An brusque abode for pathogens (Last Plane to the Doctor's Office)

[FreddyKnuckles]

Great page break.

How's the malady pollo?

[elpollodiablo]

A little better. Get a shit ton of prednisone up in me like the fish thought I would. It had me super, super jacked up last night, though not necessarily in a bad way. The shit on my hands looks better today. It's still just weird as hell, though, and neither doctor I saw could really figure out what it was. It seems like contact dermatitis, but it's thickest on my hands and then just in very small spots on disparate parts of my body: lower back, backs of legs, top of feet.

My pet theory, and this is just based on having eliminated virtually all other factors, is that maybe it was a reaction to this funky SE OH homegrown I'd been smoking over the weekend. It smelled and tasted just weird as shit, like really spicy. Other than that I thought maybe the rented tux from this wedding, but the doctor pointed out that the distribution of it wouldn't seem to jive with that theory.

[clare]

Could it be a fungal thing? (I had a small itchy patch on one shin that spread slowly up my leg and then to the other shin - Dr reckoned it might've been fungal, but didn't have many ideas other than that. Got some hydrocortisone from the chemist that fixed it more or less...)

[jess]

Glad you are doing somewhat better and at least they didn't think it was anything bad. Sometimes you never find out with skin stuff, but if it gets better, that works. That's been my experience sometimes with contact dermatitis and such. If it were that bad and fungal, I'd imagine it wouldn't stay better (the anti-inflammatories will calm it, but not take care of the fungus) and you'll end up going back for anti-fungal stuff (which would annoying, but not the end of the world). I'd think they'd probably recognize it as fungal if it were though.

Pollo, if those were just emergency med people, you might try to get a referral to a dermatologist and set up an appointment just in case for a week out or so if you can (usually it would take many weeks, if not months, but student health or whoever you need to go through for external appts/referrals might be able to make it happen faster for an urgent case). Then cancel it if you're definitely still improving, but you have it if not.

[RavingLunatic]

Did the doctor send his assistants to break into your house and search for environmental sources of your hand malady, Pollo? Because that's what good doctors do. I learned this from watching House. If there are no signs of breaking and entering at your place of residence, you may want to consider changing doctors.

Also, you haven't been hunting horcruxes lately, have you? I saw a movie awhile back where this old wizard caught a wicked hand disease from trying to destroy a horcrux. I don't want to scare you, but that dude died. He was old though, so I imagine his immune system wasn't up to snuff.

Seriously, though, glad to hear it's improving, dude.

On a different note, my mom is trying to get me to buy some kind of health insurance. Says it's $62/month, though there's a $5500 annual deductible. I'm pretty sure it also would not cover pre-existing condition-related expenses. I do not have $5500. Would it make any sense for me to buy this? It doesn't seem to make sense to me, but I don't know what all the consequences would be if I were to, say, break my leg in a car accident and run up $40,000 in hospital bills. They would have to treat me, I wouldn't be able to pay, and then....I'm not sure.

[Ignatius]

I have this problem:



I would like to get it looked at by a doctor because it hurts, and if it's broken I don't want it to heal wrong. A friend mentioned this thing called "charity care" which is some kind way to go to the ER for uninsured people without much money, like me. But he couldn't explain it at all. Anyone heard of this? Otherwise, if I go to one of these pay-what-you-can style community clinics, do they typically do x-rays?

[elpollodiablo]

Jesus fucking christ dude, just go to the ER. That looks like hell. I dunno from "charity care" but if you make it clear from the outset that you have no money they will explain what few options they have available, like payment plans or economic hardship waivers (not all hospitals do this, obviously; especially not the crooked-as-fuck for-profit ones). But you definitely need to get that seen to; didn't it happen several days ago?

[jess]

Yes, go now. If you have options as far as what hospital to go to, see if any is a safety net hospital, or barring that, go to the one that seems to serve the most economically diverse clientele. Also tell any doctor you see about the concerns about costs, so they can keep that in mind when ordering tests or whatnot.

[Ignatius]

Friday night. Today is the first time that I have a car and no work since then... I guess I'm going to the hospital, then

[Nick Ink]

Hope the doctors sort that out Iggy, that looks horrible.

I can never get over the healthcare situation in your country.

[elpollodiablo]

Let us know how it works out, Ig.

Meanwhile it's Marat steez over here as I soak in a medicated bath and read Twelfth Night. Fucking undiagnosable skin malady! This sucks, roundly and hugely.

[Ignatius]

It's not broken, very good! I think I have special bones or something... I've torn cartilage, ligaments, dislocated joints and fallen off of moving vehicles at 25 MPH and all that and but the only bone I've ever broken that I know of was my nose when I got punched on it.

Anyway they gave me an air cast and some crutches and some chiding for waiting too long and an application for their poor-people payment program. I hope it goes through, because otherwise this would be the second time that I've had my meager savings wiped out by an ER bill in as many years.

Always wear high tops when you're balling, kids.

Good luck with your shit, epd. It's a miserable condition when your skin is wrong and giving you trouble. If I think about the poison ivy reactions I used to get and that dishwashing nonsense from the last few years, I'm sure that no medical situation has made me more uncomfortable or despairing than rashes.

[dumbfish]

Rolling your ankle can produce some truly spectacular bruising. Enjoy the next three months of ankle weakness, Iggy! You'll likely have relapses until it gets strong again. If you'd like to avoid that fate, start with some rehab exercises as soon as you're able. You'll need a towel and a stretchy band. I'll provide details if the Internet doesn't.

[Ignatius]

I've rolled it before, but never this badly, I suppose. My foot looks like it belongs to a bloated corpse. Even my toes are purple at this point. When it happened, I felt the sole of my shoe touch the inside of my ankle!

[alex]

That looks and sounds superpainful, Iggy. Hope it heals up quickly!

[dumbfish]

Iggy, here's a possibly helpful thought. When you landed funny, something was gonna give. Be glad it wasn't your knee.

[Greg Nog]

I've rolled it before, but never this badly, I suppose. My foot looks like it belongs to a bloated corpse. Even my toes are purple at this point. When it happened, I felt the sole of my shoe touch the inside of my ankle!

Oh my goodness that is simply divine its pure gruesomeness!

[FreddyKnuckles]

you did that shit balling?  Jesus christ did you land on the ball?

[Ignatius]

No... We were playing 21 in a driveway. I had to take the 3-pt. shot to win the game. There were trees all over the place, and the only spot I could stand on to get a clear shot far enough away was on a slate walkway. When I came down from the shot, my left foot landed on the edge of the slate and I guess the yard right next to it had eroded down much deeper than you'd expect. So it rolled all the way over.

[mountmccabe]

When I was younger our next door neighbor was one of the team doctors for the Phoenix Suns so whenever I turned/sprained my ankle my mom would send me next door.

I don't think my ankle/foot ever looked that colorful, though, Iggy. Nice work!

[elpollodiablo]

Seeing a dermatologist tomorrow. This shit on my hands never really got any worse or better; the configuration and expression of it changes from day-to-day, but the general coverage, annoyance, and embarrassment doesn't. Gah. I hope this isn't some long-term chronic thing.

[alistarr*]

Iggy, here's a possibly helpful thought. When you landed funny, something was gonna give. Be glad it wasn't your knee.

Man, my knees are still a bit wrong from that thing I posted about back in March. I did ibuprofen and light cycling for a while, figured it was a bit better, later realised it wasnt really better, then went to the doctor and had a month's worth of diclofenac and sitting around, then a month of it feeling a bit better again but still not right, and now I'm on physio and exercises. Knees are lame.

The physio lady was very clear that it'd probably get better but only if I actually did my exercises twice a day, which amounts to about 45-50 minutes daily of sitting around tensing various muscles and what have you. It's pretty tedious (and also tiring!) but I just remind myself that I don't want my knees to ache forever and I really don't want to have to go for knee surgery.

On that note (the physio note not the surgery note)...

Rolling your ankle can produce some truly spectacular bruising. Enjoy the next three months of ankle weakness, Iggy! You'll likely have relapses until it gets strong again. If you'd like to avoid that fate, start with some rehab exercises as soon as you're able. You'll need a towel and a stretchy band. I'll provide details if the Internet doesn't.

I wanted to second this advice. My girlfriend has a weak ankle from falling downstairs about eight years ago, mostly because she didn't continue for long enough with the exercises she was supposed to do to strengthen it, and because she managed to hurt it again a few years later and it had stayed weak. It's getting better now because she's doing lots more exercise which is helping to strengthen it again.

So my one bit of advice is: once you're done with the resting and recuperating and it feels like it's getting back to normal, make sure you do however much tedious ankle exercising it takes to get it feeling right again, because otherwise it might just carry on sucking.

[FreddyKnuckles]

I'm like, the only center/forward I know who doesn't have jacked up knees or ankles.  I always wore low tops too.  I think the lack of ankle support actually grew me stronger ankles.

[Bernard]

I am interested in the skin thing. I have a weird rash too -- little bumps that don't itch unless I scratch them. I assume it was something dietary since I haven't changed any of my potions or lotions. It's obvs not weed.

[dieblucasdie]

Oh, sorry I didn't see this earlier, pollo.  Given the location of your outbreaks, your age, and the time of year, dollars to donuts it's this (obvs. the wiki pictures the most severe cases), or else it's some allergic reaction you haven't managed to account for.