MEDICAL MATTERS

[Stanley]

You can expect anything where a political party votes for a man like Trump as a Presidential candidate....

[Tizer]

It's time that ordinary folk woke up to it and realised that each person being awarded $55 million simply puts up the price of products from that company and possibly depresses the share price which leads to a knock-on effect on pension funds. There are so many other potential causes of ovarian cancer so why should a judge assume that its due to talcum powder? There seems to be an incorrect assumption that a cancer can only be caused by a material capable of coming into contact with the organ, but there are plenty of other ways such as diet and inhalation. You'd think that judges would be seeking sound evidence before passing judgements.

[Marilyn]

I recall that the thought that talcum powder can be related to ovarian cancer has been about for several decades...which is why general practice of liberally powdering babies at nappy time went out of fashion many years ago.
I am not saying that the theory was overwhelmingly proven, but it did lead to changes and suddenly no one powdered little bottoms....almost overnight. Mind you, a lot of infant care was being overhauled at that point, mainly due to better knowledge of SIDS.
I was working in paediatrics at that time, and I remember the mention of the link to ovarian cancer, however tenuous that "link" was...

[Marilyn]

Did a silly thing yesterday...
Picking up leaf litter in the garden after high winds, and I bent to grab some at the back of a Rose Bush that I had already pruned. Got stuck in the White of my eye with a sharp stem of the Rose Bush.
Didn't half hurt and I felt a bit sick as I ran inside to wash my hands before examining the damage. I ran past hubby and said "Quick...have a look...does my eye look alright?" He said it was fine. ( phew)
But it didn't look that darn good when I had a look at it. No damage done to pupil/iris as I poked the White of my eye.
Blood red and stinging today but looking much better. No sign of infection and I can see just fine.
It's awful when you do things like that because you imagine you have put a hole in your eyeball...

I shall survive...

[Stanley]

Very dangerous Maz. You're not silly, these things happen. Get someone to check it if it isn't recovering quickly. Alwin Simpson lost his eye with a similar injury from a Hawthorn.... Treat it seriously.

[PanBiker]

When I was 15 I had very lucky escape when camping at Stainforth. I was walking along the riverbank footpath which undulated over tree roots growing on the bank side I stepped over one and managed to impale myself on a length of stray fence wire. The end of the wire hit me in the eye and scratched my eyeball, it went under the top eyelid and out through the top. My forward momentum ripped the top of my eyelid before I knew what had happened. I was hanging on the fence with blood running down my face. I extracted myself and made my way back to the tent. I was camping with my brother and his girlfriend who took me down to the docs in Settle. The wire had ripped right across the top of my eyelid and by the time I got to the docs I looked like I had done 10 rounds with Henry Cooper. My eye was completely closed up. After inspection he flushed it out with some form of antiseptic, then squirted some cream under the eyelid and put a patch on. Gave me a prescription for an antibiotic cream for followup and told me to see my own doctor when we went home.

I was very lucky that I only scratched the eyeball, a few millimeters the other way and I could have lost the eye. Most of the damage was from the ripping of the eyelid which had healed by the time the swelling went down. I had a proper shiner for a couple of weeks and got a lot of stick at school.

[Marilyn]

That sounds totally gruesome, Panbiker.
Mine is looking better every few hours, so I am on the mend rapidly.
I didn't get any sympathy...

[PanBiker]

Glad to hear it Maz, our eyes are an amazing bit of anatomy, the blink reflex is a fantastic protection mechanism, when you think about it.

[Stanley]

Ian is right.... keep a very careful watch on it Maz.

[LizG]

How's the eye today Maz. I just re-read your post and it made me feel a bit sick again.

[Marilyn]

All good actually. I am very pleased because I really thought I had done some serious damage at the time ( I was a bit sweaty and felt sick).
Still a bit blood red ( I wear sunglasses to venture out), but no pain now.
Think it will have fully resolved by tomorrow.
I looked out to the garden today and saw debris left by further high winds, but decided it can all wait until tomorrow! I shall be more careful about picking up leaf litter...

[PanBiker]

Garden gloves and safety glasses may be an idea Maz.

[Stanley]

If I remember rightly rose thorns are poisonous......

[Stanley]

It's funny how you make discoveries about your body and then tend to forget them. As you have no doubt noticed, I have been whingeing about my right shoulder and over the last few days have been puzzled as to why it wasn't improving, on the contrary, in some ways it was getting worse and affecting all my upper arm. I have been taking aspirin to keep the worst of the pain at bay. It struck me yesterday that the cause could be the aspirin. I remembered how all my little aches and pains vanished when I stopped taking the aspirin regularly each morning. So yesterday morning I stopped taking it again and guess what, my shoulder is still grumbling but much better. I remember reading once how pain killers, taken regularly, can start to cause pain and it seems to me that this is what was happening. I shall leave the pill bottle alone, soldier on and see what happens!

[Stanley]

I think it's working, certainly no worse and possibly a bit better. Time will tell!

[Stanley]

Shoulder is OK until I lie down to sleep. Then it's a fight between being overtaken by sleep and the pain in my shoulder! I'm still not taking the Aspirin. Once I am up and about and mobile it's supportable as long as I give it a good rub with my home made embrocation. I've pinpointed the injury now and as I suspected it's in the junction between my collar bone and the shoulder joint and is without doubt a hangover from when I smashed that shoulder up in the early 1970s. These things come back to haunt you!

[Sue]

I thought my shoulder and arm was better but this morning my arm aches furiously as does my right hip. I can't think what I have done.

[Marilyn]

I have a the opposite problem, Stanley. I can get quite comfy in bed with my upper arm/ shoulder problem, and can sleep pretty good. Like Sue, I have days when it bothers me more than I expect, and I can't fathom why.
Yesterday, we were out for a country drive ( Febby driving) when he suddenly had to slam on the brakes. I let out a bit of a howl, not because of possible impending doom, but because the seat belt locked on my left shoulder and really hurt.
A few deep breaths later I was ok.
But remarkably...my shoulder hasn't hurt since!
Did I pop something back in????
Too early to call, as I can't really believe it, but very unusual not to have even the smallest ache.

[Stanley]

Very likely Maz and I hope it was that.
Sue, I have the same problem with my shoulder this morning. I think I know what caused it. I tried doing some rotating exercises just before going to bed, didn't notice any improvement but woke with a savage pain in the joint! Have cracked and taken one Ibuprofen tablet....
No wonder the Kids call us crumblies......

[Marilyn]

Think our sudden stop in the car HAS cured my shoulder!
I feel no pain, just a slight weakness if I try to reach overhead cupboards etc.
I haven't tried putting a lot of weight on it, such as pushing myself up to a sitting position if laying in bed or laying back in the bath and wanting to sit up ( but I have been compensating for that sort of weight bearing for some weeks ).
But with experiencing absolutely zero pain, I expect I shall naturally become more trusting and any time soon I shall shock myself by just pushing off with that arm.
Can't help wondering if the snap of the locking seatbelt actually pushed something back into place or released a trapped nerve. Hurt like hell...but what a lovely outcome. I have been gardening, and sweeping and am very happy with my wee self...

[Tizer]

We had a `motoring event' while on holiday last week - rammed by a Jaguar! We came out of a museum, got into our car and where preparing to leave when the Jag reversed out of the opposite row of parked cars. We watched as he stopped close, but just short of our car, and I'd been preparing to toot the horn in case he didn't stop. But he fooled me and moved again, hitting our front bumper! Loud toots on our horn and we jumped out to inspect the damage. Fortunately both cars have `soft' bumpers and there was no damage. The poor chap was mortified - we'd chatted and joked with him in the museum and he was a pleasant character, so we were the last people he would have wanted to ram! We parted on good terms and he probably learnt a lesson - it can happen to any of us.

Back to medical matters. If you get any problems with skin lesions, dodgy skin growths, possible carcinomas etc don't delay, go to your GP and ask for help. It's amazing what they can do these days with creams and minor painless surgery as long as you go to see them early. I've been this morning to get help with what appears to be a basal cell carcinoma on the side of my face and now have a colloid plaster patch on it. It will peel off and take the scabby material with it so the doc can see what's underneath. I've had minor problems before and they've been cleared up by creams that destroy the unwanted cells.

[plaques]

don't delay, go to your GP and ask for help.

My appointment is at 3.00pm today. A minor op to remove a keratosis, scabby skin thickening, on the back of my hand. Probably due to a small cut that was subsequently exposed to sunlight. Nothing to write home about but better to get rid of it rather than wait until it turns sinister as they say. A stitch in time, etc...

[Stanley]

I'm afraid to say I pick scabs.....
Maz, so glad to hear that you are still pain free. Don't push it too hard! Remember my story about the wagon driver who fell off his flat, hit his head and went blind, spending three years in the blind institute at Burnley? He fell down stairs and clouted his head again and his sight came back.

[Tizer]

News this morning that if you suffer a minor transient stroke you should immediately take an aspirin to lessen the effects. I can understand it helping if it's an ischaemic stroke (blood clot in the brain) but what if it's a haemorrhagic stroke (bleeding from a blood vessel in the brain)? I would expect aspirin to increase the bleeding due to its anti-clotting activity and make things worse. But as Stanley always says, "What do I know?"

[plaques]

I think the layman's term for a 'stroke' is a blood clot. A haemorrhagic stroke is usually termed a 'bleed'. How you differentiate between the two when you have just toppled over is a bit uncertain. Doctors are very keen to put people who are at risk from blood clots on some kind of anti-haemorrhagic drug, aspirin, warfarin, apixaban etc. So if you are already on one of these it may not be wise to take extra aspirin. As always the advice is if you suffer some kind of event, however slight, seek medical attention as quickly as possible.