Posts by Scott Allen10

If you're looking to pick up some meds, your best bet is to just hit up a local pharmacy and ask around. Just a heads-up, we don't allow any buying or selling of prescriptions here (it’s the same rule everywhere else, really), so I had to go ahead and edit that part out of the post.

Jessica Phillips58 said:Man, those cardiologists... they really think they own the place sometimes!🙂
I've only been on this treatment for about two weeks now, and honestly, it feels like things are finally starting to move—it couldn't have happened any faster. Between the diuretics, my Cadillac, and the Amicor, I'm already feeling a difference.
I mean, they’ll definitely take everything into account; they know exactly what they're doing. Honestly, I can't even bring myself to think about it anymore—I've had just about enough.
I’m heading in this Monday to face it all head-on, so if you don't hear from me for about ten days, just assume everything went smoothly. On the other hand, if I stay silent, it probably just means I've decided to sleep through the whole thing indefinitely—brrrrr!
Thanks for all the info, everyone.

So, urbanscout50 was just pointing out that anesthesiology is actually the job of the anesthesiologists, not the cardiologists.

Everything’s gonna be just fine, don't you worry... actually, go ahead and worry a little, because that’s just being human, but hey, don't let it get too crazy.🙂Honestly, the people you choose to put in your corner? They’re going to give you absolutely everything they've got just to make sure things turn out alright for you.

urbanscout50 said:When it comes to cardiologists, 🙂?
Even Michael Jackson had a cardiologist handing out anesthesia, and well, we all saw how that turned out for both of them 🙂
Good luck.

😂....👍

It’s a total pain, but you really can't get those CPAP machines covered under individual insurance plans, that's just how it works. I actually stumbled upon this by pure chance, but it looks like Medtronic teamed up with a local pharmacy chain to start importing and distributing their own Sleep Apnea programs. You should probably try reaching out to them directly to see if they can give you the lowdown on how it all works.

Aaron Collins25 said:I can tell you, you are absolutely spot on regarding how to handle those headaches.
I remember reading something similar once and it gave me such a good laugh—the idea that sex is the ultimate headache cure and that we should try to forget about pills whenever possible, because at the end of the day, the only real difference between medicine and poison is the dosage.

casualtrucker9 said:Hello there, sorry I'm just now getting logged in.☕...First off, it’s highly unlikely that Advil will lead to any serious addiction. The only real concern is if you're taking it every single day, given its composition includes codeine, which can certainly cause a level of habituation. It works well for headaches and fevers, but honestly, I don't think you need to worry about becoming "addicted"—let's strike that word from our vocabulary entirely. For a headache, Advil or Excedrin (which also contains codeine) are effective options; while they might cause a sense of habituation, that isn't the same thing as true addiction. True addiction is an entirely different beast. You have medications like Tramadol, OxyContin, or Methadone, which are opioid analgesics. Those substances trigger severe physical and psychological dependence. Once someone has been taking them daily for a stretch and then tries to stop, they face a genuine withdrawal crisis. That is where the real misery begins—it becomes so difficult to endure that one feels forced to take the medication just to function "normally" or to sleep through the night without dealing with night sweats, sudden hot and cold flashes, restless legs, and unbearable mental and physical pain. That said, the best approach is to avoid using Advil, Excedrin, or Ibuprofen unless there is a legitimate necessity and you can truly tough it out. If you take it once a week to manage a migraine or a fever, it shouldn't pose any issues. You could substitute Advil with Aspirin, which is a bit milder, or simply rotate your medications occasionally. I know Ibuprofen is great for knocking down a fever or a headache quickly, but it can be quite harsh on the stomach. Ultimately, pills are a bit of a poison; they should only be used when absolutely necessary, such as during intense migraine attacks, and always following a doctor's advice—though, I must admit, doctors can sometimes inadvertently turn a patient into an addict themselves. In short, try to limit your intake of Advil, Excedrin, and Ibuprofen as much as possible, as they are quite taxing on the system.

I don't know if you guys noticed, but you both are replying to posts that are nearly nine years old... It feels a bit pointless to me, so if you actually want to chat about something, maybe find a thread that's a little more uptodate...

Honestly, this thread isn't even meant for the Health section. To be real with you guys, the whole topic feels kind of pointless anyway since it doesn't really lead anywhere.

Oh man, I just realized you’re the same Victoria from that cardiac surgery corner who had that aortic coarctation and thoracic aneurysm surgery, plus a few other things if I remember correctly... Honestly, don't take anything I say as gospel because your situation is way more intense than most. Between having an arterial line for blood pressure monitoring, IV lines for fluids, using the axillary artery for the ECG setup, dealing with cardiac or circulatory arrest, and the whole risk of thrombosis—all of that could have played a role in the ischemia (that lack of blood flow) in your arm that I can see from what you described. It reminds me a bit of what happened to Balthazar, though in his case, the ischemia in his leg lasted much longer... Your issues come from a totally different place entirely (I'm sure there wasn't any staff error), but in both scenarios, the blood just wasn't getting where it needed to go for a while, so even if no extra surgery was required, those symptoms clearly stuck around.
I’m not sure how much I can actually help with the pain you’re describing. Medication probably won't cut it. Since you've already started looking into physical therapy, maybe lean into that? Massages and different types of PT have this... how should I put it... suggestive, soothing, psychological effect that can really help you feel better. You might want to check out a specialized Pain Management Clinic—they usually work alongside Anesthesia departments and offer things like TENS, ultrasound, magnetic therapy, or acupuncture. Those are common methods they use that might give you some relief. Also, maybe ask if hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) makes sense for you, and if there are any contraindications given how complex your medical history is...
I haven't been able to help all that much, but hey, good luck with everything.

Brenda Clark10 said:So basically, I was stuck holding onto that tube for almost 48 hours straight, ugh...

Honestly, don't even sweat it... you just keep the tube in until they actually need you to stop using it.🙂>

I mean, looking at those ventilator settings, you probably weren't seeing the numbers you wanted to see... like, maybe your tidal volume or minute ventilation wasn't hitting the mark, or perhaps the SpO2 readings on the monitor were looking a little sketchy. Plus, if they were watching you clinically and saw you struggling with muscle strength or just seemed too restless and agitated to breathe on your own, that's a huge factor. There are honestly so many different variables that go into making that call...

As for your arm, during anesthesia, they usually grab one of your arms and lock it into a splint at a 90-degree angle away from your body—you’re basically lying there with one arm stretched out to the side—so they can monitor your pressure or run meds through the IV line. If the whole procedure dragged on for a while, I wouldn't be surprised if that weird sensation you felt was just some lingering aftermath from being stuck in that position for so long...

northerncyclist55 said:Hey there,
Can someone break this down for me? I’m looking into taking these capsules, but I deal with this brutal seasonal allergy flare-up every single year—usually lasts about two months when the pine pollen or whatever else is floating around hits. My eyes burn like crazy and my nose just won't stop running. I was thinking about trying royal jelly to see if it helps, but I noticed the box specifically warns that anyone with pollen allergies shouldn't touch products containing royal jelly.

😕....man, what part of that isn't clicking?...you've already admitted you're a seasonal allergy sufferer, and the label straight up says people like you should stay away from this stuff...🤷...

what could go wrong?...well, you could actually die, and honestly, if you hit a full-blown anaphylactic shock, it could happen so fast you wouldn't even have time to realize what's hitting you...
just saying...

brightwolf9 said:Hey everyone! I’ve been lurking on this thread for quite a while now. I have an upcoming surgery scheduled soon, and honestly, I’m starting to get pretty nervous—probably because I already had to go under the knife twice when I was a kid. The reason I need the procedure is for ptosis in my left eyelid. I went in for a follow-up during my third month, and the doctor mentioned they'd be doing it under local anesthesia. Does anyone know what kind of local anesthesia they actually use for a procedure like this?

ugh, sorry about that, everything else just got lost...🙂...

So, if that's what they told you, local anesthesia basically just means they're injecting lidocaine into the surrounding area to numb things up... usually, the surgeons handle the lidocaine themselves, so there isn't a separate anesthesiologist involved for those kinds of minor procedures... unless, of course, they feel like you need a little extra help to relax, in which case they might toss a bit of sedative into your IV to boost the local stuff...

rapidgull94 said:Go ahead and look through the posts above—tell me if you think I'm just some total masochist. 😉 I know I'm probably a little late to the party on this one, but once I've had a chance to really dig into everything, would you mind if I shot you a quick DM if I run into any snags or just have some questions? 😉

😁...I have a gut feeling you might end up having a few questions along the way.....😁😁😉Especially if you end up scrolling all the way down and suddenly run smack into those random acronyms...😍😁

rapidgull94 said:Yeah, yeah, you mean for closed circuits? A CO2 adsorber works while it's actually adsorbing. I didn't realize the machine would flag it itself <3 I know from my chemistry background that it should probably be heated up.

I was thinking more along the lines of this:
http://www.lifemedicalsupplier.com/i...image&pID=3416

I'm almost 100% certain the anesthesiologist pulled it right out of the packaging, and since having something that changes color based on CO2 levels would be pretty handy (for labs), I just wanted to check if that was what we were talking about.

🙂.....now I'm pretty sure you didn't actually see what you linked, but rather something very similar to it...basically this...meaning an HME filter, which tons of different manufacturers make.

That Statista detector you linked doesn't really make sense when you consider that every single operating room or JLL setup already has full gas monitoring. Maybe it’d come in handy in some field conditions, like during transport or in an ambulance... basically where they don't have gas monitoring and need this as a backup (though even then, I can't imagine anyone checking the tube location that way).

An HMEF (heat-moisture exchange filter) is a piece of gear that filters while also keeping heat and moisture inside the patient's lungs; you swap them out after every patient, or at most, they stay in for 24 hours.

The actual gas monitoring I was telling you about looks more or less like this...usually you have a monitor or a gas module that plugs into a compatible monitor...you've got a CO2 sensor, which is mostly located within the respiratory circuit as close to the ET tube as possible (the tube comes out of the mouth, there's the HMEF on it, and then the CO2 cuvette with the sensor sits on top of that)...and once you set everything up properly, after the initial calibration, it's basically just "PressPLAY"😁....or sometimes the monitor just shows the end-tidal CO2 curve and the numbers right away...

edit - just so we aren't getting confused, my description of a CO2 absorber and yours aren't the same thing. I was talking about soda lime/calcium hydroxide as an absorber... whereas you're talking about Starbucks, which isn't an absorber, it's a detector...

rapidgull94 said:Thanks so much in advance for any help 🙂 and sorry for the whole dramatic vent session ;S

😁....man, you could honestly write a novel with this stuff....it’s such a wild experience....though I feel like you might have handled the whole thing a bit easier if you hadn't been so "involved" in all the details....but hey, everyone has a right to know what they want to know, especially when it involves things like anesthesia procedures which...cough, cough...can sometimes lead to unexpected hiccups...

Anyway, I'll try breaking this down from the bottom up so you can follow along...

- That little scratch, I'm guessing it's nothing serious, probably just a tiny bruise from some of the gear being moved around during the procedure (like the tube, laryngoscope, airway, or suction catheter)...doesn't sound scary at all...
- Your blood pressure was fine...those little ups and downs aren't really worth worrying about.
- The CO2 absorber is basically a plastic canister sitting inside the breathing circuit on the exhale side, and it changes color from white to purple depending on how saturated it is with carbon dioxide (using stuff like soda lime...). It isn't there to check if the tube is in the right spot. We don't use soda lime once and toss it; it's just part of the circuit, and on modern machines, you swap it out roughly every week (the machine actually pings you) or whenever the CO2 monitor starts acting crazy because the soda lime is full. To check if the ET tube is placed correctly, you usually don't need a specific tool—you just see it happening in real-time, and it’s usually a total scramble...like, "wait, the chest isn't rising...stethoscope...nothing...crap...get me a laryngoscope/Ambu bag/new tube"...then bam, everything is fine again...🙂....The CO2 monitoring we use routinely can definitely show you where the tube is, but it’s a nightmare for an anesthesiologist if the CO2 waveform on the monitor is the *only* thing telling them the tube isn't in the trachea....basically, the CO2 absorber and CO2 monitoring are two totally different things.
- Just because you had ET anesthesia without a paralytic doesn't mean you were breathing on your own. Even without the relaxant, you probably weren't doing the heavy lifting yourself; you were likely being ventilated through the ET tube by the anesthesia machine while inhaling a mix of nitrous oxide/sevoflurane or isoflurane on one of the various ventilation modes. There are endless ways to explain those modes—textbooks are practically thick enough to use as doorstops just trying to cover them all. To put it simply, depending on how the patient is doing and what settings we want, there are three main groups: controlled, assisted, and spontaneous. You can control ventilation via pressure, volume, or flow (though that last one is rare). If you're feeling particularly masochistic, go ahead and Google SIMV, CMV, PCV, BIPAP, AC, APRV, CPAP with or without ASB, PEEP... On an anesthesia machine (or the ventilators they use in places like JLL), you can see every single detail of the breathing or ventilation; the machines in assisted or spontaneous modes sync up with any natural breaths you take and supplement them in a bunch of different ways....so yeah, that's the gist.
- As for your head being fixed in place...I haven't seen any weird, mysterious head stabilizers used in ENT departments here. Honestly, you were under such deep anesthesia that I'm pretty sure you couldn't have moved your head even if you tried, even without the muscle relaxants.😁
- Honestly, how much fluid they pump back into you depends on what your anesthesiologist sees happening in real-time—they’re looking at things like how much you bled during the procedure, how long the surgery dragged on, your urine output if you had a catheter, the specific type of anesthesia used, and your lab results. Plus, you can't forget about all that moisture lost just through breathing while you're under.
- That lower back pain? It’s almost certainly because you were stuck lying perfectly still on the operating table for so long. As for bending your legs... honestly, just find whatever position feels comfortable for you, provided there aren't any medical reasons why you shouldn't.
- They put that ointment in your eyes because when you're under anesthesia, your eyelids often don't close all the way, and more importantly, they stop doing their job of keeping things lubricated. That ointment is basically there to prevent any accidental damage to the eye surface.
- How Propofol hits your blood pressure is pretty much unique to everyone, though most people will agree it tends to pull it down—but then again, there are so many other meds involved that it's hard to pin down exactly which one is the "culprit," and in anesthesia, we're usually just keeping a close eye on your systolic numbers anyway.
- Using a dual-lumen IV line along with infusions and specific meds is actually super common; it’s really just a matter of how the tech handles the setup depending on what's happening with the patient.
- I'm not totally following you on the whole allergy testing thing, but it sounds to me like you might have been a victim of "overkill"—sometimes having way too much medicine thrown at you can be just as rough on the system as not having enough. 😁

Scott Allen10 said:Hmm... funny you mention that, because I was actually chatting about something pretty similar with my coordinator at the Mayo Clinic just the other day... He told me something along the lines of, "if someone really has no close family left but holds a valid donor card in their own name, they would definitely move forward with the organ retrieval process."
There's more to the explanation, too... first off, like we talked about, there's legal protection for that.
And second, consent for retrieval follows a specific hierarchy of priority starting with a spouse, children, parents, siblings, or a legal guardian (if one exists ) and then "any other person legally authorized to manage the deceased's remains."
So, they aren't listing distant cousins or random relatives, which means unless they have some kind of legal authorization ( 😕 !!...), they shouldn't have any say in the decision regarding retrieval.
I don't think some random URLs would make much sense in your situation since nobody is going to be scrolling through links given how delicate these decisions are—you know, to prevent any tampering. But honestly, I think your situation is pretty straightforward, and there shouldn't be any reason, God forbid, for your wishes not to be honored.

I guess I'll just quote myself from about five years ago...

I think my colleague hit the nail on the head here, honestly—there’s really no reason to go around scaring everyone by just copy-pasting news articles everywhere.

Emily Sanchez90 said:I'm not sure if this is the right spot for this question, but what happens when a patient is awake and conscious but hooked up to a ventilator? You know, with that breathing tube down their throat. Does it actually hurt them, and what does it feel like?

It’s pretty standard practice to give patients with an endotracheal tube varying doses of sedatives just to help them deal with the tube itself and the whole mechanical ventilation process more comfortably.

The answer isn't exactly black and white, either. It’s a given that having that "tube" in your mouth is going to be irritating and uncomfortable, which is why we lean on those meds. The tube can also cause sores or irritation on the lips and tongue, so when you're caring for someone like that, you really have to stay on top of it by repositioning the tube in their mouth and keeping their oral hygiene spotless. What makes things even tougher is how dry their mouths get. Since the tube prevents them from closing their mouth all the way, the mucous membranes in the mouth and on the tongue end up drying out and cracking. Honestly, just try keeping your mouth open for ten minutes straight—you'll see how quickly everything dries out all the way back to your tonsils.
That said, some patients handle the tube just fine without much trouble, especially if they're lucid enough to understand what's happening and can be talked through why it's necessary.
Also, keep in mind that a tube like that shouldn't be in there for more than about ten days. Nowadays, in places like major ICU units, it's routine to perform a percutaneous tracheostomy for patients who need long-term ventilation; they'll set up a tracheal cannula so the breathing happens through that instead, allowing them to pull the oral tube out. Good luck.

crimsongull20 said:Ladies and gentlemen; friends and colleagues,

For anyone looking at an upcoming surgery, just a heads-up: if you check the Health PDF under the Anesthesia/Resuscitation/ICU section, you can actually get expert, straightforward, and free advice on all those questions you're probably too nervous to ask.

Big thanks to the doctors helping us out there, especially Dr. Phil. 🙂

On behalf of the Health moderation team, thanks and good luck with your recovery!

But hey, it's worth mentioning here too... no matter what anyone tells you online, especially when it comes to medical stuff, nothing can ever replace having a real, face-to-face conversation with your doctor. Of course, our whole mod team and the pros working with us will always try to help out with advice whenever we can, whether it's in that specific section or just hanging out in other threads...🙂

crimsongull20 said:Maybe break down the acronym for us or just drop a link if you're looking for a pat on the back😁
(I haven't really hung out here in years, I just pop in once in a blue moon and I'm totally out of the loop, so I have no clue what's going on.)

😁...The FBI section—you know, where all the messages, complaints, and random comments live. It's just a section on the main page tucked away near the bottom... just scroll down a bit... look around... aha... click... and there you go...😍...or honestly, you can just do it this way...hey there...