site banner
PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   1779 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for October 30, 2024

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Seeking advice on sinusitis. I’ve had this and general upper respiratory things recurring for as long as I can remember. 30 years, maybe more. I remember a doc writing a prescription for some nasal spray drugs when I was 14 or 15 and reading his scrawled handwriting “acute sinusitis”.

Past couple of years this has been getting worse and recurring with greater frequency. Once led to an ER visit with literally unbearable pain, when I was placed on a hydration and strong painkilling drip and kept overnight. Past 3-4 months has been characterised by significant nasal blockages, sinus pain behind forehead, eyes, cheeks, teeth.

No joke, but I’m not sure I know what it feels like to breathe comfortably. One or both nostrils are almost always blocked, and I’m either clearing them violently or coughing up and hawking out viscous glue from deep within me.

Lifestyle: I’m quite fit. Run plenty. Marathon last year, aim for 60-80 miles a month, can fairly straightforwardly get off the couch and jog a half marathon (if slowly). Nutrition could definitely be better. Despite running, am still ~5-10 pounds above ideal weight and carrying some belly/visceral fat.

Interested to hear if anyone has had similar experiences and if so if they were able to overcome it. (I’ve often thought of this as a strong but passing discomfort, but then it never passed, and recently been having existential dread at this not going away and actually getting worse and leading to a dire quality of life over time.)

I agree with the suggestion that you see a doctor, preferably a specialist (an otolaryngologist or Ear/Nose/Throat doctor) if you can be referred to one. Chronic sinusitis can result from ongoing inflammation from allergies, from environmental irritants, or anatomical abnormalities (think nasal polyps.) It sounds like this is affecting your quality of life and that's a good enough reason to talk to a competent doctor if you can.

My kid had her sinuses drilled out this past summer. Her ENT is cautious, so prior to surgery he had her take targeted antibiotics based on the infection(s) in her head. He had her treat her allergies. He did steroid treatments. She cut out potential triggers (dairy, sugar, wheat). But after a few years of throwing things at it and the concrete junk in her sinuses not clearing out, surgery it was. It was out patient. She was in significant pain for a week and then was generally exhausted and spacey for another few weeks. But she can breathe now. She doesn't have constant pain in her face. She doesn't catch every bug that comes along. She can get sick without bleeding out of her eyes (cool party trick!)

I recommend seeing an ENT. You can probably find one who will jump straight to surgery, but it might be worth making sure none of the "easier" things will fix it. My kid was truly miserable for about a week and my husband was almost to the point of calling her doc and begging for pain meds beyond Motrin + Tylenol. OTOH months later she's glad she had the surgery and seems to have halfway forgotten how miserable she was while healing.

That sounds rough. I got a single shot of tramadol after the surgery and that's it, they offered a nightcap shot, but I refused it and didn't need any meds after that, just felt like shit for three days.

I think hers was an extreme case. Every single sinus cavity she had was full of gunk and had been for years. And I think she was really sensitive to pain in her face. She also ended up with necrotic uvula (no big deal, the dead bit falls off, but it was additional pain).

Good pain meds would have been nice. But a humidifier and heat and ice packs and parents at her beck and call worked. The surgery worked wonders but I think it's definitely worth it to try other possible solutions first.

My sinuses were completely full as well and the doc was quite surprised I had no complaints about them: no headaches, no sensitivity. I guess I was lucky.

Have you seen a doctor yet? You'll probably need an ENT.

This could be a million things. Atypical anatomy. Something like allergies or GERD causing odd problems.

Serious things are possible and you'll want to rule them out.

Have you ever tried modifying your diet? I have a friend who said their sinutitus improved significantly after eliminating certain foods (dairy I think)

There are over-the-counter mild nasal steroid sprays (active ingredient Mometasone furoate 50 micrograms/spray) that can alleviate some symptoms of sinusitis and can be used indefinitely. Go to a pharmacist and explain your symptoms and see what they recommend. Try a regime before considering surgery.

Consider getting checked out for hayfever/allergies. I'm not sure how effective anti-histamines are for allergic based sinusitis (not a doctor).

Otherwise, yeah go find a referral to an ENT specialist (otorhinolaryngologist?) and tell them what you've said here.

Edit: Consider environmental factors that changed when this got a lot worse. New pets? New House? New city with new air quality/pollen count?

Consider getting checked out for hayfever/allergies.

I took way too long to do this after moving to a new house and subsequently turning into a mouth breather, because I never thought of myself as a person with allergies. It turned out that, although I wasn't allergic to the oak pollen that would fall like yellow snow around my previous home, I was very allergic to the relatively invisible wild grass pollens at the new place. A year or so of allergy shots cleared it up.

Are the Nasonex sprays okay for indefinite use? I was prescribed Flonase nasal spray (way back when it was still prescription-only) as a temporary fix while the shots were doing their thing, and I was warned at the time that some of the OTC options let you build up a tolerance if you used them too frequently and would then have withdrawal issues afterwards.

I had allergy issues and went to an ENT (after basically asking a GP directly for a referral and giving them enough dot points about my situation that they rubber stamped my request). The ENT I saw put me onto this stuff and said that he (personally) uses it regularly for sinusitis. I didn't use it long enough to know if the active ingredient can create a tolerance.

I'm not a doctor at all, just a clumsy googling amateur interested in his own health (like many here).

Cheers for all this. Did get new pet house cats (2) three years ago, which does coincide with worsening symptoms, but also my diet has slacked off a little too in that period of time after a very disciplined 2017-2020. Thanks again.

Surgery. I used to live with one blocked nostril and multi-week coughs after every cold caused by backdrip, but after my breathing got even worse due to the development of AERD, I finally did the surgery: septoplasty, turbinectomy, endoscopic polysinusotomy.

Discharged after a single night in hospital, the following week was a pain, since I could only breathe through the mouth and had to sleep in a semi-sitting position, but as soon as the stents were taken out it was fine and got only better as the swelling subsided. Washing out massive bloody crusts with a neti pot was a very cool experience.

Definitely consider this post ENT specialist consultation. I literally have no idea what “washing out massive bloody crusts with a neti pot” even means.

The whole process was rather simple: I went to see the ENT doctor, he took a peek inside my nasal cavity and sent me to get a CT scan and referred me to a pulmonologist and an allergologist. Came back with the scan, he took a look at the CT scan and wrote up a diagnosis for the insurance company. They approved the surgery, I went to the local polyclinic for a surgery check-up, arrived at the hospital with the results and woke up with my nose thoroughly eviscerated.

How did you get viscera in your nose in the first place?

Surgery?

A humorless pedant explains the joke in excessive detail: the word "viscera" technically refers to the internal organs found in the torso, such as heart, liver, intestines, etc. "Eviscerate" originally meant removing those organs, for example while preparing a freshly killed animal for consumption. The other poster was joking that your use of the word eviscerated implied that prior to your surgery your nose had contained some unneeded heart/liver/intestines/etc.

Thank you, this was funny, to quote one mildly autistic PM I worked with.

If it makes you feel better, I had issues with this for years as a kid, especially in winter. Not sure if it was something in the house, but it ended for good after I moved.
Have you moved between environments at all since it became an issue? Any possible clues there?

No, lived in same place for 15 years. Countryside, so air is pretty clean. Not ruling out environmental problems, though.

I suspected mold issues in the ramshackle house I grew up in. Not much of a lead, but if it clears up if you ever spend a few months away from home, it might be a start.

Same problem here. 2nd generation, too - it's certainly genetic. Not overcome it so far. I breathe hard, I often wake up at night from not getting enough air, and I get recurring and long-lasting colds at a rather bothersome frequency especially in cold weather. I can do sports just fine when I'm not having a cold, which sadly means not that often, but breathing is troublesome at rest and at sleep.

Xylometazolinechloride works fantastically at fixing the issue...but is said to make it worse with prolonged use, so I don't.

I once got my face scanned and they detected some deformations in the cartilage of the nose which seems to block one nostril almost entirely, and my Otorhinolaryngologist (do anglos really use that term?) recommends getting surgery to fix it. I've been putting it off. So surgery it will have to be at some point, but my confidence in it actually helping is low since a family member with the same problem had it and still catches a cold practically every other tuesday.

my Otorhinolaryngologist (do anglos really use that term?)

Its Ear/Nose/Throat (ENT) doctor/specialist where I come from.

Same as in Germany, then.

I build reward systems to try to get myself to be productive. These generally involve working set amounts of time on a few different tasks, dieting, and rewarding myself with things like going out to eat or watching a movie. It's very stressful to start a system, and in one sense "stressful" to keep it going and work hard rather than spending all my time reading and playing videogames, but overall I'd say I'm much happier while in a system and being very productive.

Systems generally last a week or two, followed by a few days to a week of malaise before I start a new system. I'm on to number 90 since I started counting them. Each system is honestly very useful in the sense that I learn more about how my own brain works. Only recently (in the last 3ish systems) have I learned that an enormous failure mode for me is to "break" the system in seemingly positive ways, either by deciding not to hold to the system's rewards or do more work than the system requires. I feel stressed, decide to do 8 hours of work rather than 6, and then end up doing no work at all.

I'm smart enough (1600 on SAT), but anything more than a year out feels fake so I'm stuck in a reasonably good white-collar job rather than anything more impressive. And I have no college degree so if I ever lose that job, it's bad news for me. I'd like to live up to some fraction of my potential. Adderall helps a lot but is scary--it can help me work way harder, but days when I don't want to work it also helps me game for way longer and waste more time before getting bored. It's a motivation multiplier, but right now my motivation is negative.

So, how to defeat akrasia? How does one lengthen their time horizons and truly spend time better? I have a reasonably good expectation that these systems will eventually work out when I understand myself better but I'd rather not wait 10 years for system 1000 to find one that really works long-term.

Having a nice, comfortable, good white collar job seems like a good place to figure out what, beyond work, you really want in life and how to get it.

For sure. As far as I can tell I'm the only thing standing in my own way, so the only question is how to get more work done.

I think I recommend that you stop trying to goad yourself with rewards. If the only reason you’re doing something is a reward, it’s only going to work so long as the rewards are worth the pain. And of course the other part is that you’re setting yourself up to see the task as an unpleasant thing to be suffered through so you can get to the reward.

Try just scheduling the task and removing any obstacles to doing that task at that time. If you’re exercising, for example, schedule that, and just … exercise. Make sure it’s a kind of exercise you like, or listen to music while doing it, but do it, and stop when the session is over. Put the gym clothes on a chair in the bedroom and keep the weights there and so on to make it easy to just start doing it automatically. And sooner or later, you’ll just automatically do it. You’ll get to the point where working out at 3pm on MWF is just something you do.

Another thing to try is get a group of people and just start doing things together. If you’re working on programming than a group learning to program will be muc( better than just doing it alone.

I don't directly reward myself for the reasons you've outlined. There's virtually no conceivable reward that is actually "worth" getting started with work in the morning. Generally the system is mostly its own reward--if I follow it then I get to exercise in the evening, for example, because I've gotten enough work done over the day. Normally I never feel like hiking because I feel like I lack the time, but with a system it becomes possible because I know I've gotten a reasonable amount of work done by the time I go.

So, the rewards aren't just direct "10 points for 1 hour of work," it's more "keep in mind that if you keep the system you get to go on hikes every day or two" which is much more motivating.

Scheduling is good, and actually my top priority right now. I think keeping a steady work and sleep schedule would solve most of my problems. The only obstacle keeping me from it is work--if I haven't gotten enough work done then I really don't want to commit to doing anything else that requires attention or effort. If I could just get my work done consistently I'm sure everything else would fall into place.

So, how to defeat akrasia? How does one lengthen their time horizons and truly spend time better?

I think for many people, this is the one clear advantage the structured environment of university/community college has: it takes the long-time-horizon task of "get a degree" and breaks it down into many medium-time-horizon tasks ("this semester, I need to pass those two courses") and short-time-horizon tasks ("this week, I need to hand in these exercises"), and it introduces an element of accountability that these tasks get done within a certain time frame (failing a class).

So if "living up to your potential" means getting a more impressive job and a college degree, start by finding a degree that interests you and find out what its course requirements are. Then work towards getting an associate's degree that shares many of those classes. You can probably do the first few classes online, at night, and not pay much money for them. If that works out, you transfer the credits to a 4 year college and get a bachelor's.

If you're in an industry that works around certifications, you can also start getting a couple of those. Basically same principle, but you might get your company to pay for them and find it easier to work it in around your job.

That's a good point about college which I hadn't considered.

I work in programming so certifications are definitely a thing, might be a good idea to take a day and turn my long-term goal of becoming a cracked programmer into a series of medium-term goals.

Diarrhea every day for the last year or so?

Every morning I pass solid stool that looks normal and healthy. Then an hour later I’ll need to go back, and it’ll be diarrhea. Pretty much every day.

What’s up? Should I be concerned? No accompanying stomach ache. No other discomfort or symptoms.

Maybe try an eliminating diet to check if the food you're eating is causing the problems. I remember having a similar problem when I initially became lactose intolerant. Stopping all milk consumption fixed it.

Do you know why you became lactose intolerant?

I had a pretty serious case of pneumonia in 5th grade, the doctors pumped me full of who-knows-what and my body simply lost the ability to process lactose afterwards. The condition is actually quite common outside of Europe and the US.

This is the kind of thing you should bring up to your doctor. My husband started having colon polyps in his 30s.

Seconding bartender, coffee reliably gives me the shits in ways tea or even energy drinks don't.

Any correlation with what you're eating in the morning? Caffeine, nicotine, salty food, alcohol the night before?

I can't think of anything drastic. I've been abstaining from lunch for about 2 1/2 years, so for a while now dinner will be my first food of the day. But that change did not coincide with the change in bowel movements.

I've had a heavy coffee habit my entire adult life, and same with salty food.

...You know what, you might have solved it for me. I consume much more alcohol than I did about two years ago. It's a few nights a week that I drink now. So should I be concerned about the diarrhea?

Yes, you should be concerned, about your alcohol intake, and about your colon. Speak to your doctor.

Like SteveKirk said, your body's reaction to coffee can also change rapidly without much warning. I had a switch-flip moment too and I can basically no longer drink it. I ask about salty food specifically because if your gut is kind of weak eating a lot of salt can dump water into it, so it depends if you always eat a salty breakfast/drink electrolytes in the morning. w/r/t alcohol, that's certainly possible. If it happens on days when you didn't drink the night before, it's probably not an acute effect, just that your gut health may be poor in general and alcohol isn't helping. I'd take a look at your diet and try to shift overall to something better for your gut.

It's not that I literally can't drink coffee any more, but I have to combine it with some kind of light morning exercise, moving around, etc. If I drink it while WFHing I get crazy jittery. Started pretty soon after I went to WFH. Then abstaining from coffee does other things to tolerance - e.g. drip coffee sits much worse on my stomach, and I have a strong stomach when it comes to other stuff. Can still do energy drinks, tea, etc. just fine.

May run in the family, my mum consumed heroic quantities of coffee when she was working, then one day it started giving her awful headaches and she was on decaf for two decades.

If it happens on days when you didn't drink the night before, it's probably not an acute effect, just that your gut health may be poor in general and alcohol isn't helping.

I think this is the case. My diet is complete garbage, but I wouldn't expect it to turn my poop liquid. Thanks all for the responses. I'll have to improve what I eat I guess.

Yeah a bad diet will make your intestines more permeable in such a way that your body's more likely to dump water in there, or at least that's what I've heard the link is.

Are you in your 30s now? Coffee never used to do that to me either, until one day at about 34.

I'm nearly 30 but not quite. Looks like I can look forward to these sorts of things accelerating.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats