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Medical Procedures: What It’s Like To Get An EMG (Electromyography)
Raise your hand if you’ve got a bad shoulder (badum ching!). Yup, me too. Although I had surgery to repair it a year ago, I’ve had some lingering problems. Since physical therapy (PT) hasn’t resolved...
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Medical Procedures: What It’s Like to Have an Echocardiogram (with “Bubble...
Some things are scary. Like when your healthcare provider refers you for a procedure that involves bubbles injected into your veins and flowing through your heart. I told my PCM the thought of it...
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Medical Procedures: What It’s Like to Have Medical Botox Injections
In my experience, this was one procedure it was best not to think too much about ahead of time: having a 30 gauge needle stuck repeatedly into your head in order to inject multiple doses of...
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Medical Procedures: What It’s Like to Undergo a Sleep Study (Polysomnogram)
“So, why are you here?,” the technician asked me. “My spouse says my snoring is pretty bad,” I responded sheepishly. The technician laughed. “That’s the number one reason we see people here. If it...
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Medical Procedures: What It’s Like to Have a Steroid Injection
Approximately six weeks after hand and wrist surgery, I developed “trigger finger” in the pinky finger of my surgery hand. After the splints were removed and I started using my fingers again, I...
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Not Mission Capable: Why I Have No Post This Week
I wish I could tell you there is no post this week because I have been hiking in the Rockies and enjoying the flare of golden aspens before winter comes. Or because I have been scuba diving in the...
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Medical Procedures: What It’s Like to Have an MRI (with contrast)
The first MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) I ever had was a cerebral MRI in a foreign country. I hadn’t been in the country very long, and didn’t speak much of the language. I also didn’t know much...
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Guest Post: What It’s Like To Try Acupuncture And Cupping
This week we have a special treat – a guest post from Doug Nordman a.k.a Nords, from The Military Guide. He’s sharing with us his experiences with medical tourism. He bravely (or foolishly?)...
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Ending 2016 with More Surgery
I am headed for surgery on December 14th (Wednesday). This time for the elbow. We’re not sure what’s wrong with it, exactly. The symptoms are obvious, but the exact diagnosis is not. [At least, to...
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Medical Procedures: Trigger Finger (Steroid Injection) Update
Update: I developed trigger finger in the same pinky finger approximately 10-11 weeks after elbow surgery (approximately 8 months after the first steroid injection), when the post-surgery therapeutic...
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Standing By to Stand By (And What It’s Like to Do a Spirometry Test)
I saw the specialist at a leading institution last week. (Not the doctor in the picture, who is a random allergist/immunologist.) It went about as well as can be expected. But I don’t have any...
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Breaking My New Year’s Resolution: There WILL be surgery in 2017
The plane in this photo is ground looping. A ground loop can happen when a plane rotates horizontally (slides) while on the ground. Ground loops can damage the landing gear, underside, and wings of...
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“Where Did You Take Your Urine?”
I’ve been getting diagnostic testing done to determine whether I have an autoimmune or autoinflammatory disorder. So far, some abnormal test results, but no diagnosis. I had a follow-up appointment...
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Shoulder Surgery: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
To repair some of the damage done when I wiped out on that wet tile floor, I’ve had two shoulder surgeries – performed by two different surgeons. The first surgery was to repair my severed labrum....
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Feeling like Ross Geller Again
Remember when I said my 2017 New Year’s Resolution was “No surgeries in 2017” – and then I had to have surgery? Well, I was wiser this year. I did *not* make a resolution of no surgeries in 2018,...
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Post-Surgery Status Update
Surgery went very smoothly. It was a quick and relatively painless procedure [post pending]. I did not feel loopy or drowsy afterward, and had a perfectly normal afternoon following surgery. Now...
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What It’s Like to Have a Surgical Screw Removed
Before my wrist surgery, I did research. The medical journal articles all said that standard protocol for scapholunate repair was to leave in surgical screws no more than 12 months. My surgeon said,...
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