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ProfessorTomoe

Changing Medications (Level of Trust Required)

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23 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Keep a little notebook with your phone, and make sure you write everything down.  Even if it seems like something you couldn't possibly forget, put it in the log anyway.

I tried that with music, but I kept forgetting to write down the musical ideas that came to me in my dreams. :(

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7 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

When you add up all the pills I take every morning, does that count as breakfast? I mean, I do take a cup of coffee with them ...

Hmm, if there are enough of them in gelatin capsules, or oil-based suspensions (like my Omega Mints), it could!  A little protein, a little good fats....

With your shrunken stomach, do you ever find you just don't have room for pills and food both?

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1 hour ago, CritterKeeper said:

With your shrunken stomach, do you ever find you just don't have room for pills and food both?

* sigh * Unfortunately, no. I still have to eat something. Just had a leftover shrimp sushi roll with my late day pills.

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5:27 a.m. CDT 20170912. Whew. I'm still getting over a rather scary moment. We've all had a drink go down the wrong pipe, right? Well, I went one step further. I put my hydrocodone in my mouth, took a swig of tea, and the whole thing tried to go down my windpipe. I tried to correct, but that just made the liquid start coming out my nose. Somehow, I managed to get my pills down the right pipe, but I think I aspirated a bit of tea. I've spent the last 30 minutes trying to clear my lungs and nose of it. There's still some minor traces left, and I think all my coughing has woke up Mrs. Prof.

Yep, here she is, in her pre-coffee grump state.

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1:06 a.m. CDT 20170913. Most of the past 24 hours have been spent asleep. I've been waiting for activity here on this forum or on the Scribophile Ubergroup to keep me busy, but nothing has really happened. I generated some of my own talk on The Ubergroup. However, I'd have to say that 85-90% of the day has been spent asleep. I'm certain that the hydrocodone has got something to do with it, but I can't put the blame on it entirely. Sheer exhaustion has got to have had some part to play.

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6 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

1:06 a.m. CDT 20170913. Most of the past 24 hours have been spent asleep. I've been waiting for activity here on this forum or on the Scribophile Ubergroup to keep me busy, but nothing has really happened. I generated some of my own talk on The Ubergroup. However, I'd have to say that 85-90% of the day has been spent asleep. I'm certain that the hydrocodone has got something to do with it, but I can't put the blame on it entirely. Sheer exhaustion has got to have had some part to play.

Yeah, that can happen. My own sleep patterns tend to be disrupted and once in a great while my body decides 'blow that for a game of soldiers' and I spend most of a day asleep or near asleep. It happens somewhat more often to my wife, especially when she is under stress.

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10:09 p.m. CDT 20170916. I hate hospital paperwork and psych screening. For some reason, the hospital feels that they need to drag me back up there on Monday (9/18), prior to the 10KHz spinal stimulator test drive, and do a "multidisciplinary evaluation to help in [my] treatment plan." At least, I think that's what it's called. One bit calls it an "Intake Evaluation," while another calls it an "interdisciplinary evaluation." They called me yesterday and asked me if they could e-mail the paperwork—all 22 pages of it—to me. I've printed it out and am completely ignoring it in favor of watching the Texas Longhorns—USC football game.

I'll have to fill out as much of it as I can tomorrow before we go off to celebrate my son's 31st birthday at 3:00pm. (That's going to be a real test for Mrs. Prof, since she can't use Facebook at all. The IndyCar championship will be decided in tomorrow's race, and she doesn't want any spoilers. I'll bet it'll drive her insane.)

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8 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

I'll have to fill out as much of it as I can tomorrow before we go off to celebrate my son's 31st birthday at 3:00pm. (That's going to be a real test for Mrs. Prof, since she can't use Facebook at all. The IndyCar championship will be decided in tomorrow's race, and she doesn't want any spoilers. I'll bet it'll drive her insane.)

It may hearten you to know how a friend of mine once dealt with a somewhat similar situation, although admittedly he was a teenager at the time. He had gotten this huge questionnaire in connection with some sort of psych evaluation thing his school had decided to put him through. It was incredibly nosy and after just a couple of serious answers he got mad and filled the entire rest of the form out with responses like, "Who wants to know?", "Push off, I am not telling you that" and "Go sod yourselves." He took artistic pride in not repeating a single insult and in getting progressively more rude as he went along.

He never did hear from them about it. It may have helped that he graduated from that school less than half a year later. Possibly they decided either that he just wasn't worth the bother or figured that at least he would no longer be their problem after he graduated.

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10:55 a.m. CDT 20170918. The appointment with the psychiatrist took place earlier today. I thought it'd never end. He interrogated me on a number of embarrassing situations, even including the "gift" Mrs. Prof brought back from Colorado last year to see if my ankle pain / chronic pain syndrome would be helped by it (it wasn't). Then I had to fill out a version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (don't know which one) that was 15 pages worth of filling out those little true/false bubbles. Bored the hell out of Mrs. Prof.

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I'm going to have more than just my ear to show to the skin cancer doctor on Thursday. I've got a quarter-inch white spot on my right arm, just below the elbow. They say those are possible precursors to basal cell carcinoma, too. I'm prone to listen to "they" on this, especially when it originally looked like this back in 2013.

WARNING: THIS IS ONE YOU DO NOT WANT TO LOOK AT IF YOU ARE THE LEAST BIT SQUEAMISH. I'M BEING SERIOUS HERE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

large.2013-05-14_R_Arm_cropresize.jpg

It took forever for this bad boy to reduce down to something that looks like a stretched white spot. I'm taking in a picture of the above (SERIOUSLY, YOU'VE BEEN WARNED) for the doctor to examine Thursday.

Those two were the only things I was going to talk to him about. However, within the past five days, I've had a brown discoloration show up on the bottom side of my right forearm. It's already the size of the white spot farther up my arm, if not slightly larger. They say basal cell carcinomas don't metastasize. I hope "they" are right on this.

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That picture shows a lot more than a quarter-inch white spot!  If I'd seen it with no context, I think my first guess would be either a bad spider bite or a puncture wound that got infected.  Maybe the coincidence of getting that and the brown spot so close to the appointment is highly fortuitous.

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2 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

That picture shows a lot more than a quarter-inch white spot!  If I'd seen it with no context, I think my first guess would be either a bad spider bite or a puncture wound that got infected.  Maybe the coincidence of getting that and the brown spot so close to the appointment is highly fortuitous.

Don't get me wrong—that picture is from 2013. All of the yuck is gone now. The only thing that remains is a white spot. The brown spot is not in the photo and just appeared within the last couple of days.

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If that were a new picture, I'd ask if there are brown recluse spiders in your area - and if the answer was yes, tell you to get to a doctor ASAP.

Brown recluse spider bites don't usually heal on their own - they get worse. MUCH worse.

But if it were a brown recluse bite from 2013, and you hadn't already been to a doctor, you'd probably be missing that arm by now. Which I think you'd notice and figure out that a doctor was needed.

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15 minutes ago, mlooney said:

That's good.

Thanks. Although, the numbing shot they gave me in my ear cartilage made me feel legitimately unbalanced and woozy. I stood up from the exam chair, took a couple of steps, and had to sit back down for a minute or so. The nurse put a wet towel on the back of my neck to help. Wasn't much help, but I did eventually get my brain back in shape, stood up, and walked out of the place with Mrs. Prof watching to make sure I didn't fall.

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21 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Just got back from the skin cancer doctor. He wasn't sure what to make of the arm, but he was sure it was healed. No action needed.

He took a biopsy of my ear sore. I'm supposed to call back a week from today.

No other nasty spots found.

Hmm, been thinking of seeing a dermatologist to get some skin tags removed and get examined for any suspicious spots out of my sight.  Which raises the question, how do they conduct such an exam for skin cancer etc?  Do you strip down to undies and they look you all over?  Is magnification involved?  Is underwear left on, on the assumption that those parts don't get much UV?  Just curious.

18 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Thanks. Although, the numbing shot they gave me in my ear cartilage made me feel legitimately unbalanced and woozy. I stood up from the exam chair, took a couple of steps, and had to sit back down for a minute or so. The nurse put a wet towel on the back of my neck to help. Wasn't much help, but I did eventually get my brain back in shape, stood up, and walked out of the place with Mrs. Prof watching to make sure I didn't fall.

Wonder if it had spread far enough to interfere with the inner ear and thus your sense of balance?  If that's possible, they should warn people about it.

4 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Bleaugh! My right ear is ugly. I'm not putting a picture of it online, thankyouverymuch.

Awww!

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I've now had a doctor type person look into my ear. It's impacted ear wax not a punctured ear drum. The peroxide based stuff I've bought doesn't seem to be cutting it, I'm going to try the H202 + rubbing alcohol + water thing he suggested for a week or so. If that doesn't clear it, I'm off to an urgent care place and/or ER to have them scrap the wax out with spoon...

I am now the poster child of "don't use q-tips in your ear".   Been deaf in my right ear for about 6 weeks now.  Yes, from before the move.

 

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5 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Hmm, been thinking of seeing a dermatologist to get some skin tags removed and get examined for any suspicious spots out of my sight.  Which raises the question, how do they conduct such an exam for skin cancer etc?  Do you strip down to undies and they look you all over?  Is magnification involved?  Is underwear left on, on the assumption that those parts don't get much UV?  Just curious.

Mine had a portion of the paperwork devoted to this. You could have them do a really full body check, or you could opt out of certain areas. I didn't opt out, but the nurse asked if I wanted a full check first off. I told her no and said I just had a couple of spots I needed checked, and that's all they looked at. I don't know anything beyond that.

5 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Wonder if it had spread far enough to interfere with the inner ear and thus your sense of balance?  If that's possible, they should warn people about it.

I don't know ... I doubt it, because they injected it into the area around my cartilage (if not the cartilage itself). I can't be sure why it screwed me up. Probably threw my blood pressure to my head off due to a small case of shock. I wasn't expecting it to hurt so much.

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13 minutes ago, mlooney said:

I've now had a doctor type person look into my ear. It's impacted ear wax not a punctured ear drum. The peroxide based stuff I've bought doesn't seem to be cutting it, I'm going to try the H202 + rubbing alcohol + water thing he suggested for a week or so. If that doesn't clear it, I'm off to an urgent care place and/or ER to have them scrap the wax out with spoon...

I am now the poster child of "don't use q-tips in your ear".   Been deaf in my right ear for about 6 weeks now.  Yes, from before the move.

Good thing you're getting it treated. I'm a poster boy for "don't use Bic pen caps to clean out your earwax." Used to do that all the time, until my left ear suddenly went deaf-ish. Saw a doctor—turned out to be an infection that caused a blister to form on the eardrum itself. Almost lost my hearing. After antibiotic drops, he literally pulled the blister off of my eardrum while I was awake. Not recommended. Total healing time: approx. 6 months.

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44 minutes ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Good thing you're getting it treated. I'm a poster boy for "don't use Bic pen caps to clean out your earwax." Used to do that all the time, until my left ear suddenly went deaf-ish. Saw a doctor—turned out to be an infection that caused a blister to form on the eardrum itself. Almost lost my hearing. After antibiotic drops, he literally pulled the blister off of my eardrum while I was awake. Not recommended. Total healing time: approx. 6 months.

Good God. NEVER INSERT PHYSICAL OBJECTS INTO YOUR EARS TO CLEAN THEM. This is such a bad idea that I cannot stress it strongly enough. What you do is get a large syringe or a rubber bulb, fill it with lukewarm water and then use it to rinse your ears out with the water. If necessary, repeat a few times until you are sure you have gotten everything. If you get a large blob of disgusting-looking materia, you are nearly home free -- that is likely to be the accumulation at the bottom.

BUT NEVER INSERT PHYSICAL OBJECTS INTO YOUR EARS TO CLEAN THEM. You would be better off using the Force. At least it isn't likely to injure the eardrum or cause infections.

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Confession time.  I constantly tell clients not to clean their dogs' ears with Q-Tips, not to put anything in their dog's ear except ear cleaning solution.  (Hmm, wonder if that stuff works in humans?)  And yet, I will occasionally stick a swab into my own ear.  To blot out water after a shower or swim, or if there's wax in there annoying me.  Yes, proof once again that medical personnel make the worst patients.  Maybe it's because the temptation is there so constantly -- I spend most of my time in rooms with jars of swabs right there.

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Confession time here, too. After reading about the Japanese practice of "mimi-kaki," I found a pack of sterile cotton disposable ear cleaners on J-list. They're like the ones found here:

http://www.sa-n-yo.co.jp/en/ippan/eisei/-1001-1.html

One end is a regular generic Q-tip and meant for cleaning the outside of the ear. The other end is a small, soft hook (almost a curette) that scrapes away the wax instead of rubbing or compacting it. It's also made of a cotton material, just like the stick part, and is wrapped individually to keep it clean. Here's a picture:

large.EARPICK.jpg

You can feel how far you're inserting them, so as long as you don't go too far and as long as you don't have small children or large pets running throughout the house, they could be considered relatively safe.

Speaking of ears, my right ear biopsy site is still bleeding. And hurting.

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