Posts by velvetmoose9

Jeffrey Chase442 said:I’ve got my donor card, but honestly, what a joke... because here in the States, the laws aren't even properly set up yet, so I was told that regardless of what's on my card, if I pass away, they'd still go out and hunt down some family member to ask for permission anyway. It feels so stupid, because the whole point of having the card is that I made the call about my own organs, not that anyone else gets to step in and decide for me...

You're spot on, totally 👍

Yeah, the standard practice here in America is basically to check in with whatever family or relatives are around first.

electrictiger86 said:I can't quite remember where I stumbled upon this, but I read somewhere a few years back that the family actually has to foot the bill for the organ transport. So, basically, if you want to be a donor, you have to pay up.

Quoting Zdenko Kovač: Pure stupidity! ☕

The combo works pretty damn well, if you ask me 👍

Still kicking and staying busy ☕

And honestly, I hope it stays exactly this way 👍

Rebecca Reed3 said:Is there any non-invasive way to check the blood vessels in my head and around my heart?

I’ve been dealing with this for 15 years now. I suspect it’s my vascular system, even though everyone keeps telling me that vessels shouldn't cause pain. We just can't get a clear diagnosis.

I had a color Doppler scan on my neck and head vessels (“symmetrically placed, appropriate ACC width, symmetrical bifurcation levels, normal positioning and flow of ICA and ECA, appropriate wall thickness, no signs of atherosclerotic thickening or formed plaques...carotid artery flow rates are appropriate, normal direction...etc., basically everything looks perfect”).

The results were fine, but honestly, the name of the test is totally misleading. 90% of the scan focuses on your neck, and the rest goes up toward the ear. They can't see anything higher than that because the skull bone gets in the way. But the neck isn't what bothers me—it's my head and sometimes around my heart. I get this sudden pain (it feels like a vessel is about to burst) that passes quickly, but then I'm left with numbness and tightness in that area all day. It always scares me that I might be having a stroke or a heart attack.

Birth control also messed with me (dizziness and losing part of my field of vision), but as soon as I stopped taking it, those symptoms vanished. My doctor insists it's all coming from my cervical spine and claims the vision loss was a neck issue rather than the pills. I don't buy it. My neck never hurts. Plus, once I quit the birth control, that vision issue never happened again, and that was 20 years ago.

Over these 15 years, I've had a few breaks where symptoms disappeared. Twice it lasted four months, and right now I've been symptom-free for a year and a half, but then everything came rushing back a week and a half ago.

Or maybe some advice on blood tests? A few years back, I had surgery and had to do the standard pre-op blood work. There were a couple of tests specifically for coagulation (can't remember which ones, and I can't find the paperwork), but they came back normal.

Tylenol, Aspirin (actually, I think it was a version from Novartis 🤔), and bioflavonoids didn't help at all. I'm not sure if the Omega-3 helped, or if a lucky streak of feeling better just coincided with taking it. Hawthorn supplements helped when I first started, but they weren't as effective later on.

For the last two months, I've been taking Vitamin D (5000 IU, sometimes 1000 IU) because I'm pretty deficient. I know you're supposed to take magnesium and Vitamin K2 with it to prevent vessel calcification, but I haven't been doing that. I stopped the Vitamin D for now. My K2 should arrive this week, and I started the Omega-3 about 6 or 7 days ago. I'm hoping the K2 and Omega-3 help, but I still feel lost.

I don't smoke, I don't drink, my weight is normal, and my blood pressure is fine.

What did your thrombophilia testing look like?

Emily Patel70 said:My numbers were sitting right around 4, maybe even just under it—though I think the cutoff was 4—so they sent me in for an oral glucose tolerance test. Turns out my insulin levels were through the roof.

Are you dealing with any other health stuff or noticing anything weird happening with your body?

That’s one scenario we really need to be prepared for 🕺

But seriously, you’ve always got to keep a close eye on how you're feeling—like if your balance feels off or if your usual condition starts shifting—and make sure to act fast when something's up. 👍

Look, there’s no sugarcoating it—every medication comes with its own set of potential side effects, which is just one of those unfortunate realities of medicine 🕺

Propafenone can actually take a toll on your liver function.
But honestly? It might also act as a bit of a litmus test, potentially flagging some underlying liver issues that were sitting there undetected before you even started the meds.

Switching up your antiarrhythmic is definitely a solid move, but I'd say it would be pretty smart to get your liver checked out while you're at it. I'm talking maybe an ultrasound, re-running those liver enzyme tests, or even checking hepatitis markers if necessary—just to be safe and get a more complete picture of what's going on.

rustymason82 said:First off, mods, feel free to move this thread if you think it belongs somewhere else.
So, basically, we do these annual physicals at work... and up until now, my blood work has always been pretty solid, aside from maybe slightly elevated triglycerides (around 2.1) and high uric acid, but honestly, everyone in my family deals with that.
But this year, my glucose came back low—3.66.
In previous years, we used to go to the Mayo Clinic where the doctor would actually sit down and walk you through everything, but this time we went to some other clinic where the internist barely even mumbled a few words before brushing us off.
Should I be worried about this low blood sugar?

Well, it’s not actually that low if they took the sample while you were fasting (which is almost certainly what happened here).☕

Basically, you always have to take things with a grain of salt when looking at lab results, since some labs set their lower limit right at 3.5.

Every single lab has its own specific reference range—it's all calibrated based on whatever tech they're using to run the tests.

If you remember the good old Gauss and his bell curve, you'll see you're just hanging out on the far left edge of that "hat," which really just means the value is perfectly fine.👍

Roughly speaking—there's no reason to stress about that number right now.
Especially if you aren't feeling crappy.
If you want total peace of mind, you could always just go get an OGTT (that oral glucose tolerance test).
It tastes absolutely terrible, but it gets the job done.😁

Charles Rivera7 said:Does anyone here know someone who actually dealt with side effects from this rabies vaccine?

Yeah.

analogseal18 said:hmm, I’ve always been pretty chill about this stuff. Honestly, I’ve lost count of how many times some stray cat has scratched or nipped at me, and the thought of rabies never even crossed my mind. If I get a nasty bite that starts swelling up, I just head over to a clinic for some antibiotics and call it a day. Plus, dealing with cats is actually why I made sure to stay current on my tetanus shots.

When you look at it, that’s basically the standard playbook for how to handle it.👍

Betty Foster97 said:the whole rabies thing is basically history, we haven't seen a single case in years, ☕

Sadly, wild rabies is actually still hanging around here in the States.

Every once in a while, you'll get a fox wandering too close to the suburbs somewhere in the country, and it turns out they've got it.

I'll have to check in with my buddies who hunt or work in vet clinics—they usually have their finger on the pulse of stuff like this. 👍

Man, oh my God, why don't you go ahead and wake up those anti-vaxxers just a little bit 🤦

neonsailor26 said:Morning, everyone.

So, a couple of days ago, this tiny little kitten gave me a tiny scratch—I'm talking a mark so small you can barely even see it anymore, honestly it's almost gone already.

Now I'm actually getting curious about this. Honestly, what are the odds I actually catch rabies??

Is there actually any reason to be worried here, or am I just overthinking things again?

So, the biggest question on my mind right now is—can I actually just go out and ask for that rabies shot on my own terms? Like, can I just walk into a clinic and request it without some major drama or a specific reason?

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can throw my way!

So, what are the actual odds if she hasn't even caught feelings for you yet? And honestly, even if she has, what are we looking at?
Look, you can ask for whatever you want, really—I mean, there’s no rule saying you can't. But whether or not those doctors actually give a damn about your little requests or specific needs? Honestly, that’s something you’re only going to find out once you're sitting right there in the exam room facing them. It’s all about that direct contact. 🍿

The whole idea behind an infusion is pretty straightforward—you don't just go tossing them around unless there’s actually a reason to, you know? Like, you only do it when it makes sense and you're genuinely expecting to see some kind of improvement from it.

My first thought was that this smells like potential PTSD or maybe even epilepsy.

But hey, who knows? It could be anything at all when you're gaming...

Seriously though, get that checked out ASAP.

To the OP.

Based on what you’ve laid out, there’s a pretty high probability—like, 99% certainty for me—that the issues you're dealing with aren't actually linked to taking Ciprofloxacin right now.

At the end of the day, getting a doctor to actually look you over is the bare minimum any human being dealing with that kind of misery deserves.

And hey, if they want to walk away from more testing or skip out on treatment entirely, that’s their call to make.

Look, based on how you're describing this, we could be talking about anything from a stroke to cancer...🤔

You really need to get checked out by a doctor. Honestly, even if they're being stubborn about heading to the hospital—and for what it's worth, I probably wouldn't want to be stuck in an ER ward under those circumstances either 😬—trying to play doctor here on a forum is pretty ungrateful and just plain wrong, kind of like trying to act like Milan Vidovitch 😵

EDIT: If she took a fall and hit her head, there's also the possibility of a subdural hematoma that might need to be drained.

Honestly, I feel for 🕺

It’s actually a really solid medication if it’s being used for the right reasons and you happen to be someone whose body handles it well 🙂

Sorry if I missed it—which specific brand of metformin are you on? Is it Gluformin, Belformin, or maybe Siofor?

The thing is, metformin itself can definitely trigger those side effects you mentioned.

But there’s another layer to it: some of these pill formulations include tiny amounts of lactose, which can cause absolutely miserable side effects for certain patients.
According to the manufacturer, Siofor is actually lactose-free, so I've heard from plenty of people that they find it much easier to tolerate than the "other" brands of metformin.