
In hospital for 34 years - fern12
http://www.thomas-morris.uk/hospital-34-years/
======
bufferoverflow
Just over two months ago I got myself a mysterious sickness, and it's puzzling
doctors. I've been in bed most of the time, between visiting hospitals.

I have constant dizziness, borderline fainting (but never faint),
weakness/fatigue, lots of gas (burping), ringing in my ears, dry skin, I'm
losing weight despite moving very little, slow metabolism probably. I randomly
get better when I can walk around for a few hours. I also get bad "attacks"
when my mouth gets dry, heart races, I can't get up, and I generally feel like
I'm dying, but it passes in ~10 minutes.

I had multiple blood tests, which are nearly perfect, except glycated
hemoglobin, which is slightly elevated, but not at the diabetes level. I had
gastroscopy, X-rays, and head MRI, two EKGs, echocardiogram, all normal. I'm
finishing some heavy antibiotic treatment, which seems to have done nothing.

It's all very frustrating, my symptoms fall under so many diseases/conditions,
it's extremely hard to pinpoint even with modern medicine. It can be anything
from sleep deprivation, dehydration, panic attacks to more serious things like
heart infection, arythmia, tumor, cancer, vestibular apparatus disorder, etc.

Diagnostics is still very very hard.

~~~
piyush_soni
Another unwanted random suggestion, but along with all the medical tests and
treatments you're undergoing, you might want to try regular Meditation and
Pranayama (Breathing exercises) on the side. Sometimes it has great effects,
and it never harms anyone anyway.

~~~
bufferoverflow
Thanks. I don't know why you're getting downvoted so much. Meditation
definitely won't hurt, I've been wanting to try it.

~~~
piyush_soni
Though it's 'net upvotes' right now, I can understand people's apprehensions
about this. A lot of people still think it's some sort of a quackery or just
plain useless, but a considerable amount of actual research has gone into it
by some of the top universities and most have found only benefits.

This article is from a famous and long time Stanford Researcher on the same
(who's also studying the effects of meditation on war veterans for quite some
time along with other studies):

[https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/feeling-
it/201309/20-sc...](https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/feeling-
it/201309/20-scientific-reasons-start-meditating-today)

~~~
DanBC
Most of the research has serious flaws.

[http://www.newsweek.com/mindfulness-meaningless-word-
shoddy-...](http://www.newsweek.com/mindfulness-meaningless-word-shoddy-
science-behind-it-682008)

[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wheres-the-
proof-...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wheres-the-proof-that-
mindfulness-meditation-works1/)

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ggg9990
Reminds me of the recent recommendation to not use metal barbecue brushes as
the bristles can get on the food and lodge in one's throat, leading to
debilitating disease and death.

------
prbuckley
This story reminds me of the dangers of metal grill brushes. Public service
announcement, don't use a metal brush to clean your grill. The metal strands
can breakoff and if they get lodged in your food and accidentally swallowed it
causes serious health issues and surgeons have a very difficult time removing
them. These brushes are actually outlawed in Canada but not in the USA.

Here is an article on why they are dangerous if you want to know more...
[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/grill-barbecue-metal-brush-
dang...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/grill-barbecue-metal-brush-dangers/)

------
ladberg
I'm insanely curious how so many people managed to lodge needles in their
heart and either not know it was there or not know to have it looked at.

~~~
no_protocol
It seems like a needle piercing the skin between two ribs to a distance of at
least 2-3 cm could become lodged in tissue inside and be pulled in completely
when the rib cage expands on the next breath. Once the needle is inside the
body, anything goes. The heart is only approximately 3-4 cm from the skin. The
heart's beating could grab the needle and pull it even farther in.

A web search brings up several instances. This one [1] at least seems to
somewhat confirm my intuition.

[1]: [https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Docs-use-magnet-
to...](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Docs-use-magnet-to-pull-out-
needle-from-mans-heart/articleshow/5121654.cms)

------
ragesh
I feel immensely grateful for being alive at a time when something like this
could have been diagnosed (if I may be allowed a pun) in a heartbeat, but at
the same time I cannot help but wonder about the ailments that our machines
cannot see and our knowledge cannot diagnose yet.

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spraak
Creepy! It makes me wonder what other ailments people may currently have for
which their isn't yet technology to discover. Had they done an Xray of Nellis
they surely would have seen the needle, I'd imagine.

~~~
ars
> for which their isn't yet technology to discover

Without a doubt there will be a ton of DNA based issues. Right now we know
just a tiny number of them, and usually only when the issue is a single
change.

At some point we'll have the computing power to detect issues caused by two
mutations at once, then 3, and so on.

We would need massive quantities of data: Full genome analysis, and a full
medical description in a computer readable format.

So expect a DNA drive at some point in your future: Hopefully anonymized, and
even more hopefully optional. (Anonymized is pretty likely - but optional,
well, that one we'll see - I suspect at some point you will be required to
submit data in order to receive health insurance, so technically optional, but
not practically.)

2: Chemically induced issues. (What chemical specifically I obviously can not
say.) I suspect we more or less know all the single-chemical issues. But
issues caused by chemicals that act synergistically are much less likely to be
known.

3: Various parasites and other types of mutualism (Commensalism, Amensalism).

~~~
mnw21cam
In terms of finding issues caused by multiple mutations, it isn't so much a
case of not having enough computing power - instead, it is about having enough
patients with the same condition that gives enough statistical power to say
for sure that these variants are the cause.

Humans are extremely variable. If I do whole-genome sequencing on a random
person, I'll find probably 3 million places in their DNA where they differ
from the average Joe. 90% of those are common variants, and we can filter
those out because we know they are common, but that still leaves on the order
of 300,000 variants that are rare, the vast majority of which cause absolutely
nothing.

We already diagnose conditions caused by two mutations - they are called
compound heterozygous, because there are two heterozygous mutations, one on
each copy of a particular gene, therefore clobbering both copies and causing
disease. We have very very few conditions where we know that mutations on
multiple genes are required for disease - they are simply too hard to look
for, as we don't have enough people in the world to get the statistical power.

------
13of40
Stumbled across this while looking for similar cases:
[https://www.wired.com/2009/06/revealed-britains-wwii-
poison-...](https://www.wired.com/2009/06/revealed-britains-wwii-poison-
sewing-needle-bomb/)

------
justboxing
Kinda ironic, that her last name is Steel(e).

~~~
coupdejarnac
No, it's coincidence.

Irony would be when you expect her name to be Ms. Soggy-Noodles, but it turns
out to be Ms. Steele.

But, yeah, steel is rather iron-y, so I'll give you that.

~~~
foota
You wouldn't expect someone to have the same name as the thing in their heart
though, would you?

~~~
saltedmd5
Something isn't ironic just because you wouldn't expect it, something is
ironic because it is the _inverse_ of expectations.

Like if her name had been Lady Smallheart.

------
chrthrowaway
I have been to more than a dozen doctors over the past 4 years and nobody has
been able to diagnose what's wrong with me.

I have the following symptoms:

\- _Constant phlegm in throat and upper airways_ (This is the most annoying).

\- Fatigue

\- Low-quality sleep

\- Phlegm increases after eating and during exercise and causes me a runny
nose

I am in my mid 20s, used to smoke, quit ~5 years ago, I have a deviated
septum.

I have been through the following treatments and diagnoses:

\- H.Pylori diagnosis – Negative.

\- Treatment for GERD – No improvement.

\- Treatment for LPR and Chronic Bronchitis – Caused me breathing problems.

\- Treatment for anxiety – No improvement.

I feel hopeless of ever living normally again, I can't exercise because phlegm
keeps running up my nose and throat, I can't eat outside because I have to use
an obscene amount of tissues.

I've seen multiple ENTs, gastroenterologists, and respiratory system
physicians. Once I looked closely at "modern" medicine, it seems to me that
it's not very modern per se.

~~~
cc81
Crohns? It can in rare cases affect the nose/throat and fits with the fatigue.
However I assume the gastro would have noticed it.

No allergies?

~~~
chrthrowaway
One of the gastros (my favorite) was a woman who methodically went step-by-
step diagnosing, asking for tests, and giving preventative treatment (when
applicable) for everything below the esophagus, she didn't suspect Crohn's at
all.

Early on, crohn's was a hypothesis I had but I quickly moved on because
there's very little evidence to support it in my case; and a colonoscopy isn't
something I'd accept based on very little evidence.

The ENT told me "If you don't get better with the gastroenterologist, we can
consider a septoplasty" but he was kinda skeptical that a deviated septum
alone would cause this amount of phlegm.

Regarding allergies, the respiratory specialist rejected it. And over the
course of these treatments, I self-prescribed Claritin (which didn't do
anything), followed by Zyrtec (nothing either) to rule out allergies. Also,
this is consistent, not seasonal, and not food-related, the latter which I
have controlled for.

