Brexit, for once some facts.

[flecc]

How is it that possible for you, with the problems you've described?!?!?

Exactly, How?

For a long time I avoided it myself since the animal tissue replacement valves like the one my brother received can be short lived, as little as 6 years. Since I was able to manage my problems quite well I was relying on that to extend the years before surgery.

However in 2019 things were coming to a head, but that was just as the reported GP avoidance of referring to a consultant started. My GP suggested I see myself through the winter as I'd long been doing and we'd approach it again in the Spring, so I agreed.

But of course then Covid struck and all other treatment work stopped, so here I am, getting close to when I won't be able to have an op anyway due to age and growing weakness.

But my strategy may pay off yet since I'm managing the condition even better than in 2019 and 2020 so may be around for another few years. I'm within two years of when my brother with the same condition died and 7 years older than when my mother with the some condition died.

Not bothered anyway, at 85 I'm way past the average male life span and decades beyond my life expectancy when I was born back in the 1930s. I have to die sometime and now is as good a time as any.
.

 

[guerney]

Exactly, How?

For a long time I avoided it myself since the animal tissue replacement valves like the one my brother received can be short lived, as little as 6 years. Since I was able to manage my problems quite well I was relying on that to extend the years before surgery.

However in 2019 things were coming to a head, but that was just as the reported GP avoidance of referring to a consultant started. My GP suggested I see myself through the winter as I'd long been doing and we'd approach it again in the Spring, so I agreed.

But of course then Covid struck and all other treatment work stopped, so here I am, getting close to when I won't be able to have an op anyway due to age and growing weakness.

But my strategy may pay off yet since I'm managing the condition even better than in 2019 and 2020 so may be around for another few years. I'm within two years of when my brother with the same condition died and 7 years older than when my mother with the some condition died.

Not bothered anyway, at 85 I'm way past the average male life span and decades beyond my life expectancy when I was born back in the 1930s.
.

Fire your GP? Heart valve replacement might be inappropriate, but there are new treatments all the time and a GP not in hiding, would be a useful point of contact. Young GPs are better, in my experience - much more likely to refer you to a Consultant.

 

[flecc]

Fire your GP? Heart valve replacement might be inappropriate, but there are new treatments all the time and a GP not in hiding, would be a useful point of contact. Young GPs are better, in my experience - much more likely to refer you to a Consultant.

He is youngish one. However I'm not chasing it for the simple reason the most certain way to get seriously ill with Covid here is by admission to Croydon University Hospital for anything.
.

 

[oyster]

Fire your GP? Heart valve replacement might be inappropriate, but there are new treatments all the time and a GP not in hiding, would be a useful point of contact. Young GPs are better, in my experience - much more likely to refer you to a Consultant.

This is not contradicting you - your experience, I'm sure, is as you say.

But my experience is that a lot of younger doctors know certain areas quite well, but have next to no understanding of others.

For example, Pernicious Anaemia occurs when someone is unable to absorb vitamin B12. The standard practice is to offer a course of loading doses (injections) followed by repeats every 12 weeks, indefinitely.

But we hear of GPs measuring B12 in the blood, saying that it is far too high, and cancelling repeat doses. They don't get that high B12 occurs after an injection and then drops.

They say that the liver holds enough B12 to last years. They don't get that what happens in people without PA is B12 is recycled from the gut. We end up losing about 3 micrograms a day because of imperfections in recycling (well over 90% can be recycled).

But if the person has PA and they cannot absorb from the gut, that enterohepatic recirculation doesn't work. The person needs far more than 3 micrograms a day. If we recirculate 90%, that would imply without recirculation we'd need at least 27 micrograms a day. But that the maximum anyone can absorb is about 10 micrograms.

Old doctors, who have been around for years, often appreciate such things much better. They might have been just as ignorant when newly qualified but they have come to see that their training doesn't cover everything properly.

 

[guerney]

He is youngish one. However I'm not chasing it for the simple reason the most certain way to get seriously ill with Covid here is by admission to Croydon University Hospital for anything.
.

I was very nervous attending my Endo appointment last week, having avoided it for over a year because of Covid - it's a personal assesment of risks one must calculate. I was thinking of waiting till I'd received the booster. None of the Doctors wore masks at the hospital, very few patients were masked, (apart from me) nobody on the bus wore a mask. It seems a mad thing to have done! But I think I've got away with it. I'll walk there next time.

 

[guerney]

He is youngish one. However I'm not chasing it for the simple reason the most certain way to get seriously ill with Covid here is by admission to Croydon University Hospital for anything.
.

To enter a GP to fill out a form, to change your Doctor- you need a full face scuba diving face mask and your own oxygen tank... which you can burn along with your clothes once the deed is done. Then it'd be safe phone consultations?

 

[guerney]

This is not contradicting you - your experience, I'm sure, is as you say.

But my experience is that a lot of younger doctors know certain areas quite well, but have next to no understanding of others.

For example, Pernicious Anaemia occurs when someone is unable to absorb vitamin B12. The standard practice is to offer a course of loading doses (injections) followed by repeats every 12 weeks, indefinitely.

But we hear of GPs measuring B12 in the blood, saying that it is far too high, and cancelling repeat doses. They don't get that high B12 occurs after an injection and then drops.

They say that the liver holds enough B12 to last years. They don't get that what happens in people without PA is B12 is recycled from the gut. We end up losing about 3 micrograms a day because of imperfections in recycling (well over 90% can be recycled).

But if the person has PA and they cannot absorb from the gut, that enterohepatic recirculation doesn't work. The person needs far more than 3 micrograms a day. If we recirculate 90%, that would imply without recirculation we'd need at least 27 micrograms a day. But that maximum anyone can absorb is about 10 micrograms.

Old doctors, who have been around for years, often appreciate such things much better. They might have been just as ignorant when newly qualified but they have come to see that their training doesn't cover everything properly.

Another epic and monsterously great post! B12 is a weird one for me - I was veggie for about 32 years... I took B12 supplements, and it's an odd scene where some veggies pooh pooh the need, while others swear by high dosages or B12 under-the-tongue pills or sprays. Now I eat dead animals again, and still take supplements - I take a minimum dose, because I was a very heavy smoker for decades (I vape my nicotine these days, plasticising my lungs intead), and B12 is known to cause lung cancer in smokers and ex-smokers, at high dosages. Same for Vitamin A.

The young Doctors do a lot of tests, the older ones seem to not take anything seriously (especially female GPs). At my local GP surgery, they limit face time to about 10 minutes per consult, and not a lot can be done in 10 minutes! My older GP is fantastic to chat to over the phone- says "Yes" to everything. I have no idea why.

 

[oyster]

Another epic and monsterously great post! B12 is a weird one for me - I was veggie for about 32 years... I took B12 supplements, and it's an odd scene where some veggies pooh pooh the need, while others swear by high dosages or B12 under-the-tongue pills or sprays. Now I eat dead animals again, and still take supplements - I take a minimum dose, because I was a very heavy smoker for decades (I vape my nicotine these days, plasticising my lungs intead), and B12 is known to cause lung cancer in smokers and ex-smokers, at high dosages. Same for Vitamin A.

It is questionable whether B12 does cause cancer. I know it is suggested/claimed.

B12 - and every other nutrient - permits a cancer to grow. Low B12 might mean a tumour grows more slowly. But there is a lot of questioning as to whether it is actually a causative factor.

A number of years ago I suffered facial pain - not far off trigeminal neuralgia. It was deeply unpleasant. At some point I decided to try high-dose B12 (1000 microgram tablets) - and things very slowly improved. For many months, if I felt the start of a twinge I'd grab some more B12, even taking several a day. Using it like you might paracetamol. And it worked. Intensity and frequency slowly reduced.

I gave up smoking fifteen or twenty years ago.

Consider that in cases of smoke inhalation they infuse five grams of hydroxocobalamin. And can repeat it. That is more than a million times what we need each day. If it were that dangerous, we'd see a lot of firefighters getting cancer from B12.

 

[flecc]

I was very nervous attending my Endo appointment last week, having avoided it for over a year because of Covid - it's a personal assesment of risks one must calculate. I was thinking of waiting till I'd received the booster. None of the Doctors wore masks at the hospital, very few patients were masked, (apart from me) nobody on the bus wore a mask. It seems a mad thing to have done! But I think I've got away with it. I'll walk there next time.

I have a similar double quandary now.

I should have my usual flu jab asap, already overdue my usual time for one. And in 7 days time I reach the six months since my second Covid jab so should get a notification for a booster. But both can only be obtained at the main health centre where there's no car parking.

So for each it means a bus and a tram ride, meeting various people at stops and on board each. Then at the big health centre it means contact or proximity with any number of people, sometime queues etc. My masking only protects others, them not being masked is a big risk to me.

My risk of contracting Covid in my normal isolated life is virtually zero, but each of those two visits will multiply it enormously. So I'm seriously tempted to pass on both, especially since the evidence in my area is that the Covid vaccines efficacy has been greatly overrated anyway.
.

 

[guerney]

I have a similar double quandary now.

I should have my usual flu jab asap, already overdue my usual time for one. And in 7 days time I reach the six months since my second Covid jab so should get a notification for a booster But both can only be obtained at the main health centre where there's no car parking.

So for each it means a bus and a tram ride, meeting various people at stops and on board each. Then at the big health centre it means contact or proximity with any number of people, sometime queues etc. My masking only protects others, them not being masked is a big risk to me.

My risk of contracting Covid in my normal isolated life is virtually zero, but each of those two visits will multiply it enormously. So I'm seriously tempted to pass on both, especially since the evidence in my area is that the Covid vaccines efficacy has been greatly overrated anyway.
.

I considered taking a taxi and insisting that all windows be kept open (and making certain of this during my phone enquiry), but my local hospital is within walking distance (3 miles), and I had no real need to take a bus anyway, don't know why I did - the bus did have all it's windows open. It's a scary old time...

 

[guerney]

I have a similar double quandary now.

I should have my usual flu jab asap, already overdue my usual time for one. And in 7 days time I reach the six months since my second Covid jab so should get a notification for a booster. But both can only be obtained at the main health centre where there's no car parking.

So for each it means a bus and a tram ride, meeting various people at stops and on board each. Then at the big health centre it means contact or proximity with any number of people, sometime queues etc. My masking only protects others, them not being masked is a big risk to me.

My risk of contracting Covid in my normal isolated life is virtually zero, but each of those two visits will multiply it enormously. So I'm seriously tempted to pass on both, especially since the evidence in my area is that the Covid vaccines efficacy has been greatly overrated anyway.
.

I believe the safest way to take a taxi (normal car), is to keep the driver's side window closed and the other three (and sunroof - if available) open... all while sitting far away from the diver in the leftmost rear seat... that way the driver isn't wafting his particular Covid variant directly at your facemask and into your eyes.

 

[guerney]

I have a similar double quandary now.

I should have my usual flu jab asap, already overdue my usual time for one. And in 7 days time I reach the six months since my second Covid jab so should get a notification for a booster. But both can only be obtained at the main health centre where there's no car parking.

So for each it means a bus and a tram ride, meeting various people at stops and on board each. Then at the big health centre it means contact or proximity with any number of people, sometime queues etc. My masking only protects others, them not being masked is a big risk to me.

My risk of contracting Covid in my normal isolated life is virtually zero, but each of those two visits will multiply it enormously. So I'm seriously tempted to pass on both, especially since the evidence in my area is that the Covid vaccines efficacy has been greatly overrated anyway.
.

I've got to the point where I simply want my life back - this might be as good as it gets? Periodic peaks... and troughs where we can do what we need to, while taking reasonable precautions?

 

[guerney]

B12 - and every other nutrient - permits a cancer to grow. Low B12 might mean a tumour grows more slowly. But there is a lot of questioning as to whether it is actually a causative factor.

hydroxocobalamin

Yes, it's confusing... and there seem to be different forms of B12.

A number of years ago I suffered facial pain - not far off trigeminal neuralgia. It was deeply unpleasant. At some point I decided to try high-dose B12 (1000 microgram tablets) - and things very slowly improved. For many months, if I felt the start of a twinge I'd grab some more B12, even taking several a day. Using it like you might paracetamol. And it worked. Intensity and frequency slowly reduced.

That sounds very nasty indeed:

"It is regarded to be one of the most painful disorders known to medicine, and often results in depression."

Trigeminal neuralgia - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Do you have MS or Parkinson's in the family? A compulsion to interview people while holding a microphone is a sure sign of Parkinson's.

I gave up being veggie when I got a tumour in my jaw, thinking "Well, that didn't work."

 

[flecc]

I considered taking a taxi

I ordered a taxi to go to my first Covid jab, but was let down for the return. The local services all replied no cabs for at least two hours, so it was back to the tram and bus, both with waits and it was pouring with rain and cold so pneumonia was added to the list of risks. I sometimes think Asrael is trying to send me a message, probably not wanting to come in person due to Covid.
.

 

[guerney]

I ordered a taxi to go to my first Covid jab, but was let down for the return. The local services all replied no cabs for at least two hours, so it was back to the tram and bus, both with waits and it was pouring with rain and cold so pneumonia was added to the list of risks. I sometimes think Asrael is trying to send me a message, probably not wanting to come in person due to Covid.
.

I've never heard of Asrael, had to look him up:

Azrael - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

What you need is an ebike!

 

[oyster]

Yes, it's confusing... and there seem to be different forms of B12.




That sounds very nasty indeed:

"It is regarded to be one of the most painful disorders known to medicine, and often results in depression."

Trigeminal neuralgia - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Do you have MS or Parkinson's in the family? A compulsion to interview people while holding a microphone is a sure sign of Parkinson's.

I gave up being veggie when I got a tumour in my jaw, thinking "Well, that didn't work."

Yep - four vitamers (cyano-, hydroxo-, adenosyl- and methyl-). Plus (ever more confusingly) several extremely similar substances which are not active.

Yes - not pleasant.

No MS. No Parkinson's.

Jaw issues are so difficult because there is nothing they don't affect.

 

[guerney]

Jaw issues are so difficult because there is nothing they don't affect.

I think it's obvious I'm an avid Googler and enthusiastic quack:

"It is, therefore widely accepted that trigeminal neuralgia is associated with demyelination of axons in the Gasserian ganglion, the dorsal root, or both."

Trigeminal ganglion - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

...was it in any way caused by some occupational factor?

My tumour distorted my face slightly, altering it's normally beautiful symmetry, famed and prized by females all over the world... now I only chat women up in profile

 

[guerney]

Yep - four vitamers (cyano-, hydroxo-, adenosyl- and methyl-). Plus (ever more confusingly) several extremely similar substances which are not active.

Yes - not pleasant.

No MS. No Parkinson's.

Jaw issues are so difficult because there is nothing they don't affect.

A few months before the pandemic, a friend of mine died of Myeloma, another medical mystery. He looked to be doing well after a bone marrow donation from his brother (post chemo), but very suddenly and rapidly succumbed to an infection. He was very fit and healthy - isn't it 50/50 these days, the probability of any of us developing a tumour of some sort? Twenty years ago it was 1 in 3....

 

[guerney]

A number of years ago I suffered facial pain - not far off trigeminal neuralgia. It was deeply unpleasant. At some point I decided to try high-dose B12 (1000 microgram tablets) - and things very slowly improved. For many months, if I felt the start of a twinge I'd grab some more B12, even taking several a day. Using it like you might paracetamol. And it worked. Intensity and frequency slowly reduced.

"Mechanisms by which demyelination is achieved include the following: (1) mechanical compression (Ochoa et al., 1972); (2) acquired lack of an essential nutritional factor such as vitamin B12 "

...like I said, avid Googler.

Demyelination - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics

www.sciencedirect.com

 

[flecc]

I've never heard of Asrael, had to look him up:

Nor had Google for the image below, they served up images of Israel !

What you need is an ebike!

I'd need an MV Agusta F4 1000R to outrun Asrael: