Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff

Auspice

@Ganymede said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

@Auspice said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Yes? Seasonal and tree nuts.

If your pain is non-localized, it's possible that it is related to allergies. I've been starting to get intense upper tooth pain in response to seasonal allergies, and I've been told that is because of the sinuses above your teeth getting enflamed and swollen. Else, it could be a sinus infection of some sort, which will do the same thing.

Lo, when I took a round of antibiotics, the pain went away. But, yeah, it sucks donkey balls.

Oh no. It's localized. I know this tooth is bad. I was supposed to get a root canal and all that shit a year ago but I had major panic attacks over it.

I wish it was like allergy tooth pain. Then I'd just pop some benadryl and nap it off. >.<

Gonna pick up more Tylenol and some of that numbing shit while I'm out running errands.

Sunny

@Auspice

tooth infections can be lethal. I know you don't have the money to go to the dentist, but if you start running a fever, please go to the ER. I know it's a financially bad idea, I know that it's panic-inducing, I know it's hard, but please please don't take too many chances.

Auspice

@Sunny said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

@Auspice

tooth infections can be lethal. I know you don't have the money to go to the dentist, but if you start running a fever, please go to the ER. I know it's a financially bad idea, I know that it's panic-inducing, I know it's hard, but please please don't take too many chances.

I know they can. And I'm monitoring for fever. Right now it's just pain.

I just need to hold out until February. I'll have insurance again (no contract to sign yet but I discussed stuff like pay rate, pay schedule, insurance offerings, etc with the recruiting firm today) and be able to shop for a place that can knock me out while they shove their hands in my mouth.

TNP

@Auspice Also, look in a mirror every day and inspect the gum. If you see any redness, especially spreading, you need to get it done yesterday.

Sunny

@Auspice

Ok, good to hear. I really hope it holds on for you, the ideal outcome there is great.

Aria

@Auspice You get an upvote for the recruiter bit, not the ouchy bit.

In the meantime, if things get really bad, check into dental schools near you. Texas is fucking huge, so there may not be any right in your city, but...

I thought I needed a root canal once when I didn't have insurance and ended up at UPenn's dental clinic. The wait was an absolute pain in the ass, the appointment ridiculously long, and I fortunately only needed a filling. (Technically two, as I had somehow gotten a cavity in the crevice between two molars that spread to both?)

All in all, I went through their endodontic clinic, got a round of X-rays, passed through the regular clinic for the fillings, and got a cleaning. With a sliding scale based on my low-but-not-poverty salary? ~ $90.

I paid more than that last year for a fucking mouthguard with the "enhanced" level dental plan I have with my employer.

Worth the time to make the drive if things get urgent, IMO.

Auspice

@Aria said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

@Auspice You get an upvote for the recruiter bit, not the ouchy bit.

In the meantime, if things get really bad, check into dental schools near you. Texas is fucking huge, so there may not be any right in your city, but...

I thought I needed a root canal once when I didn't have insurance and ended up at UPenn's dental clinic. The wait was an absolute pain in the ass, the appointment ridiculously long, and I fortunately only needed a filling. (Technically two, as I had somehow gotten a cavity in the crevice between two molars that spread to both?)

All in all, I went through their endodontic clinic, got a round of X-rays, passed through the regular clinic for the fillings, and got a cleaning. With a sliding scale based on my low-but-not-poverty salary? ~ $90.

I paid more than that last year for a fucking mouthguard with the "enhanced" level dental plan I have with my employer.

Worth the time to make the drive if things get urgent, IMO.

I already checked and (understandably) covid means they aren't accepting people at the school clinic right now. It was actually the first thing I checked!

kk

I feel the need to vent about real life so comes here!

First of I spent forever on the phone with a friend who I had to tell about 20 times, no I cannot go anywhere. Not even church. Not to a tea party! As she asked me over and over again to go out and do things. I told about 20 times I am working a covid unit, I cannot go /anywhere/. And that it is because I care about her and my community that I won't, not because I don't care! I want to go, but it has to wait until I am sure I am not bringing the covid along with. But it was stressful, saying it again and again and it not sinking in.

Then on the other side, I have my mom, who is cowering in absolute fear, glued to CNN and who I found myself lieing to only because she would have panic attack if I told her the truth about how much covid I am around. Now I feel guilty for that, but I don't want to freak her out either. I am torn about telling the truth or not.

Second rant is that I just spent quite a bit of my own money to track down some n95 for my unit since we don't have enough. I am like grr give us more.

silverfox

@kk said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

I am like grr give us more.

Sorry, gotta fix this for you with the words you should absolutely using.

THIS IS NOT MY FUCKING RESPONSIBILITY. YOU <insert responsible party> HAVE A FUCKING MORAL OBLIGATION TO MAKE SURE WE AND OUR PATIENTS STAY SAFE. MAN THE HELL UP AND FUCKING GIVE US THE TOOLS WE FUCKING NEED.

Ganymede

@kk said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Second rant is that I just spent quite a bit of my own money to track down some n95 for my unit since we don't have enough. I am like grr give us more.

Serious offer here, like, if anyone is front-lining -- nurses, teachers, doctors, whatever -- and you need N95s or some shit, one of my clients is in the sanitation business and can get his hands on sanitizer, masks, and other supplies pretty quick.

kk

thanks for the offer and thanks for listening.

GreenFlashlight

After two weeks of floating around the building for no good reason, I get stationed on my unit again tonight. My unit has become the short-stay rehab unit over the last few months because the short-stay rehab unit has been converted to the quarantine unit, but the last COVID patient was moved off the hall Monday; a woman with dementia who wandered everywhere while clutching dirty tissues in her hands and touching everything for support as she walks, so you tell me to my face that they got that unit deep cleaned in the sixteen hours before turning it back into the short-stay rehab unit. Look me in the eye and say that. But whatever. I'm going back to my home unit! Chin up!

When I get there tonight, I'm informed one of the patients on my side was sent to the hospital for a fall on evenings. I can hear someone at the end of the hall screaming once every second or so, like every exhalation has to be yelled out, so I go back and inspect it. It's a short-stay rehab patient, naturally, and one who came over while I was elsewhere so I don't know who they are. Well, whatever. I find the evening aide to get report, and am told I'll have to take vitals on the new patient because the evening aide can't get a reading, what with how the patient is shaking with their yelling and writhing.

I take their vitals while the evening aide watches, and tell her to get the nurse quick. The patient has a high fever, 02 sat in the low eighties on five liters, and a blood pressure I generally associate with dead people. The night nurse, I discover over the course of the next hour, is already alarmed before she gets this info because she found an expedited X-ray result the evening nurse neglected due to that fall I mentioned, and the X-ray shows among other things fluid infiltration heavily suggestive of pneumonia. We call the family, call the on-call doctor, and ultimately the paramedics. By the time they get here, the patient's BP is somewhat better and the O2 sat has raised to high eighties on ten liters, but the fever has gone up almost a degree. We ship the patient out.

The night nurse, now well into her shift with the evening nurse gone home, starts combing through paperwork and emails about the patient, whom neither she nor I have ever met before. We find out the patient has been receiving physical therapy from one of our employees who is now off work with COVID after going to a family Thanksgiving from which sixteen people also tested COVID-positive.

I was going to throw in some off-topic complaining about how my unit is a complete catastrofuck because the floaters they've had over here haven't been keeping up with necessary duties to maintain the place, but who even cares in the face of all that? I hate everything, is the point.

surreality

It's worth noting that if you grind your teeth in your sleep, ***Spoiler tag for people who have dental phobias -- you don't want to see this.***

click to show

Guess who learned this the hard way!

Auspice

So I've been in a drug study for a medication for fatty liver disease (https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/terns-pharmaceuticals-announces-safety-and-pharmacodynamic-results-of-a-phase-1-clinical-trial-of-tern-101-a-liver-selective-fxr-agonist-in-development-for-the-treatment-of-nash/).

I must be on the medication itself. My liver enzymes were actually almost too high to qualify at the start of the study, but I got accepted in.

The nurse that I see for it told me yesterday that as of my bloodwork two weeks ago, my liver enzymes are normal. So I must be on the actual medication and it is working. Without any side effects (for me at least but overall the drug has limited side effects from what I read in the initial paperwork).

This is super good news, esp for someone who has other complications that lead to struggling with weight-loss (hypothyroid and pcos).

silverfox

Man - not taking my meds is at the point where it is SUPER noticeable just from missing a day. I don't like me when I forget.

Why is remembering them in the morning so hard?? I even bought a foot long neon green container that is almost impossible to ignore and I still forgot yesterday.

mietze

@silverfox I got a really annoying medication alarm on my phone that will keep buzzing every 10 minutes after a certain time until I click it and then confirm that I've taken that medication. It was super helpful but that probably depends on the person.

surreality

Ran across this in another group I'm a part of. Since these issues are tragically common in the hobby, it seemed like it may be useful to share. It has a lot of information, including the upsides and downsides of some potential remedies.

What to do if you're the target of online harassment (from Slate).

Macha

A few years ago, I had a sleep study done, because I don't sleep, and when I do sleep, it's shitty sleep.
They discovered I was waking up every 15 minutes, with something I was told was limb displacement disorder, and my sister the nurse calls Periodic limb movement disorder. - it is similar but separate from Restless leg syndrome. Apparently, you flex your ankles, hips, knees, etc. I know I tend to point my toes like I'm a ballerina.

It's getting worse. They put me on meds to help me sleep and it's worked pretty well for 3 years-ish. Once I fall asleep, I tend to sleep pretty well.. until recently. If I try to take a nap, etc, I wake up knowing I've been moving/am moving my legs.

So I checked into it - turns out that it is 'influenced' by caffeine, ADD, SSRIs or antidepressants, - all of which factor into my life. But I've actually been cutting /back/ on my caffeine, so I'm puzzled.

Sorry for the short story. I'm just tired, and I hurt, because I'm moving in my sleep in ways that do not help my other medical conditions.

Atomic

I love it when my heart gets erratic, my hands and feet turn to ice, and nausea takes over. Balance is next to go, then the rest of my thermoregulation.

It's my favorite thing.

silverfox

I was enrolled in an endometrisosis pain study recently, but washed out because my pain wasn't "severe" enough. This led to a conversation with the nurse in charge of participants about some of the questions they were asking.

One was similar to, "Have you missed work in the last 24 hours due to pain?"

My answer was always no - because I don't have the monetary or structural ability to just... not go to work? Like 10/10, if I COULD have stayed home today with my heating pad, I would have. I know the chances of me throwing up if I eat due to pain are pretty high so I'm just not going to eat today until the pain retreats.

It just made me reflect on how the real world doesn't always mesh with the academic one.