those decisions which makes itself in the end. Not at all comfortable with the concept of going private for multiple reasons, but I’m in a dangerous spot and not going over the edge without a fucking good scrap.

 

Genuinely not their fault though. The last couple of years have pushed me as close to my breaking point mentally as I ever want to go, and I think I just needed to both vent at the wall in a meaningless way and have summarised the above two issues in my own words for my own sake, so they’re clear in my mind for future reference.

 

When I moved up to the adult CF service in my local hospital they had 16 of us patients to look after. By 2016 there were 60 with no staff uplift, it was out of control - still 1 doctor for all the patients as there always had been. Obviously he looked really well at that time. Ward staff leaving burnt-out all over the shop. They then moved our care to Southampton in 2017 with a variety of excuses but it had been in the post for years, I’d been telling friends and family it would happen since at least 2015 if not earlier as our team was barely coping.

 

At my clinical appointment a few weeks ago, I raised a number of the sort of issues I mentioned above in a very carefully-worded and respectful way - having given myself a month or two to stop levitating with anger from when they occurred. I did so because I think I know the issue and it isn’t any lack of competence or dedication in any single person who looks after me. I got a grateful and sincerely apologetic reaction and a plan to make a few pragmatic workarounds based on my comments, from a consultant who’s been looking after me for about 15 years who I respect hugely as a person and a doctor. 

 

I was shortly afterwards talking to one of the team’s nurses who used to be ward sister, and she in another context happened to mention my clinic team now has “over 300 patients”. So even if that number is only 301, they have 75 patients per doctor (4 on this team). At the bare minimum a 25% increase in patients per doctor on numbers that were drowning my old team at a hospital 5 minutes up the road, except now I have about a 2 hour round trip to boot every time I go in. Usually shattered when I even set off.

 

It’s frightening to watch it happening in slow motion as I have, having been closely embedded in the hospital service for 42 years and counting. I said to the consultant above the other week, it pains me to say it because I hold them in such high regard individually and don’t want to come over like an ungrateful or chippy cunt, but at a time people’s backs are against the wall health-wise, the hospital care side of things being another obstacle can make life close to impossible. I don’t doubt it’s tipped some over the edge. 

 

What can you do? They know it. They feel it. They’re gutted by it. That response people sometimes get which they feel as indifference or superiority or lack of care genuinely isn’t. I thought for a few visits earlier this year it was that when I was taking mistakes a bit personally, then I put some thought into it and came to a conclusion which the above 300 patient comment confirmed. They’re fucked, they’re drowning, and in the midst of it they’re doing the absolute best they can while trying to stay sane and not spend their whole lives feeling guilty. If I was the other half of anyone in that position I’d be saying “You’re doing all you can and it’s a fuck sight better than if you weren’t there doing it for them, so you have to be able to switch off from it or it’ll burn you out and they’ll lose your help”.

 

Fuck knows what the answer is, because the inefficiency and oversight of things which used to be handled smoothly is starting to become more and more commonplace, in my experience. Which anyone sane would expect, with numbers like the above to consider. Do more with less. Marvellous stuff.

 

On the flip side, if you read all that, the pain in your bollocks will surely now feel like a veritable treat compared to getting trapped by me when I begin speaking. Hope your knackers are or get sorted mate and apologies for spewing an absolute fuck-tonne of words at you you didn’t ask for.

[Elite]

18 minutes ago, Lizzie Birdsworths Wrinkled Chopper said:

Not so much mate, but yeah it’s just one of those decisions which makes itself in the end. Not at all comfortable with the concept of going private for multiple reasons, but I’m in a dangerous spot and not going over the edge without a fucking good scrap.

 

Genuinely not their fault though. The last couple of years have pushed me as close to my breaking point mentally as I ever want to go, and I think I just needed to both vent at the wall in a meaningless way and have summarised the above two issues in my own words for my own sake, so they’re clear in my mind for future reference.

 

When I moved up to the adult CF service in my local hospital they had 16 of us patients to look after. By 2016 there were 60 with no staff uplift, it was out of control - still 1 doctor for all the patients as there always had been. Obviously he looked really well at that time. Ward staff leaving burnt-out all over the shop. They then moved our care to Southampton in 2017 with a variety of excuses but it had been in the post for years, I’d been telling friends and family it would happen since at least 2015 if not earlier as our team was barely coping.

 

At my clinical appointment a few weeks ago, I raised a number of the sort of issues I mentioned above in a very carefully-worded and respectful way - having given myself a month or two to stop levitating with anger from when they occurred. I did so because I think I know the issue and it isn’t any lack of competence or dedication in any single person who looks after me. I got a grateful and sincerely apologetic reaction and a plan to make a few pragmatic workarounds based on my comments, from a consultant who’s been looking after me for about 15 years who I respect hugely as a person and a doctor. 

 

I was shortly afterwards talking to one of the team’s nurses who used to be ward sister, and she in another context happened to mention my clinic team now has “over 300 patients”. So even if that number is only 301, they have 75 patients per doctor (4 on this team). At the bare minimum a 25% increase in patients per doctor on numbers that were drowning my old team at a hospital 5 minutes up the road, except now I have about a 2 hour round trip to boot every time I go in. Usually shattered when I even set off.

 

It’s frightening to watch it happening in slow motion as I have, having been closely embedded in the hospital service for 42 years and counting. I said to the consultant above the other week, it pains me to say it because I hold them in such high regard individually and don’t want to come over like an ungrateful or chippy cunt, but at a time people’s backs are against the wall health-wise, the hospital care side of things being another obstacle can make life close to impossible. I don’t doubt it’s tipped some over the edge. 

 

What can you do? They know it. They feel it. They’re gutted by it. That response people sometimes get which they feel as indifference or superiority or lack of care genuinely isn’t. I thought for a few visits earlier this year it was that when I was taking mistakes a bit personally, then I put some thought into it and came to a conclusion which the above 300 patient comment confirmed. They’re fucked, they’re drowning, and in the midst of it they’re doing the absolute best they can while trying to stay sane and not spend their whole lives feeling guilty. If I was the other half of anyone in that position I’d be saying “You’re doing all you can and it’s a fuck sight better than if you weren’t there doing it for them, so you have to be able to switch off from it or it’ll burn you out and they’ll lose your help”.

 

Fuck knows what the answer is, because the inefficiency and oversight of things which used to be handled smoothly is starting to become more and more commonplace, in my experience. Which anyone sane would expect, with numbers like the above to consider. Do more with less. Marvellous stuff.

 

On the flip side, if you read all that, the pain in your bollocks will surely now feel like a veritable treat compared to getting trapped by me when I begin speaking. Hope your knackers are or get sorted mate and apologies for spewing an absolute fuck-tonne of words at you you didn’t ask for.

Is this available on Kindle?

 

Only messing mate, you know more than most about how the NHS is severely underfunded and short staffed which in turn affects every single patient. Things will get worse until it's privatised but that won't improve things, we'll just have to pay for the privelege. 

[Dr Nowt]

9 minutes ago, Elite said:

Is this available on Kindle?

 

Only messing mate, you know more than most about how the NHS is severely underfunded and short staffed which in turn affects every single patient. Things will get worse until it's privatised but that won't improve things, we'll just have to pay for the privelege. 

Ha. Nice one mate.

 

Aye, that’s about the size of it. Imagine how gloriously efficient it would be if your medical notes and case histories potentially needed to be passed between multiple companies.  

 

Just had a vision of phoning a call centre for something health-related and being put on hold to Ed Sheeran.

 

 

[easytoslip]

Cold Women Warm Beer..

[Elite]

1 minute ago, Lizzie Birdsworths Wrinkled Chopper said:

Ha. Nice one mate.

 

Aye, that’s about the size of it. Imagine how gloriously efficient it would be if your notes and case histories potentially needed to be passed between multiple companies.  

 

Just had a vision of phoning a call centre for something health-related and being put on hold to Ed Sheeran.

Insurance companies are even slower than the NHS, case handlers have about 1000 clients each.

 

I don't think humans we're meant to live past about 30, that's when everything starts to go tits up. 

[Dr Nowt]

6 minutes ago, easytoslip said:

Cold Women Warm Beer..

You’ve wandered onto the wrong ward again, Mr McDonald.

 

Let’s help you back, it’s this way...

[Dr Nowt]

12 minutes ago, Elite said:

Insurance companies are even slower than the NHS, case handlers have about 1000 clients each.

 

I don't think humans we're meant to live past about 30, that's when everything starts to go tits up. 

As a species we need to go back to pre-medical science days when gout was celebrated as a badge of honour because it advertised a rich lifestyle.