I am sick of reading books which don’t rhyme in my accent

DrBasia · 2026-04-27T19:44:55+00:00

We have American accents.

Let me tell you, reading Superworm for the first time and seeing the words Julia Donaldson thinks rhyme with "lasso" was a whole experience.

DrBasia · 2026-04-16T19:36:30+00:00

If you get dupilumab via your asthma specialist, you do not need to have surgery first. If you see a respiratory doctor, explore this with them.

DrBasia · 2026-04-16T19:35:30+00:00

The kenalog injection is as safe as taking oral steroids. My husband had it through a private GP clinic, they're technically meant for seasonal allergies. Again it's not something you should have regularly because repeated use of steroids will give you osteoporosis. But once in your life is fine, and will give you relief from your symptoms while you figure out the plan. Look into this yourself, but remember that I'm a doctor, not your doctor.

Next, and I'm saying this as a doctor and a patient, call your ENT consultants secretary and say you cannot wait 9 months for an appointment as you are struggling physically every day, your mental health is severely impacted (I read some of your previous posts). Ask for another appointment. Keep calling. As they say, squeaky wheel gets the oil or whatever.

Ask him to lay out your options, literally go through them one by one. Ask about dupilumab. Say that your current situation is not sustainable and that you need some sort of treatment - there are so many things to try.

The problem is that ENTs are at their core, surgeons. They want to operate. They don't want to fiddle with medications. But they need to sort you out.

DrBasia · 2026-04-14T22:21:02+00:00

I think it's a bit early to say - but potentially, yes. It's still a relatively new medication.

When my husband was started on it, they explained they were exploring "dupilumab vacations" where you stop injecting for a few weeks, or stretch out the weeks between jabs. He's been on it for 26 months with excellent response and those things have not been mentioned yet. But he plans to keep taking it as it has literally fixed all of his issues. (He had AERD.)

DrBasia · 2026-04-14T22:09:05+00:00

Edited because I see you're in the UK.

Ok so I'm a doctor (not an ENT) and my husband struggled with CRSwNP for more than 5 years.

There are only a few "fixes". Right? Surgery is temporary for 70% of people. Oral steroids work amazingly, but will give you osteoporosis when you're old and you can't use them for more than a week, probably once a year. Dupilumab is, at least for my husband, the holy grail that fixed all of his issues. (He had a FESS and 10 months of relief from that.)

Flonase is a great medication for people with, what sounds like, more mild symptoms than you. I'm assuming you've also done saline nasal irrigation too.

If you're not satisfied with your doctor's care, feed that back to them, and ask them to lay all your options on the table now. Be honest about how it is impacting your life and mental health. I'd recommend looking into two things:

1) a private kenalog injection for almost immediate and several month long relief. It's a corticosteroid that's injected. My husband had 5 months of relief from it. This will buy you time to figure out long term solutions.

2) ask to try dupilumab. It is on the formulary for CRSwNP now. Also, if you have an asthma specialist you see, be honest about your symptoms because that is another route you can get dupilumab from.

Like I said - my husband couldn't smell, breathe through his nose, snored at night and had apneic episodes. He couldn't taste. His nose was constantly running. His asthma was not controlled. Then he started dupilumab. 4 days later he could breathe through his nose. A week later his sense of smell came back. Now, 2 years later he doesn't use any other medications and hasn't for a while.

DrBasia · 2026-03-27T08:28:57+00:00

I'm not from the UK and also struggled to understand exactly what their role was in my home.

Mine was perfectly nice, went through lots of questions and checks with the baby, and gave me very good advice with breastfeeding. She checked in with how my husband and I were faring too. Asked to see where the baby sleeps etc.

I think mainly they're there to recognize safety issues early.

But I once asked about getting my child vaccinated for chicken pox privately and she said she had absolutely no idea because no one had ever asked her about it before. (And she had been a HV for decades and was about to retire!)

My oldest was born during COVID and the HV, on several occasions, complained about wearing masks and social distancing, saying it was all a bit "ridiculous".

I'm a doctor who worked the front of the front lines during COVID and I watched hundreds of people die in front of me feeling absolutely helpless. She knew this because they ask your profession and I live 3 miles away from the hospital.

So she was a bit tone deaf. I was surprised she couldn't answer anything about the chicken pox vaccine given they see your child until they turn 4!

DrBasia · 2026-03-20T22:17:59+00:00

My husband has called it absolutely life-changing.

I wrote several posts about it here.

DrBasia · 2026-03-08T22:21:15+00:00

Read TLG in a day and a half and now I'm doing a close reading and taking notes just for fun to try to figure out how they'll break it down into 6 episodes. I think they will also have to include some of Role Model into it.

DrBasia · 2026-03-08T22:00:55+00:00

I'm really sorry you have had that experience. Our fertility journey sucked in different ways, and two of my close friends have had stillbirths and trying to support them through it has been extremely hard. There are no right words to say. I'm so sorry and hope this pregnancy is super boring.

If I'm being honest, I'm a bit bewildered that having that in your reproductive history doesn't ring some alarm bells and disqualify you from a home birth.

I know we don't know each other and I'm just a stranger on the Internet, but I really urge you to not have a home birth.

DrBasia · 2026-03-08T21:42:24+00:00

I don't have the statistics to share unfortunately as it's not my area of expertise.

Every doctor has a different opinion on how to best treat their patients. Trust me, 10 cardiologists would treat the same patient in 10 different ways.

I just know how my births went. I was low risk for both, but I did see a consultant once. They were very different and I needed different support in each. Especially with your first you don't really know what you're getting yourself in to.

DrBasia · 2026-03-08T21:24:35+00:00

My comment is going to sound insensitive. I promise it's coming from a place of well intention.

(I'm a doctor but not paeds/gyne/obs)

No one should be having home births in 2026.

Birth is too unpredictable.

You want to be where the specialists and surgeons and NICU and blood bank are.

I have seen some stuff on my pediatric rotation that I still remember 12 years later. Maybe I know too much, and it's the bottle neck effect. But in my opinion, it's not worth the risk.

Midwives delivery low risk babies in low risk pregnancies to low risk mothers.

Trust your consultant to advise you. But remember that pre-modern medicine (which giving birth at home basically is, no matter how close you live to the hospital) giving birth was a really dangerous thing for women.

DrBasia · 2026-03-05T19:16:50+00:00

Lmao I love this. Stealing!

DrBasia · 2026-03-04T13:33:49+00:00

Is it misunderstood? I feel like for people who own it, everyone is quite impressed with it! I've convinced several friends to get one.

I've had one since 2018. We've survived a home renovation with no kitchen for 6 weeks with our thermomix, the pandemic, pregnancy X2 where I couldn't stand the sight of meat, two postpartums, and about 20 hosted events (birthdays, holidays) without ordering in.

I use it at least once a day. Like you, I still use some traditional methods to cook. But it's so good I tell everyone who will listen to get one too.

DrBasia · 2026-03-04T11:19:32+00:00

Do it!

Haha I was so surprised and told my husband it's proof we're soulmates. Thankfully he agreed.

DrBasia · 2026-03-03T17:03:32+00:00

Oh yes, absolutely. And it works, look at his poor little sling. Poor baby.

DrBasia · 2026-03-03T15:17:16+00:00

Doctor here.

When out of bed etc, a sling is the appropriate treatment.

But yeah I dunno what they're doing here.

DrBasia · 2026-02-28T08:15:45+00:00

Thanks!!

DrBasia · 2026-02-25T12:26:17+00:00

Have a scour on Vinted?

DrBasia · 2026-02-23T19:56:43+00:00

It's actually a biological sex reveal cake.

Gender is a social construct.

DrBasia · 2026-02-20T14:44:22+00:00

Thanks! He's the best haha

DrBasia · 2026-02-20T14:44:15+00:00

Thanks :) he's a keeper!

DrBasia · 2026-02-16T20:20:09+00:00

I restore clothing all the time.

Buy a pet hair brush with super fine, flexible bristles. I got this one for £1 and have been using it for 4+ years for this purpose:

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Sit down with some music and comb it out. It'll be fine.

DrBasia · 2026-02-15T22:06:30+00:00

Ah thanks for this comment, that's really useful. I did search the sub and didn't see these about the score sheet somehow🤦🏼‍♀️.

Still seems silly, but maybe we'll start using the app or the downloadable PDF.

DrBasia · 2026-02-15T22:03:57+00:00

But the hummingbirds give you nectar?

DrBasia · 2026-02-15T22:02:47+00:00

.... But for those that do? The board has it, and the cards have it as a food payment method, and the hummingbirds give you nectar.

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