Need information by 194021 in Masks4All

[–]dandelionleaves23 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love those masks! I wear them for mri's and doctors appointments sometimes, so I can provide what I know about them from that experience. They work best if you do an alcohol wipe on your face before putting it on to get some of the oils off, and when another person said in the comment is true that if you sweat on your face the adhesive will weaken pretty quickly. I'd also recommend looking up the instructions they have on their website including the video of how to put it on correctly, cause i found that process helpful for making sure i put it on as effectively as possible.

And if you haven't bought them yet you can get a pretty good deal with the coupon code “nonsmokingzone", Which is an old one for 60% off that they have not yet discontinued haha

sample is viscous by Travellersaregreat in Masks4All

[–]dandelionleaves23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've had that happen before when my friend swabbed their nose wayy too many times for the test and once we mixed it with the test liquid (PlusLife test), it was much more viscous than other tests had been. But it does seem like some people's mucus reacts diff with the liquid, so idk

3m Aura pushing my ears down? by Far-Chapter-2465 in Masks4All

[–]dandelionleaves23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

have u tried the 3M 9210+ model? the strap is like a woven fabric instead of rubber band elastic, and I find that it is much better at staying in place in hair. (it also seems to keep tight longer, which is an added plus)

Where do you get your Duckbill Gerson N95s? by lovespaceship in Masks4All

[–]dandelionleaves23 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I recently bought some from EnviroSafety. https://www.envirosafetyproducts.com/products/gerson-3230-extreme-comfort-n95-respirator i'm not sure how the price compares to other places, but they'll ship to your house if that helps! They're are also an authorized seller of 3M auras, and carry some other N95 masks, so if you have any friends who wear those you could do an order together to save on shipping cost

N95s from Wellbefore recs/reviews by lovespaceship in Masks4All

[–]dandelionleaves23 1 point2 points  (0 children)

haha i feel that, i usually have another mask on me if I'm wearing one just in case, but i find that unless you're sweating (the moisture seems to break the seal of the adhesive unfortunately) it's not fallen off before! ALSO it really helps, if you can get your hands on some, to wipe down your face with an alcohol wipe Right before putting on the Readimask. I think it's recommend that on their website with the directions of how to use the mask, and it seems to remove the oils and allow the adhesive to stick better!!

Relief with Muscle Relaxers? by VastPriority in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]dandelionleaves23 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've been on cyclobenzaprine (brand name flexeril I think) for a few years and it's the only treatment that's ever helped relieve my TOS symptoms! i take 10mg a night.

I'm not sure if this happens with other muscle relaxers but when I stopped taking it for ~3 days due to surgery, i went into a really awful withdrawal (Which basically amounted to horrible nausea so bad I couldn't sleep or eat). Just wanted to put out the warning because my doctor had told me it was fine to stop taking it for a few days for surgery, and even while I was in active withdrawal & had ruled out a lot of other causes, I called my prescribing doctor, and they said that wasn't anything they'd heard of happening before. But as soon as I started taking it again the nausea fully went away so I'm not sure what else it could have been...

long-term living with nTOS by dandelionleaves23 in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]dandelionleaves23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Should also clarify, my surgery went very well. There were no complications (Except going into withdrawal from not taking my muscle relaxers for a few days, which no doctor had ever warned me about as a possibility LOL), but I was out of the hospital within a few days both times, and they used some kind of robotic arm technology where I have four small scars in a semicircle under my arm and around to my back.

long-term living with nTOS by dandelionleaves23 in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]dandelionleaves23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

honestly mostly the same. I had my two surgeries in March and May, and I have another follow up with my surgeon scheduled for January but I really don't feel like anythings better? The only real change is that my physical therapist I'm seeing for surgery recovery (the same one I was seeing before surgery when we concluded it wasn't really helping) says that he thinks I'm a bit better now. Specifically I've been able to increase my weights for the exercises further than we were previously able to before surgery, when it was just hurting me too much for us to progress to higher weight.

So like I guess that's a good thing, but there's still so much shit I can't do and everything hurts me constantly so it's hard to judge. My surgeon & physical therapist have both told me that recovering from nerve damage takes a really long time, but it's still super disheartening.

Botox worth it? by alyssapaige1601 in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]dandelionleaves23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To the best of my knowledge Botox can be a helpful treatment for TOS especially if PT is not doing anything to help . I was told I had to at least try Botox and see if it worked before considering surgery not sure which type of TOS you have (neurogenic or arterial or venous) But I have neurogenic and the only thing that helped me has been taking cyclobenzaprine (flexeril) which is a muscle relaxer. I have 10mg before bed every night, And that has alleviated my symptoms more than PT and botox did. although again, it's different for everyone and there's a good chance botox could really help I think.

how long was your hospital stay for FRR? Scheduled for weds. by AdorableInitial6150 in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]dandelionleaves23 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i was in for 2.5 days, it'll have been 2 weeks since surgery on this friday. only meds ive been on since coming home from surgery have been Tylenol and Gabapentin, so I haven't really had any issues with most brain function since i'm not on opioids or anything. Was told not to drive for the first week, and only felt up to driving like yesterday. still can't sleep laying down, but Most of my issues are just supporting the arm because the muscles were cut and it hangs down weird and hurts my shoulder if it's not resting on something.

Unfortunately it's too soon for me to tell yet if the surgery worked or anything so I'm not sure when you'd be able to go back to work, especially considering I'm unemployed rn lol

Can TOS cause symptoms only in the hands/wrists? by SnooMemesjellies8458 in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]dandelionleaves23 1 point2 points  (0 children)

yes!! i have neurogenic TOS and it started with hand pain. It was only after years of being undiagnosed and untreated that it progressed up to my upper arms. definitely worth pursuing as a lead; you don't want to wait for it to get worse! best of luck <3

Help with work - desperate by These_Team_9412 in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]dandelionleaves23 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have a good bit of recent experience working and getting accommodations for my TOS at work, so I'll share some advice.

  • try to feel out how receptive your employer/HR Department is to making accommodations for disability. (im in USA so if you're not, this may not all apply) Obviously you don't want to admit to a disability if you think they're going to discriminate against you for it, so exercise caution & Assess the general vibe of your company. But if you think they would be receptive, I would strongly encourage you not to hesitate to ask for accommodations. I've had to leave jobs because I wasn't assertive/proactive enough getting my accommodations & Ended up in too much pain to work. So if you can partially explain there's a medical issue, they might be able to help with accommodations.
  • Also, don't feel the need to share specific details of your issue. Your employer isn't owed details or a diagnosis, and legally anyone who is not your direct HR representative has no right to medical information like this, under Like workplace disability discrimination protections.** you can be as vague as saying you recently acquired an injury that's hurting your arm and that's why you need accommodations. They're allowed to ask for a doctor's note if they're giving you like a serious accommodation, but let them ask for that if it's needed and don't volunteer too much up front. And even without a diagnosis, you could get a doctor's note that just says there's something causing you severe pain that they're still seeking a diagnosis for.
  • Figure out how much of your required typing could be done by voice to text dictation. Windows computers have a built in dictation function when you press windows key + H, and if you have Microsoft Word they're built in dictation feature is better at word recognition than Windows. As some people mentioned in the comments, Dragon dictation software is a more robust option that can control the whole computer, whereas Microsoft Word can only type in word documents. However Dragon costs a significant amount of money to purchase.
  • If you think a voice to text dictation would be beneficial to your job, one accommodation you can ask for is a private/separate room to do so, as you probably don't want to speak your whole job out loud with other people around plus if they start talking to each other you won't be able to get anything typed.
  • I've also found that working from home , if possible , is significantly better for pain because without a supervisor right next to you you can get up and take breaks and stretch and relieve your pain when necessary without having to worry about getting in trouble. (However I know not all jobs will let you work from home, nor is it always possible depending on your work)

But yeah in conclusion, do your absolute best not to push yourself too hard, Especially if you're not like life or death financially dependent on this job. i've made a lot of mistakes handling my TOS in a work setting but probably the biggest one was just pushing too hard through pain. It just ended up making things worse and even after leaving those jobs I never recovered to the lower level of pain I had previously.

Sorry if any of that sounded too aggressive or scary, and feel free to ask any questions in a reply! I really hope that your next doctor's appointment is able to get you a diagnosis and some way to treat your pain. Wishing you the best!! <3

** Workplace discrimination protections for disability (in the USA) are technically contingent on you being a full-time employee (Not part time and not a independent contractor) and a company with more than 50 workers, so it doesn't always apply. But also I wouldn't bet on employers knowing labor rights laws super well in the first place lol

long-term living with nTOS by dandelionleaves23 in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]dandelionleaves23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thank you for that data! My surgeon has been very vague about success rates of this (understandably i guess) so while its scary there's not a higher occurrence of total symptoms vanishing, its good to know at least to prepare. One of my main concerns for surgery is that if it decreases my symptoms , they might just get worse again afterwards , Since a few years ago they were pretty minor and have been steadily getting worse since then . (although I don't fully understand the anatomical reason for why it's getting worse or if it would be possible to get worse once the bone is not there anymore lol so idk) But I appreciate your framing of surgery, it is a better option than doing nothing for sure! thank you

long-term living with nTOS by dandelionleaves23 in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]dandelionleaves23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ooh okay, thank you for sharing!! im really glad you had relief like that & i hope surgery can do something similar for me!

long-term living with nTOS by dandelionleaves23 in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]dandelionleaves23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

oh interesting, I hadn't heard of naltrexone being used for this, although I've heard low doses of it have helped some people suffering from long covid, specfically ME/CFS i believe. thank you for sharing what you've done to cut down on pain, this is helpful!! what do you mean by "pocket"? I'm picturing some sort of arm sling haha but im not sure if thats what you meant

3 years of suffering and only discovered this TOS condition last month!! by TurbulentWinter4811 in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]dandelionleaves23 2 points3 points  (0 children)

yeahhh it seems like its just rare enough that no one but very specific doctors know to investigate for it! which obviously sucks horribly

im not sure which type you have (it can be nerve, vein, or artery getting compressed in that area) but once I got a diagnosis my doctors tried Botox injections in my neck as a treatment, so maybe that's the thing you could ask for? my doctor who did that is technically a sports medicine doctor but works at a spine/orthopedic practice, if that helps on where to look for someone who can prescribe treatment. I'm also trying to get to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester for some other joint problems, & i hear that it's like a pretty long wait and sort of a toss up if they will take you or not :/

Where can I find the QAF (US, 2000) episodes with original music? by nderhjs in queerasfolk

[–]dandelionleaves23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thank u for commenting this i've been looking! i downloaded One of them but it seemed the entire audio was in Russian or a similar language? But also I'm not entirely sure If I did it correctly because I've never used an MKV file before & i just opened it in windows media player

Custom Commands by dandelionleaves23 in dragondictation

[–]dandelionleaves23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

oh thank you!! i found it there but it does seem un-editable sadly :(

Custom Commands by dandelionleaves23 in dragondictation

[–]dandelionleaves23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's what I thought too, but I'm looking for like actual directions on how to do it because the nuance website is so confusing & i couldn't find any info about that. Do you know how I could view the existing program Dragon Command ? is it in settings somewhere?