Secret Diary. Do Not Read

Discussion in 'Personal Diaries' started by Beth Gallagher, May 26, 2021.

  1. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    That’s kinda why I was so surprised about the gatorade thing. Beyond hydration and a sugar rush, the only thing left in the mix is sodium which does little to replenish the necessary electrolytes and metabolites it takes to maintain and repair muscles of any kind.
     
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  2. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    My sodium was slightly low which my doctor attributed to my over-indulging in water. She simply recommended that I substitute some electrolyte beverage for some of the water I've been drinking.
     
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  3. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    I am not a believer in many supplements nor youtube doctors. If the blood tests are not accurately gauging mineral content then why would they bother with them? Why wouldn't they biopsy a piece of tissue instead?

    I'm feeling a bit better today and picked up the muscle relaxer prescription but don't plan on taking it. I need to do some internet sleuthing on the possibility that the steroid dose pack I took last week for gout could have caused this, or contributed to it. That is the only thing I have done different recently. Also I'm considering some kind of delayed side-effects of chemo/radiation. I've read that some of those can manifest years after treatment, so who knows.

    Thanks, everyone!!
     
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  4. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    There are many nutrients that cannot be easily measured as there is no "storage" form that can be evaluated. If it is stored in tissues, it takes multiple tissue biopsies to gauge the level, and nobody wants to do that. Vitamin C is an example. Since it is a water- soluble vitamin, we were told for years that you just pee out what you don't use...until someone actually measured the vitamin C excreted. It was found that the ascorbic acid excreted was less than that taken in and used. It was found that vitamin C could be stored in the platelets in the blood and that platelets containing vitamin C were less likely to aggregate unnecessarily. Assumptions, assumptions, assumptions....
     
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  5. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    Sadly, we must stay our own advocates and do a lot of research. Doctors can't and don't know everything (even Dr Berg:rolleyes:)
     
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  6. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Yeh, but as I told my current urologist, "You don't want me leading this parade...we'll go marching off of a cliff." It stinks that while I have little confidence in my medical diagnostic capabilities, I have even less in most doctors. The best I've found is to have one I can converse with. The nephrologist I recently found told me that he is not a "supplement snob" because patients who take supplements are more likely to be engaged in their own health issues (that's how a prior long-term GP of mine felt.) He's a keeper.
     
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  7. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    Don't sell yourself short, @John Brunner . You have done an incredible amount of research on your own conditions and remedies. Doctors have gotten stuck in the "technology and pharmacy" mode of thinking. They have been taught to use imaging and lab values to diagnose, then use drugs to treat. Most know very little about nutrition and lifestyle. I have seen radiologists smoking cigarettes as they review images of lung cancer. You would think they could see the connection. Keep your own health under your control, but take advice from those trained if it seems reasonable.
     
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  8. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Now that the sediment has returned (but not to a large degree), I'm wondering if my recommendation for the nitrofuratoin was (a) proper and (b) reviewed by the urologist for accuracy. I've started reading again and am now finding opinions both for and against the efficacy of nitrofuratoin against the klebsiella pneumoniae. I hope this doctor reviewed my self-diagnosis (he certainly may have.) I'd feel way better if I were reviewing a doctor's recommendation rather than the other way around, although I might have been in such an anxious state I outran his recommendation. I have an appointment next month. We'll see how he approaches this turn of events, and I'll try to keep my mouth shut. At least he helped me out last time...
     
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  9. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    The nitrofurantoin may have actions other than bactericidal that is affecting your sediment. Like I said before, you could allow your bladder to fill by pinching off the SP catheter and self-cathing, but perhaps you should ask your urologist whether this might cause other issues.
     
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  10. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    @Beth Gallagher I saw your Supper post. How are the cramps? Did the doctor say what's next?
     
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  11. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Hey bud; thanks for asking. Apparently everything is normal, at least as far as my lab work shows. All results are in the normal range but oddly it showed I have a UTI (no symptoms) so she prescribed an antibiotic. The cramping has pretty much disappeared but I'm still cautious when I stretch or reach a certain way. She said that many side effects from chemo/radiation can linger for years, and I remember I had the cramping during chemo.

    She told me to keep drinking plenty of water and that's pretty much it. I see my oncologist in a couple of weeks so I'll discuss it with him. Hope you're doing well these days.
     
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  12. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I'm glad to hear it just might be residual effects. I don't know that I've heard of many women having asymptomatic UTIs, but who knows.

    My stuff is going south again, but I might post about that where it belongs.
     
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  13. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Yeah, I was surprised when she said my urinalysis indicated a UTI, but thankfully I don't notice anything. I haven't had a UTI in years but I remember them being quite miserable.

    I'll check your thread for updates.
     
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  14. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    I didn't realize how much time I waste on SoC until the site was down for 3 days. Jeeze. I had to actually entertain myself. o_O I putzed around the yard and did some reading, and checked out a couple of old forums that I used to enjoy but nah. I got bored and started watching the Murdaugh murder trial on Court TV. Man, what a despicable human being that creep is. I believe he killed his wife and son and I hope he is convicted.

    The breast cancer forum is a downer these days; people have been dying and it's very sad. I think we've lost 5 posters just in the past month. One's last post was "I'm in the hospital but I'm not dead yet!!" She died later that day. :(:(

    Another forum friend who has the same diagnosis as mine, triple negative IBC, had scans last week and just found out that her cancer has spread to her spine, bony pelvis, lungs, and liver. We were diagnosed about the same time and went through treatment "together" even though she lives in Seattle. I am just devastated by this news; she is a real sweetheart and only 54 years old with 2 teenagers. So now she's "Stage 4 MBC." Cancer sucks.
     
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  15. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    It certainly does!
     
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