Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff

[surreality]

Then don't let them use it. No one should use something they know doesn't work for them.

I wouldn't allow the hospital to use hydromorphone/Dilaudid for me, despite it being 'so much stronger' than what it's emulating (morphine), due to the side effects, and their repeated insistence I should be using it instead.

I was their 'very nice cooperative patient'. They'd remarked on this multiple times. (This is probably because it was a ward full of 'what is even happening to this person' or people actively dying.) The day to day staff loved the hell out of me for this and was incredibly nice.

I warned them that on the Dilaudid, they'd have to haul me out from under the bed due to it never getting dark enough in the room to not have a stabbing perpetual light-sensitivity headache, and that anyone trying to take blood would probably end up bleeding more than me as I went quasi-feral. As I'd just been taking it before the ER to handle what we'd thought was a back injury... well, my husband just nodded along with my description of the effects, since he'd spent three days dealing with me living in a blanket cave and shrieking like a banshee at him when he turned on the lights in the bedroom's bathroom to take a shower in the morning, and threatening all manner of brutal tortures to him if he even tried to suggest anything like food.

Round two of that was really not on our agenda.

Medication sensitivities are real and not remotely fun. If you have one, pay attention to it, and insist on what works for you personally.

As a layperson, you're not going to understand another person's reaction to it if you don't have it yourself in anything but the abstract; you're just going to confuse yourself if you think they're experiencing what you do.

[Sunny]

The thing to add to that is that medication sensitivities turn into allergies that can kill you from one dose to the next. If you get a rash this time, it can kill you dead next time. This is not hyperbole or something to not take seriously. Next time you see a doctor, document the sensitivity. Get it in your records. Make them put the red band on you.

It damn well could save your life. Just. Do. It.

[Auspice]

I think I got dilaudid the last time I was in the hospital because I begged them not to give me morphine, but.... an NGT is also so insanely horridly uncomfortable that they give you something.

And it was, truly, the first time in my life I've understood what people mean by feeling drugged. I was just dopey and sleepy and it's the only reason it took 3 days before I told my nurse that if they didn't get clearance to take it out I'd remove it myself.

But yeah, tbh, it wasn't until I was over 30 that doctors and nurses began listening when I said 'this doesn't work' or 'this happens when...' (such as: 'I feel like I'm suffocating when I'm given anesthesia ...' and the last time, the anesthesiologist actually listened and instead of it being a terrifying experience, he actually knew WHAT THAT MEANT and adjusted accordingly).

[Macha]

Apparently, I wake up when supposed to be under anesthesia. 4 surgeries, five times. Every doctor commented on it. (The one who had to operate twice found me super funny.) The first time, I apparently just waved my hand in time to the music, until I slipped back under.
Second time, I apparently woke up and was mumbling something, the second time that surgery, I told him not to mess up.
(They do not give me the paralyzing stuff, something about reacting to other medications, etc. So I just have the oxygen mask unless they need to dose me more heavily and then there's the dreaded tube).
2 out of 3 of the surgeons found it interesting that I wake up and they can talk to me, and get a reaction. Hand movement, (I flipped the one off, when he was asking me a question), etc.

Apparently, waking up like this is supposed to be somewhat rare (depends on the study). But I'm also resistant to novicaine (sp), and when I had teeth out with twilight sedation, apparently I kept trying to sing along with the music playing. (so I got more of the juice, so I was extra wooooo when I woke up).

[surreality]

@Macha I woke up when they were taking my tonsils out, apparently, and tried to chat them up with tools down my throat.

I am pretty glad I remember absolutely none of this.

[JinShei]

First surgery I watched as a student nurse, the lady woke during a hip replacement under spinal and sedation, and started to talk to me. I freaked out but it's common...

[Wretched]

So I am fairly new to wearing contacts. To anyone who isn't I have a question. How often do you just 'lose' one, especially if eyedrops or tears are involved(look Pixar makes sad movies okay? I'm an edgelord with a soft heart.), but also sometimes not.

How paranoid am I being ab out them disappearing behind my eyeballs and cutting off my optical nerve?

[JinShei]

@Wretched not at all... I lost them regularly. (once into a bedpan, before they were disposible...)

[Derp]

@Wretched

I lose lose one about every six months on average. They slip out of place far more frequently, but back in easy enough once you learn to feel where they are, especially if your eyes are dry.

[Auspice]

this is all horrifying and I never want contacts

[JinShei]

@Auspice said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

this is all horrifying and I never want contacts

I gave them up after the bedpan incident. Not least because I wasn't going in after it, and I couldn't afford a new pair.

[faraday]

@Wretched Your contacts can fall OUT or get kind of folded up in the corner of your eye or under your eyelid, but they can’t get behind your eye. The folding thing would happen to me every once in a while. Annoying but not in any way dangerous.

[Arkandel]

@Wretched Like Derp, I'd say losing one every six months is about right. The thing too is that I then throw the other eye's lense out, too, so it's easier to know when I need to switch to a fresh pair down the road.

[Darren]

The last pair I lost, they dried out sitting in a hot car for three days while I was away on a camping trip. It was shortly after that that I decided I really didn't like the hassle of dealing with contacts and went back to glasses. I still keep disposables on hand for special occasions like if I have to dress up for something, I generally prefer to wear contacts rather than glasses.

[mietze]

I had to help a friend flush out a contact that had gotten folded and wedged at the corner of her eye (not sure how in the fuck she managed to do that). She was in a lot of pain. But if something can get BEHIND your eyeball then there's something a lot worse than a contact thing going on. I assume that it's technically possible since like eyeballs can pop out (it's hard to do though) but. Probably if there's something that allows something to get behind your eyeball you're not even thinking about that contact at that point. Eyeballs are so fucking gross I can't even.

[faraday]

@mietze it’s really not possible for something to get behind your eye unless your eyeball first pops out itself. At which point, like you say, you’ve got bigger issues.

But I second the sentiment that contacts are a PITA overall.

[Darren]

I don't think it's possible for them to get "stuck" but they can do weird things like fold over and get pushed to one side of your eyeball. The first time that happens, you'll probably panic, but it's easily fixed with a few hard blinks and maybe some eye drops. The first time that happened to me, I had come home after a few too many and had gone to bed without taking out my el-cheapo daily wear contacts. I woke up the following morning with my eyelids "glued" together and the contacts shoved to one side. I darned near called 911 but fortunately my room mate knew what to do,

[Snackness]

My grandad told me I was overweight and letting myself go at Thanksgiving.

Yeah, I am overweight. But I work full time and I have a five-year-old and I'm jogging several times a week, I'm on several medications that make it very difficult to lose weight, and I don't eat that badly.

I'm trying not to let it hurt my feelings but it really did.

Just needed to vent.

[Auspice]

@Snackness said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

My grandad told me I was overweight and letting myself go at Thanksgiving.

I fucking hate when family does this.
My mom does it to me regularly. This is the woman who got weightloss surgery assuming she'd just automatically lose all the weight without any effort after.....and in fact stayed the same weight because she didn't exercise, didn't improve her eating habits (she just ate less at meals, but continued eating the same garbage).

But oh, she loves to tell me how much I weigh, how I need to lose weight, etc etc.

It's bullshit. If anyone should be supportive: it's family. I'm sorry your grandfather did this to you.

[Derp]

It's really hard for me to lose fat. I don't really understand why. I have TONS of muscle, and DEXA scans show that I am somehow pretty fuckin' jacked under the fat. But the fat just refuses to come off. Like -- it doesn't matter what my macros are, or what my calorie intake is. I will lose muscle mass before I lose fat mass. Always.

But I have regular blood pressure, regular cholesterol, can run several miles without getting winded and can squat twice my bodyweight, deadlift even more.

It's annoying. I'm in better shape than most of my friends but you would never be able to tell just from looking at me.

Point of all that being: Weight really isn't an indicator of anything truly important. Go get other benchmarks tested.