Doctor me up, Thumbs

[Lu]

doctordoctordoctorstuff

You know, I now have extra appreciation of your avatar. Paging Doctor Andy!

[Armchair General]

Haha! Thankyou Pirate and thanks for dreaming about me again Toblix.

Yufster, I think facial swelling and stress are not related and I would certainly go hunting for another cause if that were the story given to me. However, I will post on a doctor forum I frequent and get the hive mind opinion. Good luck at the allergy clinic, think about keeping a diary etc as I said, it can be very helpful to doctor and patient alike in pinning down vague and intermittent symptoms. Also, please let me know what they tell you at the allergy clinic, just for my own curiosity (no obligation of course).

Dr Andy

[subbes]

No, Yufster! You must tell us everything that happens and that they tell you, because now I'm invested in this medical drama.

[toblix]

Nurse, 50ccs of medicine to the doctor room – stat!

[Gwardinen]

I love living vicariously. It's the best kind of living. Other than "large", obviously.

[Salka]

Okay I'll keep you updated on this exciting medical drama. Knowing me all the symptoms will probably now disappear that I've told people about it, so I look like an idiot. I have a fear of being a hypochondriac, oddly, so I usually don't tell people when I'm feeling unwell in case ( a ) it's only in my head and ( b ) they don't believe me and think I'm a hypochondriac. You wouldn't believe how long I can normally tell myself I'm just imagining it for. I once coughed so hard that I tore the muscle from my ribs (apparently a very common injury but holy crap did it hurt). It was only at the point I involuntarily curled up in a ball of agony at a Caribou gig that I realised maybe I should see a doctor, and when I did he told me I had bronchitis too and should have seen him weeks ago. I found this surprising as I had been telling myself quite confidently that I just had a bit of a tickle in my throat... and lungs.

Which brings me nicely to this: I felt a lot better today. Breathing has been a lot easier (although I have yet to go to bed where generally the breathing thing becomes a lot more difficult...) and I only had one hive on my face all day. I haven't had any caffeine today either.... HMM ¬¬

But also it's been extremely hot here so I've lost my appetite completely, and therefore didn't really eat anything. I lose my appetite in the heat pretty badly, in fact I barely ate in Berlin while I was there because the heat was too unbearable. I'm Irish, I'm not used to it

So maybe I'm allergic to too much food.

[subbes]

Are you at any point telling yourself that you "don't want to be a bother"? If so, quit that and be an advocate for yourself.

That "mustn't make waves" thing is the very NW European tendency to that led to my mother having a gangrenous gallbladder because she didn't want to make a fuss about the pain she was in. I do it too, and that's part of the reason why I have chronic pain/RSI - I didn't stand up and say "hey, this thing hurts" back when it was fixable.

[syntheticgerbil]

I once coughed so hard that I tore the muscle from my ribs (apparently a very common injury but holy crap did it hurt).

My girlfriend did that once. I took her to the ER like 20 minutes after since she was in so much pain. It cost $1,000 or so after insurance for them to do an X-ray and tell her the rib was not broken, give her a bottle of water, and sent her on her way with a prescription for Vicodin. She asked the doctor if she should get her chest wrapped up, and his response was, "I don't know, I guess, if you want."

Great times!

[Roderick]

[Salka]

New symptom. Pins and needles started in my right foot, and has now worked its way up to just below the knee. A few days of having only slight hives gave me hope that it was a weird thing that would pass. I guess I was wrong.

Mmm.... brainssss....

EDIT: now is a good time to mention that I have had tiny tiny little spots of pins and needles in my toes every so often recently, but assumed it was probably just my imagination and so ignored. I should probably stop doing that.

[Roderick]

Lupus.

I'm not being helpful, but I have no insights.

[Salka]

I think I've narrowed this down to either gluten, or caffeine, and I think it's caffeine. Earlier on I felt brave, I'd had no symptoms in a while so I had a cheeky cup of tea. Now look at me, I'm too hot, my face is tingling and I have a dead leg for no good reason.

The worst thing about this is that decaf tea and coffee taste abhorrent.

Also I drank coffee every morning in Berlin so actually it's not coffee ARHGARHG MY HEAD A SPLODE.

[pabosher]

Maybe it's just shitty English coffee?

[Nappi]

If it still turns out to be caffeine though, you should know that there are various decaffeination processes for coffee that affect (or don't affect) the taste in different ways. So even if some of the brands taste awful to you, it doesn't necessarily mean that they all do.

Same probably applies to tea as well, but I don't know anything about that.

[Salka]

Serious question, how do you go to A&E? Do you just rock up in a taxi, or is there some not-so-emergency number you can call to pick you up? I feel like phoning 999 would be a bit dickish, however the next time my lips swell up I'm going straight to A&E.

[syntheticgerbil]

Do you guys have to pay for the ambulance ride at all? Does that have anything to do with the hesitation?

[Salka]

No I just don't want to get in an ambulance and then be like, yeah, so my lip has swelled up slightly but it's probably not life threatening, so how are you? Busy day for ambulances or...?

[subbes]

You can just turn up in a taxi or on a bus, or on a bike, yes. Do call an ambo if you begin to have swelling of your tongue or trouble breathing - you might need someone to stab you with an EpiPen or maintain an airway.

Don't forget the NHS Direct line - 0845 4647 (5p/min from a landline).

[Nachimir]

Yeah, you can just rock up to A&E, report to the front desk, then they'll ask a load of questions and put you through triage. Be prepared to wait for quite a few hours unless your condition is life threatening.

[much shorter]

Man I remember fall down an entire escalator and ripping my back up pretty bad but refused to call an ambulance and instead took the bus and subway and walked to the ER with blood pouring down my back. Ended up with 21 odd stitches. Man you are dumb when you're drunk.

[Salka]

So, result of blood tests came back and they want me to go back into the GP to see my doctor to discuss. When I pushed for more info she begrudgingly told me it's something to do with my blood test results. Result!

I know I was tested for vitamin deficiencies and coeliac disease, so I guess it's going to be something to do with those. B12 deficiency symptoms sound about right regarding the breathing difficulties, numbness etc, although not the allergy symptoms, but perhaps they're just two separate things that came to a head at the same time.

Although I do make an effort to include B12 in my diet so I'm not entirely convinced that I just haven't been eating enough of it. But maybe it's not that anyway so, we'll see I guess. I guess if I have coeliacs then I'd have a b12 deficiency anyway. Also: lupus.

And why didn't I have coeliacs/b12 deficiency in Berlin, or something? Was it a red herring, thrown in by god to test my faith or something? PS my foot is numb.

EDIT: Oh: "The symptoms are often intermittent (they stop and then start again)".

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

[brkl]

It's never lupus.

[Salka]

Does anyone know would the anti-histamines have decreased the allergy-like symptoms of coeliacs (from gluten consumption) while the b12 deficiency symptoms remained the same?

[Armchair General]

Nobody would be able to say for sure. Wait until you see your GP, it may still be something unrelated that your blood tests have thrown up. The plot thickens!

[subbes]

Try not to drive yourself mental by worrying while waiting for your appointment. Yeah, I know, that's going to be almost impossible.