General Medical issues thread

[Quickstatus]

The studies say work fatigue is the same as being drunk.

Several studies suggest driving after 16hrs of being awake equates to a BAC of 0.05

 

[andye]

I remember having a few wobbles on the motorway, while working a similar pattern and driving to meet up with the future mrsandye who was living a 2.5 hour drive away.
Quite scary, but she was (and remains) a compelling proposition

 

[k_sheep]

I drove home after night shift one day - to the house I hadn't lived at for 3 years. I was wondering why there was a strange car in the driveway.

Scary stuff.

 

[drron]

Well NSW JRMOs officially got the 40 hour week in 1974 in law Still not in fact 52 years later.

I did an Orthopaedics term in my first year. Rostered time on was an average of 127 hours per week supposedly. I was rostered on for Good Friday and Easter saturday. We were the on call hospital for the Easter Motorcycle races at Bathurst. I began work at 7am on Thursday with no brakes until I finished at 1pm Sunday.
Awoke 7pm Monday in my bed at home wondering how the heck did I get there. Though my car was in the driveway.

 

[CaptainCurtis]

I'm back down with pericarditis after having COVID in Portugal a couple of weeks ago. The COVID itself wasn't too bad at all, just a sore throat for about 3 days, that turned into a cough and cold. Started to notice that chest pain I had last time, and so took myself straight to emergency for a work-up. Blood tests all normal, chest x-ray clear and ECG showed diffuse ST elevation, a hallmark of the condition. Back on colchicine and ibuprofen. Thankfully the pain isn't as bad as last time, so no need for the endone or steroi_s right now.

Some may remember I had a fairly awful ordeal back in 2021 with post-Pfizer pericarditis. Thankfully I knew what to look out for this time, and much less resistance to a diagnosis caused by COVID than there was to diagnosing me post-vaccine back in 2021. Hopefully this episode doesn't take as long as the first one did to come right (~ 6 months).

The research is foreign to me, but there does seem to be a link between those with post-vaccine pericarditis and post-viral pericarditis, so not a huge surprise this has happened.

 

[drron]

Well disease can be a real roller coaster at times. I seem to have a 2 week cycle of first the return of severe pain and then gradual recovery. The pain is unlikely to be the same sort of pain to the previous 2-3 events.
However I have taken up hydrotherapy. It’s doing a good job of improving my walking I presume because of increased muscle strength. Even when I have the severe pain my walking is still pretty good. I can thoroughly recommend hydrotherapy. I am enjoying it.

At the rehab they are getting me on to crutches though at home I am starting to use a walking stick so I am getting more mobile and hopeful for the future.

 

[Seat0B]

Talking of roller coasters - we have been on one for the last few days with mum. On Friday she was the best she has been since the stroke. Quite herself and making very slow but noticeable improvements with her left hand. We spent a very happy hour looking at Seat Son’s wedding photos and downloading her favourites and I left the hospital for the first time since the stroke feeling positive about her eventual outcome.

On Saturday, the hospital called to say she had a fever and was a bit unwell. That was an understatement. She had a fever of 39 degrees and was very agitated and quite vague. They started doing blood tests as they suspected an infection. She came in to hospital with a nasty ulcer on her foot that had previously been infected so they thought that would be the source. Or maybe pneumonia. So they did a chest x ray. That was clear. They did a full respiratory panel - clear for Covid, flu, RSV and even rhinovirus. Blood tests though showed high infection markers. Over the course of the day, she really declined so they decided to start broad spectrum IV antibiotics.

Things got worse on Sunday. She had 2 loss of consciousness episodes, but luckily was with staff at the time, who managed to prevent her from any injuries associated with that. So they sent her for a CT scan to see if it was another stroke. Eventually that was ruled out. But she kept declining even more. She was totally out of it. Deeply asleep but more than that - a kind of altered consciousness where she did not respond to anything + they drew blood, changed her cannula, flushed her cannula, inserted a catheter, multiple alarms beeping and no response at all. She just lay there, breathing very shallowly and not moving at all for hours on end. Blood work revealed septicaemia but they still had no idea what the source of infection was. Sent her for an X ray of the foot ulcer to see if it was in the bone. Nope, not that. Started experimenting with different IV antibiotics, but no improvement. Family told to come up and say good byes. When I left her on Sunday night, I was certain I had kissed her goodnight for the last time. I left my phone on all night, expecting the dreaded call.

Further deterioration on Monday. Three different doctors proposing possible infection causes and solutions. More different antibiotics.nothing changed, just this unbelievable deep sleep. They did a CT scan of abdomen as her liver enzymes were “deranged.” Aren’t we all by now. And an ultrasound of her kidneys as urine output was concerningly low. She had multiple severe episodes of bowel incontinence despite wearing a nappy. The poor nurses. Lots of clean up, linen changes. She now has pressure sores. I came home full6 expecting the worst but…
This morning they finally got a culture back that showed it was ecoli urinary tract infection. Multi resistant, but there is an antibiotic that’s effective so they started it and within a coup me of hours mum woke up, became alert and asked for food for the first time in more than 3 days. And a cup of tea. By the time I visited this aftenoon, she was close to normal - tired but alert and in good spirits. eating small amounts of food. Took a video call from Seat Son in Abu Dhabi and totally relished a 1 hr visit from her great granddaughter who is truly the apple of her eye. This is the second medical miracle in this whole debacle.

Of course this has set her stroke recovery back quite a bit bit - 3 days totally bed ridden, still catheterised, not doing anything for herself + has to be fed by someone, have someone hold her drinks for her etc. But she seems to be back with us after literally being at death’s door. The doctors have said she is not out of the woods just yet as she lacks any level of physical resilience, and the bug is nasty and resistant, but that things are looking much better.

Today I took a tray of brownies and a thank you card for all the ward staff, and gave a special mention to the nurse manger for three nurses who went above and beyond in their kind care during this crisis.

I am emotionally and physically wrung out from all this. And there is still a way to go.