Random Questions

Depending on your insurance and everything, you could always try to pick a middle path and see if you can do a telehealth visit with your PCP. That should be cheaper and easier.

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35, with a cousin with primary Raynaud’s (who is technically my genetic half sibling because our dads are identical twins).

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That’s a good idea, I should look into that.

As an aside, that’s fuckin cool :joy: I follow a family on IG that’s two sets of identical twins who married, and their sons are genetically siblings. But are in fact cousins. ANYWAY.

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I did 23andme and was like “wtf I have a half sibling?!” and then was like “oh it’s [Other Cousin] haha” and then promptly gave my dad a lot of shit about my mysterious extra sibling. :joy:

Also that’s crazyyyy about the IG fam. More proof that family relationships are NOT actually genetics.

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I don’t thiiiink I’ve ever turned purple. And it seems to have gotten a little better since college. I used to have to run my hands under hot water to get the circulation back. Now my fingers turn white easily (eg if I drive in the winter because I’m holding on to the cold steering wheel for more than 10 minutes) but they come back from being normally warm indoors and I don’t have to do anything special.

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My doctors have never done anything about my likely raynaud’s. Not sure if that’s because I live in Florida and therefore am not very likely to be in danger do to the lack of circulation? Warm water and movement helps get the blood back or being tucked in under an electric blanket.

Can you send a message to your doctor and let them know this new thing has happened? Not sure if its appearance on its own is cause for concern.

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Technically I don’t have a PCP since we just moved… but maybe I could message my old doctor. :sweat_smile:

I need to get a new doc, it’s just such a pain in the ass.

ETA “just” being 6 months ago…

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Some insurances have their own Tele health nurses available that aren’t related to your PCP that you can talk to. I find them a little useless because they tend to just do checklists and tell you to talk to your doctor or go to the ER all the time. :joy: But they’re definitely better than nothing. And often free lol.

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Haha yeah sounds like the triage nurse at my old doctor: “Well, you’ll have to come in for us to diagnose you with the flu.”

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We can’t get in trouble for telling you to look into something more. We CAN get in trouble for saying something is probably fine and then it not being. CYA in effect alas

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Oh totally, I get it. Just… why have the dang triage line.

I mean I know the answer is to tell people to get to the ER because like your arm has fallen off why are you calling your doctor’s office.

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Haha yes mainly to tell people if they should see their doc, urgent care, the ED, or an ambulance!

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@diapasoun I have Raynaud’s pretty badly. It started in my late 20s and has gotten worse over the years, but I’ve learned how to deal with it. When it first started, my doctor sent me off for some autoimmune tests. My numbers came back high, but since I didn’t have any other symptoms, there wasn’t much else to do. I think you’re totally fine to wait to discuss with it your doctor during the summer. But I’m sorry it’s started for you! I hope it’s minimal and you don’t struggle with it too often! It’s not fun.

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I’ve never bothered to get officially diagnosed, but my dr made a comment about my red hands after I came in from the cold, and my rmt made a comment about the colour of my nails (purple) last month. My sister has a diagnosis, she is at the ‘can’t put my hands in the freezer’ level, but she doesn’t do anything beyond use a towel (and she’s a doctor).

Which seems to imply nobody professionally cares much unless there is other stuff going on.

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Yeah, I get the sense that this is probably just “make sure it’s primary and not secondary, otherwise carry on as usual.”

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and be careful with hot baths in the winter if your toes are cold. ouch! step in, step out, step in, step out…

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So… I live in Canada where health care is very different. And um, pretty much no one is going to diagnose anyone with raynaud’s here. Like if you got seen by a doctor WHILE your hands were purple and you kicked up a fuss you’d maybe get a note in your file.

So I’d wait to talk to your doctor, assume that you have it and also not worry. Check out reliable sources for how to prevent damage on the worst days or cold conditions, that kind of thing. (Like most people I know with raynaud’s use hand heater thingies for a cold hike)

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I had Raynaud’s as a teenager, and seconding everyone else had a couple of checks for other autoimmune things (one of which they monitored for a while), but otherwise just got told to stay warm (hand warmers saved me). It was useful to have a doctors note so that I was allowed to wear gloves in our super cold exam hall, but otherwise there was no impact - so you’re probably good to wait.

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A while back I had asked about Wren, a carbon offset service basically. I still don’t have answers on it directly, but this video confirms some hunches I had about this type of thing:

Sigh.

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