The morning OF!
So, bummer. Yesterday was an all liquids and laxatives day and then I found out yesterday afternoon I don't have to be at the hospital until 2:30, and my surgery will be 2-3 hours AFTER that! Why is that bad news? Because I can not eat *NOR* drink anything today until after my surgery! That's freaking crazy. I did get up and drink a cup of coffee this morning, come on, it's JUST coffee. I was going to snack on a little something yesterday when Mark was home, and he freaked out, saying I would throw up during surgery and choke and die, and I told him they must be prepared for those situat...
Source: bipolar.and.me - April 19, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Source Type: blogs
Probably a Different Reaction
So...three days before my hysterectomy, and I'm symptom free of everything! No coughing, no allergies, I'm so happy! Sunday was miserable - walking around the furniture store wiping and blowing my nose with everyone around, but a girl has to do what a girl has to do!I'm sure everyone is upset and touched by the Boston Marathon tragedy, I was very shocked and saddened when I heard about it. I wasn't paying any attention to the news and when my husband asked if I had heard about the Boston, and for some reason this is how horrible tragedies are always relayed to me - on the phone by him, with him sayin...
Source: bipolar.and.me - April 16, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Source Type: blogs
Healthy Pursuits: Wandering Off and Coming Back
So yeah, in this week's shameless attempt to take a bunch of random stuff and force it into a theme...
Have you ever noticed that life is sometimes a lot more like a circle than a straight line?
We don't so much take off in a straight path with the "old" behind us and the "new" in front of us. Instead, we circle around, visiting new things and returning to old things, and we just hope like hell that there's some interior growth along the way so that each cycle adds more awesomeness and less screwing up.
Or hell, lets call it a Spiral rather than a circle. Because not only can you add another dimension and m...
Source: Cranky Fitness - April 15, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Crabby McSlacker Source Type: blogs
All Alone
I'm down today, I felt like if I started to cry I might not be able to stop so I took a couple of klonipin. I'm don't really think that is why they are prescribed as I believe I was given them for panic and anxiety. I've usually been very good at taking my psychiatric medications as prescribed except perhaps I don't always take AS MUCH of everything as is prescribed, but maybe I'm living under false assumptions and am not facing reality.I may have already been down, I don't recall, but I was reading a forum that is *supposed* to encourage students in my future industry, and it is usually incredibly encouraging....
Source: bipolar.and.me - April 12, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Source Type: blogs
Cut Out Another Person!
I realize I don't let people into my life. I don't tell them anything personal about myself. No friends or family know I'm bipolar. No friends or family know I'm having a hysterectomy. They know hardships from a over a decade ago, but maybe since I was hospitalized in 2001, and I can't think of any other reason or when it started exactly, I've kept everything that was difficult to myself. Maybe that's hindered my ability to connect with people on a deep friendship level, not divulging current personal struggles or pain. I just feel I have so many secrets that people wouldn't understand, ...
Source: bipolar.and.me - April 2, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Source Type: blogs
Just Trying To Get Through It All!
Now I see my fear about telling my new family doctor that I had only seen once that I am bipolar on medication was unfounded. He is *so* nice and understanding. I'm sure he would have appreciated knowing the first time I went, but he didn't say that, just that he knew it was uncomfortable to talk about. He also helped me understand so many things that so called specialists never explained to me. I told him how I had been diagnosed with asthma (cough variant) and why I didn't think I had it, and he explained from my symptoms how that was indicative of it and why. Since I'm extremely allergic to...
Source: bipolar.and.me - April 2, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Source Type: blogs
Space Out
I'm in some kind of mode that I've been in before, where I don't want to face situations so I put them off, ignore them, pretend they don't exist. But of course they do, and I will pay for it later, it just seems overwhelming right now.When I was much younger and living on my own, I didn't want to deal or think about money. I just pushed it out of my mind, didn't open bills, maybe didn't check my mail for periods at a time, and then I would come home and the electricity would be off. I'd have to scramble through all the unopened bills to find the cut-off electricity bill and hurry to pay it so it could be...
Source: bipolar.and.me - March 28, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Source Type: blogs
Date Set
I have a date for my hysterectomy - April 19th. I'm unsure if I can go through with it. It seems all too unreal, I can hardly wrap my brain around it. The doctor's office just talks like it's an every day situation and yes, I'm sure to them it is and it's not a big deal to them, they are just reciting what they tell women every week about a liquid diet the day before surgery, blah blah, but to me, it's a freaking big freak-out deal. I really am just going to have to not think and dwell on it. That's a little less than a month away which could either be weeks to get completely frantic...
Source: bipolar.and.me - March 26, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Source Type: blogs
What Is Wrong With Me....
I'm not doing well. I'm not quite sure what happened, but maybe it has something to do with dropping out of school and planning to enroll in a school that was closer only to go to the doctor and decide to have surgery and skip a quarter. But now I'm not getting a call back as to a surgery date and my life is up in the air with no purpose, meaning, nothing to look forward to, I'm currently not aspiring to do or be anything.Today I needed to leave the house for two reasons: I had a grooming appointment for my dog, and we need groceries. I managed to do neither. I rescheduled the appointment and ...
Source: bipolar.and.me - March 25, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Source Type: blogs
Healthcare Update — 03-25-2013
This study showed that in more than 4 of 5 obese children, the subcutaneous fat layer was too thick for an IM injection one quarter of the way down the thigh. In nearly 1 of 5 obese children, the subcutaneous fat layer was too thick three quarters of the way down the thigh. In those patients, the study suggested injecting the calf.
I suppose the manufacturer could be forced to make autoinjectors with longer needles, but then non-obese patients would theoretically risk getting a bone marrow injection of epinephrine.
How good are emergency physicians at dispositioning psychiatric patients when compared to psychiatrists? Not ...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - March 25, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: WhiteCoat Tags: Healthcare Update Source Type: blogs
Sunday News Round-Up, Gloomy Sunday Edition
Some interesting and important resources and stories that have caught my eye over the past week:
Reviews of sports bras for big boobs.
A couple of my recent Our Bodies Ourselves posts:
Are Right-to-Know Breast Density Laws Good for Women’s Health?
Rally at the Supreme Court – Breast Cancer Gene Case to be Heard Next Month
Also of interest: FDA Approves Silicone Gel Breast Implant Without Public Meeting
Also Supreme Court-related, gay marriage is up this week. Lots of wonky coverage on SCOTUSblog, if you’re not familiar with that source.
Steubenville’s Jane Doe asked people to do something
This is just…no...
Source: Women's Health News - March 24, 2013 Category: Medical Librarians Authors: Rachel Tags: Abortion Abuse, Rape, & Safety Access, Rights, & Choice Adolescent Health Birth Boobs Cancer Contraception Drugs Ethics Events & Observances Global Issues Government HIV/AIDS Laws, Legislation, & Courts Miscellaneous News R Source Type: blogs
Decision Made, Let's Go Already!
After doing a lot of research on the internet and considering all of the problems I've had and all of the surgeries I've already had and each time everything grows back by my next yearly appointment, I decided to go ahead and get a hysterectomy. Maybe I could shop around and find a doctor who would prescribe birth control pills, but I think I've come to a point where I just want all of this to go away and not deal with it ever again as long as I can keep my ovaries so I don't get a hormonal imbalance. I called the scheduling nurse when I made the decision, and when I made such a monumental decision li...
Source: bipolar.and.me - March 23, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Source Type: blogs
Big Decision....
I went to a new GYN this morning and got news that I guess I was expecting. It's not something that my old OB/GYN hadn't recommended to me in the past. I have a lot of pain and heavy bleeding during that time of the month because of fibroids and endometriosis (after two surgeries of removing them and them coming back), so he recommended a hysterectomy. Of course, just like in the past, I said "no way, what are my other options?' While I don't intend on getting pregnant and having a child, just the idea freaks me out. Mark has had a vasectomy anyway. But then...
Source: bipolar.and.me - March 20, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Source Type: blogs
Women's Most Common Hysterectomy Questions Answered
Dr. Lauren Streicher and Ellen Dolgen answer your most commonly asked questions about the procedureContributor: Ellen DolgenPublished: Feb 22, 2013 (Source: Most Recent Health Wellness - Associated Content)
Source: Most Recent Health Wellness - Associated Content - February 23, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Source Type: blogs
Robotic Hysterectomy: Everybody's Doing It!
A cohort study done by Columbia University evaluating the rise of robotic hysterectomy from 2007-2010 had some pretty breathtaking findings.
Use of robotically assisted hysterectomy increased from 0.5% in 2007 to 9.5% of all hysterectomies in 2010. During the same time period, laparoscopic hysterectomy rates increased from 24.3% to 30.5%. Three years after the first robotic procedure at hospitals where robotically assisted hysterectomy was performed, robotically assisted hysterectomy accounted for 22.4% of all hysterectomies.... In a propensity score–matched analysis, the overall complication rates were simi...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 22, 2013 Category: Surgeons Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD Source Type: blogs
