MEDICAL MATTERS

[Cathy]

Ah puncture wounds, yes, I remember years ago when one of my kittens punctured my chest with 2 claws (as I remember it was hanging on / dangling... Ouch), a little while later at work I was feeling quite sick and told someone what had happened, next thing I knew I was at the doctors having an injection for Tetanus.

You just don’t know what bacteria (etc) might be on your beloved pets claws and teeth.

[Stanley]

I still make sure that my tetanus jabs are up to date but as I remember the last time I asked for my protection to be checked I was told that because I had regular top ups in the past I was now protected for life. You can get from something as simple as a grass graze. I always remember a footballer called Derek Dooley losing his leg after a graze on his leg he got when he broke his leg in a match in February 1953. The actual cause was Gangrene but it was thought that what started that was a tetanus infection from the graze.

[PanBiker]

Sally is waiting for a call from our Doctor Hassan. She was bitten on her leg yesterday just below the knee by a Horsefly. She has a hard, hot to the touch lump now with the pain running down her calf. She has taken an anti-histamine and went round to the pharmacy for advice. They had a look and recommended she call the doctor. he has to be careful with her compromised immune system and will probably need a course of antibiotics. I have posted before that insects seem to like her regardless of any potions she has used, (she has tried them all). The curious thing is that she has only been on the menu since she had he chemotherapy treatment which is a long time ago now. Insects never bothered he before she had breast cancer and the treatment for the same.

[Stanley]

While you're waiting put a sugar and soap poultice on it. It will pull nails out of oak beams and can do no harm.
If you've never used it you'll be amazed how effective it is in drawing poison to the surface.

[PanBiker]

The AB's were at the pharmacy and sorted mid afternoon so she is already 3 tablets into the course. Bog standard penicillin, should sort her out, thankfully still works for her as it still does for me when I have had occasional need.

[Marilyn]

I haven’t had an antibiotic for about 35 years...my GP ( long dead now) didn’t believe in them. I wonder how I would go having to take an antibiotic nowadays...scared to death at the prospect actually.

[Whyperion]

you can put that on the household tips , question is that suitable for splinters / thorn end bits in flesh ( the roses etc are determined to attack me )

[PanBiker]

I haven’t had an antibiotic for about 35 years...my GP ( long dead now) didn’t believe in them. I wonder how I would go having to take an antibiotic nowadays...scared to death at the prospect actually.

Well good on you Maz, I would rather bow to the science and take an effective cure rather than die of bacterial infection any day. I have been close at one point and would not want to go there again. I cant understand a medic not adopting the proven effectiveness of antibiotics, how many patients did he loose? Lastly why would you yourself be scared to take AB's, makes no sense unless you have some kind of proven adverse reaction?

[Marilyn]

Oh,....don’t get me wrong...hubby has had them dozens of times and his life depended on it (Septicaemia). And my dear old GP was very good with kids and administered them as needed for my son. He just had this philosophy that strong adults should fight their own infections. He was very caring...just refused antibiotics. ( and he felt most things were viral anyway so antibiotics wouldn’t help). I rarely even get a cold and haven’t for years and years. He believed antibiotics would stop working one day.
I can’t say if he was right or wrong. I’ve seen my husband at death’s door and prayed the antibiotics would help. I am not against them at all, but take his caution that they are only for extreme situations.

[Marilyn]

He got quite old. Late 70s I think. I remember my last visit to him and he tried to put the blood pressure cuff around my arm and he couldn’t manage it. He apologised, saying he had had a minor stroke overnight. I was horrified. I told him he must go home immediately and spend the day with his wife.
( he asked me not to tell staff at the front desk that he had the stroke)
I got back in my car, not knowing what I should do!
It was a very odd experience.
One doesn’t often visit a doctor and find they are sicker than yourself.

[PanBiker]

All I can say Maz is that I'm glad he wasn't my doctor. Physician heal thyself comes to mind.

[Tizer]

Lastly why would you yourself be scared to take AB's, makes no sense unless you have some kind of proven adverse reaction?

There is a downside to taking antibiotics. They kill off your resident gut bacterial flora that you've spent years cultivating. That can have serious side effects in unexpected ways and that, as well as AB resistance, is why they shouldn't be used except when absolutely essential. The more we learn about the gut flora the more we find it plays an important role in many aspects of our physiology and health.

[PanBiker]

I get all of that and their overuse by patients demanding what they perceive to be a cure all. They are not suitable for everyone. However based on past experience with Sally's compromised immune system. She could take the chance of riding it out with severe discomfort and the possibility of it going very bad very quickly in which case she would need a lot more than a course of penicillin, we have been there as well.

[Marilyn]

I tended to believe that dear old doctor. He knew when things were really wrong with you.
( I got a bit concerned when he sank to his knees and prayed at the bedside when I was 25 and had the flu. I was bloody sick . I could hardly raise my head from the pillow. I didn’t care if I lived or died quite frankly. He ordered an ambulance and said prayers until it arrived.)
Still didn’t administer antibiotics!
Bless the old boy.

[Marilyn]

I do understand your concerns with Sally, Panbiker.
Hubby recently had a toothache and I was very very insistent the dentist knew his previous history of Septicaemia. We don’t want to be back in ICU watching machines that go “beep”, and drips that go “drip, drip”
He prudently prescribed antibiotics...

[PanBiker]

I tended to believe that dear old doctor. He knew when things were really wrong with you.
( I got a bit concerned when he sank to his knees and prayed at the bedside when I was 25 and had the flu. I was bloody sick . I could hardly raise my head from the pillow. I didn’t care if I lived or died quite frankly. He ordered an ambulance and said prayers until it arrived.)
Still didn’t administer antibiotics!
Bless the old boy.

Why would he if you had viral influenza?

Got the T shirt for that as well. Lost three stone in three weeks around the Millennium. We were in our mid 40's at the time and it nearly saw us both off. First in the queue if they would let me for the annual jab hoping each year that they have made the right decision on the mix.

[Whyperion]

I tended to believe that dear old doctor. He knew when things were really wrong with you.
( I got a bit concerned when he sank to his knees and prayed at the bedside when I was 25 and had the flu. I was bloody sick . I could hardly raise my head from the pillow. I didn’t care if I lived or died quite frankly. He ordered an ambulance and said prayers until it arrived.)
Still didn’t administer antibiotics!
Bless the old boy.

Why would he if you had viral influenza?

Got the T shirt for that as well. Lost three stone in three weeks around the Millennium. We we in our mid 40's at the time and it nearly saw us both off. First in the queue if they would let me for the annual jab hoping each year that they have made the right decision on the mix.

thats strange, I cannot remember flu (I could do with losing weight again !) but son wanted to go to millenium dome , It never really did things for me , but anyway went along and I was feeling really sick that day ( I have had that before, water and sleep normally see it off, presumably something I ate had been prepared in an unsafe manner )

[Whyperion]

Getting to the bottom of things
Flushing 'can propel [viral] infection 3ft into air'

however you may note that many public toilets (if you can find one that is open) do not have lids (vandalism alas), nor do the ones supplied for some disabled and less ambluant facilities. I tend to give a lick of a diluted bleach run round first at home.

[Whyperion]

I cannot find easily a chart from 2015 onwards. What is interesting in deaths of the over 75s is the reduction in acribed to circulatory illnesses (are they dying earlier than 75? or have statins made a difference) and the increase of Alzheimer's and similar. Now because this chart is crude - are people living longer and therefore developeing Alzeheimers over time (so one would like to see cause of death and full age at date of death to find out), or are , as some rumours appear to suggest, Alzelheimers is caused by either flu - vaccines (unlikely is my guess) or statins or similar (possibly - if essential fats and oils for brain function are being lost by Statins getting rid of fats in the bloodstream then is there a problem side-effect). Given that my family parentage not lost to lead poisoning from the germans (straifing machine guns are not healthy), or the bad air of the 1950s, the rest seemed to survive, some on pills to 85-95 which I suppose is reasonable all things considered, brought up on brown bread and dripping,

[Whyperion]

another thought on Viruses. We tend to condem people for taking anti-bacterials (mostly fungal spore based I suppose), for viral infections. Other than the fact that viruses (most) have a lipid shell, which makes them water repellent, and are much smaller than bacteria, and they dont have DNA and therefore are not a whole single cell compared to Bacteria, are virus in any way equiped to fight against fungal consumptions, do fungi / moulds not like them , or do viruses survive by sheer weight of numbers or hiding in the spaces the moulds cannot get to ( but would consume viruses if they could get to them ).
there is the tiny problem that given many viruses are similar to what the host itself expects to find to be of its own benefit, anything that likes (to kill / consume) viruses also poses a danger to the host - by taking out the host , or something benificial to the host.

[Stanley]

Could THIS Daily Mail report on a possible advance in the treatment of Parkinson's disease be a breakthrough? It certainly looks positive.

[PanBiker]

Had to take Sally to A&E this morning after advice from 111. She got up fine and brewed her coffee then went out in the yard to look at her plants etc. Coming back in, when she took the step up into the kitchen she had excruciating pain right in the middle of her back and she said she felt like she had been winded. I could see the colour draining out of her. I got her sat down on a straight backed stair and could see the sweat dripping off her she said she though she was either going to be sick or faint. Not a panic attack but clearly something wrong. I rang 111 for advice, (It took 5 minutes to get past the covid advice and button options). Eventually got through and related the symptoms, they asked if she was fit to speak so I passed the phone over. 10 minutes of questions later they decided she needed to see a medic but an ambulance would be up to 3 hours wait. They asked If I could take her to A&E which of course I agreed to.

Got her in the car and rocked up at Airedale about 25 minutes later. No drop off point now at A&E so had to park in a doctor slot. Went into reception with our masks on and was told to get a wheelchair. New hospital masks were issued and I was asked to move the car. I left Sally in the waiting area, we were the only people there. Shoved the car on the top car park which is barrier and charge free at the moment. By the time I got back Sally had been scooped up by a nurse who did her blood pressure and was just re-depositing her in the waiting area to wait for a doctor to be available. We waited about 15 minutes then the doc arrived and took her through into Starship Enterprise, I was not allowed to go with her so I went outside and found a bench in the shade round the corner by the Outpatients. Waited about an hour and a half then got a call from Sally to come and collect her.

Sally knows that she has two bulging disks in her lower spine which normally present with dull or muscular pain a bit like sciatica. She has physio routines and has been told to keep as active as she can but be mindful of any worsening or differing symptoms. Anyway, top and bottom, she had a full neurological assessment, ultrasound scan of her bladder and rectal examination. All thankfully fine. They reckon she had pinched a nerve above the damaged disks which caused the acute pain. No signs of any further damage, her BP on admission was quite low even for her as she already has normally low pressure. It had come up 15 points by the time they had done all the tests so back up at her nominal 124 or so. She has been told to take pain relief as required (4 Paracetamols in today so far) and be as active as possible. Represent without prior contact if her symptoms return or get worse. She's moving better and is the right side of lunch. No 5 or 6 mile walk for her today.

[plaques]

She has been told to take pain relief as required (4 Paracetamols in today so far) and be as active as possible.

I've been through the 'active as possible' routine. My general advise is " if there is any pain at all stop lie down or sit making yourself as comfortable as possible until you feel as though you dare move again". Don't continue thinking the pain will wear off. If you are in pain and have to travel lie down in the back. All common sense really. Hope it improves without any surgical intervention.

[PanBiker]

Indeed Ken, she couldn't do anything else just after the onset although it was a straight backed chair until a bit of pain relief kicked in. They gave her a right going over and the diagnosis seems quite plausible. Any repeat will have her in the scanner again. She had one last year which found the dogy disks in the first place. She has improved as the day has gone on but she will continue with her physio routines which are designed for her particular circumstance and do allow her to walk 5 -8 miles day as the mood takes her. She normally swims twice a week as well which is also recommended but can't do that at the moment. They were checking for loss of sensation and function below the waistline but all has come up good.

[chinatyke]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery Sally. Take it easy.