Like I mentioned on the last page, I promised I'd share what the surgeon had to say once I went in for my follow-up, so here’s the update: everything looks great regarding the hemorrhoids. I don't even need to come back for more checkups. It is such a massive weight off my shoulders after all these years, mostly because the pain is finally gone for good.
Joseph Cooper9 said:Urgent question! Does anyone know if I can get anything covered by insurance if I visit my family doctor? I'm trying to avoid buying those super expensive brands at the pharmacy.
Unfortunately, nothing is covered by insurance without you paying out of pocket first.
Luckily, I don't have any issues with hemorrhoids right now. Once I head in for my follow-up appointment—which is scheduled for six weeks after the surgery—I'll jump back on here and let you guys know exactly what my surgeon says. I did deal with one side effect, though: I actually couldn't pee. Something probably got irritated during the procedure, maybe even my prostate since it's so close to the area, so they had to insert and remove a catheter a few times. Look, there's just no such thing as a 100% guarantee that you won't run into an unexpected hiccup. But honestly, after dealing with hemorrhoids for so many years, going through this was totally worth it.
After waiting months for surgery on a third-degree hemorrhoid, I finally got my turn toward the end of September. The day before the procedure, you get a call to head into the hospital for COVID-19 testing. That afternoon, you have to take something to clear out your system. You can't eat anything after 3 PM, though you can sip liquids until midnight. The next day, you show up at the window before 8 AM, check in, and then head over to the abdominal surgery ward. About thirty minutes to an hour before the actual surgery, you take a sedative pill with just a tiny bit of water. A nurse brings you a gown to change into—you have to strip down completely first, obviously. They also put compression stockings on your legs to prevent any blood clots. When it comes time to enter the operating room, they wheel you in on a bed. The "welcome party" is actually kind of funny. There were six medical professionals surrounding me. They were all in great spirits, asking how I was doing and stuff like that. Before the spinal anesthesia, the anesthesiologist cleans a spot on my back with iodine or something similar. Her assistant explains that they need to start an IV, hook up the EKG, the blood pressure cuff, and so on. He gets me positioned perfectly for the spinal. The anesthesiologist feels around for the best spot between the vertebrae to inject the anesthetic and reassures me that everything will be fine. The injection itself wasn't even that bad; I think I only felt two little stabs. It starts working pretty fast—first, you feel this warmth spreading through your feet. Then they laid me down, placed my legs in the gynecological position, and Dr. Domagoj Ivanović and his assistant jumped right into it. There were two surgical techs nearby too. The anesthesiologist checked in on me several times to make sure I was okay. I even chatted a bit with her and her assistant. I didn't feel a single bit of pain. The whole thing took about half an hour. Once it was over, they covered me with a green blanket and wheeled me to the transition area between the OR and the hallway, where nurses were already waiting with a bed to take over. They moved me to the abdominal surgery ward and immediately asked if I needed anything for the pain. At that moment, I was good. But a few hours later, the pain started kicking in, so they gave me something through the IV right away. Throughout the night, I received more pain meds, including around 6 AM, because that first night is honestly rough. By the following afternoon, the pain was much more manageable than it was during the night. I was supposed to be discharged, but since I'm a younger guy, I hit a rare side effect where I couldn't pee, so they had to put in a catheter. I ended up staying one extra day at the hospital just because of that issue. It took three attempts to try and go and three times they had to reset the catheter. After that, they let me go with the catheter still in. Eventually, everything went back to normal. For pain management, I took Motrin granules for two weeks. I’m feeling great now, and I truly believe you shouldn't spend years trying to soothe hemorrhoid problems with various creams, ointments, or pills like I did. All that effort just let them progress from stage one to stage three. As for the staff on the abdominal surgery ward, I can't say enough good things. Seriously, huge props to them. Whenever I needed anything, a nurse was there within two or three minutes of me calling. They are incredibly professional and helpful; you can really tell they genuinely want to help people. Hats off to them.
My construction physics and energy certification software runs perfectly fine on both Windows XP and Windows 10, but I’ve hit a weird little snag with Windows 7. There’s this one specific checkbox—something pretty essential for my workflow—that just won't respond when I try to click it. Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this glitch?
The Community Health Centers here in Washington, D.C. are completely booked up for ultrasound appointments through the end of the year. It’s getting pretty wild—standard ultrasounds that used to take maybe two or three weeks at the local clinics are now stretching out to a two-and-a-half or even three-month wait.
I went ahead and installed Mozilla Firefox, grabbed the Flash Player plugin for it, and now everything is running perfectly smoothly. Thanks so much for the help!
graniteranger18 said:Should you try to reinstall Chrome? Have you attempted using IE?
I've got an old version of Internet Explorer—I think it's version 7—running with Adobe Flash Player installed, and everything works perfectly fine on those sites I mentioned earlier. Then I went ahead and downloaded Chrome and the Flash Player plugin for it, but nope, it's just not working again.
Thanks! I tried that too, but it's still not opening for me. It might be some glitch in Chrome or maybe an issue with Windows itself. I probably need to get some advice from a real software expert.
If this is actually working on Windows XP sp3, then I've definitely got a bug on my hands. My antivirus is coming up totally clean, and I ran a scan with Malwarebytes too—nothing found. Could you do me a huge favor and head over to a directory site like Yelp and try clicking on any category just to see if you can pull up a list?
If anyone out there is still running Windows XP, could you let me know if you can actually load this page http://www.speedtest.net/ It’s just a standard speed test from a major US provider. The site is totally safe.
The speedtest site on AT&T won't load the test at all, and over on Yelp, I can't get any business listings to show up when I click on a category. On both sites, I just get this error message saying: "Unable to load plugin." Everything was working perfectly fine about ten days ago. Does anyone know if this is happening because Windows XP doesn't get updates anymore, or is the issue coming from somewhere else?
Justin Brown6 said:Hey everyone. I was diagnosed with testicular cancer and have finished three rounds of chemo. So far, there are no signs of metastasis, and my first follow-up went great. During the second check-up, my AFP levels spiked, though they actually dropped once we retested. Now, because of some random circumstances, my oncologist wants me to get a chest CT scan just to be safe. Honestly, I've always been a huge advocate for MRIs since they don't involve radiation. Do I actually have the right to request an MRI instead, even if she isn't recommending it? When I asked about the risks of a CT scan versus using other methods that might be less harsh, her response was basically that a CT won't hurt me and there's no reason to worry. What should I do? Mentally, I'm just feeling pretty worn out...
You can definitely ask for an MRI—that’s your right as a patient. Just keep in mind that CT scans can sometimes pick up certain bone changes that an MRI might miss.
My computer is finally back in action! The graphics card died on me, and honestly, the motherboard was looking pretty rough too. It’s about six years old now, so I guess it’s earned its retirement, right? They tried reinstalling Windows, but that crashed immediately, so the techs had to dive in and test every single component one by one. Turns out there were a few other little glitches they managed to iron out while they were at it. Even my integrated network card—which hasn't worked for ages because of some weird hardware overlap—is suddenly working perfectly. Everything is running smooth as silk now. I really shouldn't give them free advertising, but man, I got such a great deal.
I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice, feel free to send a private message too. Which hematologist or oncologist has the most experience when it comes to diagnosing and treating multiple myeloma?
Thanks!
It would probably be Boris Labar. He used to work at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Since he’s over 65 now, he’s moved into private practice at a clinic. I'm sure there are plenty of great specialists out there who actually trained under him back at Johns Hopkins Hospital.