What are you doing today?

Glad to hear that you did go get checked out, SS! Better to do that and then have a further exploration path to follow if necessary, along with a prescription or two in hand in the meantime, than ignoring it and perhaps having a later, more unpleasant scenario unfold. Kudos to you for going to A&E and then enduring the lengthy wait there!
 
Scepticalscribe said:
Actually, and this may sound surprising, I never get them, or, rather, never used to get them; I had two - quite minor ones - so minor, I forgot about them, a week or so after my return from Bosnia.

I have never had nosebleeds. Not until now.

Then, this week, I had two - well, yes, quite, er, voluminous - actually, massive, nosebleeds, three days apart.

I was preparing dinner when I had the first, and - most improbably - was in the shower when the second occurred, this morning.


No, until this week, I have never had a serious nosebleed in my life, and - until a few weeks ago - I had never had any sort of a nosebleed.

Well, I'm just back from nearly ten hours in A&E.

Nosebleeds are bad enough, but many of my poor peers in A&E seemed to have suffered from a variety of bad falls (recent weather, glassy, slippy, roads and footpaths offering a ready explanation), elbows, arms, eyes, legs, heads.....

And then, there were the really serious and truly tragic cases; there is nothing like a few hours in A&E to put a bit of perspective on life and its problems.

Now, normally, I'd never venture near an emergency service at a week-end, especially at a week-end approaching Christmas, but, but but,......two nosebleeds in under four days, - nosebleeds where the bleeding did not cease within 15-30 minutes despite my following the relevant instructions, these merited a second - professional - opinion, if only to try to discover what caused the damned things. And, the second but: My GP does not work week-ends, and the locum would only have sent me to A&E anyway.

Okay: I have scripts (try finding an open pharmacy on a Sunday), and my GP will be written to, as will ENT for further exploration and examination.

Christmas - as I well recall with both parents - is not a good time for health issues to surface.
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Glad you went to get it checked out. I recall taking Miss AFB to A&E many years ago and waiting for hours on end. Rather soul destroying. Glad I haven’t had to venture near one in years. Actually since I moved I don’t even know where my local one is! I should probably find out just in case.
Anyway hope you found a chemist. There is always one open as they have a rota to keep one open late somewhere. But not easy without a car.

Had a better nights sleep so I’m hoping the Covid is on the decline. However the ulcers are worse this morning. Especially the ones at the back of my throat. Hurts to swallow.
 
Well, two (massive) nosebleeds in three days - Wednesday evening and Saturday morning was more than adequate warning - plus, the fact that neither subsided in what various internet sites I consulted advised was an appropriate time frame, by 15, at most 30 minutes - were in themselves, sufficient warning that this needed to be looked at by someone who had some idea of what they were about.

Given that my GP was shut, A&E was the next obvious option; well, it was nice and warm, and I watched the World Cup (3rd place play off) match there.

While I had charged up my phone, ten hours in A&E did for the battery on my (I now realise quite elderly) iPhone SE; memo to self: Bring charger next time.

In truth, I thought I'd be fine for several hours with a fully charged phone, well, I was, but, I wasn't, as I was there for (far) longer than expected. Actually, almost everyone else in there, despite their battered and bruised appearances, had phones that are more modern than mine, and chargers that were incompatible with mine.

I took a taxi to the hospital and apologised to the kind driver for the risk his nice clean car was undertaking with the state of his passenger - to be more preceise, the state of my nose (an enormous - and quite spectacularly horrid - clot had formed, but blood was still seeping through).

He handed me tissues, (although I was already amply supplied) and drove exceedingly carefully (state of roads and state of passenger both requiring and dictating and determining this) and was extraordinarily kind, as was the Pakistani doctor (kind, competent, professional) who treated me when I did finally manage to be seen in A&E.

Now, I have suffered from sinus issues all of my life, and the A&E doctor explained that he could see that there were issues with my sinuses, and that my nose was red, and inflamed, but also could not see an immediate explanation for what had actually caused this (i.e. no evident and visible cause such as a burst blood vessel). Hence, ENT.

I had to phone the French bakery to let them know that they no longer needed to hold bread for me, but that instead, I shall head in to collect some tomorrow.

Right: Pharmacy hunt beckons.
 
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Scepticalscribe said:
Well, two (massive) nosebleeds in three days - Wednesday evening and Saturday morning was more than adequate warning - plus, the fact that neither subsided in what various internet sites I consulted advised was an apropriate time frame, by 15, at most 30 minutes - were in themselves, sufficient warning that this needed to be looked at.

Given that my GP was shut, A&E was the next obvious option; well, it was nice and warm, and I watched the World Cup (3rd place play off) match there.

While I had charged up my phone, ten hours in A&E did for the battery on my (I now realise quite elderly) iPhone SE; memo to self: Bring charger next time.

In truth, I thought I'd be fine for several hours with a fully charged phone, wellm, I was, but, I wasn't, as I was there for longer than expected. Actually, almost everyone else in there, despite their battered and bruised appearances, had phones that are more modern than mine, and chargers that were incompatible with mine.

I took a taxi and apologised to the kind driver for the risk his nice clean car was undertaking with the state of his passenger - to be more preceise, the state of my nose (an enormous - and quite spectacularly horrid - clot had formed, but blood was still seeping through).

He handed me tissues, (although I was already amply supplied) and drove exceedingly carefully (stae of roads and state of passenger both requiring and determining this) and was extraordinarily kind, as was the Pakistani doctor (kind, competent, professional) who treated me when I did finally manage to be seen in A&E.

Now, I have suffered from sinus issues all of my life, and the A&E doctor explained that he could see that there were issues with my sinuses, and that my nose was red, and inflamed, but also could not see an immediate explanation for what had actually caused this (i.e. no evident and visible cause such as a burst blood vessel). Hence, ENT.

I had to phone the French bakery to let them know that they no longer needed to hold bread for me, but that instead, I shall head in to collect some tomorrow.

Right: Pharmacy hunt beckons.
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Good luck with the hunt. An option for your phone maybe a portable battery. They can extend the battery quite a bit and you just keep it in your bag when you need it. I often use one at work when away from the office. Often referred to as a power bank when searching Amazon etc.
 
Back from the pharmacy; they were brisk and professional, and I am now equipped with a nasal spray, and a cream, both to be used every six-eight hours for the next ten days.

On the kind Pakistani doctor's recommendation, I also purchased some medical gauze - for, last night, he had demonstrated to me how to apply a dressing to my nose should this recur.

He had hoped that it would start bleeding again while I was under observation last night, so that he could attempt to identify what caused this (unpleasant and inconvenient) condition, but, of course, as is the bizarre and ironic way of such things, needless to say, my nose was clean and quiet and utterly exemplary in its refusal to bleed on command.

Of course, on reflection, I do recall that Mother used to suffer from volcanic nosebleeds, all of her life, until she had the offending organ cauterised after a particularly dramatic incident where her husband (who had recently recovered from cardiac surgery and was rather focussed on his own needs) and Other Brother - both of whom were being driven by my mother, her husband to the city, Other Brother to the train or bus station to return to where he lived - abandoned her and bravely fled, when her nose exploded volcanically, whereupon she calmly stopped the car, found parking, dropped them off, (they both decided to catch a bus) and then proceeded to make her (own) way to her GP's surgery (which fortunately was very close by).

I was away on elections, and Decent Brother - when he arrived home that night, and spotted Mother's car parked where it was never parked - was (quite rightly) incandescent with his father and sibling.

Mother's GP (who is now mine) couldn't arrest the flow, and Mother was despatched into A&E, the taxi driver terrified that his nice white leather seats would suffer (my mother thought this was hilarious, while simultaneously feeling sorry for him, as doubtless Friday night drunks regularly did far more damage to the car than an elderly lady with a heavily bleeding nose on the way to hospital to have it treated).

Anyway, she was fortunate; A&E passed her onto ENT who dealt with her immediately and decided to cauterise the relevant part of her nose; and, after that, she never suffered from another nosebleed until her life ended almost two decades later.
 
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Today I'm grouchily updating my homebrew metadata spreadsheet for ebooks purchased from Apple. They have zero interest in the MacOS version of Books app. They haven't even updated the feedback page's slider to show the correct "latest version" of the app since sometime around v 1.5.x.

Well moving right along,... @Scepticalscribe's mention of Ethiopian coffee made me think about brewing up a coffee break from this periodic annoyance of keeping info on my books up to date the hard way, so I'm off for a cuppa Brazilian or Honduran, the two options currently gracing my cupboards.
 
Replaced all remaining can lights in the house with LED's. Now other than the high chandelier, the entire house is LED.

I had started this process a few years ago, but I have a house full of non-neutral dimmers and a lot of LED's didn't place nice with them. But the newer ones do so I was glad to get it done.
 
Scepticalscribe said:
Saw an old friend for coffee (in one of my favourite coffee shops) and brunch this morning.
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Sounds nice. WFH here. Still not feeling great. Mrs AFB has got some sort of virus but is testing negative for Covid. I feel sorry for her, but am isolating from her just in case. She needs to be looked after, not looking after me. But I’m banished to the bedroom and study.
 
Saw another friend - an academic - for coffee this afternoon in the French bakery: Their coffee is excellent.

Both of these coffee appointments had been deferred - twice or three times - last week, on account of, firstly, the weather, and secondly, my nosebleeds.

So, very nice to catch up.

Visited the library, returned (overdue) books - I love libraries, but was not about to risk life and limb by venturing out last week - and collected books that were waiting for me.

Had my watch battery replaced (it has been stuttering and stopping over the past fortnight).

Collected my bread (I had phoned them earlier, and had to cancel on Saturday because I was in A&E) in the French bakery, and placed (and paid for) bread for Christmas.

And paid a visit to the cheesemonger's, and placed an order for Christmas whcih I shall collect on December 23rd.
 
Apple fanboy said:
Sounds nice. WFH here. Still not feeling great. Mrs AFB has got some sort of virus but is testing negative for Covid. I feel sorry for her, but am isolating from her just in case. She needs to be looked after, not looking after me. But I’m banished to the bedroom and study.
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Look after yourself and hope that both you and Mrs AFB are feeling better.
 
Ran to CVS this morning to pick up my eye drops so I can have my first cataract removed on Thursday. Came home, rearranged the living room, and started a nice fire in the fireplace. (We still haven’t put the heat on.) Now I’m sitting in front of a nice fire with the tv on so I can watch the J6C announcement. Nothing else planned for the day.
 
Alli said:
Ran to CVS this morning to pick up my eye drops so I can have my first cataract removed on Thursday. Came home, rearranged the living room, and started a nice fire in the fireplace. (We still haven’t put the heat on.) Now I’m sitting in front of a nice fire with the tv on so I can watch the J6C announcement. Nothing else planned for the day.
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Good luck. My procedures were relatively painless. Biggest issue I had was on my first one the nurse put enough dilating drops in that I was dilated for a couple of days. I looked like a mad cat.

As for the drops, if they are still using the same ones, one of the ones I got didn't sting, but was more of a shock to the eyeball. Not a fan of that one.

Are you getting regular implants or multi-focals?
 
Apple fanboy said:
Still pretty sick. Mrs AFB has some virus (although the Covid tests are negative). It’s a cold and very sore throat with a nasty cough. Temperature. And monthly cycle stuff as well on top. Poor thing.
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Recently, the weather has been absolutely freezing (and - with soaring energy costs - our homes have been a lot less warm than we are used to).

Personally, I have an enormous tolerance for heat - and I suspect that Mrs AFB may be the same (many women are).

A cold spell, a cold house, and monthly cycle stuff - I rememeber - at school - that I always used to feel frozen to the absolute bone on the first day or so when monthly cycle came around (and subsequently discovered that birth control was a life-saver and was terrific for alleviating some of the more awful and uncomfortable symptoms of this condition) will combine to make you feel utterly miserable; it is possible that her immune system may also be less robust than usual.

Anyway, my sympathies to you both; be kind to yourselves.
 
Herdfan said:
Good luck. My procedures were relatively painless. Biggest issue I had was on my first one the nurse put enough dilating drops in that I was dilated for a couple of days. I looked like a mad cat.

As for the drops, if they are still using the same ones, one of the ones I got didn't sting, but was more of a shock to the eyeball. Not a fan of that one.

Are you getting regular implants or multi-focals?
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I’m getting regular. The multi-focals just didn’t seem to be worth it. I did opt for laser though, which means they’ll be able to do a better correction of my near vision as well as far.

Why did no one mention how much those ducking eye drops cost?! Good lord a’mighty. $365 for a bottle the size of my pinky toe. I sure hope there’s enough in there for both eyes. I was able to get it for $80 thanks to a program from Bausch and Lomb, but seriously.
 
Alli said:
I’m getting regular. The multi-focals just didn’t seem to be worth it. I did opt for laser though, which means they’ll be able to do a better correction of my near vision as well as far.

Why did no one mention how much those ducking eye drops cost?! Good lord a’mighty. $365 for a bottle the size of my pinky toe. I sure hope there’s enough in there for both eyes. I was able to get it for $80 thanks to a program from Bausch and Lomb, but seriously.
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Yah my doc scrounged around and came up with samples bc she didn't want to substitute generics, and knew the stupid things could cost like a month's worth of groceries. The insurance for that stuff wasn't great. You'd think by now with all the people who have had their cataracts addressed, even the brand name ones would cost less than they do!

Hope you'll enjoy your "new improved outlook on life" -- I sure did, after even the first eye was done.
 
Alli said:
I’m getting regular. The multi-focals just didn’t seem to be worth it. I did opt for laser though, which means they’ll be able to do a better correction of my near vision as well as far.

Why did no one mention how much those ducking eye drops cost?! Good lord a’mighty. $365 for a bottle the size of my pinky toe. I sure hope there’s enough in there for both eyes. I was able to get it for $80 thanks to a program from Bausch and Lomb, but seriously.
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I had regular for my right eye about 6 years ago. I couldn't do the multifocal due to astigmatism. Agree, the drops are crazy expensive and I had to get so many it was nuts.

The halos I saw immediately following surgery were psychadelic crazy but wore off fairly quickly. But man, I could not believe the color and detail I could see following the procedure. I remember watching some Nat Geo show that evening and seeing a close up of a snake. It was WILD. I felt like I was seeing in HD!

Sure hope you get amazing results and that everything goes as smoothly as possible.
 
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