OT: The Avalounge: aka Free Relationship and Beer Brewing Advice

[S E P H]

A salt build up in your joints that causes extreme pain...it's one of the many things that's wrong with my father.

Tell your father to drink more water.

There are always exceptions in the medical world, but mineral build up, either gout or stones can all be treated by drinking an adequate amount of water at a consistent basis. If not, I might be seeing you in the OR to preform a percutaneous nephrolithotomy.

 

[McMetal]

I thought gout was an acid

Correct. Acid crystallizes out of your blood and deposits in your joints. For myself, it's always in my big toe, which sounds silly until you try walking without putting the slightest pressure on your big toe.

 

[McMetal]

I feel for ya. I've had a few bad flare ups and I'm only 25. My dad and brothers suffer really bad. We're all big beer drinkers and red meat eaters which doesn't help.

At one point I had it go almost up to my knee while I had sciatica going down my ass almost to my knee. Was the worst couple of days of my life.

See, what bothers me about having gout is that I don't drink more than a couple times a year or eat a whole lot of rich foods. My blood has simply decided that it hates me.

 

[tigervixxxen]

It's a genetic thing but it's things that you do that triggers it, right?

 

[McMetal]

It's a genetic thing but it's things that you do that triggers it, right?

Correct. My grandmother had it, so I'm predisposed. Supposedly, a diet of rich foods (especially red meat) and alcohol is a trigger, but that doesn't describe me at all. I'm even on daily medication to control it, haven't had any problems for a year or more.

 

[Bonzai12]

I thought cherries or cherry juice really helped gout?

 

[tucker3434]

Having the worst gout flare-up of my life right now. I've had some episodes before but this is absolute hell. And of course my job is to patrol and supervise a giant hardware store all day long on concrete floors. Hobbling around with a cane is annoying and embarassing. I'm 31 years old FFS. I don't think I should be an invalid quite yet.

I'm 29. Hits me too. My wife makes fun of me for it. It's such a stupid sounding thing, but it really is the worst pain I've ever felt (and I've had some injuries). At its worst, I can't even sleep. Luckily that tends to only be for a night or two.

Mine roves around, usually in my ankle though. Recently out popped up in my wrist. That was an adventure. I could barely use my left hand.

 

[JWK]

Snow finally shows up

 

[RockLobster]

Snow finally shows up

Can you quit hogging it and send some over to Kansas, specifically the Wichita area?

 

[UncleRisto]

Ha, I saw a video where some Japanese people cracked an egg and hatched a chick without the egg shell. The dummy who posted it wrote "WTF never eating an egg again". Like what the hell, did you not know it was a chicken in there before?

 

[ABasin]

A salt build up in your joints that causes extreme pain...it's one of the many things that's wrong with my father.

Not salt - uric acid.

A lot of people have natural elevated levels of uric acid in their blood. Eating foods with a lot of purines in them can exacerbate the problem. But purines do not necessarily equal proteins or 'rich foods'. A lot of people make that mistake. Even some very otherwise reltatively healthy foods can be high in purines and hence bad for gout sufferers: certain fish, shellfish, asparagus, spinach, mushrooms. One of the worst purine things one can injest is beer.

TV, to answer your question, uric acid buildup - or gout - is in truth a form of arthritis and it results in the formation of crystals (literally) in one's joints, and the resulting swelling caused by the uric acid crystals is almost unimaginably painful. A feather brushing across an area of gout inflammation can cause enormous/intense pain, and I'm not exaggerating that one bit. Gout used to be considered an embarrassing condition that was typically attributed to overeating and especially overdrinking alcohol. But a doctor buddy of mine assures me that most gout patients today are actually pretty active people. He beileves the increase in gout issues is more due to the elimination of carbohydrates from many modern diets (and hence the increase in purine-rich fish/meats/vegetables), rather than alcohol abuse.

In short, gout sucks.

 

[ABasin]

I thought cherries or cherry juice really helped gout?

That's been a long-time remedy, but I believe that one would have to injest a fairly massive amount of cherry juice to reduce gout inflammation once it's in place.

Lots of water, lots of indocin (or some other powerful anti-inflammatory), and lots of patience are pretty much the answer to gout, in my experience.

Gout sucks.

 

[ABasin]

Correct. My grandmother had it, so I'm predisposed. Supposedly, a diet of rich foods (especially red meat) and alcohol is a trigger, but that doesn't describe me at all. I'm even on daily medication to control it, haven't had any problems for a year or more.

Allopurinol?

 

[McMetal]

Allopurinol?

Yep. I used to use cherry juice as a remedy for it. Buy a whole bottle of it and choke it down in 12 hours. Gives you the runs but it works pretty fast for the pain.

The pain's gone down from yesterday, more like a 5 instead of a 9. Still have to walk on it though which sucks.

 

[Bonzai12]

I think I am in love

 

[member 116861]

I've been really sick three times already and it is only the middle of November. SEPH or any other doctor, how do I stop this?

 

[The Shermanator]

You're probably suffering from a lack of alcohol poisoning and you should go have a drink.

 

[member 116861]

You're probably suffering from a lack of alcohol poisoning and you should go have a drink.

Will have my alcohol on Sunday to celebrate the Lions win.

 

[ABasin]

Yep. I used to use cherry juice as a remedy for it. Buy a whole bottle of it and choke it down in 12 hours. Gives you the runs but it works pretty fast for the pain.

That medicine is a two-edged sword. If you go off/on it, it can actually kick off a gout attack. You have to continually take it. And once gout shows up, it's not effective. Weird.

The pain's gone down from yesterday, more like a 5 instead of a 9. Still have to walk on it though which sucks.

Yeah, it can last awhile. I feel for you.

I've only had it a couple of times, but once a few years ago I had a bad one. It was in the winter and it snowed 16" at Copper, and I actually tried to squeeze my foot into a ski boot that morning. I'm not sure I've ever felt pain like that. Not the smartest thing I've ever done.

 

[ASmileyFace]

Nice avatar Shermy.

 

[Bonzai12]

Are there any computer nerds in this group?

My wife wants another monitor for Christmas. She's a software engineer and uses two screens at work. We have a little dinky 28 inch monitor at home but I am thinking of getting her something around 32"

When I look at the descriptions in the store, I see 1080P, LED/LCD, HDMI, etc.....I think I'm straight on the HDMI/DVI thing (except what is the difference between "Full HD" and "HDMI")......Can someone explain the 1080P to me though, and is there really a difference between LED and LCD? I have LCD TV's....And I have LED lights everywhere in my home....Is LED or LCD more advanced though for a monitor?

I'm willing to pay for a better model/best quality. Going to check out Slickdeals, NewEgg, Best Buy, Amazon...the usual culprits unless someone has a better idea. And I will probably buy it actually after christmas...I just need to know what the heck I am actually looking for.

Technology has passed me by

 

[famicommander]

Are there any computer nerds in this group?

My wife wants another monitor for Christmas. She's a software engineer and uses two screens at work. We have a little dinky 28 inch monitor at home but I am thinking of getting her something around 32"

When I look at the descriptions in the store, I see 1080P, LED/LCD, HDMI, etc.....I think I'm straight on the HDMI/DVI thing (except what is the difference between "Full HD" and "HDMI")......Can someone explain the 1080P to me though, and is there really a difference between LED and LCD? I have LCD TV's....And I have LED lights everywhere in my home....Is LED or LCD more advanced though for a monitor?

I'm willing to pay for a better model/best quality. Going to check out Slickdeals, NewEgg, Best Buy, Amazon...the usual culprits unless someone has a better idea. And I will probably buy it actually after christmas...I just need to know what the heck I am actually looking for.

Technology has passed me by

1080p is a video resolution. 1920 horizontal pixels by 1080 horizontal pixels. This is a standard known as "Full HD". This should be the minimum resolution you go for. It's more than adequate for most people and it's the most common resolution right now. The higher the number of pixels, the more detail is possible. So if you want to spend a little more for a higher resolution (examples: 1440p, 4K) you can. But just don't go under 1920 x 1080.

HDMI is a video connector. It's the most common standard for televisions and home entertainment products. You'll also see it on computer stuff, but you'll also see others like VGA, DVI, or DisplayPort.

LED refers to the backlighting. If the display doesn't say it's LED then it's likely lit with a cheaper incandescent bulb. LED screens will have more even lighting and better color reproduction.

LCD is a screen technology. Other examples are plasma (mostly dead), CRT (the old tube style), OLED (the high end stuff at the moment). For computer monitors it's mostly just LCD but there are some OLEDs out there too. Plasma was just for TVs. LCDs are cheap, light, and durable but don't look as nice as OLED.

There are two major types of LCD screens -- the higher end IPS panels and the lower end TN panels. The major difference here is viewing angles. An IPS panel will look better from any angles while TN panels look best when you look at them from straight on. If it doesn't make a point of saying it's IPS, it's a TN.

If you're in Denver, just go to Micro Center. This one is a smoking deal:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/460906/34UM58-P_34_Full-HD_IPS_219_LED_Monitor

Or you could use a television as a monitor
http://www.microcenter.com/search/s...+689&Ntk=all,all&sortby=pricelow&myStore=true

 

[cgf]

Re-watching Palm trees in the snow; god damn is this film beautiful.

 

[The Shermanator]

Nice avatar Shermy.

It's beautiful.

 

[UncleRisto]

I've seen better.