47 posts shown.
darkgardener69 said:Look, I know about that too, but I’d rather just give recommendations... or whatever you people call it.
I pronounce the "s" perfectly fine. When I was a kid, though, I used to struggle with my "r" sounds—it sounded like a thick German accent because I grew up bilingual.
darkgardener69 said:Hey, I'm new here, so first off—what's up everyone!... Okay, straight to the point, I can't seem to fix this one issue and it's driving me crazy. Every time I try to say the letter S, it comes out sounding like a slushy [SLJ] sound. My buddies won't stop messing with me about it, but seriously, I've tried everything to get it right. Maybe it's my teeth since my top ones are pretty crooked, or maybe I just haven't figured out where to put my tongue, but man, I've tried so many different ways... If anyone knows what to do, please help me out???
Go see a speech therapist. 🤷
Jessica James4 said:I’m facing the exact same issue. Back when I was at the hospital, the doctors told me I had some sort of widespread, superficial irritation across my entire eye surface. Looking back, I was wearing my older contact lenses on the day of the exam—which I took out right before they looked at me—so it’s entirely possible that was the culprit.
Five months later, I’m back at the doctor over at Harvard, and they’ve prescribed me the same old soft lenses I used to wear, rather than the rigid gas permeable ones the hospital staff originally suggested. Now I’m stuck in a bit of a bind because the redness and visible blood vessels in my eyes are quite pronounced. Even though these lenses are made from top-tier, highly oxygen-permeable materials, they still cause significant discomfort after just a few hours. I can't help but wonder if the doctor pushed the soft lenses on me simply because they carry a higher markup; it feels like there might be a kickback involved, considering how much they push certain brands... I honestly don't know what to make of it all. 🤷
Look, once corneal neovascularization kicks in, doctors usually prescribe lenses with higher oxygen permeability—like RGP or silicone hydrogel soft lenses. But me? I can't touch any of them. I'm allergic to silicone hydrogel. Hard lenses? No. Semi-hard? Nope. Most soft lenses are silicone hydrogel anyway, so that leaves just plain hydrogel, but nobody will give me those because the oxygen doesn't get to the eye well enough. Those lenses... 😠
That's why I'm sticking to glasses now, and honestly, life is so much better.
Schizophrenia is a disease, plain and simple. F20 🙂
So, I ended up using an Albuterol inhaler that expired way back in October 2010, and honestly? Nothing happened. I was straight-up suffocating—asthma is no joke—and I couldn't find anything else nearby, so I just grabbed this one. It had been sitting in my bag in a desk drawer for ages.
Henry Brown2 said:Ever since I was a kid seeing an ophthalmologist, the routine was always the same: leave the doctor's office and head straight to the specific optical shop they recommended. I expect this time will follow that exact same pattern—once I finish my exam at the lens clinic, I'll probably just go where they tell me to. 🤷
As for whether the coverage through Medicare is actually that bad—I’ve been buying my lenses at an optical center based on their prescriptions for a few years now, and frankly, I don't think they got it right. My prescription seems to have increased, which is precisely why I’m heading to the specialist to see what they have to say about it.
For context, my soft contact lenses are $400 and come in packs of six. They’ve been great up until recently, when I started noticing my vision slipping. I’ve heard that with semi-rigid or hard lenses, your prescription doesn't tend to drift as much, so I’ll see what they suggest. If they try to push me back toward hard lenses, I'm going to have a hard time agreeing; I remember how much they used to irritate my eyes, causing dryness and discomfort. I could never wear them for more than eight hours a day. These soft ones, however, I can wear from sunrise to sunset and barely feel them.
Regarding the difference between contact lens and glasses prescriptions—for me, glasses always seem weaker than contacts, which I suppose is normal. That’s the main reason I avoid glasses; my vision is just never as sharp with them.
I don't get why you'd feel forced to go back to gas permeable lenses if you weren't having trouble with soft ones. Look, you decide, not the ophthalmologist. If you don't want to, you don't have to. When mine diagnosed me with a silicone hydrogel allergy, he told me I could only wear annual soft lenses. I shot that down immediately. It's healthier to just wear glasses than to deal with the pain and redness of contacts... it ain't worth it. So I went back to glasses, and I'm sticking with them until I get laser surgery. You can order lenses at any optical shop once you have a prescription or a report. He gave me a business card for one specific place where I could order if I wanted, but I just went somewhere else.
The prescription gap between glasses and lenses: they can be identical or totally different, depends on how you actually see with the correction. With nearsightedness, usually the lens prescription is slightly lower than the glasses, but with farsightedness, it's the opposite. Though for me, when I wore lenses, they were the exact same power (-4.5) as my glasses.
Medicare doesn't actually manufacture the lenses; they just provide a small reimbursement that basically only covers gas permeable or hard lenses. It doesn't cover soft ones because those are treated like cosmetic aids. There's Boston and Permacon gas permeable lenses out there; Boston is okay, but higher quality lenses are the ones with better oxygen permeability (100 Dk).
Yeah, it’s above -5, sitting right around 80%. I’m pretty sure that only applies to hard lenses, though—definitely doesn't work for soft ones.
I popped those "motion sickness" pills twice just out of pure curiosity. Within ten minutes, I was out cold—straight up slept through my entire drive from Chicago to Nashville.
Those things are basically sleeping pills masquerading as medicine. I’ve never even dealt with motion sickness before.
They also make some Aviomarin tablets.
Anyway, here’s what Pfizer posted about those anti-nausea meds:
"Dimenhydrinate is safe for kids, but because of its anticholinergic effects, people who have angle-closure glaucoma, people suffering from bronchial asthma and men with an enlarged prostate should avoid them. Meclizine works similarly. You have to be extra careful when using antihistamines like promethazine because they can cause intense drowsiness and disorientation, which can end up totally ruining your trip in the end."
The thing is, I actually have glaucoma AND asthma! Did I seriously just mess myself up? Like, what does that even have to do with eye pressure or breathing issues?
Paul Ramirez59 said:Hey everyone.
My doctor's ordering an MRI of my pancreas because they suspect an insulinoma—apparently, I'm hitting low blood sugar way too often.
Has anyone here dealt with this? Maybe a family member or a friend...
Everything online about it is super thin, so if there's a pro here who can break down what this tumor actually is, please help me out...
Check out these links:http://www.stetoskop.info/Insulinoma-...7-sickness.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulinoma
http://www.webmd.com/conditions/...pancreas.aspx
From what I can tell, it's a pancreatic tumor.
Just try Googling:
pancreatic cancer.http://www.webmd.com/conditions/...pancreas.aspx
If I had any actual experience with this, I’d jump in to help you out.
Later 😉
Age: 36
Gender: F
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Alright, listen up. I’m just gonna lay it all out there because I’m tired of seeing everyone spinning their wheels. Things have been pretty rough lately, honestly. Just feeling completely wiped out, like my body is running on empty and nothing is clicking. It feels like I'm constantly fighting an uphill battle with my health, and frankly, I'm over it. Everything feels heavy, everything feels slow. It's frustrating as hell when you feel like you're doing everything right but your own system is basically staging a coup against you. Just one of those phases where everything feels off-kilter. I'll keep you guys posted as things evolve, but right now? It's a mess. Stay tuned.
Look, I've been dealing with these constant headaches and dizzy spells for a whole damn year now. It got so bad that I actually ended up in the emergency room at the eye clinic once because I completely lost part of my field of vision—scotomas, if you want to be technical. It lasted about ten minutes, and then everything just went back to normal, like it was never even an issue. Just totally sudden. Total brain melt. Seriously. So, get this—a cat literally jumped on her head while she was out riding her bike. Talk about a freak accident! On top of that craziness, she’s always had low blood pressure, but over the last three months, it’s been spiking. Diagnosis: Migraine vertigo is absolutely brutal. It’s not just some lightheadedness, either—it’s that full-on, world-spinning, "I need to crawl under my bed and stay there" kind of chaos. If you're dealing with this, you know exactly how much it sucks. One minute you're fine, and the next, your brain feels like it's being tossed around in a washing machine. It's exhausting, it's frustrating, and honestly, it's infuriating when people try to downplay it. You aren't just "dizzy," you're completely sidelined. Just hang in there.
Sent for further testing—blood vessel Doppler. Turns out some of those vessels are actually blocked up.
Scheduled for an MRI of the brain on July 27th.
__________________________________________________ ______
I need someone to break down these thyroid results for me:
May 24, 2011. (JT)
In the family: So, listen up. I've got two cousins dealing with some serious thyroid issues. One of them already went under the knife to have her thyroid removed. She also had her gallbladder taken out about three months ago, but other than that, she was basically fine. Fast forward to a month ago, and suddenly everything hits the fan—she’s dealing with dizzy spells, total weakness, tremors, and the occasional headache. She says there's no double vision or speech problems, though. Just a mess.
So, I finally saw the neurologist, and they officially nailed it: it’s vestibular syndrome, specifically differential diagnosis migraine vertigo. Basically, my brain is throwing a tantrum. Along with all the other tests they want me to run, they recommended... Thyroid hormones. That’s it. That’s the whole damn topic. People act like it’s some mysterious cosmic force, but honestly? It’s just chemistry running your entire life, and when it goes sideways, everything follows suit. If you're feeling like a zombie, crashing by noon, or if your heart is doing laps while you're just sitting on the couch, don't just shrug it off. Your thyroid is basically the thermostat for your body. If it's too high, you're overheating and vibrating; if it's too low, you're stuck in slow motion. And look, I know everyone loves to self-diagnose after reading three sketchy blogs, but stop it. Get your bloodwork done. Check the TSH, check the T4, check the T3. If you're dealing with Hashimoto, you need to be looking at those antibodies, not just guessing. You can't fix a broken engine by staring at the dashboard—you actually have to pop the hood and look at the actual numbers. Get your labs, talk to a real doctor, and stop playing guessing games with your own health. It's not that deep, but it *is* important. Get it sorted. Here’s what they’ve been submitting from our clinic since April 29, 2011:
Alright, let's look at these numbers. FT4 is sitting at 15.88, FT3 is 3.36, TSH is 2.56, and that anti TPO is up at 128. Look, I'll be blunt: that anti TPO is the real kicker here. It’s high. When you see that number jumping around like that, it’s usually pointing straight toward Hashimoto. Your TSH looks decent enough at 2.56—definitely within the normal range most labs use—but that antibody level tells a whole different story. It’s like having a perfectly fine engine but someone’s actively trying to sabotage it from the inside. Don't panic, but don't ignore it either. You need to sit down with your doctor and actually talk about what this means for your long-term plan. If you start feeling like garbage, you'll know why. Keep an eye on it.
She went to see the eye doctor because she was worried about those scintillating scotomas and constant Cephaleae—still waiting on all that paperwork to come back. She also hit up the ENT and the Balance Center, but those results came back totally fine. Nothing there.
Besides the dizzy spells, that shaky walking, and those flashes right in front of my eyes, I’m getting occasional heart palpitations too. My palms get all flushed up, and I'm steadily dropping weight. Periods are regular, though.
Clinical: Eyes look perfectly fine—totally normal. Pulse is steady and rhythmic, nothing crazy there. Thyroid isn't enlarged either. Everything looks solid.
The bottom line: Look, here’s the deal: your thyroid is working just fine. Those TPO antibodies? They're basically a flashing neon sign pointing toward immunothyroiditis. But don't get it twisted—the actual symptoms you're dealing with right now aren't being caused by your thyroid. Period.
Since those TPO antibody levels are spiked, you really need to get some more testing done. Seriously, go get a thyroid ultrasound with Doppler—that’s what you need to ask for based on the lab results I attached.
Medical Report:
June 16, 2011 (MG)
So, I just got the results back from the doctor. The mass is measuring about 5.3x1.5x1.6 cm. It’s looking pretty uneven too—definitely non-homogeneous. There are these hypoechoic areas running along the front edge of the capsule, mostly concentrated in the upper half of the lobe. Not exactly the news you want to hear, right?
The Isthmus is only 0.3 cm thick. Just stating the facts here.
The LR is huge—like 5.4x1.3x1.5 cm. It’s also showing up as having this heterogeneous tissue structure, but thankfully there aren't any nodes.
The bottom line is this: The thyroid looks okay size-wise, but there’s some diffuse tissue changes going on—mostly just DR stuff, nothing to worry about. No convincing nodules spotted.
The UZV results could point to diffuse disease, though things look way more intense on the right side. They also went ahead and did a CP hypophallus in the upper half of the RD.
August 7, 2011. (SD)
Cytology results from the fine needle aspiration of the right thyroid lobe:
They found small lymphocytes and a massive amount of erythrocytes.
Opinion: Not enough info for a full-blown cytology analysis. Period.
The Bottom Line: We can't say for sure if it's an immunothyreopathy based on the cytology alone. It's just not a locked-in diagnosis yet.
With us, there's zero therapy involved—just straight-up monitoring. Period.
Give me one year.
Can someone please break down this lab report for me? I'm trying to figure out if we're looking at possible DG, what kind of tests I should be asking my doctor for next, and what the actual prognosis looks like. Any help would be huge.
Thanks! 😉
Terry Ramos7 said:So, you're asking if a liver biopsy actually leaves a mark? Look, let's get straight to it—nothing in medicine is totally "free," right? You’re basically having a needle go in to grab some tissue, so yeah, there are going to be consequences. Is it dangerous? For most people, no, but you can't just pretend it's nothing. You're looking at some soreness, maybe some bruising around the site, and honestly, you're gonna feel pretty wiped out for a bit. It's a procedure, not a walk in the park. The big thing everyone worries about is bleeding. Since the liver is basically a giant sponge full of blood, that's the main risk they watch for. Most doctors will have you chill out and recover for a while just to make sure everything stays stable. Bottom line: it's a trade-off. You take the hit from the biopsy to get the data you need to actually fix whatever is going on with your liver. It sucks, it’s blunt, but that’s how it works. Just follow the doctor's orders and don't go lifting heavy weights at the gym the next day like a maniac.
Look, let's get one thing straight right out of the gate: the main risk here is bleeding at the injection site, but we're talking about a tiny fraction of cases—less than 1%. It’s super rare. Even rarer is...
They’re reporting all kinds of complications, like how it can wreck any organs sitting right next to the target area.
It could be anything—kidney, gallbladder, lungs, even the gut. Peritonitis? That’s super rare, thank God.😁 Look, let's get one thing straight: the risk of dying here is less than 0.1%. It’s practically nothing. Stop freaking out.
Look, if you start feeling like something’s going sideways or things aren't sitting right, just get to a doctor immediately. Seriously. Don't sit there overthinking it—just go. There’s absolutely zero reason to be stressing out about this if you've got that backup plan ready to go.
Yo, I’d really love it if one of you guys dealing with schizophrenia could actually lay it out for me—describe what your illness feels like, any episodes you've had, or whatever else.
Hey everyone, hang in there: 🙂 🙂
EYE CARE IN INDIANAPOLIS - CONTACT LENSES
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
George Fisher7 said:Is it actually possible to hit a positive result—like, a full cure—just through diet or, I don't know, living a "disciplined" lifestyle? Also, what's the deal with that new med that’s supposedly already cleared by the European Union?
Look, being totally blunt here, the idea of mixing pegylated interferon and ribavirin scares the hell out of me. I'm genuinely worried about how that combo is gonna wreck my system.
Let me know what you guys think.
😱
If you don't mind me asking, how did you catch it?
George Fisher7 said:Is it actually possible to get a positive result—like, a total cure—just through diet or what you might call a "disciplined lifestyle"? Also, I'm curious about this new med that’s supposedly already been approved over in the European Union.
Look, being totally honest here, the thought of mixing pegylated interferon and ribavirin scares the hell out of me. I'm genuinely worried about how that combo is going to hit my system.
Let me know what you guys think.
😱
About the food stuff; if your liver is doing its job right, you don't need to go crazy with extra vitamins. Just stay away from booze, preservatives, additives, and all that processed junk.
A lot of patients freak out about dietary factors potentially making things worse. While there isn't any specific diet that's proven to actually change the course of chronic HCV, it's obvious as day that drinking alcohol makes the disease way worse, so staying sober is a non-negotiable recommendation. Doctors often suggest bumping up Vitamin E because it's safe and a pilot study showed it might help slow down scarring. But let's be real: Vitamin E does nothing to stop the virus from multiplying, and nobody really knows its true role in the actual progression of the illness.
LINKS:1.
http://www.galaksija.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5202.
Later 😉
George Fisher7 said:Looking for some advice on treating Hepatitis C.
The gold standard for tackling chronic Hepatitis C is basically mixing pegylated interferon with ribavirin. You’re looking at a pegylated interferon injection once a week, plus daily ribavirin pills.
In the US, how you handle chronic Hepatitis C depends entirely on which genotype you've got. If it's genotype 1, they usually go with that combo of pegylated interferon and ribavirin. For the other genotypes (2 and 3), the plan is usually ribavirin paired with conventional interferon, which sucks because you have to take those shots way more often during the week. The whole thing drags on for about 48 weeks, unless the treatment just isn't working. For genotype 1, they check progress at the 12-week mark, but for types 2 and 3, you wait until 24 weeks. If the qualitative HCV PCR comes back negative during those checks, you push through to the end; if it's still positive, they pull the plug on the treatment.
When you first start therapy, you'll be stuck in the hospital for a short stint—maybe around 10 days—just so they can keep an eye on side effects and teach you how to handle those interferon injections yourself.
Later, 🙂
Also, just a heads up: I've been dealing with pet allergies since I was four years old. Now I'm 15, and I'm stuck with chronic bronchitis and allergic rhinitis too.
Right now, I'm taking Telfast 120, but I'm trying my best to avoid anything else because I heard it stunts your growth, and honestly, it's probably not great for your system anyway.🙄
Does anyone have any tips for natural remedies? Last year I tried black cumin seed and it actually helped a little bit...
Later 😉