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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 19th, 2023

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  • I can’t really offer much advice with the family dynamic, but I can share my experience with a septoplasty.

    I’ve had a septoplasty. It would take me 2-3x as long to clear a cold than everyone else and I’d come down with at least one sinus infection every year until I had the surgery. By the sound of it, if your ENT (Ear-Nose-Throat specialist) has recommended one for your symptoms, it is worth doing. It has made a big difference to my quality of life.

    You can explain to your ENT that you’re nervous about the surgery. In my case (because I am terrible with getting an IV/drip for anathesia) they used nitrous oxide to knock me out so they could get the IV in for the surgery. Last thing I remember was breathing it in; then nothing else until I woke up in recovery. If you’ve had past surgeries involving anathesia where you’ve unexpectedly woken up, make sure you tell the ENT and anathetist beforehand so they can take appropriate action. If you’ve had no problems, though, you can remind yourself of this to help reassure yourself that you’ll get through the surgery fine.

    If you’re used to constant congestion and other nasal issues, then most of the post-surgery period is not going to be any worse. It’s really only the first 2-3 days that are particularly uncomfortable with the inflammation, mucus and post-surgery bleeding (there shouldn’t be any significant bleeding after the first night, especially if you follow your ENT’s post-surgery advice - usually regular nasal/sinus rinses which helps flush out the mucus and muck). Even then it’s still possible to get some sleep; you’re unlikely to be falling asleep randomly the next day but will feel pretty tired and sore. Plan to have a slow couple of days relaxing (e.g. watching TV or reading), and allow for the possibility of taking a nap in the afternoons, just in case you need it. That way you have more control over where you sleep if you need to.






  • I have several use cases, a big one being that it gives me an alternate storage medium for backing up home photos and videos. Obviously there’s caveats on how long BD-Rs last (although M-discs should outlast me) and the issue of needing a player in future, but it gives me more peace of mind knowing that I can backup these sorts of things to different storage types (external hard drives are all well and good until they’re corrupted by power issues or user error, or you want to keep a copy at a relative’s place and it’s a multi-hour trip… with optical media you can just keep adding discs to the offsite backup as needed and update the external HDD less frequently).

    The other major use case I have has already been mentioned - backing up Blurays that I’ve bought (or, in the case of a few shows I like, being able to compare the DVD vs Bluray frame by frame).





  • Can you describe the pain? For me at least, muscle pain generally seems to be an ache or there’s a pulling sensation as well as the pain (indicating muscular tension), whereas if it’s nerve pain it can be a burning sensation, really “sharp” pain, or even just “pure” pain.

    Also, can you tell us what exercise activities are you trying that cause this pain? Not all exercises work for everyone (e.g. I do not jog or run because I have foot issues and even walking around for a few hours, despite my orthotics, leaves my feet really sore; on the other hand, I enjoy cycling… when I have the time!).

    One suggestion I would have is to see a physio or myo if you can afford it and get checked out - see if they can help you identify which muscles are particularly weak and where you tend to carry tension (depending on how well your interoception works, you may not even be aware of it). Addressing those types of issues can help make exercise a lot less painful (particularly if you have muscular tension issues in certain areas, since that makes the surrounding muscles overwork just to compensate).