The Gaming Den

Ah, good to know, thank you!

For the last few days I've had shoulder-and-neck pain. Basically certain it's muscular pain, but it's been getting worse, not better. Assuming I'm right (what else could it be? I haven't done anything to warrant bone injury and that'd hurt way more), is there anything I can do to actually fix "a muscle is all stretched out or twisted or otherwise fucked up and annoying"? Is there anything a doctor could actually do if I saw them? Or is this just a case of "It'll get better or it won't, take drugs accordingly"?

(Currently using regular not-augmented ibuprofen in the hopes that it's an inflammation thing. Hasn't really helped. Heat packs work while they're applied, in the same way that a hot shower works until I step out of it.)

Obviously I'm hoping the resident Doctor here will tell me I urgently need to have the arm replaced with a robotic arm with a laser cannon built into it. But who doesn't want a robo arm with a laser cannon?

Is there a way to permanently get rid of allergies? (Cat, Seasonal, otherwise?)

Die.
(Disclaimer, I am not a doctor)

Also not a doctor, but give your immune system something to really fight, so get a tapeworm or something. I imagine HIV would do the trick as well, but that has its drawbacks.

There have been very promising results involving exposing people with allergies to very small doses of what they're allergic too in order to build a tolerance. But usually that's used for very serious allergies like nut allergies that could kill you. Growing up around animals is also proven to reduce the incidence of allergies likely due to growing up around a more robust microecosystem but, well, you kind of have to get on that earlier in life.

darkmaster wrote:There have been very promising results involving exposing people with allergies to very small doses of what they're allergic too in order to build a tolerance. But usually that's used for very serious allergies like nut allergies that could kill you. Growing up around animals is also proven to reduce the incidence of allergies likely due to growing up around a more robust microecosystem but, well, you kind of have to get on that earlier in life.

So we can add "cloning and consciousness transference" to our list of "helpful" tips.

Wiseman wrote:Is there a way to permanently get rid of allergies? (Cat, Seasonal, otherwise?)

You can always irradiate your bone marrow and then accept a marrow graft from someone who doesn't have those allergies.

More seriously, allergies just go away sometimes. They are kept going by IgE. IgE has a half life of about 2 days in your blood. So the immunoglobulins need to be constantly produced by specialized cells that are themselves subject to regulation through interleukins. Just as the effects of a vaccine can wear off through the gradual loss of memory B cells, the capacity to make specialized allergenic IgE can simply be forgotten in time. It's a statistical thing. That you have an allergy now gives you a pretty good chance of having the same allergy in ten years. But there's no guaranty that it will persist in particular month to month period.

-Username17

FrankTrollman wrote:

Wiseman wrote:Is there a way to permanently get rid of allergies? (Cat, Seasonal, otherwise?)

You can always irradiate your bone marrow and then accept a marrow graft from someone who doesn't have those allergies.

Medicine!

Given that we are talking about allergies:

I have a scratchy throat since a few weeks. It's worse when I exercise, particularly in humid or cold weather, where it's accompanied by shortness of breath (that relieves when I take a break). The intermittent shortness of breath in cold weather I've had since I do serious exercise. No respiratory problems at rest or with activities of daily living.

I have been diagnosed with dust mite allergy some time in my childhood and have had asthma-like symptoms when it activates, but have to my knowledge never taken a lung function test. I was perfectly free of allergic symptoms a few years later, for whatever reason.

Now I suspect that I still have allergic asthma and that maybe I began reacting to additional allergens. Is it reasonable to ask my GP for further testing?

Is it reasonable to ask my GP for further testing?

Yes. Current thinking is that Asthma should be controlled aggressively, because it can cause long term degradation of function during exacerbations. So if you think you might have allergic asthma, you should get tested and possibly treated.

-Username17

My wife has a condition where she will pass out in elevators or sharp turns (describes it as an extreme falling sensation), and we're trying to get it diagnosed. It's absolutely worse in elevators, and several trips in a day will get her weak for about half a day; but she can avoid adverse reactions in the car by not looking directly at the road and clenching her body when the sensation hits her. We don't know what riding an airplane will do to her.

The ENT doctor saw nothing wrong with her ears, the cardiologist gave her a halter monitor for her heart for a month; and saw nothing unusual, though we didn't take any elevators during that time (Texas is flat), so she only got close to passing out a few times in the car. We recently finished going through a tilt table, which was unable to even provoke a reaction and so found nothing.

The cardiologist for that wants to surgically implant this one recently released sensor that will record stuff for three years. She's not comfortable having that done just yet, especially since they're completely unwilling to hook her up to a monitor and walk into an elevator at the facility (or roll up in a wheelchair to keep her safe). Should we disregard the doctor's idea for now and move onto a neurologist for testing?

If I want some Lithium or a chemical similar to it without getting a prescription or doing anything (hugely) illegal, what are my options?

virgil wrote:My wife has a condition where she will pass out in elevators or sharp turns (describes it as an extreme falling sensation), and we're trying to get it diagnosed. It's absolutely worse in elevators, and several trips in a day will get her weak for about half a day; but she can avoid adverse reactions in the car by not looking directly at the road and clenching her body when the sensation hits her. We don't know what riding an airplane will do to her.

The ENT doctor saw nothing wrong with her ears, the cardiologist gave her a halter monitor for her heart for a month; and saw nothing unusual, though we didn't take any elevators during that time (Texas is flat), so she only got close to passing out a few times in the car. We recently finished going through a tilt table, which was unable to even provoke a reaction and so found nothing.

The cardiologist for that wants to surgically implant this one recently released sensor that will record stuff for three years. She's not comfortable having that done just yet, especially since they're completely unwilling to hook her up to a monitor and walk into an elevator at the facility (or roll up in a wheelchair to keep her safe). Should we disregard the doctor's idea for now and move onto a neurologist for testing?

The fact that it triggers on elevators and cars makes me think balance. Inner ear, semi-circular canals, vestibular nerve, CN VIII, Medulla Oblongata. Something somewhere in that system is probably fucking up.

So I'd go after some of the easy tests for that sort of thing first. Have her walk with her eyes closed, especially go up a couple of stairs with her eyes closed. Put her in an office chair and spin it around a bit and watch to see if her eyes go all bouncy. Have her walk across an uneven surface both with the lights on and in the dark. In addition to giving good data, these can also be extremely hilarious.

-Username17

The spinning chair can make her pass out, and we can try out the stairs/uneven surface test later this weekend; not right now since she's going to a masquerade dance at the moment. If this makes a difference, she does have several years of experience doing parkour (obviously never with closed eyes) and wall climbing without any issues.

Not exactly a medical question, but tangentially related-

So Michigan passed some new law

saying that doctors are required to have private (ie, without parents) conversations with children, and that children can deny their parents access to their medical records.

I've been seeing a good bit of parental knee jerk reactions online to this (and I can vividly imagine my own parents' opinion of the law). I'm curious as to what our resident medical professional thinks of it, though. And possibly our resident mom, if Maj feels like opining.

As a dad, I'd have to say that there's a place and itme for something along the Michigan law. I mean, in cases of abuse, this obviously is a good thing but even that has problems. I can't really see how allowing my 8-year-old this sort of of freedom is a smart thing. I don't understand the thinking behind the law.

--

For a medical question, is there any benefit to taking vitamin supplements to help boost your immune system when you get sick?

It kicks in at twelve, so I suspect what it boils down to is "hey, you may or may not be having sex in the near future, and I understand that you don't want to talk about that in front of your parents, but it is incredibly medically relevant, so here is your opportunity to talk to a medical professional without them" with a side of "maybe we'll catch some abuse and molestation while we're at it." But I haven't read up on this law at all, so there may or may not be specifics I'm completely unaware of that make everything I just said stupid and wrong.

Here's the Mom's Follow-Up

I'm sorry... I don't trust The Blaze.

OK. So... From what I can tell, the doctor office that the mom goes to is making its medical records available online. And 12-17 year olds can opt to access their records privately, instead of via a parent's proxy. Adolescents are also allowed (but not required) to be given confidential sexual health information. Medical staff passes this info along in a confidential (but not required) meeting with the minor. The clinic overstepped in its posting - the five minutes alone with your kid are not mandatory.

I understand the need for that. Some kids are going to be more independent and want to handle things themselves. Some kids are going to have bad relationships with their parents and not want them to know. I don't honestly feel like having a doctor talk to my son is a threat to my parenting, or my relationship with my son. I don't know that I'm 100% cool with it - maybe only 93% - but I'm not going to freak out.

The best sex-ed talk I had was with the school nurse and maybe five other girls. I'm pretty sure my mom had no clue about it - she probably still doesn't. We never talked that much about stuff like that. I think overall that I'm more concerned about fostering the sort of relationship with my child that makes him want to talk to me about stuff like that confidential meeting. It's not just about me being able to trust my kid; it's about him being able to trust me.

While I don't actually expect to ever have kids (what with asexual reproduction being all but impossible for multicellular life), if/when I do, I'm basically going to try to make them as independent and informed and able to make rational decisions as possible. But that's me.

As a woman who is outnumbered in her house by peeps with ADHD, I can say that (so far) everyone wishes to give me access to everything because I keep track of it all. Online medical record access includes things like scheduling and canceling appointments, bills, test results, prescriptions... If I don't have access, it won't get done.

So, as much as my husband and son are extremely independent and strong-willed, they both recognize and respect the fact that I'm the QotFU when it comes to being organized.

Oh, yeah, I get that. When my graduation stuff came in the mail, I handed it to my mother saying "you care, and it's less likely to get lost or forgotten in your care."

What does QotFU stand for? I checked both urbandictionary and acronyms, and didn't find it.

Queen of the Fucking Universe, I assume.