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ProfessorTomoe

Changing Medications (Level of Trust Required)

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1 hour ago, Don Edwards said:

Or possibly it's time for a new knee?

Isn't he in the US though? pretty sure surgical alteration of a major joint is WAY more expensive than support contraptions strapped to one's leg.

also they mean even more things prof'd need to recover from at once.

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18 hours ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

i'm guessing trading it for something thigh or hip mounted is the plan?

I don't know - the guy who brought the knee-scooter is going to confab with my podiatrist and try to come up with something else that might work.

 

18 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

Or possibly it's time for a new knee?

That *is* a possibility. I'm going to raise it at my appointment on Thursday. The podiatrist is part of an Orthopedic Specialist group, so someone there's got to do knee replacements. I've lost enough weight that I might qualify now.

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On 8/25/2019 at 10:28 PM, InfiniteRemnant said:

Isn't he in the US though? pretty sure surgical alteration of a major joint is WAY more expensive than support contraptions strapped to one's leg.

Yep, I'm in Texas, in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I'm not worried about cost through the end of this year - I've met my catastrophic deductible. Everything that insurance approves is covered at 100% until the start of 2020. Besides, anything strapped onto my leg isn't going to provide relief from pressure against my bones pressing directly into one another. That's where a knee replacement is probably going to be the only way to go.

As for recovering from multiple things at once, well ... it wouldn't be the first time, let's just leave it at that.

An update: the podiatrist is deadly serious about wanting me to keep my weight off of my right foot. So much so that he's replacing my knee-scooter with a "transport chair" (think "wheelchair lite"). Should get here in the next day or so, hopefully before my appointment on Thursday. I've spoken to his nurse about the referral to a knee surgeon, and she said there would be no problem in working one up for me.

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Finally, some good news. Looks like I don't need the transport chair, which has never arrived. I saw the podiatrist today, and after scraping a goodly amount of callus material from the area of my ulcer and from toe #2, he declared my entire foot healed. I asked him about the pain I've been having: he said it was due to "baby skin" growing in the ulcerated area, replacing the bad skin. So, no more bandages, no more wrappings, no transport chair, nothing! Surprised the hell out of me.

Meanwhile, I did ask him to set me up with a knee surgeon. He did - my appointment is this coming Tuesday afternoon. He will be looking at both knees for a fix of some sort, if not for a replacement of both. We shall find out exactly what when I get there.

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Having known several people with knee and hip replacements, the results are almost always very good or very bad.
You either end up with a working leg, or you have a new set of problems.
There is no middle ground.

And remember to take any medical ID they give you when you go to the Airport.

So what's a seedy joint like this doing in a nice guy like you?

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11 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Having known several people with knee and hip replacements, the results are almost always very good or very bad.
You either end up with a working leg, or you have a new set of problems.
There is no middle ground.

With my history, I deserve a bit of good luck, damn it. :angry:

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Had a bit of a health scare this morning. My heart decided to begin racing on me. It also started throwing PVCs (Premature Ventricular Contractions) - something I've dealt with for a long time, but not as bad as today. I had to take an emergency second dose of clorazepate to compensate. Knocked me out for several hours, but I've woke up feeling better. Considerably more cautious,, but better. I think this is going to be a "let's take it very easy" day, so sorry, tOH - It's going to be another day at least on your avatar. :(

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2 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

I think this is going to be a "let's take it very easy" day, so sorry, tOH - It's going to be another day at least on your avatar. :(

Good Lord, your health comes first! This sounds really scary. Please promise me to take good care of yourself!

1 hour ago, Don Edwards said:

She is not going to complain about that...

Damn straight I won't.

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7 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Good Lord, your health comes first! This sounds really scary. Please promise me to take good care of yourself!

I thank you for your patience, and I must admit that part of the delay is me trying to remember how I used to do recolors in the first place. It's literally been years since I've done one, and I had a whole mathematical system mapped out for recoloring that I've forgotten. That, plus you've got a lens flare of sorts in your avatar that's going to complicate matters - just give me time to ruminate on it. I promise it'll get done.

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I had a rather disappointing appointment with the knee surgeon today. He based his diagnosis off of two X-rays. They showed that I had arthritis behind my left kneecap, plus I had bone spurs on the outer sides of both knees. They did not, however, show the bone-on-bone arthritis on my right knee. His recommendation: steroid shots in both knees, followed by physical therapy.

Sigh.

I went ahead and had the shots administered. They made the pain much worse. I had to put ice on my knees and take an oxycodone pill when I got home. Plus, the shots didn't address the pain I have on the inner side of my right knee. I'm also not going to go with the physical therapy - every time I've gone with that, it's done nothing but make things worse.

He scheduled me for an appointment 10 weeks from now, but told me to come back in 2 weeks if the steroid shots don't help. At that point, he'll have an MRI done and look into doing arthroscopic surgery. However, he said that knee replacements are not an option.

I have a feeling I'll be making that call in 2 weeks' time.

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1 hour ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Follow-up: my knees are still hurting worse than they were prior to the orthopedist's appointment and the steroid shots. I will be making that call for a new appointment.

That, in a word, sucks the big one.   No, wait that's 4 words...  You know what I mean.

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The call has been made. I have an appointment this coming Tuesday.

In other news, I've spent a couple of days this week fighting migraines. Today, I'm fighting pain on the opposite end - my left foot is shooting waves of pain up between my big toe and toe #2 for some reason. Pins and needles, like you'd expect in diabetic pain, but I'm not diabetic anymore (A1C = 5.2). I've taken an oxycodone to try and get it to stop. It can't kick in fast enough.

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The MRI of both of my knees is scheduled for late tomorrow afternoon (Friday, Sept. 20). They found a 3 Tesla MRI machine (no electric car jokes, please - it's one of these) that is supposed to be compatible with the Greenfield filter that was implanted within my inferior vena cava way back in 2009, after my gastric bypass disaster. The MRI machine should be strong enough to get a good enough picture of my knees to let the knee surgeon know WTF is going on down there. It'll also hopefully show him the bone-on-bone arthritis in my right knee that he claims he can't see. I've got a follow-up appointment in a couple of weeks to learn the results.

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And just when things might be looking up ...

The ulcer on the bottom of my right foot is back.

I've got a hurry-up appointment with my podiatrist on Monday. He's probably going to debride it and tell me to put Iodosorb on it. Only problem: Mrs. Prof is going away for a week next Saturday. I won't be able to do the ointment and bandaging myself. I may have to get a home nurse for a week.

Damn it all to hell.

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Unfortunately, all primates have a the same “two sets of teeth per lifetime, no regeneration/replacement” arrangement. Natural selection implies that we would only develop regenerating teeth if people were actually dying from a lack of functioning teeth. However, humans do not use our teeth as weapons or tools to any great extent (we invented stone tools for that, and then later, metal tools). Also, our reliance on relatively soft cooked foods means that few people die of starvation specifically due to loss of teeth.

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