weyes' wisdom of the day - 6/17

[weyes]

go to the doctor for regular checkups; even if you seem to be in good health you need to make sure you stay that way .

tune in tomorrow.

[vicman]

you know, its a cultural thing, but i never go to the doctor unless i'm sick. i've read that in some of my textbooks i used to have when i was school and always used to think, "bah humbug" but i've come to realize that overall its true how in some cultures health and illness are treated and perceived a certain way, and how they are perceived in a totally different way in other cultures.

[georgym]

As my above cookie-luvin friend had mentioned, i usually only go when im ill or hurt (i think i got a bruised rib, does that count?)

But i just started taking multi-vitamins, St. John's Wort, and i exercise daily. I used to be a sick boy, now im growing into a healthy smurf

[vicman]

vain smurf?

smurfs? didnt they have smurf multivitamins or were those flintstones?

yeah, i excersise, take vitamins, eat right, etc. for some weird reason i just dont go to the dr.

[weyes]

hmmm. well, a lot of young women i know have never gone to a gynecologist 'cause they're scared, and i've tried to stress how important it is. but they think that, because they're young, it's not necessary. i went for my annual checkup this year and my gyno found a cyst in my left ovary 5 centimeters (approx. 2 inches) in diameter. today i was told i should have it surgically removed, which will require a 2-day hospital stay and that i take 4-6 weeks off of work afterwards for recovery. (and if you want to talk about being a vain smurfette, my scar would be about 6 inches long.) i told my doc that i don't think i have any sick time to speak of, considering i only work in a cheesy-ass photo lab (it is altogether possible that i could lose my job over this, it seems to me...), but she said i might be able to get disability from the state...

:(

they took blood "to see if there's a substance in it (CA 125) that increases in the presence of a cancerous tumor," but they say that it's a 95% chance that it's not, 'cause i'm so young, so i shouldn't worry. i'm not really worried about that.

but my point is that i would never have known any of this, had i not just gone in for a routine checkup. waiting for it to rupture would not have been a good idea, and, if it were cancerous, it would be even more important to take care of it as soon as possible. and the doc is trying to preserve my ovary during this process, which may not have been possible, had i not found out about this as soon as i had.

[vicman]

aw, man sorry to hear about that. i guess your right, you just never know if there is anything wrong with oneself unless you get checked up.

one of my sisters had the same problem a few years back, the dr found a cyst in on eof her ovaries, and it had to be removed. theyve had to go back a couple of times to remove scar tissue after that, so for the time being she's put off having a kid, until she's sure that her ovary is fully recovered and no more scar tissue develops.

last time i went to the dr. was like 2 years ago when i got really sick. the only weird thing they found was an excessive # of white blood cells in my blood. they thought it was weird, but said it really isnt indicative of anything.

i hope its a simple process and it gets taken care of soon

[georgym]

Hope you do all right, weyes. Better to get this treated now than wait until it could be something more.

Same thing happened with my mother (similar at least). She had a kidney stone, and they found some benign sists which they of course removed.

But im wishin you a Smurfy recovery

[weyes]

thanks, you guys. my mom wants me to send the report from the ultrasound to her dr. for a second opinion, so we'll see about that.

Originally posted by vicman

aw, man sorry to hear about that. i guess your right, you just never know if there is anything wrong with oneself unless you get checked up.

one of my sisters had the same problem a few years back, the dr found a cyst in on eof her ovaries, and it had to be removed. theyve had to go back a couple of times to remove scar tissue after that, so for the time being she's put off having a kid, until she's sure that her ovary is fully recovered and no more scar tissue develops.

last time i went to the dr. was like 2 years ago when i got really sick. the only weird thing they found was an excessive # of white blood cells in my blood. they thought it was weird, but said it really isnt indicative of anything.

i hope its a simple process and it gets taken care of soon

interesting that your sister had one, too. supposedly they're common, it's just not often that they're bad enough to remove. there are a bunch of characteristics that decide whether they are harmful or not.

so, what'd they do for you, vic, if you don't mind my asking?

[vicman]

Originally posted by weyes

so, what'd they do for you, vic, if you don't mind my asking?

for the white blood cells?

nothing really. i went to student health services that time because i was really sick, had been running a high fever for a couple of days, so they drew blood out to see if I had an infection, which I did. When running that analysis they noticed that I had a large amount of white blood cells in my blood, which I think was probably because I was so sick and with an infection, but to them to say that I had more than normal, especially more than normal for the average sick person with an infection caught my attention.

I did get blood drawn last september and told them about the white blood cell thing, and they said they would notify me if they found something weird in my blood. They left a message like a couple of weeks after i donated it and said they didnt find nothing abnormal. So I dunno, it was probably since I was so sick. Thats been the last time I was really, really sick, almost 3 years ago.

[weyes]

hmmm. sometimes those things kinda just disappear on their own, i guess. it always seems so weird to me - like, where does it all go? but i was never really driven to find out all that much, which is why i did well in biology (freshman year science - we didn't get into blood analysis) but almost failed both chemistry and physics (10th and 11th grades). and in senior year, i took the fun classes that made sense .

my doc asked me if i wanted to donate my own blood, just in case they need some during my operation (!!!). "it probably won't be necessary," she said, "but just in case they need blood, some people like to use their own; it's just an option." really weird - i never would've thought of that.

[vicman]

i always did bad in science and math for that matter. social studies is the subject i really liked, i could just read the material once and get an A in class. Science and math on the other hand, umm..well...I sometimes neede special assisatnce during exams all the formulas, tables, calculations..ugh!

never really thought about donating my own blood to myself, isnst all blood the same? I mean as long as youhave the same blood type as the one you are receiving its OK, right?

[weyes]

Originally posted by vicman

never really thought about donating my own blood to myself, isnst all blood the same? I mean as long as youhave the same blood type as the one you are receiving its OK, right?

my doc was talking about fear of contamination, which some people worry about. i did go to high school with a girl who got hiv from a transfusion. her transfusion was in the 80s, though, before they screened blood for it. but, i dunno. someone else has different cholesterol levels (even though, if you have high cholesterol, they won't let you donate blood)... i think she was just saying that, if it would put me more at ease, it was an option.