The Venting Thread

[waterboy]

So...I had a gout flare this summer that hurt like you wouldn't believe. Any chance that might be it? (And I hope not)

[AmLitHist]

So...I had a gout flare this summer that hurt like you wouldn't believe. Any chance that might be it? (And I hope not)

I'd thought of that, too, even though the placement/location would be unusual.  My GP checked for it in my most recent blood work, and no indication of it.

I'm halfway concerned about a developing bone infection: I didn't physically see the x-rays yesterday, though in the past when I'd been told things were healing, that area of "healing" was a cloudy spot on the film. My sister, an old-school nurse, warned me to never accept that as gospel, because a bone infection appears as a cloud at the fracture site. And my white count was elevated (in range, but at the top limit) when I had the labs drawn in early July.

Hope your flare up has resolved, Waterboy! I understand from a couple of colleagues that the pain is extreme!

[clean]

Gout.... Even the weight of a sheet on the toe can make you cry.

I now take Colchrys
Maybe next blood check appt, I will be able to cut them in 1/2. 

[Larimar]

Sorry to hear about all the painful ailments. Wishing you quick and thorough healing.

[Sea_Ice]

Good for you, Para! As you say, it won't be smooth all the way, but at least you're on the way to your goal! (For a variety of reasons, we've rented forever. I can get a partial lump sum out of my pension when I retire, so the plan is to use that to pay cash for a house. . . if/when I ever feel like I can actually retire!)

Sorry to hear about your earache, apl68. Ears are the worst for me: I can handle a lot of things (cold, bronchitis, broken foot, etc.) much easier than the littlest thing with my ears. And I hate having the doctor look at them. I hope you feel better soon.

Latest from here:  no surgery this past Monday, but a follow up visit and x-ray yesterday. I wish I'd stayed home:  the surgeon said, "The x-ray shows the bone is healed!" Um, OK. . . so WHY is my foot still hurting like hell and why is it swelling like a balloon? He can't give me an answer, except that "maybe it's anxiety." So, I can't step on it--or even just sit here, for that matter--without 6-of-10 level pain? And that's all in my mind?  He wouldn't come out and say that, but he clearly was skeptical because I "shouldn't" still be hurting. Don't get me wrong:  if it's somehow healed and I can skip the surgery, that's great, IF it doesn't hurt anymore. I go back on 8/29 for another CAT scan. (I should also mention that I have a knot the size of a cherry tomato on the side of my foot at the site of the break. I suppose that's from anxiety, too.) I'm disgusted with everything and everybody at this point, but I'll follow through on 8/29. Also, I didn't get seen until 1:20, for an 11:45 appointment.  I get it--things happen--but your staff can't have the courtesy to call people to let us know you're running that far behind? SIGH.

I'm NOT an MD, nor any sort of clinician, but this is terrifying!  How a surgeon could have relied only on an Xray, ignoring multiple symptoms that disagree with it, I can't fathom.  Please don't be passive if it seems like this is getting worse - you very well could have an infection.

[apl68]

Though this doesn't directly affect me personally, it's a big issue for the community:

Our school district decided this year to consolidate its two primary schools for different age groups at one building.  This not only meant that more children would now be heading for the school, it also meant that arrangements would have to made to segregate children of the youngest grades from the older children.  This included having separate drop off/pick up locations around the small campus for the different grades. 

This was the first day of school with the new arrangement.  It appears to have been a major fiasco.  As I passed near the school near the end of my morning walk at around eight, I saw cars backed up for blocks in all directions.  It was much worse than the usual first-day-of-school jam I've seen in the past.  Traffic on my own street was backed up all the way past my house--and I live nearly a ten-minute walk from the school!  When I drove past the school a little before nine, heading to a morning dental appointment, I saw two cars sitting abandoned in the street near the school.  Apparently they had overheated during the wait.

I got in to work from the dentist at about ten, and it was the talk of the library.  Apparently the whole town is talking and griping about the situation on social media.  There were reports of forty-five-minute waits in line to drop off children, and talk of an accident--presumably a fender-bender. 

My guess would be that there was a lot of first-day confusion on the part of parents about where to go that completely overwhelmed the already crowded routes to the school.  Hope they can get this sorted out soon.  Hate to think about what closing time this afternoon could look like....

[fishbrains]

Kind of related: The funniest morning announcement I've ever heard while teaching dual enrollment in the high schools was on day two: "Students: When you get off the bus tomorrow morning, turn around and note the number of the bus you are getting off of. This will be the same number bus you'll get back on to return home in the afternoon." Then she let out the biggest sigh of disappointment I've ever heard in my life.

Apparently, students were just getting on any bus that looked familiar to go home, and this didn't work too good.

I remember telling the students in my class after the announcement, "I'm pretty sure she just called you-all 'stupid.'"

[apl68]

Kind of related: The funniest morning announcement I've ever heard while teaching dual enrollment in the high schools was on day two: "Students: When you get off the bus tomorrow morning, turn around and note the number of the bus you are getting off of. This will be the same number bus you'll get back on to return home in the afternoon." Then she let out the biggest sigh of disappointment I've ever heard in my life.

Apparently, students were just getting on any bus that looked familiar to go home, and this didn't work too good.

I remember telling the students in my class after the announcement, "I'm pretty sure she just called you-all 'stupid.'"

I wouldn't have thought of this as something that would happen very often.  Maybe students are getting less attentive, what with their noses being buried in their phones all the time and all.

[clean]

The world exists to service them.  So any bus that they choose MUST be the ONE that will take them to their home! 

[fishbrains]

The impression I got was that quite a few freshizzles didn't know which bus they rode in on and didn't want to ask, so they took a chance. Must have been interesting when the drivers reached the end of their routes.

[apl68]

Looks like traffic at the grade school is running better this morning.  I didn't see the long lines of cars backed up down the streets.

[apl68]

The first-day fiasco at school made the newspaper.  Apparently an experiment with designating temporary one-way streets around the school to facilitate traffic backfired badly.  Either parents didn't get the message, or they ignored it.  So there were people going the wrong way and throwing everything into confusion, and parents parking on the street and blocking traffic while they walked their children the last little part of the way, etc.  Simply letting the traffic go back to its previous flow situation seems to have fixed the problem.  Looks like somebody just didn't think things through very well.

[AmLitHist]

Welp. I knew it went too smoothly and was too good to be true. I got an email from HR saying, "Oh, we approved your remote-only schedule for the entire academic year [which I and my doctor had requested]. Oopsie. It should have just been for this fall. Sign this corrected form."

After confirming with my NEA folks, I'll do it, and I'll simply reapply for Spring in October/November.  Hell, I'll probably just change the dates and submit the same original requests.

But it's just the idea. Sigh.

[Langue_doc]

I had to see a podiatrist earlier this week. All he had to do was to examine the second toe in my right foot, which he did. According to the after-visit notes, I apparently presented there complaining of pain in my left foot, and that he examined both feet, including range of motion for both ankles. I was wearing hiking boots, and took off only the right shoe--no range of motion examination for either foot. I'm composing a letter asking the doc to make the necessary corrections because medical documents are also considered legal documents. I'm tempted to note that if this had been a student assignment, the grade would be an F, because of the confusion between the right and left foot and also because of the false claim the the left foot was examined. 

[AmLitHist]

I had to see a podiatrist earlier this week. All he had to do was to examine the second toe in my right foot, which he did. According to the after-visit notes, I apparently presented there complaining of pain in my left foot, and that he examined both feet, including range of motion for both ankles. I was wearing hiking boots, and took off only the right shoe--no range of motion examination for either foot. I'm composing a letter asking the doc to make the necessary corrections because medical documents are also considered legal documents. I'm tempted to note that if this had been a student assignment, the grade would be an F, because of the confusion between the right and left foot and also because of the false claim the the left foot was examined. 

Sounds like your podiatrist is the guy I used before I went to my current foot surgeon! After taking xrays on my first visit, the surgeon said, "Man, I really wish you'd have come to me first!" Um, me too, but you don't know what you don't know....