How can I stay safe without my wife or dog by my side?

[Aero51]

I'm hanging in there. If I go see a doctor, he and his staff will have me sick for days with respiratory distress, migraines, flared-up arthritis, etc. Then, as doctors like to do, he will want me to go to the hospital to have unspecified "tests" done, exposing me to lots of other people wearing fragrances. People in the medical industry have no idea what "fragrance-free" means. None.

Stop making stupid excuses because you are scared and just see the doctor, unless you want to live as a vegetable.

 

[dlgoff]

Stop making stupid excuses because you are scared...

Knowing turbo, scared is the last thing he's feeling.

 

[turbo]

Knowing turbo, scared is the last thing he's feeling.

Right, dlg. I am not scared. I am acting with the absolute certainty with the knowledge that a visit to the doctor's office or a visit to the hospital will leave me sick for at least several days. I cannot expect any accommodation from fragrances at such places, and expect to be incapacitated for days. Plus, my wife would have to take time off to come with me and drive me home afterward. No sane person would would want me on the road with them (disoriented and unable to function normally). They would probably rather take their chances with a drunk.

 

[Aero51]

I still think you're hiding the fact that your nervous. You can't tell me that if the doctor told you the next stroke will kill you that you wouldn't be taken back...

 

[russ_watters]

Right, dlg. I am not scared. I am acting with the absolute certainty with the knowledge that a visit to the doctor's office or a visit to the hospital will leave me sick for at least several days.

So just to be clear: you're pretty sure the MCS won't kill you if you go see a doctor, it'll just make you sick for a few days, right?

Are you aware that a stroke can kill you?

I still think you're hiding the fact that your nervous

Agreed.

 

[atyy]

So what did your doctor say, since you said he knows about it?

 

[drizzle]

At least turbo has a reason- though it's not justifying you're insistence to stay and not go to see the doctor turbo- I know a number of people who refuse to go see a doctor just to not know what they may have, even if the symptoms are obvious.

But again turbo, your chances of surviving a stroke are very low compared to your allergies (it's not even comparable).
Please understand that we care for you and want you to be good.

 

[ApplePion]

... I have a bit less ability to sense joint position in my legs...

I'm puzzled. Don't strokes usually only affect limbs on one side of the body? Yet you wrote "legs" -- plural.

 

[turbo]

I'm puzzled. Don't strokes usually only affect limbs on one side of the body? Yet you wrote "legs" -- plural.

With the first stoke, I lost the ability to judge joint position in my left leg and foot (it took me about 3 days to learn how to walk on level surfaces) and I lost most of my ability to sense temperature in my right leg, though my right foot continued to "burn" constantly through all these years. With this last event, the pain in my right foot has abated quite a bit, and I can walk more comfortably. A little up-side.

Kind of a good thing, since I have a good-sized dog that likes to walk and run. I can't run with him, but we have a big piece of property and he can run himself.

 

[ApplePion]

With the first stoke, I lost the ability to judge joint position in my left leg and foot (it took me about 3 days to learn how to walk on level surfaces) and I lost most of my ability to sense temperature in my right leg...

That's what I do not understand. If you have a stroke on the right side of your brain it affects your left side of your body, and if you have a stroke on the left side of your brain it affects the right side of your body (the nerves criss-cross so that a brain hemisphere deals with the opposite part of the body) yet your first stroke did stuff to both the left and right sides of your body.

The asymmetric affects of a stroke are very well-known and important diagnosticly. For example, if a person has blurry vision in one eye a stroke will be seriously suspected but if the vision is blurry in both eyes a stroke will be considered extremely unlikely. Muscle weakness on one side of the body is a serious indicator of a possibility of a stroke, but weakness on both sides is not a serious indicator of the possibility of a stroke. Etc. I've never heard of a stroke having effects on both sides (except speech where a single hemisphere largely controls both left and right side of speech).

 

[turbo]

I had a brain-stem stroke initially, and the blocked area affected the sides of my lower body asymmetrically. My neurologist was a nice young German woman who explained how it all worked. She is out of private practice, now, and is working with the VA to diagnose and rehabilitate wounded veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nice lady and well-regarded.

 

[atyy]

With the first stoke, I lost the ability to judge joint position in my left leg and foot (it took me about 3 days to learn how to walk on level surfaces) and I lost most of my ability to sense temperature in my right leg, though my right foot continued to "burn" constantly through all these years. With this last event, the pain in my right foot has abated quite a bit, and I can walk more comfortably. A little up-side.

Kind of a good thing, since I have a good-sized dog that likes to walk and run. I can't run with him, but we have a big piece of property and he can run himself.

An upside is good to hear - any downsides? Did you get medical advice from a trusted doctor over the phone?

 

[rhody]

It has been more than a week. Glad to see you are still with us, stubborn as you are. Nice writeup on your friendly neighbors as well. Good to hear.

Rhody...