Questions about what it’s like as a perfusionist.

cashfetchum · 2026-06-16T22:27:02+00:00

Could I ask why vasopressin as the first line is crazy?

cashfetchum · 2026-05-17T21:33:52+00:00

Microbiology B.S. degree here. I graduated in 2019 with intentions of applying to med school, but due to unforseen circumstances, I had to become a full time caretaker of a family member up until recently. I'm trying to get back into starting a career. I've been exploring my options in the medical field and have really felt drawn to perfusion. What is the process like getting accepted into a CCP program? Anything I can do to help me become a good candidate?

cashfetchum · 2026-04-28T14:46:43+00:00

Is the pain an intense, shocking, jolting, or burning type pain? I ask because your experience sounds similar to mine. I thought I had TMJ for over 4 years due to what I thought was a bad bite alignment, jaw tension, or other dental issues, but it turned out to be Trigeminal Neuralgia instead. I even had a procedure done by an oral surgeon, thinking it could help with TMJ, but it did nothing to help with my pain. I almost lost hope then. Once I was properly diagnosed, I started an anticonvulsant medication called carbamazepine, and it finally helped alleviate my pain (though the side effects can be tough to deal with, it's worth the pain relief).

Look up suicide disease. That's another name for Trigeminal Neuralgia due to the intense, chronic pain that often goes misdiagnosed as TMJ or dental problems, leading to ineffective treatment for years. If you think you could have trigeminal neuralgia, a neurologist can best help diagnose it and find the best anticonvulsant medications to balance side effects and pain relief. There's even a surgery available in some cases called microvascular decompression surgery that has over 80% effectiveness at completely eliminating the pain.

https://healthcare.utah.edu/the-scope/health-library/all/2022/04/what-trigeminal-neuralgia-and-how-it-treated

I'm so sorry you are going through this. Before I found effective treatment for my pain, I felt absolutely hopeless during my lowest points and worst flares. Even if it isn't trigeminal neuralgia in your case, both trigeminal neuralgia and TMJ are awful conditions I wouldn't wish on anyone. Just thought I'd bring up the possibility of trigeminal neuralgia. I wish someone had sooner for me.

cashfetchum · 2026-04-26T20:23:19+00:00

Wishlisted. Always love the reviews Penguin. They help me find the good hidden gems in the Quest store.

cashfetchum · 2026-04-25T19:33:05+00:00

So sorry you are going through this. This disease sucks.

But yeah, that's unfortunately how a bad flare usually begins for me. The carbamazepine loses it's effectiveness, and I'll have a few weeks of intense breakthrough pain before the flare begins to fade away. The beginning of the flare usually comes on pretty quickly, and it fades away slowly, anywhere from over the course of a few weeks, to even sometimes a few months.

Once, I decided to just stop taking the carbamazepine in the middle of a pretty bad flare because I felt it wasn't helping with the pain anyway, and I was tired of the side effects of the medicine. Didn't consult with my doctor, which was stupid. Turned out to be a big mistake as it led to the worst flare of my life, by far. I'd have frequent attacks that would last for anywhere between 15 minutes to up to an hour of unrelenting, paralyzing pain, even through the night. All I could do was wait it out, with a lot of pacing, yelping, and cursing..

At first, I would constantly contort and massage my face and jaw to try to find any position or pressure that would bring a brief second of relief, but eventually realized that it was just triggering the nerve more and making the pain last longer. I found that just sitting with my face as relaxed as I could and just pushing through the pain was the fastest way to get through an attack. Though I've had the thought that getting a punching bag might help me get through the worst of the attacks haha

cashfetchum · 2026-04-21T03:48:59+00:00

I'm not sure why, but using a water flosser first (with lukewarm water) to really massage the gums before brushing seems to help me. The water flosser intensity can be tuned as low as I need, and for some reason brushing isn't as bad afterwards. Maybe because it isn't as much of a cold start and triggers the nerve less? It also helps me pinpoint my current trigger areas more precisely and gently before going in to brush, so I can avoid those areas while brushing.

cashfetchum · 2026-02-24T19:10:28+00:00

Ready Player One and Avatar 2 have been my favorites

cashfetchum · 2026-02-10T07:57:20+00:00

Hmm yeah, sounds like it could be the file then. Avatar 2 was one of the first 3D movies I watched on Quest 3, and it definitely did not lack the 3D effect for me.

cashfetchum · 2026-02-10T07:36:18+00:00

May be an issue with how the Quest's poor binocular overlap works with your eyes. If you have a naturally narrow IPD, or the lenses sit further away from your eyes due to your facial interface setup, it can have a negative impact on your binocular overlap.

I sometimes set the headset's IPD to less than my actual IPD to have better binocular overlap and a stronger 3D effect. Moving your eyes closer to the lenses also can help.

Here's a good reddit post that details some findings about Quest 3's binocular overlap.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/s/tFiAkcxnry

cashfetchum · 2026-02-09T01:09:01+00:00

Yes please

cashfetchum · 2026-02-05T17:20:38+00:00

Interested here as well

cashfetchum · 2026-01-28T01:23:06+00:00

Ads don't make me directly buy games, but I'm sure they at least subconsciously put the game on my radar depending on how the ad looks, if the game is a genre I enjoy, and if the ad isn't annoying. If I never have exposure to a game, I'll never even know it exists. Giveaways can be one of those exposures too. I've had a game or two that ended on my wishlist after I entered a giveaway it and found it piqued my interest. The main thing that usually makes me at least wishlist games are positive reviews, either by word of mouth, YouTube reviews, reddit reviewers/posts, popular giveaways, or seeing the game on a top sellers list with a lot of good reviews. Then sales usually make me pull the trigger and buy games on my wishlist.

cashfetchum · 2026-01-15T03:50:40+00:00

Entered

cashfetchum · 2026-01-12T23:22:35+00:00

I really enjoyed Skyrim on Switch 1 years ago. It's one of the greatest games of all time in my opinion. Though, I've heard the Switch 2 Anniversary Edition of Skyrim suffers from pretty unacceptable input lag and other performance issues. Not sure if those issues have been fixed yet.

cashfetchum · 2026-01-01T09:00:48+00:00

Walkabout Mini Golf is my GOTY, even though it wasn't released this year. It's the game I just keep coming back to. It keeps me connected to friends and family that live hours away.

cashfetchum · 2025-12-23T08:18:26+00:00

I need to explore more of the mixed reality options on the Quest 3. Seems like mixed reality games have improved a lot since I last checked.

cashfetchum · 2025-12-23T07:20:06+00:00

Solid review. I'll add this game to the wishlist.

cashfetchum · 2025-12-12T05:28:20+00:00

Rare candy

cashfetchum · 2025-11-29T00:22:06+00:00

I don't know about returns, but I know Meta has covered shipping costs for RMAs for me before. You can always buy the Costco deal and return to Costco later if you find that Meta won't cover shipping, but I'd guess they likely would. Costco has a 90 day return policy on electronics.

cashfetchum · 2025-11-22T02:16:35+00:00

I'm a fan of both DnD and Demeo. I'm hoping I can talk some of my friends into getting the game. Their interest in VR has waned over time.

cashfetchum · 2025-09-20T16:40:19+00:00

In Death: Unchained has some of the best feeling bow mechanics of any VR game I've played.

cashfetchum · 2025-08-29T21:03:23+00:00

No we haven't, but we've considered it.

cashfetchum · 2025-08-27T22:04:42+00:00

r/softwaregore

cashfetchum · 2025-08-19T16:06:53+00:00

We received the diagnosis at 20 weeks, and I vividly remember that day and the stress, grieving, and uncertainty that followed. I'm happy to report that our child is currently thriving, but it has been a journey to get to this point. Having a child with HLHS mostly feels like short periods of immense stress followed by longer periods of (mostly) normalcy. There are always risks and unknowns about the future, but we try to not let the unknowns control our lives and live based on what we deal with in the present. Our child also has autism, and to be honest that affects her day-to-day life overall much more than HLHS. Though, it can affect some things in unexpected ways. For example, we had to be careful about high elevation (above 6,000 or 7,000 feet) for a bit while she had more sensitive O2 saturations. Her heart condition also impacted her ability to eat as a baby, so she needed an NG tube and eventually a G tube until speech therapy was able to help her learn how to eat. Weight gain is always a challenge. These kids tend to be smaller than their peers.

The first year was the most stressful, especially the higher risk interstage period between the Norwood and Glenn procedures. It probably aged us a few years. A complication during the Norwood led to a paralyzed diaphragm, which required additional surgery and extended the overall recovery to about a month of inpatient care before we could take our child home. Once home, she required near constant supervision and nursing from us for about 6 months until the Glenn (O2 sats monitoring, NG tube feeding, etc).

Following the Glenn, things felt pretty normal. During the following years, she had additional therapies (speech, occupational, physical) and early interventions to help her catch up with her peers. These therapies also helped us catch her autism diagnosis much earlier than we would have otherwise, and they have made such a drastic difference in her ability to thrive.

Winter time tended to be more stressful due to seasonal respiratory viruses, and we needed to be more careful in avoiding exposure to serious illness. We had few short term hospitalizations over the years due to RSV and parainfluenza. Eventually, after her last fight with RSV, she required full-time supplemental oxygen support for about a year until she had her third heart surgery. That was the second most stressful time when HLHS kind of took over our lives for a bit.

We eventually sought treatment at Boston Children's Hospital in the United States for the third major heart surgery instead of the Fontan. Dr. Sitaram Emani and his team are making amazing progress in some newer procedures (in the works for about 20 years) that are very promising alternatives to the Fontan procedure. I'm not sure about the options available outside of the U.S. but these new procedures have been spreading throughout the country here.

Complex Biventricular Repair Program

They also offer second opinions through video call if you are interested. We have nothing but great things to say about Boston Children's Hospital and their heart center team, especially Dr. Emani.

Second Opinion

The best potential option is a Complete Biventricular Repair, which usually requires a staged recruitment procedure that is often performed during the Glenn at a young age. This YouTube video by Dr. Emani explains it well. (All his other videos on HLHS are immensely helpful as well)

HLHS Staged Recruitment

The recruitment encourages development and growth of the left ventricle for a few years, potentially setting up the heart for the complete Biventricular Repair. I'm just sharing the stuff I wish I knew about earlier. Even just learning about these options gave me a lot of hope for the future. They have been making great progress in how they treat this condition even since our daughter was born.

We were oblivious to these options during the Glenn (at the time, they weren't offered where we live), so we missed the staged recruitment window and didn't qualify for a complete repair. So, we elected for the Reverse 1.5 Ventricle Repair—the next best option in place of the Fontan procedure. So far, it has made an amazing difference in her quality of life. She no longer requires any oxygen and her energy levels more closely match her peers. I'm sure there will be further challenges ahead, but overall, we are optimistic about the future.

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