health issues

Health Issues I guess is a place to share health matters - we had a thread called Health but it was closed after almost 100 posts a while back.

PS: I went back to the original thread (see link) and saw that I was dissing on hospital food. I've been back to the same hospital since that thread was closed, and their microwave meals from a vending machine still tastes better than their cafeteria food. Their cafeteria food is cheaper, but it's still from the 1950s.

My hearing has been gradually declining.  Background noise obliterates anything but bass tones and if someone is talking, and not facing me, it's almost impossible to understand what they're saying.

Part of it's due to numerous severe ear infections in childhood, but most of it is self-inflicted I think.  When I was young, I spent a lot of time in new wave clubs and at punk concerts, slamming right next to the amps, and when music became portable, I listened with headphones, volumn WAY TOO LOUD. 

It's not disabling at this point, just annoying. 

Hospital food blows.  Over the past 4 years I've spent about five weeks in hospital, and I have nothing good to say about the food.  Bland is fine, but some of it is straight out horrible.  For anyone new to the menu, I strongly suggest staying away from anything that has a lot of ingredients.  Prepackaged is usually the most predictable, plain chicken breast with a bit of salt and pepper is not bad with a salad (the cooked veggies are quite aweful).  The pizza (sounds like fun, but it's gross), stew and salisbury steak are hideous.  The sandwiches all taste like pasty cardboard, regardless of their filling.  The desserts are punishment for having choked down a meal.

This is what you get when you have to feed hundreds of people on a low budget while including, technically, all the food groups.

I have a digital hearing aid that was state of the art five or six years ago when I got it, have no idea what it was worth back then, but the audiologist said it was well over a thousand bucks (I never saw the receipt - it was charged to the Quebec health insurance).

The worse hospital food ever was the salmon casserole: canned salmon and pickle relish, with probably bread crumbs and cream. Severely overcooked, I simply couldn't swallow it, left it all on the plate. The hospital cafeteria also was the supplier for the entire hospital facility, so bed-ridden patients got this stuff as well. This salmon casserole was awful in the 1950s; why are they still serving it in 2011?

I have wondered about why we don't have a HEALTH forum... The title of this one specifically says "mental, spiritual, emotional" but not physical.

So, I am glad we decided that physical health fits here! Lets do it, k?

about HEARING - I lost most of my hearing for the higher pitches, and it is dulled overall - I think it was due to playing in rock bands for too many nights and running a skill saw by day, and shooting stuff with big rifles [pinkoes, commies, etc] [kidding].We never even thought about hearing protection in the 60s.

but it is the damned TINNITUS that is the worst. I bet lots of you have it. I have it bad, both ears, different types too - the normal one is the "ringing" or high pitched jet engine type, and the less normal is "pulsatile tinnitus" where I hear my pulse in my right ear [I can feel it pulse sometimes too, or so it seems]

The ringing tinnitus goes on most of the time, like right now. Even if I crank the stereo or  talk really loud I still hear it. Sometimes it really screams, almost like standing near a runway as the jets take off... but it is obvious to me that it is "in my ears" and not from outside.

I've had tinnitus all my life, and I've learned to just accept it as the background noise of life. Not a f*cking thing I can do about it, anyway.

Going to the clinic tomorrow morning to see if they can speed up my ENT appointment because the pain in my ear is very severe, and I still can't hear anything.

Thanks. By the way, deafness is seen as the invisible handicap or disability.

Canada begins developing a National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace

Mental health is attracting a huge amount of attention in western countries but much of this has a public health focus. Workplace mental health is not getting enough attention even though, correctly applied, this collective term could include the occupational hazards of stress, bullying, depression and suicide....

http://safetyatworkblog.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/canada-begins-developing-a-national-standard-for-psychological-health-and-safety-in-the-workplace/

I'm in my second week of no hearing whatsoever. Sure seems quiet (bad joke).

 And then there are the "low talkers" who apparently don't mind repeating themselves or hearing me say "what?"...

 When on the phone I notice how  1] I cannot hear them so I start talking louder, 2] they hear me talking too loud and so they talk more quietly. Some kinda broken feedback mechanism there!!

   But Boom Boom is dealing with something new, for him... adapting to no hearing must have it's pitfalls eh BB? There is still hope for your hearing coming back isn't there, even after two weeks now? Plus ear pains - they can be nasty. Hang in there Boom Boom.

And I forgot to mention "thanks and congratulations" to BB for helping get CC going. I can see I am going to need it soon, as it is I can hardly make out anything they are saying on TV when there is background sound and music.  The translating is bad too - the speaker's voice and the translators voice all blend together as mush.

Here is a link to the procedure for my knee surgeries. I get the first bionic knee in two weeks.  When they call my surgeon a saws bones they mean it. While awaiting surgery the last couple months I have been quite grumpy.  Painkillers only numb the pain and the mind they sure don't provide the bliss sold on TV ads.

http://www.edheads.org/activities/knee/index.shtml

ETA:  I especially liked using the rongeur to snip off bone spurs since I have a number on each knee.

Good luck with the knee surgery NS. You will be shovelling snow by next winter!!

Boom Boom, didn't your elders ever tell you not to block a sneeze? Oh ya, it can do damage - I heard that sneezes push air at 200 mph.

I have to admit that my elders never referred to an "implosive fistula" either though. 

As for CC, I think I will start using it just because I cannot catch much of what is said on anything but news [and news is all lies anyhow].

Good luck with the knee surgeries and your recovery.  Let me know how it goes - both my knees are shot, but I'm too young to get replacements (the left will be done first, there's almost no cartilege left and the grinding sound when I climb stairs is like nails across a chalkboard).

Thank you for the kind words.  I am home now and glad to have the first done.  I was walking bone on bone for almost a year before this surgery. My "good" knee sounds like your left one now. The X-rays show a hair of cartilage left in the knee that was not operated on and yeah it creaks a lot. The "good" news is that the extra strain on my left knee from compensating while I recover from surgery will likely destroy the rest of my cartilage and thus there will be no question about the second one.

I tried to ignore the pain until I woke up one day and realized I was taking three times the daily dosage of Ibuprofen to kill the pain and even that was not making it go away.

My surgeon thought at 60 I was too young but when you can't walk they have to do them.  If you don't already own a pair I suggest you look into these poles designed for arthritis sufferers.  They allowed me to keep doing some things even with bone on bone this last year.  I used trekking poles for the last three or four years but only for exercise walking.  These poles are good for everyday walking around in the city.   Of course the more weight off your legs the more that goes on your wrists. Just Another painful traded off that works for  some and not others.

http://urbanpoling.com/shop/nordic_walking/urban-pole-activator-professi...

I hope your recovery goes smoothly, Northern. A friend of mine in her mid-50s is getting her first knee done in August. At first they told her she was too young but when the specialist saw how bad her knees where, they fast tracked her for surgery.

Years ago I was told by a doctor to never supress a sneeze either by pinching the nose or repressing it . That looks like it was good advice. I have given this advice to my children and grandchildren. I tell them to sneeze in a handkerchief or on the back of the head of the person in front of you (HAHA).

It was news to me that suppressing a sneeze was bad. I'm so sorry you're being jerked around, Boom Boom. Health services for people living in remote and rural communities really need to be improved.

The nightmare continues. Last week the doc prescribed penicillin to fight the bacteria unleased in the sneeze, and the penicillin has made me even more sick - I think I actually had pneumonia while I was on those antibiotics. I won't get to see the ENT guy until  August - making it two months since the incident. I got the social worker involved as well, because I think I should be in a hospital.  

I just can not for the life of me figure out why I haven't been sent to the hospital yet. They've sent me out for more minor things before.

I've actually been treated by a GP here twice. But it's a stopgap measure until the ENT specialist can make a proper diagnosis. And, the antibiotics made me even more sick so I stopped taking them - I told the social worker I would only take them in the hospital under nursing care.

How are the knees NS?

I've been at the hospital for the past week, just getting caught up on everything now. No news on whether my hearing loss is temporary or permanent, nor on the degree of the losss - this will all happen in August.

I actually had a private room at the hospital with TV - with closed captioning - so I watched some news. Terrible all the stuff that's going on, for sure.

Thanks. I'm taking it easy for a few days.

One thing I've learned - here on the coast we do not have emergency access to ENT specialists.

Thanks for the good wishes and support. I think what's needed in some places - besides more ENT specialists - are sensitivity courses for those who work with deaf and hard-of-hearing folks. I was treated like a leper in the hospital - because deafness is the 'invisible' handicap.

The Canadian Hearing Society used to offer such training back in the 1970s.

Swimming in salt water is my remedy for skin problems. NOthing, I mean nothing, can match salt water.

Today is the worse day I've ever had for arthritis pain in my hands - can't peel potatoes, carrots or turnips - and can barely open the door to go outside, and using the skidoo controls is really painful. Have to wait two weeks for the next round of injections. And my driveway is all ice! Wish spring would come

My parents used bathing salts in their baths. I wonder if this is why?

I had a random conversation with a woman at the bus stop.  I was telling her about my carpal tunnel troubles (because thar's what you do with strangers at a bus stop, isn't it?).  She had been a nurse in Vietnam before coming to Canada.  She recommended a hot bath with Epsom salts a couple of times a week to draw the uric acid away from the bones.  I haven't done too much to validate this advice.