General Your Health Care Headache

[Huntn]

Just completed a at-home Sleep Study to verify if I have sleep apnea or not. My doctor suggested this after I asked him about it, based on my wife’s complaints that I snore, at least when sleeping on my bac. But she can’t say she notices me gasping. Several people told me that an in-clinic sleep study is better with someone watching you.

While I won’t call it hellish it was 3 nights of lost sleep, I slept, but I lost sleep. A strap around the chest with a t-shirt worn under, possibly a heart monitor, an uncomfortable face device, not a mask, but narrow thing with prongs that rested on the opening of my nostrils to not monitor breath, very noticible, and a finger monitor for pulse. Number one I hated being strapped up, and while I normally would have enjoyed sleeping on my back, this position was uncomfortable as I became very conscious of my breathing and I ended up on my side. As I said I lost several hours of sleep each night.

So now, I ship it back to the company to analyze and wait for the doctor’s input. I really don’t want to wear a mask when I sleep, but we can’t always get what we want, can we?

 

[Huntn]

How did you get rid of toenail fungus?
I just learned that toenail fungus, until I can come up with something better than visiting a podiatrist, is something I’m going to have to live with. And here I thought she would have something better than a prescription for a three month regimen of once a day tablets of terbinafine whch worked for me 20 years ago, but in the last year I did 2 regimens of 90 days each, and It’s still there. The doctor told me that if it did not work in the previous attempt though my general practishiiner, it would unlikely work by trying it again.

Also, I had heard of laser treatments, but she told me she did not have a laser for this purpose, because it was so expensive. This is Texas I am residing in.

The issue here that foot fungus is an opportunistic organism, it is not health threatening beyond disfigured yellow nails. If you can get rid of it, but it’s not that hard to be reinfected and if you don’t treat all your shoes with Lysol or some disinfectant, you may get reinfected. I might consider that if the medicine worked, but it’s not. What I’m seeing is a slight improvement, but it‘s not eliminated and this is a medicine where they have to monitor your liver when you take it, to make sure the cure is not killing you.
So I’ll keep searching to see if there is a cure or maybe find someone with a laser… however reports are statistically,lasers are less effective than oral treatments, but tha would not rule it out as effective for me.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/laser-treatment-for-nail-fungus#effectiveness

While the overall success rate was about 63% — slightly lower than medication treatments — laser therapy may offer a more suitable option due to the risk of side effects associated with medication use. Other types of lasers may also be effective and safe

 

[Huntn]

Anyone have cataract surgery to replace your lenses? It was recommended I get this done, and the price surprised me:

• Basic manual lense replacement covered by Medicare.
• Astigmatism- with laser corrects distance vision- $2695 per eye ($5400). Reading glasses still needed.
• Extended Range- with laser, corrects close and far vision, no glasses needed after, but there are rings on this lense that you see, and should go to be not being noticed in your vision, eventually possibly up to a year- $4495 per eye ($9000).

Anyone do this with the rings? Do you reccomend it? I would not be happy if I did the most expensive, and ended up having to use reading glasses in a couple of years anyway. And the idea od seeing some rings bothers me.

 

[Huntn]

Anyone have cataract surgery to replace your lenses? It was recommended I get this done, and the price surprised me:

• Basic manual lense replacement covered by Medicare.
• Astigmatism- with laser corrects distance vision- $2695 per eye ($5400). Reading glasses still needed.
• Extended Range- with laser, corrects close and far vision, no glasses needed after, but there are rings on this lense that you see, and should go to be not being noticed in your vision, eventually possibly up to a year- $4495 per eye ($9000).

Anyone do this with the rings? Do you reccomend it? I would not be happy if I did the most expensive, and ended up having to use reading glasses in a couple of years anyway. And the idea od seeing some rings bothers me.

After reading up about this, I decided to go with the mono focal correction. I’d be pissed if I paid the Extra $$ and ended up bothered by halos or artifacts, or with reading glasses anyway. I’m a little irritated that in the sales job offered for multi focal, there was zero mention of unsatisfactory results.

Comparing Long-Term Outcomes of Monofocal vs Multifocal IOLs

A detailed look at long-term outcomes of monofocal vs multifocal IOLs based on randomised trials. Read now for comprehensive practical analysis.

www.londoncataractcentre.co.uk

 

[Alli]

After reading up about this, I decided to go with the mono focal correction. I’d be pissed if I paid the Extra $$ and ended up bothered by halos or artifacts, or with reading glasses anyway. I’m a little irritated that in the sales job offered for multi focal, there was zero mention of unsatisfactory results

In the long run it doesn't matter. Two years post cataract we're all back in glasses anyway.

 

[Clix Pix]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I wanted to say how much this discussion of cataracts plus Cliff's recent posts about his own cataract procedures have been VERY helpful to me. I'll be joining the cataract removal club in April. It's been a long haul getting to this point -- I should've had this done last year. I was really scared and anxious about the whole thing and then I developed AFib and Sick Sinus Syndrome so after two hospitalizations last summer and fall, I had a pacemaker inserted. I am doing fine now, but the recovery did take a while. The ophthalmologist told me that I would need to wait four months after the pacemaker surgery before he would do the cataract procedure(s), plus he will need authorization from my cardiac team. One good thing about the cardiac stuff is that after all that, the cataract procedures are significantly less scary than they had been, although I'm still a bit nervous and will be as the time gets closer..

In the meantime I have been doing my homework, talking with friends who've assured me that "it's a piece of cake!", reading as much as I could online and avidly pored over threads like this. So when I met with the ophthalmologist for the cataract surgery discussion I was prepared. (Well, until I got three pages of instructions and information plus a list of everything that could go wrong!). Anyway I had already decided on monofocal intraocular (distance) lenses and the doctor agreed that it would be the best option for me. My astigmatism and reading vision can be corrected by glasses, and I'm fine with that. A couple of my friends mentioned, too, that they had chosen the laser procedure and more expensive lenses, and afterward found themselves wondering if it had been worth the extra expenses. Me, I'm perfectly happy letting Medicare Advantage take care of the costs. I was surprised to learn that the eye drops the patient needs to use pre-op and post-op may not covered by insurance.

So over the next few weeks I've got pre-op appointments with the ophthalmologist and my cardiac team (the latter to get a more recent EKG and bloodwork and anything else they decide is necessary.

Not looking forward to the surgical process and the eyedrops routine afterward, but I definitely AM looking forward to clear vision!