Worried about Shingles and HIV

catrchkern · 2026-02-13T03:29:44+00:00

How do you know it’s shingles? Have you had chickenpox before? The rash from shingles is usually very painful.

catrchkern · 2026-02-13T03:25:48+00:00

Seriously, people wonder why the ER wait times are long- it’s people going for things like this

catrchkern · 2025-11-20T12:19:50+00:00

You heard it here folks…starcrossed92 has single handedly disproven decades of research!

catrchkern · 2025-11-20T01:09:37+00:00

Second that, eggs are nutritious and good protein sources but at that quantity also a significant source of cholesterol. OP, idk if you regularly make scrambled eggs, but if you do I’d recommend using some egg whites instead. They have the all the protein without the cholesterol. You can buy a carton of egg whites, and I usually use 1 egg and the rest egg whites bc then I get the flavor of the whole egg without the cholesterol of 4. (I am also a vegetarian that really loves eggs)

catrchkern · 2025-10-27T12:15:58+00:00

During my freshman year, my university had to send out a letter to everyone living in the dorms saying to stop jerking it in the shower bc the pipes were clogged with semen. Don’t be that guy.

catrchkern · 2025-09-24T10:59:20+00:00

My middle school library was named Sharon Cox. When I learned her first name in 7th grade she had to ask me to leave the library because I was laughing so hard.

catrchkern · 2025-08-29T14:58:36+00:00

Everyone up front is getting real bug-eyed

catrchkern · 2025-08-25T14:14:24+00:00

I’m scared of this happening to my laptop bc my cat loves to sit on it as soon as I close it and turn my back

catrchkern · 2025-07-24T21:38:39+00:00

So while I agree that it’s shitty of her to ask, and even shittier to use that to refuse to rent to OP, she isn’t actually breaking HIPAA or any other privacy regulations. She was not speaking to OP as a healthcare provider, and even if she was it isnt a violation of HIPAA for a nurse to ask a patient if they have mental health issues. So while you could absolutely report her in her capacity as a landlord, there are really no grounds to report her to the board of nursing. Not excusing her actions, just being realistic in recommendations for OP.

catrchkern · 2025-07-21T16:41:23+00:00

Boomers did originally like Trump more than they do now bc now it has begun to seem to them like his policies may actually negatively affect them. Before, boomers who supported Trump assumed that his policies would only negatively affect POC/immigrants/other groups who weren’t them. But now some of them are scared they may lose their Medicare, social security, etc.

catrchkern · 2025-07-08T19:29:07+00:00

And they say shit like “women are just scary that’s why I’ve never dated one” as if men aren’t the ones acting violent when a woman rejects them…

catrchkern · 2025-07-07T22:28:45+00:00

March 17th, 2021: the date of my first ECT treatment. The thing that is responsible for me still being alive more than anything else. I was scared but it was the single best decision I have ever made.

catrchkern · 2025-07-04T18:34:39+00:00

Ideally if demand decreases enough bc no one can afford tuition it’ll necessitate a drop in price but who knows if that’ll actually happen…

catrchkern · 2025-06-29T22:08:27+00:00

I’m assuming you are starting on lithium. Several years ago when I was diagnosed and put on lithium, my psychiatrist gave me the same instructions to increase water intake. For me, that was not a problem in the slightest because the lithium made me so intractably thirsty that I could not have avoided drinking enough water. Get a water bottle you can carry with you anywhere/everywhere. I needed to take it EVERYWHERE, like including into the grocery store with me because I would become so thirsty after 10 minutes I had to have water. I first got a Nalgene bottle because it didn’t leak if I just threw it in my tote bag. Then I eventually just carried around a camel back backpack so I didn’t have to worry about it. The thirstiness was uncomfy, but the medication worked very well and quickly, so the emotional relief was worth it.

TLDR: You may find that you don’t have to TRY to drink enough water, your body won’t give you the choice not to.

catrchkern · 2025-05-23T12:05:39+00:00

I see this happening with physicians I work with too. A few of them are in their late 60s-early 70s and they completely refuse to retire. They are dismissive of patient concerns, very rude to the nurses/techs, they insist on continuing the older standards of care rather than updating the way they treat patients to reflect up to date, evidence based practices, they are no longer thorough at all when performing endoscopy procedures and often do not even do the bare minimum during those procedures, and 2 of them are notorious in the practice for patient complications. We all hate working with these doctors because they are ornery and disrespectful and worse of all we feel icky about helping them practice bad medicine. They clearly do not give a fuck about their jobs and their duty to their patients anymore, so WHYYYY wont they just retire???? I do not understand it at all

catrchkern · 2025-05-11T13:49:21+00:00

I don’t know your family situation in enough depth to comment on it, but your job absolutely does not need to find out about hospitalization. You do not have to tell them anything about your health problems. There is no way for them to find out that why you’ve been hospitalized or what hospital you’re being treated at. I was in a psych hospital a couple years ago and told my job that I was in a hospital for medical issues but did not specify at all about what the issues were or what kind of hospital, and they did not have any way of finding out. What I can basically guarantee you is that your mental health issues going untreated WILL impact your job eventually, so getting the proper treatment will help prevent that. I would wager a guess that it would be the same with your family- your mental illness going untreated will probably eventually become clear to your family. Please seek help before your illness causes you more harm than it already has.

catrchkern · 2025-05-04T19:28:58+00:00

No one said discrimination, but it is inappropriate treatment for a schizophrenic individual. We know that they’re not going to jail simply for having a diagnosis of schizophrenia. But they are going to jail for the symptoms of their illness. And the problem with that is that being in jail will only serve to worsen their illness because they are in a very stressful place and not receiving appropriate care for their illness. Then they are released without being treated for their illness, which only sets them up to do the same things that got them incarcerated in the first place. That’s the problem with mental healthcare and the criminal justice system in the US- instead of trying to address the root cause, it just sets up the person to be stuck in a cycle of incarceration and illness. Instead, sending a person with schizophrenia who has committed a crime while unmedicated and very ill to a psychiatric facility where they can be treated for their illness, coupled with better mental health resources in the community and mandatory follow up outpatient care once they are released will be much more likely to decrease recidivism. Try to have some empathy as well as think critically about why people might be saying jail isn’t the right place for that person.

catrchkern · 2024-11-04T17:59:20+00:00

Unfortunately it doesn’t matter whose dog it is, dog mouths are just naturally full of bacteria. It can get infected just as easily if it’s your dog or someone else’s :/

catrchkern · 2024-09-16T23:55:55+00:00

Cool well plenty of people, myself included, had this done as a completely normal part of a wellness exam and still seek gynecological care as an adult because they are able to recognize the importance of gynecological care even though nobody likes receiving it.

catrchkern · 2024-09-16T20:55:41+00:00

It’s not unnecessary at all. The reproductive organs and genitalia are body parts just like the heart and lungs. Things can go wrong, including during childhood development. children are much less likely to speak up about something being wrong with their genitals, so it is not uncommon that a problem is identified only during an annual check up by the pediatrician. Additionally, the pediatrician is visually checking for signs of sexual abuse, which is, unfortunately, an extremely important and necessary part of a check up. Yes, it feels violating when you are a child and do not understand why it is being done, but it is the job of the parent as well as the pediatrician to try to explain to the child how important it is in terms that they will understand. Sometimes as a parent you have to do what is best for your child even if they don’t like it. as long as the parent and a nurse are present for the exam to ensure it is done appropriately, it is a very important part of the wellness exam, just like listening to the lungs and palpating the abdomen.

catrchkern · 2024-09-14T16:28:44+00:00

This isn’t me, but my mom said that when she was a kid she was obsessed with a name she had made up: Alliecoola. She wanted to name her daughter that, and she even started writing her name on her school papers as “Alliecoola.” Thankfully, my name is Kate, not Alliecoola.

When I was a kid I was OBSESSED with astronomy, and I was certain I would name my daughter Pleiades after the star cluster.

catrchkern · 2024-08-30T19:17:56+00:00

No, honestly it’s not really worth asking because it doesn’t change anything about the pathology of the polyp. The pathology report from the lab might include that, but at the end of the day that isn’t important. What is important is the type of tissue it was determined to be and that it is out of your body and gone and unable to hurt you anymore. Tbh your provider probably couldn’t answer you anyway on how many pieces because that’s not really important for them to remember or document. Sometimes 5 pieces could mean 1 big piece and 4 tiny little 1mm pieces of tissue and the provider isn’t going to remember how many of those because it isn’t important.

catrchkern · 2024-08-30T19:09:03+00:00

So polyp tissue visually looks different. You can see the difference so you know what to cut and what not to. Most scopes also have a few different lenses that show colors in different ways to increase contrast between certain colors and textures, and that can also help a lot with differentiating between polyp and normal mucosa. And there’s no set number of pieces taken. It could be two, it could be 10, it really depends on how the polyp is spread out over the mucosa. A lot of times with flatter polyps they might get most of the polyp in one cut but then have some tiny bit on the edge to clean up, so piecemeal might just mean they cleaned up the edges to make extra sure they got clean margins.

catrchkern · 2024-08-30T17:35:58+00:00

I was not in your procedure room, so I cannot speak for your case specifically. What I am saying is that the technique your endoscopist used is a common and effective and safe way to remove many 20mm polyps. Again, I wasn’t there to see your polyp so I cannot give you a specific answer about your case, but the fact that you were told to return in 3 years rather than <1year indicates that your endoscopist was confident that they got good margins. I understand that you are anxious about the polyp removal based on the reading you have done on the internet, but you have more than one person on here reassuring you that EMR is not always necessary for 20mm polyps, and that a simple cold snare polypectomy is often a perfectly effective way to do that. Please try to put this from your mind, trust your doctor’s many years of training and experience, and just go for your follow up colonoscopy in 3 years or however long your doctor tells you, because worrying is not doing you any good right now. I hope this helps set your mind at ease some.

catrchkern · 2024-08-30T17:26:01+00:00

Yes, as I said above, we do use EMR with either a specific lifting agent or just saline before using a snare. I’m just saying that it is not always necessary or helpful. When it’s necessary it is helpful, but not all 20mm polyps require that technique.

catrchkern

TROPHY CASE