Anyone wanna share medical stories? I’m in the midst of a weird health situation meself and feel the need to vent/share/hear your war stories.
So here’s the deal with me: I have two big ol’ masses in my right lung, one of which (Thing One) is an abscess, and one of which (Thing Two) isn’t. Thing One is shrinking with IV antibiotics, Thing Two isn’t. But Thing Two may still be infection-related, in which case, now that we’ve doubled the IV antibiotics (three hours a day hooked to a needle! Goody!), it may start to shrink. Or not. I’m supposed to have a CT scan in the next few days to get a better idea of what Thing Two is.
So I’m really, really sick, they keep telling me, but I feel fine. I’m being sent to infection specialists and radiologists and pulmonary people and who knows who all, but I feel better than I did when I’d been coughing for weeks (Note: Don’t ignore it when you start coughing blood…) It’s all very discouraging. My boss wants to arrange for me to do some of my work from home so I can keep my hand in and not blow out all my sick time – let us hope the legal department and HR bureaucrats don’t interfere! I want to edit something, dammit!
So what anomalous medical situations have you all survived?
a few days ago i noticed a strange feeling in my lower abdomen, near my left ovary. i talked to my parents about it, my dad figured it was my appendix, my mom, whose a nurse, thought that maybe it was a cyst.
then it started to hurt. i went to the doctor yesterday, and at first he had no idea. then he asked in a very serious tone if i had any bruises or injuries on my left leg. i said no.
he then concluded that it was a lymph node swollen from shaving. this didn’t make any sense because i had just shaved the day before the appointent, and i’ve had this thing for about a week.
all the same, he sent me home saying it was no big deal, and would go away.
then last night i bumped the back of my left thigh and it felt as though i hit a bruise. only, there was no bruise there. i noticed this the other day, but it slipped my mind when he asked me about bruises or injuries, and just after remembering that, i noticed bruising on the inside of my left thigh.
now i’m freaking.
what the hell is this thing?
“human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust; we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” - albert einstein
I just got back from the md myself, just diagnosed with three kidney stones. (This is why I’m home posting today instead of at work.) These will be numbers 13, 14, and 15 for me. I’ve had them every couple of years since I was 14. They can never find why I get so many; nobody else in my family does, and I avoid the things they tell me to. I’ll be having the lithotripsy within a couple of weeks to blast them. Had that about ten years ago. At least I get a big scrip for painkillers.
Roo, I had a problem just like that a few years ago. Your doctor may have asked you about an injury to your leg fearing that you threw a clot or something. Anyway, in my case, I was told that it was a swollen lymph node from shaving, just like you were told. I bought that explanation but the pain kept coming back month after month. I kept complaining about it. The doctors kept telling me it was nothing. Finally I got so sick of being in pain that I demanded something be done. My doctor referred me to a surgeon, stating, “If it bothers you so much we’ll cut it out, whatever it is.” But I knew that he thought it was still nothing and I was being a difficult patient. Turns out, I had endometriosis, and this growth had gotten so big it gave me a hernia. I had to have the growth cut out and the hernia repaired. But wait, it doesn’t end there. After the surgery, no one ever bothered to educate me about endometriosis. everything I learned I had to learn myself by researching it on the web. And there are so many conflicting theories out there that I am still pretty confused. I still have a lot of problems such as painful periods, constipation, and rectal bleeding. So a few months ago I went back to my doctor and expressed my concerns, but he just decided that the best way to treat my endometriosis was medically, by putting me on The Pill. Now, I don’t exactly relish the idea of putting myself through exploratory surgery, but we basically have NO IDEA how far spread my endometriosis is. I could be riddled with growths. I don’t like not knowing. I should try to find a specialist, but right now I am just so tired of getting the run around that I am going to try The Pill and see how it works.
I was working in Saudi Arabia and developed a nasty infection in my left armpit (sebaceous oil and sweat glands). The clinic tried cremes, then pills, finally shots, all to no avail. So I was sent down the road, to Dhahran Community Hospital,to taste a little Third World medicine.
I was treated by a Scottish surgeon named McBride who excised the whole mass of infected tissue and packed the hole with a yard or so of ribbon gauze. Every day, the nurse would come by and have to change my dressing. Man, the pain was worse than the surgery! Kinda like pulling duct tape off your forearm. I was their guest for a week.
The hole eventually filled in from the bottom and sides. I don’t need to use deodorant on that side (just kidding!).
My problem isn’t exactly weird. As I’ve come to find out, it’s more common than most people think. I was very recently diagnosed with HPV, human papillomavirus. The doctor found it during a routine pap smear, six weeks after my son was born. Caught it pretty early, thank goodness.
I have to have the bad cells removed from my cervix next week, then pap smears every four months for a while. A note to the females, and the men who love them: GET THE YEARLY PAP SMEAR DONE. The earlier they catch a disease like HPV, the easier it is to treat.
michelle - a friend of mine also has endometriosis, and when i was telling her about the supposed ‘lymph node’ she said it sounded like i had the same thing she has… and she’s likely going to have her second surgery very soon. i just wish i knew what it was.
“human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust; we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” - albert einstein
I mentioned in an earlier thread that my recent mammogram revealed calcium deposits, which may or may not be a bad thing. I called just before Xmas and scheduled what I thought was a sonogram, for tomorrow, but I just got a call from the radiology staff saying my appt. was for another mammogram, and didn’t I want to schedule a sonogram? Yes, I said, but I’m still waiting for them to get back to me about when. In 1994, I had a sonogram and a needle biopsy, which returned the verdict of a cyst. Maybe this is that. I think this is just the price I pay for having so much breast mass: the odds favor that I’ll have all kinds of growths, which won’t necessarily be harmful.
I hope.
Remember, I’m pulling for you; we’re all in this together.
—Red Green
Hey, I’m doing all I can, CatInHat – I’m throwing the largest available amounts of antibiotics at them. Or would be if my “permanent” two-feet-of-tubing-in-the-vein IV line hadn’t come out in the night. I’m now awaiting the nurse to repeat the whole gruesome installation process. Then we shall resume the battle!
But others have troubles as well, I see – Roo, you have to get back to the doctor; wondering will just make you crazy, and it may be an easy fix. And all of y’all are giving me some perspective on me troubles, for which I thank you.
Catrandom, nonetheless thinking of changing her username to OneDamnThingAfterAnother
Oh lord you didn’t actually ask the nurse about that did you??? I didn’t mean to scare you! It hardly ever happens, but it is something I have a big irrational fear of.
Actually, they brought it up. “Don’t be afraid of the little air bubbles, but be sure to get out the big ones…” Apparently they have to warn of all the dire possibilities when one is doing this at home. Not to worry!
Actually, the danger of air emboli is pretty overated. Sounds like you have a PICC line; placed in the forearm, but threaded up into a large vein? They now believe that it takes a preety huge bubble to put you at risk. After all, the first capillary bed that any bubble will reach is the lungs, and the goal there is to exchange gas. Only people with a left to right shunt cardiac defect need to worry, and thosse are pretty much always noted in infancy,
Larry, RN
Then we shall resume the battle!