Under The Weather? (Updated)

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I dunno how to describe it but I haven’t felt good since before Thanksgiving.

Worn the fuck out, run down, whatever.

I probably need a few good shots of Geritol if they even still make that shit.

I’m constantly fucking tired.

All the time. I can sleep ten or twelve hours and when I wake up I wanna go back to sleep.

I fight to stay awake all day.

The Wife has been yelling at me for over a week to go see the Doctor so I finally went yesterday.

Ayep.

Pretty much a waste of time and resources.

They ask a bunch of questions, take a bunch of blood and tell ya to come back in a month.

Oh by the way, you shouldn’t have quit taking all the medications we have already prescribed for you because that is really bad, mmmmkay?

Jesus Christ.

Oh yeah, I’m a walking talking heart attack waiting to happen.

Funny how now that I haven’t had a cigarette in over a week my blood pressure came down to 136/74 without taking their fucking pills ain’t it? Even with 8 completely blocked arteries.

So now Monday I have appointments all day long with a different doctor.

2 Ultra Sound imaging appointments back to back.

One for the clots in my legs and one to look for them in my chest.

Ten months after I first went in for this shit.

I’d like to slap the taste out of someone’s mouth for dragging this shit out so far.

It should be fucking criminal.

So anyways, after doing that all morning then I finally get to see the vascular surgeon chick again. The second appointment since October.

If the right words don’t start coming out of her mouth I am going to fire that bitch on the fucking spot and then I am going to start calling the best of the best around here, the serious people of OHSU hospital up on the hill over in Portland.

They don’t fuck around over there from what I hear.

I am done playing fucking games with this shit.

Update;

I just got some test results back.

Perhaps a smoking gun eh?

Hematocrit is the amount of red blood cells in the system.

Looks like my Red Blood Cell count is low, the Hemoglobin is low and maybe a couple of doses of Geritol wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all.

So now I wait and see what the Doc has to say.

50 thoughts on “Under The Weather? (Updated)”

  1. doctors are just a bunch of vocabulary ed-ja-ma-cated dope pushers. For the most part it’s get the suckers money.

  2. Yep. Been dealing with the same shit. Gretchens gyno was like “Well, we should just monitor that lump for now.” Bitch say fucking what!?! This after a $100 copay where all she did was feel her up… Yeah, she’s done… Don’t even ask about the fuck-fuck games going on with the Primary (don’t) Care doc… We’re on a time crunch and fuckers are like ‘wait and see’…
    That’s why I’m talking to Dr. Samizdat… HE has his shit together and I hope can save my wifes life.

  3. Same shit happened to my dumass. Went doc for neck issue plus lo energy. Sent to oncologist, cardiologist and urologist. Here we go. Welcome to med carousel. Told doc I’d take amphetamines if I could get em. They not impressed. Nothing helped so I quit. Fuck the world and let’er roll.

    • I have also suggested amphetamines to my Dr. I never got sick, lots of energy. She still is not on board with it. I talked to a therapist and she gave me a list of symptoms I could tell a psychiatrist to get a prescription of Adderall. Might have to try it,lol.

  5. You might consider an iron supplement. Give it a try. My ol’ lady was dealing with similar symptoms, turns out she was slightly anemic. Iron supps helped. Just a thought.

    • Phil’s got plenty of iron in his system from all the rusty junk (sorry) he collects, some of it must find it’s way into his blood, surely.

  6. Take it from an ER nurse….WTF!?!??! are you waiting for?!?!?!?! Get to the pharmacy and get some really good iron pills/geritol/wombat spleen/whatevah.
    No wonder you are tired.
    This guy is a wealth of information: https://www.youtube.com/@Drberg/videos
    I would search his videos to see if he has one on Iron and/or anemia.

  7. I would try vitamin B12. If it doesn’t work, you just shit it out anyway. Made a huge difference with my dad years ago. Funny thing, he battled emphysema in the end and never smoked or worked in a polluted environment.

    • I second the B-12. My stats were low like that and had to take weekly B-12 injections and they came back up. Now I’m on monthly injections.

  8. Got the T shirt. Drastically reduced sugar and flour, got into red wine, curcumin. Minor irritations/discomforts gone in a few weeks, no more joint concerns. Mood and energy level improving. Jeans not as tight. No idea what to say about smokes. Doc Wallach or Pharmacist Ben maybe?

  9. There is a good chance that you have sleep apnea as the symptoms that you described fit it well. Please look in to that as it can also cause heart issues among other things.

  10. Your chart looks alot like mine. Gave up coffee for my blood pressure and it he!ped. My mornings suck without caffeine!

    • I would rather have higher blood pressure than give up my beloved coffee. I would be Ted Kaczynski multiplied 10th to the 23rd power socially unacceptable all day, just not in the morning

  12. You’ve been way too patient with these people. I don’t know how you do it. I’d look at raising a stink with your insurance – some carriers have a dispute mechanism, and letting them know that whatever they’ve been paying out in claims has been worth nothing might get some notice. Maybe I’m being overly optimistic there.

    I do know, via reports from others – Dr. Jim for example – that it’s still possible to get good responsive health care. It sure sucks at how hard it can be, and dealing with the system shouldn’t be an added burden on top of dealing with the medical problems.

    Funny you should mention Geritol – we old farts remember those TV commercials. I’ve been meaning to email CederQ re. that supplement stuff, and it made me think of Geritol as well.

  13. Vit B-12 (sub-lingual). Good version and reasonable price is Jarrow’s 1,000 mcg Methyl B-12.

    Supplement with Solaray’s Multi-vitamin to get iron and a host of other goodies. (Forget about any hard-pressed vitamin pills. We don’t digest them and get no benefit from them.)

    I am not recommending anything except for what keeps me out of doctors’ offices for about 40 years now.

  14. I do not want to overly alarm you, but my wife started feeling bad (no energy/night sweats/etc)… turns out she had lymphoma. It was highly treatable with… that was over 10 years ago… she’s doing fine. Stay on top of this… hopefully it is just low iron or similar. When my wife had a bone marrow biopsy just prior to her treatments, her blood was pink, not red.

  15. You should be measuring the box you are going to be spending eternality in! I haven’t seen numbers like that except for advanced CA and near death and dead people. With your skinny ass you have no reserves. Change your diet, find foods rich in Iron, Calcium, magnesium and selenium quit eating that fast food crap your wife insist you all eat. Tough love, brother! With you sleeping and I bet you have sleep apnea, I can hear it when you breathe when we are on the phone. Get a CPAP and use the damn thing. It may add years to your life. Start on a good seniors multivitamin, it is formulated for our slower metabolism and body chemistry. Consider a good vitamin B complex and don’t forget vitamin C. Zinc too. I am not familiar with all the supplements being pushed, not being regulated you might be buying toxic waste chemicals(Sorry, Mr Mayo, can’t help you and without my RN license I don’t give that kind of advice.) Like ol’ Clint sez, Get mean dog mean with the doc.

  17. I am around your age with a fairly similar history. Cederq is probably on the right track. I got a CPAP (diagnosis was severe sleep apnea) about 18 months ago. I greatly dislike it, but now I sleep better than I have in 20 years. I don’t need afternoon naps anymore and have much more energy. Worth checking into.

  18. My doctor fired me as a patient. Told me not to come back.I had only seen him twice. He took the place of the doctor I had been seeing for 20 years when she retired. Took me 3 months to get an appointment with another doctor. Saw him Wednesday for the first time. My first impression of him isn’t real good, but I’ve got to have someone to write prescipts for medicines I have to have. Health care in this country is really screwed up now for some reason.

  19. Listen to Cederq.
    And if you can, find an old, old-school doctor. Like retirement age. The new ones aren’t for shit at diagnostics. They check some boxes, bill your insurance and move on. You need somebody that goes after a diagnosis like a Jack Russel Terrier.

  21. Genital, Hah! You need Dammitall!

    I listened to my better 1/2 and got a catscan, infusions, shots & 10 days of pills! Now I’m mobetta!!

  22. Ok, so you’re moderately anemic. Nowhere near critical levels requiring transfusion, but it is valid to ask: “Why?” I am not a doctor, but I spent 38 years cranking out those lab test results. When the first line screening tests come back abnormal like that it is then followed with more specific diagnostic testing to achieve a diagnosis. Get your iron tested: iron, ferritin, transferrin, B12/folate levels, etc. Also get thyroid tested, at least TSH/Free T4. You do not need Geritol if your iron is normal. Maybe you’ve got a low grade GI bleed going on, and you’re slowly shitting out your blood. Most common cause is NSAIDs; aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, etc. I heard it at a hematology seminar; the doc lecturing asked the question: “How many people on low dose (85mg/day) aspirin therapy for their heart condition will eventually develop gastrointestinal issues?” His answer was: 100%!
    I hope that you can find a real diagnostician, not just some quack with a shingle on the wall. When any secondary testing comes back abnormal, go further. There are thousands of tests to zero in on a specific condition. And I will be the first to insist that lab work is a very narrow slice of the clinical picture; that is why the docs are paid the big bucks, not us lowly lab jerks.
    I won’t pester you with a phone call, but if you want to chat, I’d be happy to. Cederq has my number if you don’t.

  24. I’m a little lower than you. New doc last month had me tested. Iron deficient anemia. Has me on 350mg iron every other day. All other tests are good, 135 cholesterol, said I have the liver of a Mormon, no miss formed red cells, no other issues. She wanted to know if I was a vegetarian, I don’t eat much beef but a lot of chicken. She’s retesting me in 8 weeks. I felt good until I went to see her, now I’m worried.

  25. There’s lots of good advice here dirtbag, and we all care a lot about you so get with the program.

  26. My dearest Phil, my prayers are with you for healing, for physical strength and for guidance in finding the right medical professionals to help you. I pray that all obstacles to your health care be torn down and laid asunder. You, your blog and the people here have meant so much to me and I thank you for that. You have been instrumental in bringing together a group of like minded people, a cohesive community.

    Now gird your loins and go out, with swords drawn, and slay that mother fucking medical industrial complex. Slay that dragon and put its head on a pike. We need you and appreciate all that you do. Love you Phil.

    Sorry if that was too mushy, I just care about you 😇

  27. Yes. You are anemic. An iron supplement could help, certainly wouldn’t hurt.
    The 800 pound gorilla in your case is a lifetime of smoking. Your vascular system simply is no longer capable of moving the blood where it needs to be efficiently enough to do the job needed. And while there are some interventions that can help, the ugly truth is the damage is mostly done. If you haven’t stopped smoking then do so….RIGHT FUCKING NOW. If you won’t stop smoking then there really isn’t much to be done for you. If you don’t get reasonable answers then going to a university based system might be a reasonable move. Oregon Health Science University has a very good reputation. While it’s not possible to totally reverse the damage years of self abuse causes it’s possible to slow the damage down and maybe stop it from getting worse. Medical science is pretty good at delaying death. We are NOT good at actually fixing the nasty problems that old age inevitably brings. We postpone the inevitable. We don’t prevent it.

  28. When you take an iron supplement I think your crap turns black. Just like digested blood would do. Ask the doc to be sure, if he puts you on iron. Otherwise, it’ll spook you.

  29. You can always ask Justin Trudea for help. He seems to have a fail safe way to ease your ills. Certainly doctors don’t. “a patient healed is a customer lost”

  30. Phil,

    Long story short, the labs you posted have to be looked at in context. The remainder of the CBC and other data are needed to choose next steps. I won’t bore you with what I do for a living, but if you want to discuss this let me know and we’ll set it up.

  31. Consider, if you will, a sleep study. Although I will tell you there is not a lot of sleep involved. I have anemia because of surgery, I stick B-12 in my thigh because I know the dosage and I know it’s in there. Self injection setups may often be gotten through weight loss clinics and others that deal in hormone treatments. No forms, no insurance, no travel.

  32. Add to previous-a sleep study probably won’t give meaningful results until your blood is back on its feet.

  33. My Red Blood Cell and Hematocrit numbers were fine. After starting testosterone replacement therapy, they shot through the roof, panicking the endocrinologist. I have to do periodic blood donations to keep the numbers down into what she considers to be an acceptable range.

    No way I’m giving up TRT. I won’t say it changed my life, but it sure helped.

  35. Last year, my Old Man had similar symptoms and blood work. After months of “we’ll monitor this” he was diagnosed with MDS. A close cousin of leukemia. I suggest adding an oncologist to your list of doctors. MDS is treatable and the Old Man is still kickin’ around. & L-I-V-I-N.

  36. War and health-care, the best money makers on the planet… Here, take these pills for the rest of your life.
    Been there, done that,still have the t-shirt… 2 trips to the emergency room, every test known to man and nothing. We don’t know what’s wrong with you. Maybe you’re depressed, here’s a pill… No thanks, I’m not depressed, I’m pissed…
    Once you figure out that you are the carbon they want to reduce it all makes sense. The beast feeds on fear,starve it.

    Feed yourself with real food and watch it all melt away..my BP is perfect, joint pain is gone, brain fog is bye bye,tinnitus gone,hearing better,eye sight and astigmatism better, morning wood yup! get up to pee at night? Nope, sleep is best it’s been since childhood. I have really good health insurance but don’t use it, they send a nurse to the house to check on me cause I won’t go in. I pay a monthly penalty because I’m on no meds..

    And by real food I mean beef, grass fed, with REAL salt on it.Need iron, b-12, every vitamin in the world,Grass fed beef has the bioavailability That you NEED not some iron pill that plugs up your mud valve.
    Research how Rockefeller fucked up medicine. Yes, those pills are petroleum based….
    Research parasites and cancer. Especially fungus…
    Research the universal antidote.. Given that name by NASA, patented,then shelved because it’s dirt cheap and cures everything.
    Sorry, nor sorry for the rant but we have a full scale invasion going on and the wounded are piling up…
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0ka9WBEijhk

  37. Uh-oh – this looks amazingly like my bloodwork when I was diagnosed with a weird form of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma… at around your age in fact… two years of treatment and I’m clear… contact me via email if any questions

  38. Hell, try some Ivermectin as apparantly it cures a lot of shit. Also start eating liver/organ meat. Calf liver smothered in onions is a mighty fine dish……..

  39. Sounds like it could be viral possibly with the severe fatigue and headaches. I have some experience with that and ended up with some permanent hearing loss as a result.

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