Calls to learn from...

gdiza said:
Please don't self diagnose yourself!!!

If there is pain in your chest and it radiates or is just generally not NORMAL for you - go get yourself checked out!
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Last week Monday night I felt some heartburn. Within 5 minutes I was in extreme pain. I have a little bit of a ritual I do when this happens, drink some milk, throw up, take a dump. Generally between these three things the pain eases and then I send the wife to get some Gaviscon.

Within 15 minutes I was starting to have breathing problems, after 20 minutes I felt a pain in my chest - upper right arm area. I had been working with my drill earlier the evening so normally that would be the cause.

At 25 minutes the pain was the worst I ever experienced, I could not breath and I knew it was bad.

Told wife to rush me to the hospital, 800m from the house.


It was pancreatitis.


The Doc they assigned to me is a surgeon who deals a lot with this. He still told me that had we waited till the morning my wife would have been organizing my funeral for the weekend. This is the danger of self diagnostics. One is quick to dismiss critical pains and discomforts and then self medicate. I'm sure the Gaviscon and some Myprodol would have seen me through the night.

He buries an average of 5 patients a year with pancreatitis and its no laughing matter.


And the consequence of my hospitalisation ( 6 days ) is I may never drink alcohol again. And I'm not even a boozer, I only drink red wine. So once again during self diagnosis I would have dismissed this due to my "low risk".
 
Can I make a request please - It's coming up for the weekend, tomorrow is Friday, so maybe Saturday morning.
Can those with families, girlfriends, wifes etc go to a pharmacy (there should be one in a mall, like Somerset Mall has the Dischem which has a small clinic) and go get your blood pressures checked, do a HGT check as well (errr, ask them to check your sugar levels) and then if you have time, go donate blood at the closest possible place.
3/4 hours out of your day.

Thanks! :)
 
^can you donate blood if you use cannabis?
 
Choosing some extreme examples doesn't mean there is anything wrong with self-medication. People need to assess this for themselves, and anyone who has been to doctors will also know that in many cases they'll also have no clue what the ache or pain is and suggest taking some painkillers and seeing if things get better.
 
One of my colleagues who knows about this thread sent this to me to share:

We got dispatched to a patient collapsed unresponsive.
On arrival at the address we escorted into the complex to the residence of an elderly couple.
As we walked into the house we noticed an elderly male lying lifeless on the floor. We asked the wife and daughter what happened. The wife informed us that she was at the local clinic picking up their chronic medication. When she was done she phoned her husband to come and fetch her, living around the corner it unusually takes him about 5 minutes to get there. After 10min of him not arriving she tried phoning him again but there was no answer. She phoned her daughter to go check and a neighbour to pick her up. The daughter and her grandson arrived at the residence… nobody opened the door but the car was still there. The grandson jumped over the wall and climbed through the second story window and went down the stairs to open the front door. The husband and grandfather collapsed and died at the front door while on his way to fetch his wife. They then phoned us to come and assisted but it was to late.

The wife informed us that the previous night while lying in bed her husband had a nasty cough (he has had it for about at week at this point) but refused to go to the doctor, she told him, u need to take care of yourself, you can’t leave me now, never knowing it will actually be her last night with her beloved husband.

His medical history was that he was known with Atrial fibrillation (Google it!) and hypertension (high blood pressure)
 
While I agree that relying on self-medication is not enough and you should always see a doctor, sometimes a doctor might not find anything wrong with you and just recommend a subscription that is at best a shot in the dark.

I've had IBS for years, nothing I took sorted it out, I read online about an old age treatment for stomach cramps, taking a shot of Apple cider vinegar, that basically cured me, never had a case of IBS since then. It apparently remedies low stomach acid by compensating.

My advise, always visit your doctor but don't dismiss harmless alternative either.
 
Last night saw me finding myself having a few issues - these issues (some of them) resulted in delays of me getting to the patient and I hate delays!

So kids! Some education time!!!

I need people to spread the news and hopefully follow this;

You call for EMS ambulance right... be it government or not - now do the following;

  • Calm down, we are on our way! If not, call back every 10 minutes, giving an update of the patient to the call taker or hounding the control room!
  • Make sure you clear a path to the patient, especially if the patient can't move (say, a 80 year old mother who is bedridden) by moving furniture etc - moving cars etc.
  • Put your animals in a closed room or outside where they don't have access to the EMS personnel - sadly, many EMS crews of scared of animals (dogs mainly) for good reasons.
  • Go outside NOW - pretend YOU are not from the area - can you see a house number? If not, fix that, get one and put one up! Do you know your address? DO YOUR KIDS KNOW YOUR ADDRESS? (educate them!!) - give cross roads, landmarks, teach your kids this information!
  • Now get as much information of the patient ready for us, ID documents, medical conditions (such as diabetes, high blood, low blood, previous heart attack, strokes etc) medical aid cards, pack all the medications together in a nice bag, pack extra cloths, money, cellphones into the bag and decide who is going to escort the patient to hospital - if the patient is at a office block, contact the family members and inform them of what is happening - then just before the ambulance departs (they will have assessed him/her by now) ask them what hospital they are going to and inform the family accordingly.
  • Take down the ambulance number, name of the service - so that if the condition of the patient changes and they have to divert to another hospital, you can contact the control room and find out exactly where the ambulance went (if the patient obviously can't speak for him/herself)
  • If at night, be outside waiting for the ambulance.

I'd like to try and arrange (if possible) a basic life support CPR course for MyBB members - but you guys must please PM me if you are interested. There will be a minimal fee (because the person in question will have to HIRE the equipment) and we will take it from there.
 
gdiza said:
Tip!

If you're a bit on the chubby side or dizzy often or have headache (especially pulsating headaches behind the eyes that occur early in the morning) or have blurred vision sometimes or a mixture of the mentioned symptoms - you might have HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE and that can lead to many other problems such as STROKES etc..
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This happened to me 2 months ago, turns out I do have a high BP... 160 :(
 
ice_cubes said:
not yet,. went again last week and its 145
So doc says I must either manage my weight or get medication for good.
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This is the best route; start easy, go for walks, small jogs, change ya diet... go buy an AUTOMATIC BP CUFF and check daily.
anything above 140 is not great. Monitor it yourself.

Some good advice
Posted by the National Department of Health (South Africa) on their Facebook page:

Health tips: Nutrition
*Eat vegetables and fruit daily
*Chicken fish, eggs and milk are good proteins
*Do not eat too much red meat
*Eat less fat and refined foods
*Use sault sparingly
*Drink lots of clean water
 
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My friend's took blood-pressure tablets for 30 odd years only because his family has a history of heart-disease even though his blood pressure was 110/60. He ended up suffering from such severe depression that he slit his wrists and died at 58. Nothing the doctor told him would make any difference, he thought he was saving himself
 
gdiza said:
This is the best route; start easy, go for walks, small jogs, change ya diet... go buy an AUTOMATIC BP CUFF and check daily.
anything above 140 is not great. Monitor it yourself.

Some good advice
Posted by the National Department of Health (South Africa) on their Facebook page:

Health tips: Nutrition
*Eat vegetables and fruit daily
*Chicken fish, eggs and milk are good proteins
*Do not eat too much red meat
*Eat less fat and refined foods
*Use sault sparingly
*Drink lots of clean water
Click to expand...

thanks, I have one of those fitness watches that have a bp monitor thats active allday... so far so good :)
 
chrisc4290 said:
My friend's took blood-pressure tablets for 30 odd years only because his family has a history of heart-disease even though his blood pressure was 110/60. He ended up suffering from such severe depression that he slit his wrists and died at 58. Nothing the doctor told him would make any difference, he thought he was saving himself
Click to expand...

One should have nothing to do with the other.
As you get older, things change in your life and body - thus why you need to go for checkups when things / feelings / pains etc come / change.
When you have HYPERTENSION, taking the medication gets / keeps your BP to be lower so if he didn't take his meds, he'd have a HIGH BP and that's dangerous.
Depression hits many people and people AROUND them don't really take notice of the changes and only really notice it AFTER because then it's like "THATS WHY HE DID THAT OR SAID THAT"
 
Hi all,

My friend has opened her own medical business and is selling BP cuffs amongst other things on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/emedicalcape

For those interested in getting a digital automatic BP cuff, check the Facebook page for more pricing and such, she'll have thermometers as well soon.
 
cbrunsdonza said:
He buries an average of 5 patients a year with pancreatitis and its no laughing matter
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Hope you feeling better but OMG! Your doctor has his own burial service!
There has to be some conflict of interest here!
 
gdiza said:
Hi all,

My friend has opened her own medical business and is selling BP cuffs amongst other things on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/emedicalcape

For those interested in getting a digital automatic BP cuff, check the Facebook page for more pricing and such, she'll have thermometers as well soon.
Click to expand...

Hey, need some stock and replacements. Does your friend have a website? On an old mobile, can't really load Facebook to check eish.

Edit: I could possibly help with a First Aid 1 course in JHB. Qualified instructor on our team.
 
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