SkyzykS's Keep Hitting It Until It Works Again Log

I’ll take a look, thanks! And coincidentally, I have an eye appointment on the 17th.

Yeah, I’m coming to that. I had 6 hours at the ED to contemplate the whole thing and was just sort of dazed that I’d never mentioned it to my doctor. My friends are all going “what?? you never said anything!” And I absolutely agree that it’s weird. I gripe about things! But this just, for some reason, got categorized in my mind as “normal” and that was that.

Part of it is that I have huge ADD around physical symptoms (as well as other things, of course). It’s very hard for me to identify when things started, when they got worse, whether this or that bothers me…unless the pain or whatever is happening NOW, I have a hard time bringing it into focus. I can tell it’s been more than days - “weeks, definitely…probably months” - but from there might have a hard time getting to whether it’s been happening for a year or 2 months or what. With this fainting thing I can say for sure loss of consciousness has happened three times in the 7 years, but the syncope without loss of consciousness that happens much more often is now mysterious to me. Twice a year, maybe? But I actually have no clue, and have no idea about triggers. And I don’t know if it’s happened prior to moving into this house. I can’t recall when it started, just that I know I’ve had a number of events here.

What’s funny is that I recall every word of every argument I’ve ever had. No ADHD there, to my husband’s sorrow! And I have an exceptional memory for work stuff. If someone tells me that when they were a kid their Uncle Henry used to come to their house the weekend after Thanksgiving with a nasty ass turkey casserole that their mom made them eat, I’ll remember. Uncle Henry can come up in a completely different context two years later (“my Uncle Henry was at the funeral”) and I’ll ask “is he the one with the yucky casseroles?” :woman_shrugging:

Oooof. I’ve got it on, after reconsidering as I opened the box. My negativity centered around pushing the button when I have symptoms. I don’t have symptoms! (I think! But maybe I do? Who knows!) But apparently if the doctor has set it to collect regardless it can still be helpful. Hopefully he has!

I’m looking at those rolls and boggling that people didn’t push aside all the other food to focus solely on those.

Hahaha. Onward to Christmas!

2 Likes

I hate to sound like a therapist, but i said the same thing to my wife… you should start a diary for these events. just like a 1x a day log so you can summarize what meds you were/are on and anomalies whether from a health perspective, or quality of life perspective. I essentially do this with my training log, but i wish i had done it sooner.

My wife couldn’t identify what was causing the fainting spells, and there were no similarities. It was truly something we were chasing for years and just got “lucky” if you will.

sounds more like my wife was too, unfortunately :sweat_smile: but also as you said, was very difficult for her to put together a list of symptoms and occurence frequency.
Essentially, TSS causes a buildup of spinal fluid in the cranium. Spinal fluid is also the ‘filling’ for your eyes ‘pillows’, so if your optic nerve is swelling (visible with Eye Dr equipment), the cause is usually high spinal fluid pressure. IF this is the case, it will lead to a spinal tap to measure opening pressure - if it is over 20(?) then they will typically drain a little fluid to get the pressure down to normal. From there, an MRI, MRI with Contrast, and MRV are normally prescribed to see if there is a block - either from stenosis or clot.

We lucked out and had the Chief of Neurosurgery at Cedars Sinai in Beverly Hills do my wife’s surgery - there is literally almost no one better to perform this surgery.

Anyways, I hope this doesnt apply to you but regardless, I hope it helps.

That’s relatable. I can hand wave away even the gravest of symptoms. It can be knees, back, dental, severe fatigue, chest pain, difficulty breathing…
My typical line is “I don’t have time for that right now. We have to get (this) done.”. Then once things quiet down and I’m no longer in an accute difficulty “Eh, it’s not that bad. If it was I’d have done something about it when it happened.”.

I think they do. Some of those monitors can pick up differences and abnormalities in the rhythms and signals that we’re not even aware of.

Heck, like an EKG. You can not hide Anything from an EKG. Anything.

1 Like

I looked into it and it doesn’t fit my symptoms at all, but thank you so much for offering it for consideration.

I will have to track symptoms, and you’re right, should have before, but I just didn’t see it as a thing to track. I didn’t see it as a problem, really. Not optimal, certainly! But it happened infrequently enough that I never really paid it much attention. Even my husband was laissez-faire about it. He’d hear me drop in the bathroom, call out “are you okay?” and I’d say “yeah, I fainted, I’m just gonna lay here for a minute” and he’d be like “okay” and go back to sleep. I know part of it is that it happens for me at night so neither of us are at our best, but still, we’re both dumbfounded that we treated it all so casually. One of my sons is apparently the same way, and treats it the same way. He got sent in an ambulance to the hospital after falling face first onto a concrete floor at work as a teen, and still was doing the “I thought it was normal” when I told him about me. We’re just…weirdos, is all I can say.

I hope so! Because this is highly unpleasant to wear.

3 Likes

Oh, my dear lady. That would send me straight through the roof. It may have something to do with something, or maybe it is its own little idiosyncracy, but when I hear bad/hurt/injurious sounds emanating from the bathroom I get an immediate panic response.

Yeah they are. But life is good and I want many more updates of hiking with Buttons and various other tales of happiness and outdoor adventure.

At 2:00 I have a stress/echo test. That’s its own kind of interesting. I really kind of hope they find something so that I can better understand why I’ve gotten weaker and more easily fatigued among other things, but also REALLY want everything to be fine, or at least to know that if that’s the new normal and to adapt as needed.

I just don’t want another round of tests, admission, procedures and all that.

1 Like

Well, the test went ok. Nothing stood out which would move into a next step. So I guess that’s good? LVEF was a little lower than my last one, which isn’t great, but rhythms & sines and all that were “good”.

Snagged a couple pictures of the echo-

I have no idea what parts those are.

4 Likes

Oh, I’m complying, don’t worry. I most definitely want to make sure that there’s not some issue the kids may have, and now that I’ve realized “OH THERE’S AN OFFICIAL PROBLEM” take it seriously.

Good, but was there any input as to why the fatigue?

The echo pics…I have mine on the 8th. Maybe we can compare! lol

1 Like

Nah. No insights on that. I could infer that another lesion or blockage is forming or getting bigger based on a site map of subclinical accumulations of plaque in other arteries, like my right coronary or left anterior descending, but it would be just that. Even if I’m really good at that. I’ve even restarted the same medication as last December (ranolazine) when they tried unsuccessfully to clear the second blockage further down the circumflex.

:thinking: So it all Looks familiar, and my wife even had similar thoughts. I’ll just have to stay on top of performance and abilities, fatigue & recovery, and other symptoms. If/when the time comes, we at least now have a pretty good plan in place and no kidding, my car could drive itself there at this point.

I’m becoming a lot less resistant to when to say when as time and experience accumulates.

I’m not sure what this means for lifting & whatnot. I work a bit tomorrow, so I’ll just play it by ear.

Is it a boy or a girl? They’ve got your eyes.

Glad to see the all clear man.

2 Likes

That image in frame 1 of the second pic does look kind of alien.

content_alien_chestburster1280

“Oh. Well that explains the chest pain.”

:rofl:

1 Like

Little video clip.

1 Like

What do they say about your attempted/hoped for activity level? I can’t imagine it’s not encouraged, within reason (which of course is the tricky part…are you reasonable? are they?).

I think it’s me that is unreasonable at times. The cardiac therapists remembered me from the first time as someone they had to pull the reins on pretty hard. I think they’re reasonable (the doctor & others)within the boundaries of professional responsibility and accepted practices, and when I’ve described some of my lifting habits I’ve gotten the wide eyes and a little bit of “maybe you should dial it back a little on the weight, do more reps” type suggestions from the doc and therapists.

I think he avoids that for the afore mentioned reasons.

It is to an extent. He has strongly encouraged exercise on the whole, cardio in what ever forms I choose and weight lifting- just not in the manner I’d prefer.

The thing that complicates it is my regular activities too. Like, yesterday was an easy day. I respooled a winch on one of the big trucks which involved lots of getting under then up from under the vehicle, a lot of pulling and manipulating large wire rope (like the thick 20 ton stuff), hammer and pry bar things (it’s all thick/heavy steel) made and welded in some new bracing, and moved a couple of tool chests around the garage/ shop. That was a short, medium difficult 3 hour day, but a whole lot of moving.

So today I’m beat. But I also feel kinda bad/guilty about not getting a good lifting or cardio session in yet.

I’m sure that if I were sedentary or close to it, I’d get 5 cardio and 3 weight sessions per week, no problem. But people don’t hire or pay me to think. They pay me to do.

It’s just hard to find a balance. Work, life, exercise, finances, family, everything.

1 Like

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Having a nice stretch of winter weather.

:heart: you all.

5 Likes

Merry Christmas!

I’m so happy to be missing it… for now…

I’ll bet. My oldest bro lives on the gulf coast. It’s all fun in the sun for him. :sun_with_face:

1 Like

I love CMU and have a good chance of getting into its (very unique) SDS grad program, but I am NOT applying bc I cannot imagine having to deal with pissburgh weather for an additional 5 years or so

1 Like

:laughing:

:man_shrugging: What can I say? People don’t come for the weather!

An old buddy of mine came here in like 1984 after doing his pre-med, internship, and I think his specialty at the time was trauma, but he switched to anesthesiology. He was one of the engines that drove medicine to the fore in the renaissance from steel town to medicine and education.

I once asked him why he stayed here instead of going to Hopkins or the Mayo Clinic, or somewhere more prestigious.

His response: “I tried to leave. I just couldn’t find my way out! :laughing:”.

You’ll do well no matter where you choose or what the weather is like. :+1:

2 Likes

I’ve also been told by some people who know better than me that having both your grad and post grad degrees from the same place is considered kinda meh, unless you have some real- like world moving- chops to back it up.

1 Like

yeah… that too.

but ppl were asking me why CMU wasn’t on my school list

Funny story, one of my favourite profs got did his undergrad, grad, postdoc and job at CMU