Category: Doctor

Suffering Side Effects

On By Michel McDonaldIn Doctor, HealthLeave a comment

Well I’ve already started to suffer some of the side effects from these medications that the neurologist gave me for my shoulder.

I’m taking Methylprednisolone 4MG Dospack 21’s which is this pack that has all the pills that you pop out the back.  The first day is at the top and you have to take 6 pills in 1 day.  2 before breakfast, 1 after lunch and supper (I guess that drug company has never heard of dinner) and 2 at bedtime.  Then day 2 you take 5 pills at various times throughout the day.  Day 3 4 pills and so on until day 6 you are just taking 1 pill.  This one is the steroid drug.

Then the other one is Baclofen 10MG tablets that I have to take 3 times a day so like every 8 hours.  That is a muscle relaxant drug.

I read the possible side effects for both of them and some of them are similar.  The muscle relaxant doesn’t have nearly as many side effects as the steroid but I’m getting quite a bit.

1 of them isn’t even listed and I’m not going to air that dirty laundry in here but believe me, it’s painful to sit down hint hint wink wink.  The other ones are that my teeth don’t feel like they belong in my mouth lol.  They just feel strange like the dentist shot something in there to numb them.  Also I’ve got major joint aches and pains especially in my legs at the hips and well just everywhere in my legs.

Let’s see, I can’t sit, I can’t stand and my teeth don’t feel like they belong in my mouth lol.  What else can go wrong?  Oh shoot, I just jinxed myself by saying that.  One of the other side effects are that I’m hungry more which happened today, I got extra hungry, I had 2 sandwiches for lunch, not just bread but these really big rolls with 3 slices of turkey each and lettuce and mayo.  Oh and we went to Hometown Buffet and I stuffed myself silly and one of the other side effects is weight gain which I guarantee you tomorrow I will see that side effect come into place thanks to the hometown buffet but we’re just gonna say it’s a side effect from the pills ok?

UGH and my shoulders are experiencing joint pain too.  Ok, I think I need to lay down because I’m becoming too fragile to be sitting here typing.  One of my fingers might fall off and we don’t want that.

Give Yourself Liposuction At Home

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Doctor, Exercise, Humor, Products I LikeLeave a comment

Wow, now you can buy a product that you can use on YOURSELF so you can give YOURSELF liposuction.  What could go wrong?

Laser Liposuction System | Cellulite Treatment | Slimray Lipo Laser System | Fat Loss – UNLINKED

I was on Facebook and saw this ad for this.  It says it’s a risk free trial so I guess if you don’t lose any weight from it you can just send it back and get a full refund.  By the way it only costs $379.95 plus shipping, not sure about any taxes.

What it does according to their website is it melts the fat cells and the more you use it the more fat cells will melt.  You feel it right away and you can lose inches of fat every week that you use it.

But with all these things on the market are you willing to drop almost $400 on yet another gadget?  Maybe if I had $400 to spare then yeah I might but I don’t.  So I guess diet and exercise are going to have to do for now.  But it does look neat though, I mean, well the thought of being able to do that.

Edit: It appears that this website is gone for good.  Perhaps they didn’t make the money they wanted for their product so they stopped selling it online.  Who knows for sure.

My Most Embarrassing Moment in History

On By Michel McDonaldIn Doctor, HumorLeave a comment

I know that every time something embarrassing happens to me I always say that it is the most embarrassing moment in my life but I have to say that those don’t even compare to what happened to me today.

Ok so we went to Albertson’s this morning before Darrin dropped me off at the doctors off before he went to work.  He bought some toothpaste because we were out and he also grabbed a 1 liter bottle of flavored water for himself and 1 for me too.  So he drops me off at the doctor’s office and I go in, sign in, sit down and am watching TV and waiting patiently to be called.  Then tragedy struck.

You know when you have a room temperature bottle of sparkling water or soda or something and you unscrew the cap and it starts to fizz up so you have to open then close the lid over and over because if you don’t it explodes all over the place?  I had already done that and taken a sip or 2 out of the water.  Well, I was sitting there just watching TV and I opened the lid and all was fine, no fizzing occurred.  I put the bottle up to my mouth and it just exploded all over me.  OMG!

My whole front was completely soaking wet.  At first I thought it was a dream, I must be sleeping still at home.  I’m asleep and the people in the waiting room don’t even acknowledge my existence here.  Unfortunately, the realization came over me that I was indeed awake and there were other people in the waiting room staring at me.  The only thing that I could say was “that did not just happen to me”.

When it happened it was just so fast, so all of a sudden.  I wasn’t expecting that to happen, although I guess nobody does really.  I tried stopping it by pressing my lips around the bottle but the pressure built up in my mouth and I had to let go so I put my finger in the bottle as if I were a little dutch boy trying to stop the flow of water in the hole in a dam.

So desperately I went over to the door and started knocking on it and I heard Donna say hang on and I’m like ok, this is sort of an emergency, I need someone to please assist in my suicide lol.  So she opens the door and I walk in and she had this look on her face like OMG what happened.  I said my water exploded all over me.  She said it looks like I peed then threw up all over my shirt (as if I had a liquid lunch lol there were no chunks, just water).  I went to the bathroom and blotted as much as I could but no matter how many paper towels I used, I wouldn’t come out of it dry.

So then I went back to the door to the waiting room and said please don’t make me go back out there.  Then Jennifer comes along and sees me and I thought it would be funny to tell her “I’m really nervous today” at which point her jaw hit the ground.  She knows that I would never piss my pants and she saw the water bottle so she started laughing.  I told her my best course of action is to just pour the rest of it down the front of my shorts to even it out lol.

But luckily it started drying fast and by the time I left the doctor’s office my shorts were completely dry.  So at least I didn’t have to ride the bus with wet shorts on.  I guess this is my karma for talking trash about the Jonas Brothers the other night.  But in my defense I did delete it before anyone could see what a jerk I was.  Then again I’m sure a few people saw it in the 2 minutes it took me to decide to delete it, but I doubt it.

Dentist Today

On By Michel McDonaldIn Doctor, HealthLeave a comment

I went to the Dentist (Western Dental) on Saturday last week because the pain in my tooth was so unbearable and they wouldn’t see me without a medical release.  So I had to wait until Monday, got it, they saw me, did a partial root canal (they didn’t have to do a full one because he got the decay and it wasn’t near the soft tissue so no need to finish) and filled the tooth and I made an appointment for Tuesday.

Yesterday I go in and he fills in my broken tooth on the bottom but same side of the mouth as Monday.  No problem, made an appointment for today.

Today comes, I go in and I wait for 30 min in the waiting room and Nurse Ratchet calls Mr. McDonald.  Normally they just say my first name.  So I go in, she doesn’t let me sit down yet, she asks why I’m here, I tell her root canal and I point at my top left tooth.  She says there is no authorization for a root canal.  She looks at my papers and says we don’t even have your doctors authorization.  I said look some more.  She looks and finds it.

She pushes the button on the chair to lower it so I can sit down and she says Mr. McDonald you were here at 10am, can I ask why you were here so early?  And I said uh, that’s my appointment time.  She says well the doctor isn’t even scheduled to be here until 11am.  What the hell does she expect me to do?  I don’t know their dentists schedules.  They didn’t email me with his full schedule lol.

Then the white devil, yes, that’s what she is, the white devil, starts setting everything up being her bitchy cheerful self.  She tells me well he won’t be here for another half hour what would you like to do?  What the hell is she asking me?  They normally sit you in the chair and keep you waiting for an hour anyway so uh hello?  Just leave me here and go run over some puppies, I don’t give a crap.  Do what you normally do.  She continues setting me up and she goes to put the paper on my chest, the bib if you will.  But instead of clipping that chain with roach clips (yes, I said roach clips) she tucks it into my shirt at which point 1 eyebrow raises and I look from side to side and she starts giggling from my facial expression.  She informs me they don’t have any clips.

So 11 comes and the dentist comes in and he’s arguing with her about what I’m here for today and he comes to me and tells me he is out of gloves and that I can either wait until 3pm or come back this evening because he doesn’t know when they are coming in.  Excuse me?  3pm?  I’m not going to sit there with Ms. Sunshine for 4 more hours.  No, I’ll reschedule.

So I go back on Friday.

Light System

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, DoctorLeave a comment

I checked the tracking today from USPS for my light system for my bike and it was brought there to the post office on Monday but they didn’t ship it out until today.  So basically they sat on it for 2 days.  That’s fine though because it did say 2 to 9 days and it is the post office and not UPS or something so I don’t expect it right away.

I am actually glad it isn’t going to be here tomorrow because we both have doctors appointments.  Darrin is going in to find out what the new tests for his diabetes will be.  I’m afraid that it might come while we aren’t there and they are going to leave it to get stolen.  So, hopefully I’ll get it Friday or Saturday instead.

Missed Appointment

On By Michel McDonaldIn DoctorLeave a comment

On September 30th I had a follow-up appointment with the neurologist for my carpel tunnel syndrome but since we were in San Diego I called the doctor’s office and rescheduled my appointment for today at 12:00pm.  Well, at 2:20pm I realized I had missed my appointment.  My main concern was that they charge you for missed appointments.

I called them to ask if there was a way that I could still make it and they said no, the doctor doesn’t take patients past 12.  So I then asked how much this was going to cost me.  I was put on hold for about 1 or 2 minutes.  She came back and said that I wasn’t even on the computer for today.  WHEW!!!

I don’t know how much that would’ve cost me but I do know that I couldn’t pay it right now.  She rescheduled me for November 20th so it’s going to be some time that I have to wait.  On the bright side my carpel tunnel syndrome isn’t that bad.  My hands still get numb when I’m playing with my PSP or riding my bike for a long period of time, then again they get numb after 10 min of riding my bike so it’s not that long.  Oh well, I got a month heh.

PAIN

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, Diet, Doctor, ExerciseLeave a comment

Ok.  First off Darrin woke me up at 6am because the pain was too great in his stomach and he needed to go to the E.R.  He told me he was having a heart attack.  He wasn’t thank goodness.  The doctor gave him some meds for his stomach pain and we were on our way.  Ok that was Chips pain.

Now for my pain.  When we came home from the hospital Darrin got ready for church and then left.  I on the other hand geared up for what I thought was going to be a long bike ride but turned into a 20 minute bike ride, if that.  I put my sunglasses onto my glasses then strapped on the helmet then put the ear buds in so I could listen to Gavin Degraw’s latest self titled CD in my Dell DJ so the ride would be at least tolerable.

I go down H street from 3rd and I’m nearing the Catholic church which is like 10th street or something, I remember seeing 11th street as I was passing the church but just before I started to get near it I could feel my upper front legs just tightening up from the stress I was putting on them from the ride.  I don’t know, maybe I wasn’t in the right gear or something but my legs were in pain.

I had to push myself to get to California Ave though so I could say I tried.  As soon as I got to California Avenue I sighed a big sigh of relief.  Then I had to turn right and Eye street wasn’t too far then I could turn right and go back to 3rd st.  Now keep in mind, I didn’t go very far.

I finally got home, took of that hot helmet and I swear to science that my legs were in so much pain I was walking like an old man in a retirement home using a walker.  Flower was so happy to see me that she was jumping up on my back legs trying to show her love and trying to get me to pick her up but I could barely walk much less bend over to pick up a toy chihuahua.

I’m glad it’s over BUT… I gotta try again tomorrow.  If I can get to California avenue and not be in so much pain then I can keep going, maybe to Truxton lol.  The song I was on was just track 5 so you know that I wasn’t gone long lol.  Maybe tomorrow I will get to track 6.

This is a cropped image from Google Maps of today’s short route hehe.  It was 1.5 miles by the way.

Emergency Room

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, DoctorLeave a comment

We went to the store tonight and I bought a can of Slim Fast Optima because it controls your appetite for 4 hours it says. During the day I really don’t have much of an appetite, it’s typically after 6pm when my appetite comes at me.

I will eat dinner at 6pm but an hour later I’m hungry again and I keep wanting to eat until about 1am and that’s bad. You aren’t supposed to eat past a certain time, I think 8pm or something. So I needed something to help me out with that so I bought Slim Fast.

Well, so I got out my slim fast shaker cup and filled it to the 8oz line with some low-fat milk then I put a scoop of slim fast in it then shook the cup. Then I looked over at my blender and thought oh I should put it in there and add some ice to it and I got a real milk shake.

So I went over to the blender, it’s not a big blender, it’s a 1 glass blender so it doesn’t make a pitcher full of drinks, just 1 glass at a time. So I went to unscrew it from the unit and when I did that I unscrewed the glass from the blade instead of the whole thing from the unit.

So I sat the glass down and grabbed the blade part and tried to unscrew it and I was turning it the wrong direction and completely forgetting that I had it plugged in, I was holding the unit with my right hand and accidentally pressed the button on it and it blended my left hand.

Well, thankfully it didn’t do a lot of damage. All it did was it made a half round mark on the palm of my hand, it cut deep enough into my skin that I had to go to the E.R. The cut near my index finger was superficial compared to the cut near my thumb.

I didn’t have to wait that long and I got seen and they cleaned it up with iodine and the doctor used Dermabond to glue the cut closed instead of stitches. It doesn’t hurt or anything, I just gotta be careful and not get it wet for the next 5-10 days which is how long it will be on before it falls off. I was very, very extremely lucky that it wasn’t worse. I could be missing a finger.

Neurologist

On By Michel McDonaldIn Doctor, HealthLeave a comment

Well I went to the neurologist today for a follow-up appointment. My first appointment was to find out what was going on with my hands. At first they started getting numb when I would crochet and I got to the point where I didn’t like to crochet anymore or do any crafts for that matter. Then they started going numb for no reason and next thing I knew my hands were constantly numb.

When I would crochet I got this pinching in my right hand and sometimes in my left hand too, that’s when I knew for sure I couldn’t crochet anymore. I told my doctor about 3 or 4 times which was in a row, every time I saw him, that my hands were numb and he would tell me it’s because of this or that or the other.

So finally I told him that my hands are numb constantly and I get a pinching in my hands too so he sent me to the neurologist. Well I went, he gave me a prescription for wrist splints for both hands to wear to bed so I do.

A couple of weeks ago I went to get the nerve test which means they wrap these wires around 2 fingers then they take this thing that looks like a stun gun and they zap you on certain spots for a few seconds at a time and the computer does all the work.

So today was the follow-up to that and he said I have a very mild case of Carpal Tunnel syndrome but because they are not numb all the time (thanks to the wrist splints) that I don’t need surgery, in fact he said it would be the very last resort so I have to see him in 2 months to see how it’s going. I’m really happy I don’t need surgery and my hands are good again as if nothing happened.