Posts by velvetmoose9

Get that MRI done as soon as you can.

darkpuma58 said:Update: Now my sense of taste has gone totally haywire—I can't even taste anything salty anymore. Honestly, should I just bite the bullet and head to the ER tonight?

Honestly, go sooner rather than later.

darkpuma58 said:I had a standard MRI done back in the fall of 2010. I distinctly remember bringing my urea and creatinine lab results along just in case they needed to use contrast, but it turns out they didn't need it. That was all handled over at the Mayo Clinic.
Aside from these chronic headaches, I haven’t experienced any actual neurological episodes—it’s mostly just been them escalating into full-blown migraine attacks. But like I said, nobody has found a cause or a cure yet. I tried the whole routine of cutting out gluten and lactose, but the headaches didn't budge. The only thing that actually seemed to help was when I stopped taking pills containing ethinyl estradiol.
The symptoms actually started with this weird sensation, like there was a hair stuck in my mouth. After that, I started getting occasional tingling at the tip of my tongue and even some numbness in the area below my lower lip. Then, about three or four days ago, I lost my sense of sweetness—not entirely, mind you, because I can still recognize things like chocolate or strawberries—but the sweet taste itself is gone. My sense of smell is fine. I'm also dealing with frequent dizziness and feeling really unsteady on my feet. Vision and hearing are totally normal, though.
I don't drink, I don't smoke, and I stay away from fast food. I have one cup of coffee a day, maybe two if I'm lucky. I usually get about 7 to 8 hours of sleep, though the headaches tend to wake me up in the middle of the night, especially right before dawn.

These new symptoms definitely need a quick follow-up with a neurologist or a neuroradiologist, and it's entirely possible you might need to loop in a neurosurgeon or an ENT as well.

darkpuma58 said:I don't want to start a whole new thread, so I figured I'd just ask here. I'm 41, generally healthy, though I've been dealing with these recurring headaches for years now that doctors just can't seem to pin down—even after a full neurological workup including an MRI. They actually calmed down a bit once I stopped taking birth control pills. Other than reaching for some Tylenol every now and then when the pain hits, I'm not on any medication.
Over the last few days, things have taken a weird turn. I've lost my sense of taste, and there’s this numbness creeping across my face—around my mouth, my nose, stretching toward my cheeks—and even the tip of my tongue and my palate feel numb. My sense of smell is totally fine, though. The headaches are hitting hardest right before dawn and immediately after I wake up, usually accompanied by some light nausea and dizziness that eventually settles down. Then, throughout the day, I get these intermittent bouts of dizzy spells paired with brief waves of nausea, which actually lasts way longer than the loss of taste or the numbness. I've also got this dry cough and a strange, lingering taste in my mouth regardless of how much I brush or floss. My teeth are fine, no canker sores or any inflammation in my mouth, and I've already had my tonsils removed.
And just to be clear, I am not anxious, depressed, stressed out, or anything like that—so I really doubt this is psychosomatic.
Does anyone have any idea what could be going on? Thanks!

When was that MRI done—was it before or after these new symptoms started kicking in?

Have you ever had an MRA, or maybe at least a CT angiography?

-The reason you couldn't post on that thread is because it’s been locked.
-Since you reached out to the Prime Minister regarding the moderation, we went ahead and passed your message along to the rest of the mod team so they could take a look at everything too.

Honestly, the other sub-mods have already covered all those points in their replies to you.

To go along with those earlier suggestions I mentioned:

- grab a different pair of shoes, seriously.
- if you actually have steady hands and know what you're doing, you could try shaving off that callus with a razor (assuming it really is just thick skin and not some other kind of tissue issue).
- just slap on a standard Band-Aid or maybe one of those corn plaster strips for a few days and let it breathe.

Sandra Brooks91 said:Is this result considered really high?
CRP 26.7
Sent in due to abdominal pain and irregular cycles

It’s not off the charts, honestly.
But it definitely flags the need for more follow-up labs and a deeper look into what's going on.
I'd say you should probably touch base with a gynecologist, and maybe even check in with a GI specialist or an abdominal surgeon just to be safe.

I bet the surgeon gave you the heads-up that even if you end up going under the knife, that area is probably never going to feel quite as rock-solid or stable as it did before the injury hit you. 🤔

I’m pretty much on the same page as your doctor here.

The spine is a delicate thing and can definitely take some real damage, so it makes total sense to go talk to a solid physical therapist. They can walk you through which movements are totally fine and which ones you really need to steer clear of during your day-to-day routine 👍
.
Plus, they'll likely set you up with a specific workout regimen that you'll need to stick with for the long haul 🧐

brightheron14 said:You hit the nail on the head, man. That’s exactly what happened, except it took them four whole months after I posted this for those idiots to finally figure it out. Now I'm looking at surgery. The worst part is, I was playing by the rules—showing up to every single follow-up, getting all the scans done—and not one of those doctors caught it until I went out to see a specialist privately. To top it all off, they pulled my cast off way too early, so every time I tried doing my physical therapy or stretching, I was basically just tearing away whatever little healing had actually happened.

Man, I am so sorry to hear that, 😢

I know it doesn't fix anything, but honestly, these kinds of injuries get overlooked way more often than you'd think, even by seasoned trauma surgeons and ortho specialists.

Do me a favor and get at least two different opinions before you commit to the surgery 🧐

Keep us posted on how things go 😉

Dennis Nelson said:Gastroscopy—it didn't go as planned (I told them my throat felt narrow, but they didn't really buy it), so we went under anesthesia and then this happened:
Anesthesia report: ASA II, TIVA 550mg, Propofol 120 mg Succinylcholine. Gastroscopy performed under TIVA; attempt at intubation was unsuccessful, Cormack Lehan grade III. Oxygen saturation dropped, patient was manually ventilated, followed by placement of an LM no 5, after which saturation normalized to SpO2 100%. Upon completion, the patient was breathing spontaneously, hemodynamically stable, and transferred to the ICU.

I’d love some professional insight/explanation here...

First off, it sounds like whoever was running the anesthesia was incredibly skilled and super meticulous.

Based on what you wrote, it looks like you probably have an anatomical quirk that made standard general anesthesia (endotracheal intubation) a bit of a challenge. That narrow throat you mentioned? Well, that makes things just as tricky for a fiberoptic scope or the actual tube the anesthesiologist needs to slide down into your airway to set up "artificial breathing"—which is actually why they noted it during the initial inspection of your throat/pharynx.

So, what they did was place a laryngeal mask over you to handle the ventilation—basically, they were "breathing" for you (and according to the notes, they did it perfectly well) until your own breathing kicked back in naturally.

Bottom line is, you aren't exactly a prime candidate for OET unless there's a really heavy medical reason for it.

fadedstag91 said:Is it actually possible to be addicted to dopamine, or is this just some standard human drive/reaction?

To be specific, I loved the feeling so much that I’ve started hitting the gym every single day, even though I don't really need to—my physique is already pretty solid—but I just absolutely live for that "reward" sensation you get after a workout.
It's kind of the same deal with orgasms; I used to be totally fine with hitting that mark maybe 4 or 5 times a week, but over the last year, that number has shot up to around 80 times a month, which averages out to about three times a day. Whether it's through sex or just solo, at this point, the method doesn't even matter, the whole point is just getting that satisfaction.

Maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but since I feel incredible and my immune system seems way stronger overall, I'm left with one big question: why on earth didn't I start tapping into this dopamine potential sooner?

Dopamine isn't the only neurotransmitter playing a role in what you're describing.

Working out within reasonable limits is incredibly healthy.
As for the frequency of orgasms you mentioned, that’s quite a high volume for a single month.
The fact that you're actually tracking these stats suggests you might have an excess of free time, or perhaps you're lacking interest in other areas of life or people who aren't involved in your workouts or your pursuit of pleasure.

As long as your behavior isn't hurting anyone else or causing issues for yourself, it's hard to label you a dopamine addict.
If you think it actually is an issue, you should check here.

Locked.

You could always head over to a local orthopedic specialist to get a second opinion (assuming I caught that right and this was all due to an injury), but honestly, I’m pretty convinced there’s almost zero chance anyone is going to jump in and try to actively treat 🤔

The surgeon gave you the straight truth.

Timothy Kim60 said:Hey guys, does anyone know where I can find a private CT scan out in the Midwest? Like, what’s the typical wait time looking like and what kind of damage am I talking about financially?

If I recall correctly, Quest Diagnostics has a branch over in Indianapolis too.
If you're paying out of pocket, you're probably looking at maybe a day or two max before they get you in.

Just give them a quick ring and ask.
Prices vary depending on exactly what part of the body they're scanning.

urbanangler6 said:if anyone can help out here:

-white blood cells 5 ref(3.4-9.7)
-neutrophils 30 ref(44.0-72.9)
-basophils 1.1 ref(0.0-1.0)
-lymphocytes 50 ref(20.0-46.0)
-monocytes 13 ref(2.0-12.0)

WBCs look fine, but neutrophils are running low while basophils, lymphocytes, and monocytes are all a bit up. Everything else seems standard.
I don't really have any symptoms to speak of, other than feeling a little more wiped out than usual, though I just figured that was the spring weather and hitting the gym pretty hard lately. My stomach's been acting up too, but since I deal with gastritis, that’s basically my baseline. Anything here worth worrying about? 🕺

Honestly, it could just be some random virus you've been fighting off for a few days and you're currently in the tail end of recovery.

But hey, that's just me looking at these bare-bones numbers.
Your doctor is going to be the one to actually make sense of this, since they're the ones who see the whole clinical picture. 😉

That’s definitely not the smartest move you could make.

And honestly—unless there's some major medical reason behind it—I highly doubt you'll find a surgeon here in the States who's actually going to go in and try to reset ribs that healed unevenly. 🤔
I personally wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole.

Broken ribs are always such an unstable mess, and there's just no guarantee that any follow-up fracture would ever heal up straight.

Unfortunately, it sounds like your surgeon gave you a pretty straight shot at what’s coming next.

The reality is, you can't just retire from life and sit on the couch forever.
To be honest, stabilizing that joint isn't some easy fix—I'm sitting here trying to wrap my head around how one would even go about doing that.
Maybe some specific kind of physical therapy could (and I really mean *maybe*) help steady things up, but you'd need a top-tier trainer, a massive amount of patience, and decent pain management—like a Lidocaine patch, for instance. But then again, Medicare would probably have a field day penalizing any doctor who prescribes that unless you're dealing with post-herpetic neuralgia, so that whole path is pretty murky.

Or, you just play the waiting game and hope the universe decides to cooperate.

By the way, an osteopath might offer some temporary relief, but there's always that risk where any manual manipulation could actually make things worse in the long run (and let's be real, that goes for my suggestion too, so nobody's getting ahead of themselves here).

It's not an uncommon spot to be in, either; people honestly deal with this kind of grind for years on end.👎

It feels like the rules are shifting under our feet every single day.
Honestly, don't even bother looking for any kind of logic in it.

rustymason82 said:We have this hand disinfectant, something similar to Plivasept, though I wouldn't dream of putting that on an open wound.
So, you changed the thread title, but shouldn't we be including home first aid kits in this discussion too?
I honestly can't wrap my head around this whole thing with the Betadine solution—is it really something I could overdose on, or do I actually need a prescription for it?
In that case, I might as well overdose on fish ointment (yes, I use it on first-degree burns after cooling them down; sure, they react differently, but if they can survive as many burns as I have, then maybe I should start listening to them!)
Or should I go with Neosporin? Which one is worse? Should I buy it and apply it after work to a wound that got wet and dirty despite the bandage (meaning, exposed to bacteria), or should I just let the wound fester and take sick leave? I can't work with an infection, especially with the risk of spreading something like strep—honestly, why am I even worrying about this after failing to meet the basic hygiene standards today? That’s just another "brilliant" move from the Department of Health—if I learned these things in school, which I did, and in much greater detail, I should always be able to answer these questions without needing extra lectures.

So, where exactly have you been hanging out for the last 25 years?

So, were you actually coming back from Sweden or Cuba at that time?

It honestly feels like this whole symphony is just gaining momentum, and if you ask me, things are only going to get messier from here. ☕

You’re totally hitting the nail on the head here.
The doctors aren't the ones calling the shots or setting the rules of the game; it's all down to the politicians and bureaucrats in D.C.

Honestly, you’d probably have better luck finding Betadine at a local Tractor Supply Co. than anywhere else (just ask Carol Garcia2 about her experience with that).

It would be pretty handy if they still carried PlivaseptBlue, assuming they haven't slapped a ban on selling that too.🤔

Wounds tend to heal a lot faster if you just use something like Apipol ointment with propolis—you can pick that up at any CVS Pharmacy without needing a prescription or anything.

It might actually be worth having some kind of culinary guild or a professional chefs' association send a formal inquiry or a suggestion over to the folks running the show in Washington regarding this whole situation.
Maybe then they'll actually listen to what the people want.
The experts don't get a say in these things anyway.☕