How many COVID doses have you taken? Have you been infected?

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Right now, it's mostly limited to men having sex with men.  The number of cases is relatively small in NJ, but it is slightly troubling that the small number is roughly doubling every week.  They have a vaccine in limited numbers and just started to make it available to people who feel they are in a high-risk group (after originally limiting it to just being who came into contact with an infected person).  That said, the vaccine is still in short supply.  There is also an anti-viral treatment available that has been released from our strategic stockpile. Interestingly enough, if you are old enough to have gotten the Smallpox vaccine, you are probably immune as the two diseases are very similar.

Right now, we are not seeing fatalities with monkeypox, which is welcome news (it seems most deaths from this disease are in third-world countries where access to healthcare is more limited).  I will say that while the disease is mostly among men having sex with men, I suspect in time, and much like HIV, that could change with time.

So while I think currently gay men should exercise caution and perhaps seek vaccination, I don't think there is a reason the general public should be worried (at least not at this time).  This outbreak certainly isn't welcome news among the exhausted ranks of public health who were hoping for a bit of a break after having dealt with Covid over the last couple of years. 

That's pretty much verbatim to what my doctor told me yesterday. Good summary

[T200]

@MightyGiants I updated your post. Didn't want folks to think you're out here spreading Monkeypox 

[Jolly Blue Giant]

@MightyGiants I updated your post. Didn't want folks to think you're out here spreading Monkeypox 

LMAO...what a difference one little letter ("n") can make when typing away   

[T200]

LMAO...what a difference one little letter ("n") can make when typing away   

 

I actually did laugh out loud and said, "Oh sh*t    , lemme fix that!" 

[MightyGiants]

@T200 @Jolly Blue Giant

At least I had the typo in the relatively safe confines of our forum.  Some poor soul made the same typo on Twitter.  I think you can imagine how that went.

[Slugsy-Narrows]

Thanks guys...I'll survive, it's just annoying as hell. Nowhere near as bad as when I had kidney stones

Feel better

And nothing hurts as bad as stones!!!


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[DaveBrown74]

I've never had stones... praying that doesn't happen to me. Sounds nothing short of awful. I have a friend who just had one, and it sounded hellish.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Feel better

And nothing hurts as bad as stones!!!


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Stones are a bitch. I wasn't sure what was going on when I had them. Felt like a knife in my back being twisted back and forth. I have a high tolerance of pain and in fact, after an MRI on my back before surgery, the surgeon told me I "must have the highest toleration of pain of anyone he ever knew" as I walked in on my own accord

My stone adventure turned beyond my tolerance of pain after a full day of trying to get through it on my own. Finally drove myself to the hospital at midnight and I was told I was passing a stone (which I hadn't figured out and just thought I was dying) and put me on a morphine drip...which is about the only way to deal with it. Can't imagine how they dealt with it in the old days. Probably the reason few people lived beyond 50 yrs old... they probably shot themselves just to get away from the pain 

I got shot in the leg when I was 18 by my younger brother playing with a Colt .38 Police Special with hot loads he loaded himself to mimic the ballistics of a .357. Lucky for me, it was a ricochet shot off the kitchen stove that took much of the velocity away. Got me right in the calf and lodged up against my bone. Didn't feel a thing. I thought a balloon had popped and the air went up my pant leg...then I thought he lit off a firecracker and pieces flew up my leg. I looked over at the table where my brother was looking horrified with his mouth dropped open while holding a smoking pistol. I yelled at him, "you idiot, you shot that thing in the house". He couldn't even answer me he was so stunned. So I started looking around the floor thinking the shot must have been near me and a piece of the floor went up my pant leg. After looking around, I finally looked at the back of my leg that was covered in blood. I nicely said, "You f... idiot - you shot me". He was still in the same frozen position with his mouth open. Anyway, to make a long story short, it doesn't hurt to get shot - can't even tell - for about 2 minutes anyway...then it is an awful pain, like an abscessed tooth only on your entire leg. I stayed awake as they operated and took the bullet out of my leg from the other side. A cop was in the room and had to leave as he was getting sick when the surgeon put something into the bullet hole and out the other side of my leg. Anyway - it was a pain for the next few days that rivaled everything passing a stone can give and more. Thank heavens back in the day I was given as much Darvon (an opioid based pain killer that is now banned, but really works) as I wanted and went through several bottles of the pills

Storal of the morey: Don't get shot!   

[DaveBrown74]

Stones are a bitch. I wasn't sure what was going on when I had them. Felt like a knife in my back being twisted back and forth. I have a high tolerance of pain and in fact, after an MRI on my back before surgery, the surgeon told me I "must have the highest toleration of pain of anyone he ever knew" as I walked in on my own accord

My stone adventure turned beyond my tolerance of pain after a full day of trying to get through it on my own. Finally drove myself to the hospital at midnight and I was told I was passing a stone (which I hadn't figured out and just thought I was dying) and put me on a morphine drip...which is about the only way to deal with it. Can't imagine how they dealt with it in the old days. Probably the reason few people lived beyond 50 yrs old... they probably shot themselves just to get away from the pain 

I got shot in the leg when I was 18 by my younger brother playing with a Colt .38 Police Special with hot loads he loaded himself to mimic the ballistics of a .357. Lucky for me, it was a ricochet shot off the kitchen stove that took much of the velocity away. Got me right in the calf and lodged up against my bone. Didn't feel a thing. I thought a balloon had popped and the air went up my pant leg...then I thought he lit off a firecracker and pieces flew up my leg. I looked over at the table where my brother was looking horrified with his mouth dropped open while holding a smoking pistol. I yelled at him, "you idiot, you shot that thing in the house". He couldn't even answer me he was so stunned. So I started looking around the floor thinking the shot must have been near me and a piece of the floor went up my pant leg. After looking around, I finally looked at the back of my leg that was covered in blood. I nicely said, "You f... idiot - you shot me". He was still in the same frozen position with his mouth open. Anyway, to make a long story short, it doesn't hurt to get shot - can't even tell - for about 2 minutes anyway...then it is an awful pain, like an abscessed tooth only on your entire leg. I stayed awake as they operated and took the bullet out of my leg from the other side. A cop was in the room and had to leave as he was getting sick when the surgeon put something into the bullet hole and out the other side of my leg. Anyway - it was a pain for the next few days that rivaled everything passing a stone can give and more. Thank heavens back in the day I was given as much Darvon (an opioid based pain killer that is now banned, but really works) as I wanted and went through several bottles of the pills

Storal of the morey: Don't get shot!   

That's a hell of the story. That sounds like it was awful, but at least it wasn't worse. Seems like you got hit in one of the better places to get hit.

With stones, what are the main things to do to be preventative? I know always being very well hydrated is the big one. Anything else? I would love to get through my life without having one.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

That's a hell of the story. That sounds like it was awful, but at least it wasn't worse. Seems like you got hit in one of the better places to get hit.

With stones, what are the main things to do to be preventative? I know always being very well hydrated is the big one. Anything else? I would love to get through my life without having one.

Everyone has stones. Fortunately, most the time they don't move so there is no issue. Your kidney is like a very fine sponge that filters liquids before going to your bladder. Little calcium deposits build up over time and stay stuck in that sponge and continue to grow bigger. The problem starts when for whatever reason, that calcium deposit breaks loose and decides to make it's way to your bladder. In order to get there, it cuts a path through the sponge like material in your kidney; hence, the reason if feels like there is a knife stuck in you and it's cutting back and forth is because that's what is happening - your kidney is literally being cut. Most people think that the pain in passing a kidney stone is when it works its way through the urethra and "Mr. Hanger", but that is not painful at all. All the pain is when the calcium deposit cuts the path through the kidney

Doctors told me I shouldn't eat nuts, crunchy peanut butter, draft beer, and a bunch of other things, but I think that's hooey. What I did was go through several months of lithotripsy, which is an ultrasonic energy or shock waves that is applied indirectly to the stone located with fluoroscopy. In short, if larger stones are found in your kidney from an x-ray, you can have them broken up so they flush out in tiny bits and pieces without pain. They knock you out  for a half hour or so (sedation, not anesthesia) and lay your naked body in a pool of some liquid. A machine is then hovering over your body and a technician looking at a monitor with cross hairs uses a joy stick to move the cross hairs to the stone, pushes a button and it sends the shock waves to break it up. Since I was out while it was going on, the doctor explained to me what is going on. He said it's like someone snapping a rubber band in the same spot a hundred times a second for several minutes. You are sedated because you couldn't stand the pain nor could you hold still if you were awake.

Anyway, there's not a whole lot you can do about kidney stones and I don't think most doctors would suggest lithotripsy unless you already have had issues with kidney stones. Both my daughters have had children and both have passed kidney stones and both say adamantly that passing stones was more painful. It sucks...just like shingles sucks 

[DaveBrown74]

Everyone has stones. Fortunately, most the time they don't move so there is no issue. Your kidney is like a very fine sponge that filters liquids before going to your bladder. Little calcium deposits build up over time and stay stuck in that sponge and continue to grow bigger. The problem starts when for whatever reason, that calcium deposit breaks loose and decides to make it's way to your bladder. In order to get there, it cuts a path through the sponge like material in your kidney; hence, the reason if feels like there is a knife stuck in you and it's cutting back and forth is because that's what is happening - your kidney is literally being cut. Most people think that the pain in passing a kidney stone is when it works its way through the urethra and "Mr. Hanger", but that is not painful at all. All the pain is when the calcium deposit cuts the path through the kidney

Doctors told me I shouldn't eat nuts, crunchy peanut butter, draft beer, and a bunch of other things, but I think that's hooey. What I did was go through several months of lithotripsy, which is an ultrasonic energy or shock waves that is applied indirectly to the stone located with fluoroscopy. In short, if larger stones are found in your kidney from an x-ray, you can have them broken up so they flush out in tiny bits and pieces without pain. They knock you out  for a half hour or so (sedation, not anesthesia) and lay your naked body in a pool of some liquid. A machine is then hovering over your body and a technician looking at a monitor with cross hairs uses a joy stick to move the cross hairs to the stone, pushes a button and it sends the shock waves to break it up. Since I was out while it was going on, the doctor explained to me what is going on. He said it's like someone snapping a rubber band in the same spot a hundred times a second for several minutes. You are sedated because you couldn't stand the pain nor could you hold still if you were awake.

Anyway, there's not a whole lot you can do about kidney stones and I don't think most doctors would suggest lithotripsy unless you already have had issues with kidney stones. Both my daughters have had children and both have passed kidney stones and both say adamantly that passing stones was more painful. It sucks...just like shingles sucks 

Thank you for that explanation. I knew a bit of that but most of it was new info for me. Appreciate it.

Kidney stones have always scared me. I am better with some kinds of pain than others; that is one where I think I'd definitely struggle. And I know how common they are. I keep reading that roughly 10% of the population is affected by them (the bad kind obviously). That's a lot of people.

I did ask my GP once what I could do to avoid them, and he kind of echoed your answer although he did say that not drinking enough water seems to raise the risk. Unfortunately, drinking tons of water does not eliminate the risk.

I have also heard that they are worse than natural childbirth.

[Slugsy-Narrows]

Stones are a bitch. I wasn't sure what was going on when I had them. Felt like a knife in my back being twisted back and forth. I have a high tolerance of pain and in fact, after an MRI on my back before surgery, the surgeon told me I "must have the highest toleration of pain of anyone he ever knew" as I walked in on my own accord

My stone adventure turned beyond my tolerance of pain after a full day of trying to get through it on my own. Finally drove myself to the hospital at midnight and I was told I was passing a stone (which I hadn't figured out and just thought I was dying) and put me on a morphine drip...which is about the only way to deal with it. Can't imagine how they dealt with it in the old days. Probably the reason few people lived beyond 50 yrs old... they probably shot themselves just to get away from the pain 

I got shot in the leg when I was 18 by my younger brother playing with a Colt .38 Police Special with hot loads he loaded himself to mimic the ballistics of a .357. Lucky for me, it was a ricochet shot off the kitchen stove that took much of the velocity away. Got me right in the calf and lodged up against my bone. Didn't feel a thing. I thought a balloon had popped and the air went up my pant leg...then I thought he lit off a firecracker and pieces flew up my leg. I looked over at the table where my brother was looking horrified with his mouth dropped open while holding a smoking pistol. I yelled at him, "you idiot, you shot that thing in the house". He couldn't even answer me he was so stunned. So I started looking around the floor thinking the shot must have been near me and a piece of the floor went up my pant leg. After looking around, I finally looked at the back of my leg that was covered in blood. I nicely said, "You f... idiot - you shot me". He was still in the same frozen position with his mouth open. Anyway, to make a long story short, it doesn't hurt to get shot - can't even tell - for about 2 minutes anyway...then it is an awful pain, like an abscessed tooth only on your entire leg. I stayed awake as they operated and took the bullet out of my leg from the other side. A cop was in the room and had to leave as he was getting sick when the surgeon put something into the bullet hole and out the other side of my leg. Anyway - it was a pain for the next few days that rivaled everything passing a stone can give and more. Thank heavens back in the day I was given as much Darvon (an opioid based pain killer that is now banned, but really works) as I wanted and went through several bottles of the pills

Storal of the morey: Don't get shot! 

Jesus Jolly!!!   Crazy story!!!!

As for the description of the stone pain spot on!!!!

I remember the first time I had them!

I woke up in the middle of the night to pee.  Never ever do I wake up to pee.

Went to the bathroom, as I'm peeing start to get a pain in my lower back, right side!

Next thing I remember is being on the floor in the fetal position knees at my chest and my wife shaking me if I'm ok and I could barely speak the pain was so bad.

Wife called the parents they rushed over got me up and to the hospital.

I'm lying on the bed knees still at my chest.  They shot me up with something.  Said we will be back, came back and said how ya feeling, I said I'm still waiting for the pain meds.  They said we gave it to you already, I said well give me more I don't feel anything.

They came back with something else.  Shot me up with it and instantly my knees started pulling away from my chest and straighten.  It was the best feeling in the world and I remember saying wow can I take some of that home!!!

I had 2 stones in that kidney one was 9mm the other smaller!  Took 2 different procedures to get rid of them!  Was brutal!

I had them 1 other time after that and have had "gravel" as well over the years!

I go every few years now to get my kidneys checked cause I don't want to be found on the bathroom floor again lol


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[DaveBrown74]

Jesus Jolly!!!   Crazy story!!!!

As for the description of the stone pain spot on!!!!

I remember the first time I had them!

I woke up in the middle of the night to pee.  Never ever do I wake up to pee.

Went to the bathroom, as I'm peeing start to get a pain in my lower back, right side!

Next thing I remember is being on the floor in the fetal position knees at my chest and my wife shaking me if I'm ok and I could barely speak the pain was so bad.

Wife called the parents they rushed over got me up and to the hospital.

I'm lying on the bed knees still at my chest.  They shot me up with something.  Said we will be back, came back and said how ya feeling, I said I'm still waiting for the pain meds.  They said we gave it to you already, I said well give me more I don't feel anything.

They came back with something else.  Shot me up with it and instantly my knees started pulling away from my chest and straighten.  It was the best feeling in the world and I remember saying wow can I take some of that home!!!

I had 2 stones in that kidney one was 9mm the other smaller!  Took 2 different procedures to get rid of them!  Was brutal!

I had them 1 other time after that and have had "gravel" as well over the years!

I go every few years now to get my kidneys checked cause I don't want to be found on the bathroom floor again lol


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Good lord... horrible. I really don't want to go through that, although it seems like so many get them at some point.

[Ed Vette]

Here for the shingles vaccine and Medicare doesn't cover. $198.00.

[Ed Vette]

That's just the first dose. I think I get charged again for the second dose.