#health stuff

[harrylovesspaezle]

"don't let your disability stop you from reaching your goals!" i have no choice but to let my disability put obstacles between me and my goals, you think i just pick and choose when i can/can't do something? it's the literal definition of a disability, it disables you from doing things. how hard is that to understand?

#disability #physical disability #cognitive disability #adhd #health stuff

[vaspider]

I'm on a new diabetes med which my doctor said "oh yeah, and weight loss is a side effect," before I reminded him that I've got disordered eating from prior medical abuse and I've made good progress on it, so let's not undo that...

... but then I couldn't figure out why I had constant headaches until my wife pointed out I was barely eating and kept sugar crashing, too. Apparently the reason that people lose weight on this is because it turns off your hunger signals! So I wasn't ever feeling hungry and my food intake had dropped ridiculously.

I dunno, man, that seems like something you should have mentioned, dude, since it's a known thing about this class of drugs.

Anyway, uh, yeah, make sure you ask about known issues with hunger signals or loss of appetite with some of these new diabetes drugs. You don't want to end up accidentally starving yourself.

(I'm fine; we've added some precautions and new routines.)

#health stuff #weight mention #weight loss #weight talk

[ineffectualdemon]

"I'm sure if I ignore it it will go away"

-me whenever I have a new worrying symptom

#currently its because i feel lightheaded and like im going fo pass out multiple times a day #i promise to contact the doctor tomorrow #chronic health #health stuff #chronic illness #fibro #rheumatoid arthritis

[kneelingshadowsalome]

Personal life update 🌻

Sooo health stuff and study stuff and irl folks have been keeping me away from here lately. I used to write every day & I really miss it, answering your asks or doing the occasional prompt has been one of my fav ways to unwind so hopefully I will get back to my "schedule" soon 💖

But the good news is my neck won't be knifed! Meaning that there's no need for surgery if I keep resting for another month or so. It should heal by itself and the first few months are pivotal so I'm so glad I've stayed away from all things that bring any pain or discomfort. The old me would've just taken three shots of whiskey and signed up for a wrestling class because that gal really had a death wish & something to prove... Now I got a better pillow and have eaten healthy and done everything I can to help myself and hasten the recovery process. So yeah baby! No surgery!! I'm so effin relieved 💞

#personal #health stuff

[bomberqueen17]

cellulitis adventures

So on Friday I was cleaning in the barn, hosing rotting meat out of a floor drain. I tripped over the hose, and fell on the hand holding the hose sprayer, in a pile of moldy rat shit I'd tried to clean earlier but hadn't done a great job on. The hose sprayer scraped my thumb, opening up a little cut and tearing the skin, which was annoying and hurt a lot.

Naturally I was like, listen I need to clean this really well, so I did. But I was busy, so I washed it really well and then didn't bandage it, because I had a lot more grubby shit to work on and a bandage would just get soggy. I cleaned it again when I was done, but still forgot to bandage it. it was not a serious cut, it was more of a scrape, and it hadn't really bled much, it was mostly just sort of scabbed over. Not a big deal.

Drove home to Buffalo on Saturday, and noticed it was a little sore, maybe a bit puffy. Ah, not great. I cleaned it again, put neosporin on it this time. Went to bed. In the morning I reapplied antibiotic gel and put a band-aid on it, and went off to work, off to Dude's aunt's house where his mother is clearing it out. (Aunt had to go into a long-term-care apartment downstate near her daughter, after a stroke left her with poor working memory, and nobody's happy about this but the house needs to be gone through and her sister is the one to do it. And we are the ones to help her; her children live a few hundred to a thousand miles away, and wouldn't know what to do with the things in Latvian anyway.)

Anyway. Finished with that, took a nap, ran some errands. My thumb was a bit achy under that band-aid, but I was busy. It wasn't until I was making dinner and noticed a red line on my wrist that I realized I ought to give this more attention.

I finished making dinner, sat down, took off my watch to look at the red line a bit better. Now, I have really pale skin, and it shows red marks from everything; I expected it was red from steam from the cooking. But no, the line curved and went unaltered under where the band of my watch had been, and out the other side. It was under my skin, not the surface of it.

So I took a picture of it and sent it to an online buddy who is a nurse, who said immediately to go to urgent care, not to wait and see if it cleared up overnight because it was not going to. And now that I've come out the other side of this with some antibiotics, I thought I would write a little post and tell y'all what to worry about, because it was no big deal in my case but if I had waited it might well have been. So behind the cut will be a very non-gory photograph, which possibly will look more dramatic than it would on your skin because I have so little pigment in mine. But mine was a very clear textbook case, so I figure it's a good example. Again though, no gore, so I do encourage you to look even if you're squeamish, because it's really good to get an idea in your mind about danger.

For the record, urgent care turned me away so I went to the ER and while I waited a long time, the staff, rushed off their feet and far too busy, was still kind and reassured me I had done exactly the correct thing in coming in. This is the kind of thing it's trivial to fix up with a routine course of oral antibiotics if you catch it, but if it goes too long it can get into all kinds of bodily systems and become very difficult to safely eradicate, and can cause lasting, even permanent complications.

So I thought, for other dumbasses like me who would ignore a throbbing cut, here is a little PSA about Shit To Definitely Not Ignore, and thanks times several million to my online nurse buddy who told me so.

Behind the cut, a photo that does not include the actual injury or any gore or disfigurement, but very clearly shows the telltale sign, which is redness from inflammation from the infection traveling through the lymphatic system, and is like, a prime time danger sign and if you see this seek care and do not delay. I haven't been able to find good pictures of what this looks like on darker skin, alas, but here it is on me.

[Image description: the right forearm and hand of a pale-skinned person, lying on the edge of a table with the fingers loosely closed, thumb upward. The thumb goes off the top of the frame, and a bandage is just visible circling it. A red line wavers from the side of the thumb down along the back of the heel of the hand, curves down along the inner edge of the wrist, and then curves down to the underside of the arm. Several blue veins are also dimly visible through the skin, not following quite the same path as the red line, which is wider and blurrier than they are. The red line is quite blurry and hard to see in some places, clearer and more distinct in others, and in one place clearly but briefly splits to follow two channels before reuniting into one. There's also a faint dent visible in the skin at the side of the wrist, where the buckle of a watch was; the red line is not otherwise interrupted by where the skin had been covered by the watch.]

Again, the injury itself was a little gnarly but not anything I would have sought treatment for on its own; it was a bit sore to bend my thumb, it was getting a bit red and swollen but I had it under a bandage and wasn't monitoring it. The red streak was what made me look, and it's good I did. For the record, i don't know if this is typical, but pressing down at the point right on the side of my wrist where that red streak was widest was tender, like pressing a bruise, and isn't this morning; that was what really convinced me this was something from the inside and not a weird mark left by touching something from the outside. I don't know if that would be universal, and it wasn't tender along the whole length of it, but right there it's going over bone so I could really feel it. It's not raised at all, not a rash, it felt like bruising deep under the skin but if you pull your finger across it didn't fade or change color or have any kind of texture to it at all. This morning it's not tender anymore either, though the injury itself is a bit more painful than it was.

They gave me a dose of antibiotics last night around 10pm, and the streaking has faded, but the injury itself is more angry and swollen and is affecting my grip strength with that hand. I plan to follow the course of antibiotics, of course, and am grateful for modern medicine, which makes this mostly just an amusing anecdote. Who knew scraping your hand in a barn full of rat shit was dangerous! (Well, I did.)

Anyway-- off to see about filling this prescription. I gotta take it four times a day but like, y'know, I can handle that in exchange for not having sepsis, LOL.

#medical stuff #health stuff #cellulitis #infection #modern medicine #psa #don't be a dumbass

[decolonize-the-left]

My blood tests revealed something is in fact wrong with me! But other tests showed that it wouldn't be the thing that doctors thought it would be.

So inconclusive. BUT they weren't normal!!! They found something!! Several things that point to an issue with my blood and heart or even my kidney and liver. They even tested to see if I had a heart attack before ( I haven't according to the tests btw).

It feels and sounds bizarre to be saying this like it's a good thing but ALL my tests have always come back normal. Doctors treated me like I was a fucking hypochondriac or like I was just wanting meds and I was starting to maybe think my symptoms could be psycho-somatic but NO!! My chemicals ARE fucked up in a way that can be measured!!!!!!!

#my posts #decols posts #health stuff

[rosesutherlandwrites]

PSA: Do you feel low grade exhausted and sad and kinda stupid all the time? Do you also have a period? Maybe you are depressed for no discernible reason...but maybe you should get your iron checked! This post brought to you by my having been on the brink of a nervous breakdown thinking all my energy and my ability to focus and create had up and left me and I was just getting old and tired and it was awful...and then discovering I'm actually catastrophically anaemic.

#health stuff #seriously though #people with periods should probably get their iron levels checked on the regular #and it's stunning that it's not done until theres something obviously wrong

[veggiesforpresident]

what are some fun things to think about when you're too fatigued to do anything except lie in bed with your eyes closed? like no music or audiobooks or anything.

#long covid #me cfs #chronic fatigue #health stuff #(i have an Unspecified Virus and i'm sooooo fucking bored)

[lastoneout]

bro there's gotta be something wrong with me I should NOT be this tired two days after doing like three minor errands

#I know I have hEDS and I'm anemic and shit but like #I went to the doctors office and the pharmacy #and I didn't walk that much or take public transit I was like going from sitting in one place to sitting in another #and now I'm so exhausted I can barely think and my entire body hurts #what the fuck #vent #negative #health stuff

[ilikecarsandlike4people]

Okay, bit of an update, health/otherwise, cw health stuff

Going to go see my new PT tomorrow, we're working towards narrowing down the diagnosis. The few options on the table are... scary, not going to lie, but I know a diagnosis would make things easier.

To be completely honest, what ever it is, is getting worse. I really hope they can figure it out soon, so someone can help me.

I'm going to try and keep positive. I'm going to see my family over the easter weekend and try to take my mind off of all of this.

I'm working on a few bigger pieces of art but process is.... very slow, sorry about that. I am able to work for ~30 mins per day due to strain on my hands.

Love you all, and happy Easter for those who celebrate -R

#cw health #health stuff #update #personal

[psychic-waffles]

what stage of the collapse of the nhs is it when your nhs gp tells you the best course of action is to pay for a private gastroentorology appointment to get the instruction they need to refer you for nhs testing, because they know there isn't a snowballs chance in hell of getting an nhs gastro referral accepted 🙃

related: i have an print shop and a ko-fi if anyone wants to buy some art or has some spare change ❤

#i'm just so tired #so so tired #like i'm incredibly privileged that the private gastro is even remotely an option but this is still utterly shit #fuck the tories fuck anyone who has ever had any single thing to do with screwing over the nhs #and fuck the first gastro i saw last year who didn't listen to me and immediately discharged me without any testing whatsoever #health stuff #nhs #uk

[painisntn33ded]

it's always so baffling to me when i do things that i know will make my pain flare up and then my pain flares up, like i did not see that coming

#p #health stuff #chronic illness #spoonie

[magpie-to-the-morning]

Been awhile since I did one of these, but they're a fun way to celebrate little accomplishments, so here's my ta-da list for the past week!

Talked to my doctor about my recent rise in panic attacks, have a new treatment plan

Went back to my physical therapist after a month, found out that my range of motion in my neck has increased and now I just need to work on strengthening those muscles

Had a great session with my therapist

Am working on scheduling pottery and horseback riding lessons

Made an appointment to probably get a root canal which, terrifying, but I didn't put it off and it will be okay!

Wrote AND posted a little something

Had a small panic attack last night but asked for a little help and rode it out

Did some dishes even before coffee, and plan on taking Eddie for a long walk in the park today

Am looking forward to a foraging lecture/walk tomorrow, and have plans some friends after that

#It's well worth noting that being able to do most of these #are priviliges made possible by insurance #and/or being in a relatively secure financial position #and it should be that way for everyone #Health stuff

[redcofu]

💜

#i tried my best #sorry for being inactive #health stuff #drawing #art #artists on tumblr #digital illustration #procreate #my art #mlp #mlp commission #mlp oc #commission #winter #pony oc #pony commission

[not-poignant]

Health update!

So for those following health stuff, I got some great news today. I don't have COPD or Pulmonary Hypertension.

I did find out that my lungs are smaller than the average population (maybe about 90% the size) so they're working a bit harder than everyone else's and that's part of why I've been prone to pneumonia (which I started getting as a teen) and chronic bronchitis.

I also have a new trial medication to start, and some bloodtests to get. But my lungs overall are doing really well and I don't have to see the lung specialist again unless things get suddenly worse.

We've been staring down a possible diagnosis that would give me 2-5 years left to live for 6 months now, and getting a reprieve has been a huge relief and in its own way kind of exhausting.

But good good good news, and that makes me super happy <333

#personal #health stuff #cw chronic illness #still have all the other stuff #he asked me if i wanted a follow up re: the prescribed medicine #and i kind of said that while he was amazing #i do not want more specialists in the roster #i already have to see an endocrinologist #rheumatologist #orofacial pain specialist #psychiatrist #and more on a regular / semi-regular basis and it's like i'm good #how about we leave that there lol

[bihansthot]

I’ve had an awful cough on and off since over a year now and my doctor has tried multiple things to treat it and nothing is helping. The next step is to see a lung specialist, yay more doctor’s appointments, I also have to call the liver specialist back tomorrow since they never got back to me about setting up an appointment. I have so much going on medically right now and ironically none of it is my heart for a change. I do have to see my cardiologist in a month but as far as I can tell my PET scan went fine so hopefully it will be an easy appointment. I need to get bloodwork next week, I’m hoping my levels will be better this time. I’m also supposed to drive down to fucking South Carolina to visit my partner’s family and then down to Florida to see mine because my older brother is so worried about my nephews not spending enough time with me and in his defense I haven’t seen them since they were in diapers and they’re 8 and 10 now but it’s like someone in my family finally realized I have a limited time to life and is wigging out now. I’m also really bitter about it because literally a week after we get back is my 40th birthday, yeah that’s right I’m that old. I really wanted to have a wild and fun birthday maybe go to Las Vegas finally or go see my besties in Atlanta but no, financially we can’t afford two trips so I have to give up my celebration for family time just like I had to give up celebrating my 25th heart transplant anniversary for the same reason. I’m so tired of feeling like I don’t deserve to celebrate anything, I’m so sick for feeling like my milestones aren’t worth anything. 40 is huge for someone who’s doctors have told their Mother to hug their little girl one last time because she isn’t going to survive the night, the week, the operation, to 1, to 5, to 10 to 15 to 20 etc. but I fucking did. I am six weeks from 40, something no one thought I would do and I can’t celebrate how I want. I’m trying not to sound entitled or self centered but I deserve to celebrate my milestones too. I’m so stressed, I’m stressed about my health, about Ani’s health, about my weight, the trip, my birthday ugh I just need a break. I won’t get one though the trip will be stress filled and miserable as I’m the most awkward person around kids ever, I hate the beach, I hate Florida, I hate the way my mother acts. Fat me is never good enough for her and she never lets me forget it and no one ever defends me or sticks up for me. I just get to let her whittle down my self worth while I try not to upset her further. *sigh* I just want a good night’s sleep but that hasn’t happened in a while. Sorry if I seem quiet or distant lately especially on discord, I have a lot on my plate right now and I’m not quite sure how to handle it all.

#life update #health stuff #health problems #send good vibes #send positive vibes