Does anyone else feel like a medical nightmare?

[kherrmann3]

I was just thinking (for whatever random reason) about my long and crappy medical file. I mean, when you go to the doctor for the first time, they ask for all of your previous injuries, surgeries, etc. Does anyone else wind up having to wrap your answer off the given line and start writing up the side of the page? I have actually had to ask for another piece of paper to fill in just the "previous surgeries" section! Eeep!
Here's my "extensive" list. I will add the years next to them... I'm bored tonight! :biggrin2:
1989/1990 - Surgery to correct strabismus (crossed eyes)
1993 - Birthmark removal from back (I have a nice 5" scar now :grumpy
1995 - Another eye surgery
1998/1999 - Appendectomy (removal of appendix)
1998/1999 - Secondary infection from appendectomy - needed drainage tube inserted.
2006 - Wisdom teeth extracted.
2008 - Tonsillectomy (removal of tonsils).

Injuries: Not even going to try the years with this one...
Grade School:
- Split my chin open in bathtub; needed stitches.
- Cracked my chin open AGAIN after falling in the kitchen.
- Cut my finger open on a knife while carving a pumpkin for Halloween.

Middle School:
- Broke my left pointer finger while chasing a deer on my bike.

High School:
- Sprained ankle; needed x-rays and was on crutches.

Post High-School:
- Broke my right ring finger (distal part) from being slammed in a vault door at work.
- Hospitalized for dehydration following tonsillectomy.

I have to write all of that crap on two little lines? Are you freakin' kidding me?! Does anyone else have this problem while going to the doctor? Anyone MY age? I'm only 21.

 

[naturestee]

I don't have that problem. Surgeries: eye surgery in kindergarten (needs to be redone now- I have the opposite of strabismus), wisdom teeth.

But I do have fibromyalgia. So I take a lot of meds and have to go through this huge checklist of symptoms.

My sister is like you though. Broken arm, tonsils, stitches, multiple kidney infections + exploratory surgery, hospitalization for infection of pierced ear (lol), etc. All before she got out of college. She's ok now at 30... for now. It never lasts long. Her last big thing wasat the end of law school when she got a seriously bad sinus infection and then got hives all over her body frombeing allergic to the antibiotic. Glad I'm not her!

 

[Dwarf_Angel04]

You could be worse, my cousin's ex gf (relationship ended with her death) had I believe 32 surgeries in her 25 years of life.

As for me:
1987- VP Shut installed for hydrocelphalus
1992- Strabismus repair
1995 (i think)- Strabismus repair
February 2007- Wisdom teeth extracted
October 1 2008- Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy
October 31 2008- R ankle to have screws (9) and a metal plate put in after car accident
November 18 2009- R ankle to have a Ilizarovput on and two screws removed replaced with one
Pending surgery for approxmently end of February to have Ilizarovremoved along with one screw.

Middle School- Fractured R ankle growing plate
High School- I was in a car accident (none of these have been my fault!) and had my hip and knee dislocated required PT and chriopractor. Fractured left wrist after falling on ice and broke tip of finger day after Sr. Prom.

As for stitches, I've got some nice health recent scars on my ankle right now, one is a good 4 inches on inner ankle goinghorizontalup front of ankle and another about 4 or 5 inches on the outside of the ankle going vertical. Plus will have some stitches after this next surgery from theholes in my leg from 4 of the 'bolts' from the Ilizarov and removal of screw.

Amanda

 

[LolaGirl]

I have had 2 surgeries in my whole 36 years of life. But I do have

Crohn's disease so I am always at the doctors and taking one thing or another.

 

[degrassi]

Yeah I completely understand. I have a crappy medical record too with lots of chronic health problems. I have Marfan syndrome which is a connective tissue disorder. So basically all my connective tissue(basically everything your body is made out of) is too floppy. So everything is affected.

I got really sick with back pain(Dural ectasia) in my first year in high school and ended up having 6 shunt surgeries within 2 years to try and fix it. It didn't help but ended up giving me severe headaches which I deal with in a daily basis, even though its 10 years later. I've also had all the regular surgeries(tonsils, wisdom teeth, other teeth also surgically removed, broken arm etc). I've also had a couple concussions, and I'm always easily hurting myself and ending up in the emergency room. The last time I was in the emergency room was because I crouched down to tie and shoe and tipped over. I fell maybe 8" onto my butt and tore the ligments that attach to your tail bone. Hurt like a MoFo! Its so dumb how i can do something normal yet hurt myself so bad. I'm too accident prone.

I missed out going to a regular high school because I was too sick. I had to finish my high school by homeschooling. Even now I'm still unable to work and feel like hell most days. But the way I see it is everyone has to deal with something in their lives and there are a lot worse off people then me.

 

[Mrs. PBJ]

Ok 20 here.

i am going by age not year.

4 broke right collar bone
9 Broke both collar bones and cracked my shoulder.
11 tore all liggiment in right arm when gpt slammed into a tree playing back yard football.

14 broke all ribs on right side riding a horse got thrown?off.

20 sprained angel still not healed

 

[Mrs. PBJ]

Ok 20 here.

i am going by age not year.

4 broke right collar bone
9 Broke both collar bones and cracked my shoulder.
11 tore all liggiment in right arm when gpt slammed into a tree playing back yard football.

14 broke all ribs on right side riding a horse got thrown?off.

20 sprained angel still not healed
i have a really long list of breaks.

abisive parents as a kid.

 

[kherrmann3]

degrassi wrote:

I have Marfan syndrome...

May I ask how tall you are? Aren't most people with Marfan's tall(er)? Isn't that the one where you can bend your wrist (and other joints) in really odd ways? Like, more than a double-jointed person can? Sorry, I'm a medical dork. :biggrin2:

 

[BethM]

I guess I'm lucky in that I haven't had to go through all of that!

When I was in 3rd grade, I was in the hospital for 3 days with appendicitis. My mom didn't have insurance, so they just watched me the whole time, liquid diet, blood draw every 2 hours or something, then sent me home. I guess if my appendix would have burst they would have taken it out, but it's still there. I sometimes get a sharp pain in that area and am pretty paranoid about something happening again. (Also, I still have a fear of Jello, as my liquid diet consisted of a can of Sprite, and room-temperature Jello. You know how Jello kinda sweats when it warms up a bit? Every meal for 3 days was warm, sweaty Jello.:shock

Wisdom teeth out at age 16, as they were growing in under my last set of molars. Never broken a bone.

I do have a lot of sinus issues, though, and I feel like I'm *always* sick because of it. I have had surgery twice to remove polyps from my sinus cavities, and the first surgery my (slightly) deviated septum was straightened. Those two surgeries were within 3 years of each other. I will probably have to have that done again, in the future. I *still* get chronic sinus infections. I'm on 3 daily meds to control my allergies, though I still get a sniffly nose and such on a regular basis, since I'm basically allergic to air. I get maybe 2 days a week that I don't get a sinus headache at some point.

(Allergies run in my family, my mom and grandma suffer terribly, too. I did play outside a lot as a kid, and the house I grew up in wasn't exactly a model of perfect sanitation, so I'm not like a lot of kids now that just haven't been exposed to stuff.)

Also, at the age of 33 I have arthritis in my hands, wrists, feet, and knees. I live on the 3rd floor of my building, and if something takes more than 1 trip up the stairs, my knee will sometimes give out on the way up. I have had this joint pain since high school, though I have good days and bad days. Most meds for this have been withdrawn from the market or have a black box warning, so I between this and the sinus headaches, I should buy stock in Tylenol. I don't like to think about what that's doing to my liver!

I guess it's ok that my knees are too bad for running, I will have mild mild asthma issues from running. (Also an issue with prolonged exposure to cats.) I can do things like biking, if I weren't so lazy, but running is out.

Also, I feel cold. All the time. I wear long sleeve shirts when most people are in tank tops. I need a blanket on the bed in the summer. Seriously, if the air temp is under about 73, I am FREEZING. 83 is comfortable for me.

And I have sweaty hands and feet. Ick!

So I've got lots of "small" problems that add up to my medical nightmare.

 

[Saffy]

I'm certainly feeling my age now (47) though I keep denying it .. partying through the weekend when we go to Southport Weekender (Friday 7pm through to Monday 3am) takes it out of me so much that I have to book the whole week off after to recover.

More aches and pains .. and surgery .. and at this time of year, I think everyone feels low and run down ...

I keep smiling though ... people say 2009 has got to be a better year for me .. I reply, "I'm not betting on it!" :biggrin2:

 

[mouse_chalk]

Ummmm..... I guess I can join this list too?! :biggrin2:

From a baby:

6 months (1984): Intususseption (sp? no idea!)- basically my small intestine folded up into my large intestine and I was a very sick baby
2 years: I crawled into a skirting/baseboard (lol) and cracked my head open- went for stitches
3 years-ish: had some kind of lump behind my ear that I had to have removed under GA

Then I was healthy! Woo! Until I was 17:

Dec 2001: First operation to excise a pilonidal sinus

Jan 2002: Second operation to excise a pilonidal sinus- this was left open, and I had a hole about ths size of my fist that was dressed and packed (ouch!) daily for.... a year or more? Never fully healed.

May 2003: Hysteroscopy under general aneasthetic, including lots of ultrasounds for suspected endometriosis/polycystic ovaries (luckily had neither)

March 2004: Third operation to excise another pilonidal sinus- again left open and packed for 4 months daily

June 2004: Developed severe excema as a result of developing an allergy to the daily dressings :rofl: (I can laugh now but that knocked me out of uni :?)

July 2004: Yet another excision of pilonidal sinus, daily dressings for a number of months, before we just gave up because it wasn't making any difference. Never healed although did get very small

February 2006: Emergency.... excision of a pilonidal sinus. Not as deep as the others. Daily packing and dressing for months. Also had 'Vac Therapy' for 3 months, which involved having a vaccuum seal applied to the wound, attached to a little tube, attached to a machine that I had to carry around all day, that bleeped like crazy, looked stupid, kept me awake all night and caused my friends much amusement Still didn't heal, but the insurance company gave up funding it at a cost of £2000 a week lol

January 2007: Developed a balance disorder, which is ongoing- 2 MRI scans and various balance function tests under my belt so far, plus 2 neurologists, one balance rehab specialist and 2 ENT specialists!

January 2008: 'Urgent' surgery (I call it urgent because I wasn't rushed in exactly, but it wouldn't have waited) to excise another pilonidal sinus.... Dressing and packing for 2 months

April 2008: The Big One. Major excision of pilonidal sinus, plus a skin flap procedure to permenantly close and heal the existing wound. Weeks of agony, infections and trips back and forth to hospital (you guys probably remember me moaning about this lol), BUT, and it's a big but.... It HEALED!!! FOR GOOD!!!!! :bunnydance:

August 2008: Did something to my arm, couldn't move it, had x-rays but it was fine within a few days

September 2008: Had Glandular fever/mono, developed secondary acute tonsilitis, my throat swelled and I couldn't breathe properly, ended up being hospitalised for dehydration and to receive steroids to reduce the swelling

November 2008: Managed to cut my ankle on some broken glass in my bin bag LOL, had to go and get stitches for that...


I think, that's all of it! I too, hate telling people, or filling out forms on it. I never know whether to just skip some stuff, or to spend half an hour telling them all of it lol

 

[bat42072]

2years old had to have tubes in my ear(couldn't hear because i had a hole in my ear drum.)

4 years more tubes ended up have too many surgeries to place tubes in my ears to count... Last set was when I was 15 yrs.

14 had tonsils removed

1991 had gall bladder removed(2 days after I got married- baby was 3 months old)

1996 had an emergency c section

1997 had mty tubes tied( no more children)(

3 years a go had surgery for my neck

and eventually will have to more surgeries(chieri malformation)

 

[BethM]

Oh, I forgot one.....

When I was two, I was bitten near my eye by a dog, and had to have stitches. I've got a small (1") scar below my right eye (it follows the curve of my bags), and a tiny (1/4")above, between my eyelid and eyebrow. My mom says I had been pestering the dog all afternoon,tugging fur,etc., and he got tired of it and nipped me. I am super-lucky I didn't lose my eye, all that dog had to do was bite down.

I remember, as a kid, I was really afraid of that dog whenever we were over there (it was her best friend's dog), sometimes he would just stand and look at me. It wasn't until a few years later that I found out about what had happened. I am still really uneasy around large dogs, it was a German Shephard-Norwegian Elkhound mix. If I think about it too much, I also get really annoyed that my mom didn't do something to make me leave the dog alone, but I guess it all turned out ok so I shouldn't dwell on that.

 

[irishbunny]

Me and my family have always been lucky healthwise. I'm fifteen, I haven't been to the doctors in three years, never had to go/stay in hospital, rarely get any sort of sickness, tummy bugs flu etc. and I've never broken a bone or gotten stitches. Touch wood, I'll stay lucky.

It's weird the way I've never broken a bone or got stitches since I ride horses and am around cattle alot.

 

[degrassi]

kherrmann3 wrote:

degrassi wrote:

I have Marfan syndrome...

May I ask how tall you are? Aren't most people with Marfan's tall(er)? Isn't that the one where you can bend your wrist (and other joints) in really odd ways? Like, more than a double-jointed person can? Sorry, I'm a medical dork. :biggrin2:

I"m surprised you've even heard of it before. Yes, I am tall. I'm 6'4". I'm not as flexible as some people with marfans but some are really bendy and can bend their joints in weird ways. It depends how affected you are. Marfans is a spectrum disorder ranging from mild to severe. So not all people with marfans have the same problems.