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Nothing sucks quite so much as watching a loved one be in pain and being unable to do anything to make it better.
Harvey spoke to the ortho doc about her shoulder today.
The options are:
1. Physical therapy and see what we get for lost motion and strength.
2. Plates and screws. Because she smokes, bone necropathy is a thing?
3. Complete replacement of the joint.
For both surgeries, her diabetes comes into play and she has to get her A1C down to an amazingly low level.
This got her to burst into tears because after the insurance pays, the meds that actually work to keep her glucose levels in check comes to $700 a month.
Metformin, which is essentially free, doesn't do a good job with her blood sugar.
We're super pissed that the attending at the emergency room didn't do more than an x-ray and send her home with a sling. We're convinced that had they done a CT scan that night they'd have done surgery immediately and emergency surgery doesn't demand a low A1C. Emergency surgery is also covered by our insurance better.
To say that she is bummed out is a gargantuan understatement.
Can I borrow someone's "make it all better" magic wand?
Here are some things to consider:
ReplyDelete1) For the smoking, check out "Hypothyroidism Type 2" by Dr. Mark Starr. Diagnosis is simple. Take your basal/resting temperature. The fix is easy and inexpensive. Both "raw thyroid" and lugols iodine (3 drops/day) can be ordered off the internet without prescription. I get mine from Vitacost dot com for ~$25 and ~$15. One bottle of raw thyroid lasts me two months (100mg 3 times a day) and a two ounce bottle of lugols iodine last several months (3 drops/day applied topically).
2) For diabetes, check out "Dr. Darren Schmidt" on YouTube. Go to his channel, click videos, and scroll down to the end to get all the videos in view. Then search (control+F or menu/find) for "diabetes" without the quotes. Watch any videos with diabetes in the title. Basically she needs to be on a ketogenic diet with intermitent fasting.
You totally don't need to publish this:
ReplyDeleteIn having recently switched insurance and gotten a run around on taking semaglutide, ozempic etc, for a1c I discovered options. There are websites that you can sign up to and a doctor will prescribe you semaglutide but in a much cheaper form than nova nordisk. There are also sites where you can straight up buy research semaglutide straight from the labs that produce it. There's a couple different peptides that do this. If she's on trulicity you can get that chemical too.
In a similar circumstance I was able to radically lower my A1c with a strict carnivore (ketogenic as mentioned above).
ReplyDeleteMy condolences for the healing complications. I too am diabetic (Type II) but its my blood thinner is what causes the worst complications. When I had a colonoscopy a few years ago, I had to stop taking blood thinner. It temporary replacement was getting shots in my stomach four times a day. I did it myself (not waiting or paying for a freaking nurse to do it). After procedure was done, I had my INR checked - it was ALL jacked up
ReplyDeleteDoctors are going to kill me.
jrg
Sincere condolences on your situation.
ReplyDeleteBut FWIW, a CT wouldn't typically be indicated for bones (bones = X-rays, and MRIs for joints; CTs = soft tissue, like internal organs, brains, etc.), MRIs are almost never emergently done, and short of bones actually still protruding from one's meatsuit, there's generally no such thing as "emergency" orthopedic surgery. Even shattered femoral head Fxs can and do wait a day or three.
A closed shoulder injury is never an emergent problem, once the initial injury and pain control are addressed, assuming one has C/S/M distally with normal anatomical positioning. That's what ortho follow-ups are for, which is why this is where it is for you folks.
Doesn't make one bit better, but that's the way it works in nearly every case I've ever seen.
Just saying.
But if you source magic "make it all better" wands, I'll go halves with you on a dozen.
The image was a high resolution color 3D image of her shoulder area. Everyone kept saying CT scan, so that's what I repeated here. Thag tanker, Thag not DJ person studying science of radios (radiologist for those who don't speak cave-man).
DeleteI'm getting a score of those wands if I can ever find them!
I've met about a dozen people who have dropped their A1C from the 12s (extremely high) down to the mid 5s (normal) and lower just by doing a keto diet without even fasting. Including my brother. Diabetes runs in my family and I was heading that way with pre-diabetes as far back as 2010 (like they say somewhere around 60% of America has) but didn't make that go away until I went keto seven years ago. I've also met about a dozen people who have lost over a hundred pounds on keto and some who have lost more.
ReplyDeleteOne place leading the collection of solid, quality, research on this is Virta Health from Indiana. Dr. Steven Phinney and Dr. Jeff Volek are now the big names there. No, 100% of patients didn't have these results, but about 2/3 got off all medications within a year. Typically, if they're taking insulin, that went down 50% on the first day.
https://www.virtahealth.com/blog/stephen-phinney-jeff-volek-science-ketosis-adaptation
Another is Dr. Eric Westman at Duke University in North Carolina.
https://ericwestmanmd.com/
He tells the story of during his early years as a doctor, working in a VA hospital. He had two patients who were unlike all the others. They got healthier. He asked them what they did (separate times and visits) and they both said they did Atkins diet. He said, "no, no, that'll mess up your cholesterol and blood lipids". One said something like, "Gee, you wouldn't happen to know a doctor that could order blood tests and see?" He did and both were fine. That started his journey.
The reason people commenting above about a ketogenic or carnivoric diet helping diabetes because before insulin and all other fancy drugs the only way to treat diabetes was with a low to no carb diet, basically meat, fish, some green vegetables, chicken, pork, eggs, you know, a ketogenic diet.
ReplyDeleteThag, check to see if there are any prescription assistance programs or see if Her Doc can give y'all enough samples to get you by until after the surgery.
Good luck. I know how screwed the system is, as I deal with it daily for my wife.