Health Thread

Well had the appointment with hand Doctor this morning. As I mentioned before the fingers were working fine late yesterday.

Well Doctor looked the hand over real close checking the free movement of every finger joint and looked at the X-ray that was taken Tuesday. She just said that she can not see anything wrong. Said if it does it again to give her a call for another appointment and if the problem goes away before I get there just cancel.

It's a bit frustrating, but like any system trying to fix it while it is working can be almost impossible. If you can't get something to repeat a failure how can you repair it? At least if it is something like a relay for a starter you can swap in a new one and see if that fixes the problem. Not sure if EBay has a listing for good used 1950 vintage right hands!

kshansen said:

Well had the appointment with hand Doctor this morning. As I mentioned before the fingers were working fine late yesterday.

Well Doctor looked the hand over real close checking the free movement of every finger joint and looked at the X-ray that was taken Tuesday. She just said that she can not see anything wrong. Said if it does it again to give her a call for another appointment and if the problem goes away before I get there just cancel.

It's a bit frustrating, but like any system trying to fix it while it is working can be almost impossible. If you can't get something to repeat a failure how can you repair it? At least if it is something like a relay for a starter you can swap in a new one and see if that fixes the problem. Not sure if EBay has a listing for good used 1950 vintage right hands!

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Would it be helpful to you at all to wear any kind of support or compression glove, something like someone with carpal tunnel would use? Just when you’re working. In my former job I would have days where I did lots of lifting and repetitive motion. I used to wear these compression Velcro supports on my elbows and a wrist support for my left hand. It helped me a lot.

I like to eat healthy. I have all my life. Salads, I can't get enough!

Mmmmmmmmm! Salad!

59Tebo said:

Mmmmmmmmm! Salad!

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Speaking of lettuce, I just saved a bunch, today. If you are a medicare recipient with part D drug coverage and on medications, call 1 800 MEDICARE, before open enrollment ends on December 7th. This is too easy. You can have them call you back if there is a wait. I gave them my Medicare number and told them what drugs I take. They saved me $600 by switching from Humana to Cigna. Then, THEY switched plans for me and read me the agreement which I verbally consented to. My old coverage will automatically expire on Jan 1st and the new plan will instate. Then, I handed the phone to my wife and they saved her $700. I do this every year. Last year, Medicare advised me to stick with Humana because that company was still the lowest price for annual out of pocket expenses including the monthly premiums, which I do by auto pay from my credit cards, instead of deducting from Social Security. I take a tier 4 drug and the savings was only 10%, but my wife's savings was 50%. Don't wait until the last minute. I suspect the line to medicare will get swamped. Tomorrow, I'll call again for my part B medicare supplemental health coverage as Blue Cross just notified me of a $300 increase in annual premium for each of us.

I use Anthem which is Blue Cross/Blue Shield in my state, Medicare Advantage plan with zero $ premium and it does a pretty good job as far as I can determine. Low co-pays , no deductibles, some limited dental and vision coverage and a few other perks that I don't take advantage of like an allowance for vitamins and some other sundries but have to use Wal Mart and I would rather avoid the mile walk from parking to store and the half mile back to their snooty pharmacy assholes. So I pay for my vitamins. toothpaste, toilet paper, band-aids and whatever else that benefit would cover..............

We just had a recall of Romaine lettuce around here, various , different sources. Too many stores to list, but the common denominator is the "s**t" slurry 99-44/100ths percent of farms use for fertilizer. Unavoidable. You want to grow, you gotta fertilize. So, as an informed consumer, thoroughly wash your vegibles! Poop causes the poops! Interesting that one of the things necessary to a healthy diet, can be the least healthiest thing for you! Caveat emptor!

JAX71224 said:

I use Anthem which is Blue Cross/Blue Shield in my state, Medicare Advantage plan with zero $ premium and it does a pretty good job as far as I can determine. Low co-pays , no deductibles, some limited dental and vision coverage and a few other perks that I don't take advantage of like an allowance for vitamins and some other sundries but have to use Wal Mart and I would rather avoid the mile walk from parking to store and the half mile back to their snooty pharmacy assholes. So I pay for my vitamins. toothpaste, toilet paper, band-aids and whatever else that benefit would cover..............

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I checked out some medicare advantage plans. I thought the 0 $ premium was a come on, because I believed you can get nickeled and dimed to death if you have catastrophic illnesses as what happened to both my wife and me, with a total of three hospital stays, two lasting close to a month, five visits to the ER and three surgeries, six procedures, follow ups, in patient and out patient imaging, specialists, and visiting nurses, not to count over $10,000 in out of pocket drug costs in just the last 12 months. We were making two to three appointments on some days, trying to coordinate them, so we might get some free time. Last year, I mentioned in the Health Thread the greatest reason for leans on homes were from unpaid medical expenses. I also mentioned that I did my own survey in the hospital where I worked, asking nurses and technicians what their average annual dental expenses were and it was $2,500. My dental plan, called Vital Savings by Aetna pays half the cost on a negotiated group rate with no cap on total dental costs you may incur, unlike those from the advantage plans, (I looked at the all inclusive Blue Cross Advantage Plan, and, instead chose the Horizon Blue Cross Supplemental Insurance. That pays the 20% Medicare doesn't (lucky for us) Most often, catastrophic illness hits you like a train.Vision costs us $14 a month and pays for itself for exams, but you do pay a chunk for glasses. Now, the good news. My wife is not only my avatar, but my hero. Three days after being released from the hospital, post surgery she climbed on the bike to take this shot. But before the picture, I partially tore my bicept tendon thanks to a block of wood I placed under a center stand with a bad tang. Two days later we hopped on my tandem bike for a 30 mile ride. Cross my fingers and knock on wood, we are both doing fine and well enough to climb a mountain hiking trail last week. The doctor visits have subsided and in February, she's going skiing in the Canadian Rockies and in March we're heading to Siesta Key...

All my drugs cost less per month than Medicare part D deductions..so I opted out of part D...I know not everyone can do that..Glad to hear you all are doing better.

madmax-im said:

All my drugs cost less per month than Medicare part D deductions..so I opted out of part D...I know not everyone can do that..Glad to hear you all are doing better.

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I hope that works out for you and you also get some relief from arthritis.

Gonna have a real Thanksgiving diiner tmrw...Turkey..stuffing.. with gravy.. candied yams...mashed potatoes..creamed spinach .. No desserts of any type...No alcohol...Not going to stuff myself..but a little of everything...Still there will be damage....But hell you do have to live once in a while..eh?
Well i meant to post this in the Nutrition thread..oops...Happy Thanksgiving!!! We're visiting family on Staten Island NYC..heading home Sat. took the train this year...

madmax-im said:

Gonna have a real Thanksgiving diiner tmrw...Turkey..stuffing.. with gravy.. candied yams...mashed potatoes..creamed spinach .. No desserts of any type...No alcohol...Not going to stuff myself..but a little of everything...Still there will be damage....But hell you do have to live once in a while..eh?
Well i meant to post this in the Nutrition thread..oops...Happy Thanksgiving!!!

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I might choke down some dessert.

Goldenboy said:

I might choke down some desert.

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Hi GB,
if you eat sand you'll shit bricks. Pumpkin pie & whipping cream is the usual Thanksgiving dessert.

fredintoon said:

Hi GB,
if you eat sand you'll shit bricks. Pumpkin pie & whipping cream is the usual Thanksgiving dessert.

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That's good advice. You' referring to processed food which packs in your intestines. What I said was supposed to be a joke, I'm not sure how Canadian Thanksgiving differs from ours in the U.S. They both celebrate the harvest and our moms showed their love by making a big dinner for everyone and my way of showing gratitude was to eat it, so as not to disappoint her for her efforts. The abundance was enjoyed, going back another generation as a respite, when the Great Depression caused hardship for most families.
My brother took this shot, probably on telephoto, with his phone. in Cape Cod Bay.

Goldenboy said:

That's good advice. You' referring to processed food which packs in your intestines. What I said was supposed to be a joke, I'm not sure how Canadian Thanksgiving differs from ours in the U.S. They both celebrate the harvest and our moms showed their love by making a big dinner for everyone and my way of showing gratitude was to eat it, so as not to disappoint her for her efforts. The abundance was enjoyed, going back another generation as a respite, when the Great Depression caused hardship for most families.
My brother took this shot, probably on telephoto, with his phone. in Cape Cod Bay.

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Hi GB,
nothing so serious. I was just nitpicking your spelling.
The British "harvest festival" and the Canadian thanksgiving both celebrate the end of the harvest in that particular climate.
The US thanksgiving celebrates the Pilgrims getting food aid from the indigenous peoples in exchange for smallpox.
Although according to my Cree buddy Eddie, "We got more of you bastards with lung cancer than you did of us with imported diseases."

fredintoon said:

Hi GB,
nothing so serious. I was just nitpicking your spelling.
The British "harvest festival" and the Canadian thanksgiving both celebrate the end of the harvest in that particular climate.
The US thanksgiving celebrates the Pilgrims getting food aid from the indigenous peoples in exchange for smallpox.
Although according to my Cree buddy Eddie, "We got more of you bastards with lung cancer than you did of us with imported diseases."

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That's an interesting outlook. I've seen some scathing disclaimers on the way the pilgrims treated the Wamponaug Indians, such as leaving the chief's son's head on a pike in the middle of their settlement for years, as was just described this week in the New Yorker Magazine, but being politically correct is delving into politics. I want to avoid that, but not the subject. There was general mistrust and the Indians should not have let their guard down against these savages.

Not sure if I had posted here about my breathing problems. More from wife's point of view, she says I stop breathing at night for around 30 seconds or so at various times. All I know from my point of view is I tend to get very stuffed up while sleeping laying down so often get up from bed and sleep in a recliner in the bedroom.

Also have been having headaches pretty regular and the one thing that seems to work good for them is the store brand of Excedrin which has caffeine in it. Well primary care doctor told me I was having migraines and the cause of them could be the caffeine. Sort of sucks that the "medicine" that effectively treats the headaches has the ingredient that causes them. I actually went with out caffeinated coffee or the Excedrin for two months and still had as many if not more headaches! Tell her that and she just said "Well the caffeine could be causing the headaches."??? Well for that reason and others she is now my former primary care doctor.

Back to the sleep/not breathing problem. Another doctor decided I needed a sleep study and after that said I had sleep apnea. Got fitted for a CPAP machine and mask, that was back about late July. I have tried a couple different machines and masks since then. I was told that it might take a couple weeks or maybe more to see any improvements. Well it is now the end of November and I am lucky to get more than a few hours a couple times a week where I have the strength or ambition to do anything more than sit and watch TV or sit at this desk reading about other people's projects. Headaches which I was lead to believe would be a thing of the past are at least twice as often. Nasal passages most of the time feel like someone ran a wire brush though them and breathing irritates them even more.

I have been good about wearing the mask around 7 to 8 hours every night just so they can't point a finger at me and say "You did not hold up your end and give it a chance to work!" The doctors office I am going to specializes in ENT and Sleep Medicine". I have yet to actually see the actual Doctor just the NP and PA. I do have an appointment with the actual Doctor this Wednesday so I'll see how that goes. I'm actually hoping that day is one of my real bad days so maybe if he sees me at the worst he will believe what I have been trying to tell all the other people, that instead of feeling better I'm way worse!

Dang Ken, I’m sorry to hear you’ve been having so much trouble. Sometimes doctors run you through the ringer before they can get a handle on what the problem is. I hope you can get some relief soon. Hang in there buddy.

kshansen said:

... my breathing problems...

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Sounds like you may be looking at a surgical solution...

Mailman said:

Dang Ken, I’m sorry to hear you’ve been having so much trouble. Sometimes doctors run you through the ringer before they can get a handle on what the problem is. I hope you can get some relief soon. Hang in there buddy.

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Very true! There is a program on Cable called "Mystery Diagnosis" I've taken to watching it quite a bit these days. Some of the patients on there make my problems seem minor.

People who go for years or even decades dealing with a condition with doctors almost telling them they are faking it or making a bigger deal about it than they should. Only to find they do have maybe a rare problem that while not curable it can be treated to relieve 90% of the problems they are dealing with from the condition.

Kind of like when someone is working on a problem with their motorcycle and they spend all kinds of time and money trying to cure a carb problem only to find out it was an ignition problem all along.