I’ve noticed over the years that we here on the SDMB are a pretty lurgied lot, suffering from all sorts of diseases, disabilities and disorders.
Let’s see who can come up with the longest list! Note: they must be diagnosed by a medical professional, and shouldn’t include your current influenza (if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere) or sunstroke (if you’re somewhere warm).
Me:
Spinal stenosis (includes further degenerative disc disease)
Psoriasis
Basal cell carcinomas (need four to be treated soon).
Glaucoma (treated for acute, but chronic remains)
Cystoid Macular Edema (treated successfully…vision still wonky)
Pars Planitis (treated, but not successfully)
Grover’s Disease (treated, but has recurred)
Obstructive sleep apnea (treated, but not successfully)
Tinnitus (no treatment available)
Otosclorosis (treatment not successful…deafness remains in left ear)
So I’m blind, deaf, crippled and itchy…and I snore like a muthafucka!
It gets even lurgier with psychiatric/psychological disorders. On the one hand, the definitions are so vague that no two docs will necessarily give the same diagnosis for the same patient. On the other hand, the diagnostic criteria are often written in a way that certain diagnoses explicitly exclude others, so each shrink can only give one Dx, even though every shrink may give a different Dx. On the third hand, the DSM has something for everyone, so everybody gets to have something.
If we’re letting psychiatric disorders into the mix, I should probably own up to having Binge Eating Disorder. I’d never thought of it as being a chronic dis-ease but since I’ve had it about four times longer than either of my ‘real’ illnesses, I guess it should count.
The first 3 are all autoimmune diseases so that’s kind of bad. I think the more autoimmune diseases you have, the more likely you are to develop other ones in the future. Wait, I just remembered I have Alopecia too (very, very mild…I just get a bald spot about the size of a nickel maybe once every few years) but that’s an autoimmune disease too. Maybe I can collect them all!
Allergic to something in the air outside
Breast cancer
Uturine cancer
Stage 4 colon cancer
Diabetes type 2
Osteo arthritis
Heart skips beats(on meds)
Skin cancers(gotta have more removed)
Tintinitus
Sleep apinea
Geeez - looks bad when I list all of them!
Oh- puffy feet - I go to the Dr about this next week
Dislixic(can’t spell either)
“You see it everywhere. Instead of using the word “disease,” quacks will often use the word “dis-ease” instead. Basically, the idea (apparently) is to choose not to empower health issues by focusing on a particular ailment. How focusing on a particular ailment “empowers” health issues, I don’t know. The quack’s answer to a nonexistent problem, however, is to use hyphenated variant to place emphasis on the natural state of “ease” being imbalanced or disrupted. Chiropractors seem particularly enamored of this term”.
As for physical illnesses, I have asthma, and also a slightly wonky heart (not sure of the medical term for that - my heartbeat’s irregular sometimes.)
Compared with some of y’all, I am the picture of health, but -
[ul][li]Psoriasis (mild)[/li][li]Tendinitis[/li][li]Degenerative lumbar disc[/li][li]Arthritis[/ul][/li]Regards,
Shodan
Let’s see if I can put this in relative order of diagnosis:
obesity
polycystic ovarian syndrome (with its funfun symptoms of hirsuitism, acne, central obesity, and metabolic syndrome)
major depressive disorder
gallstones (gallbladder removed, which causes its own chronic symptoms)
pelvic inflammatory disease (episodic, but one bout had the potential to kill me, and surgeons removed my appendix so there would be no future confusion about the source of the pain)
paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia
mild hypertension
pre-diabetes
morbid obesity
tonsillitis and tonsilloliths (resolved after tonsillectomy)
mild asthma
ADHD - primarily inattentive
herpes simplex I and II
migraines (resolved after quitting oral contraception)
panic attack disorder
an unidentified autoimmune disease that’s probably mild to moderate lupus (probably get my official diagnosis in the next month or so) and includes fun things like arthritis, edema, hypertension, facial rash, joint and muscle pain, exhaustion, enlarged spleen, and shortness of breath.
I swear, some days I’m amazed I don’t leave a trail of failed organs, spaz attacks, and medical forms. Right now, I’m in the middle of an autoimmune flare, which takes up almost all of my attention. On good days, the big stuff (depression and autoimmune) is in remission, and I can focus on the medium sized stuff (ADHD, obesity, pre-diabetes). The good days, unfortunately, are uncommon, and they never come in packs. Most days, I focus on surviving and gaining even the smallest bit of ground so when a good day comes along, I can make the most of it.
Retintis pigmentosa (legally blind)
Ischemic Optic Neuropathy
Cataracts (removed)
Astigmatism
Myopia
Once diagnosed as chronic kidney-stone former, but none for 20 years.
Stent in heart artery.
Episodic Sciatica
Ligament damage in throwing arm
High-function Autism (Asperger’s)
NPC (Nerd physiognomy and comportment)
Male pattern baldness
Old age (75).
Never on any ongoing Rx medication except mild hypertension
-tinnitus (doesn’t actually bother me much)
-high blood pressure (well-controlled)
-diabetes (well-controlled)
-skip beats (well-controlled by a pacemaker)
-overweight (used to be obese)
-bad eye (started with detached retina; after two ops, there is an oil drop the surgeon is reluctant to remove because there is one chance in three it will detach again)
-high cholesterol (moderately well-controlled)
-peripheral neuropathy and balance problems (no treatment for this)
-mild anomia (seems to a corollary to aging)
It’s a long list, but none of it life-threatening and I basically feel healthy for my age, despite having had a heart attack nearly 50 years ago.
I have also been diagnosed with restless leg syndrome and migraine headaches, but I disagree with those diagnoses. The “restless legs” are just sore muscles. The “migraine” headaches are really hormonal headaches and don’t respond to migraine medications.
