The Annoyance Of Documenting Your Health Online

It’s literally an amazement to me how many people give medical advice to strangers on the bloody internet. I recently posted a video on Instagram about my severe edema (fluid retention on the feet and lower legs) and holly cow are people trying to tell me how to fix this. Everything from medication to diet LOL.

Well, here is the thing, I have developed a mostly vegetarian diet with the help of actual medical professionals in the field of dietary needs. I did this literally a decade ago. I do divert from it a couple of times a month, but nothing that bad. I eat more pasta than I probably should, but I make sure the sodium content is not very high. I get proper protein, minerals, and vitamins with my food and supplements. Every 6 months I get blood work done to monitor my dietary needs and adjust medication as needed.

I take pills that regulate heart rate, blood pressure, dramatically reduce the progress of my heart failure, help me shed the fluid, and a host of other things I need medication for. It’s all handled. It’s like these people think I never once thought of going and getting a doctor to help me with this. Well, it’s been over 10 years, and I’d literally be dead by now if I was not being treated. But with 90 seconds of video, they seem to know better than a medical professional who is top ranked in my area.

I’ve been on a healthy diet, more or less for 14 years now. I’ve gone from 498 lbs to (at this current moment) 362 lbs. Most people who got to the size I was will never lose even close to this much weight. There is also the fact that some people are not capable of losing a great deal of weight and they can literally die trying. I am in the middle. I have been in the same range of weight for a few years now. The edema is the issue with this. It flairs and I gain 30 lbs, then it goes away, and I lose the weight. Getting any less heavy for me would probably take drastic measures and would be severely unhealthy for me.

The edema has been much worse in the past 18 months. I’m on a high dose of diuretics (water pills), and it is still happening to me. There is no fix for heart failure, and it eventually kills you. I could be on that path to end of life. It might take many years and suck rather a lot or it might be tomorrow.

I have severe arthritis in my knees. I have an extremely bad back. I have week legs and even with over a year of daily exercise for this, the strength I lost is not back. I have fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. I have several internal issues other than my heart as well. I’m extremely unwell. I can’t just up and go to the gym and work out, it would harm me.

I walk every day as much as my knees will let me do so. I’m on a path that is keyed for me and me alone. It’s what I need to do for my health. The advice of random people is not at all needed. The fact that I’m documenting health issues does not in any way indicate I want people I don’t know to give me medical advice. I also don’t know how stupid you would have to be to take the advice of some random person as well.

I’ll continue to do what I can for my situation. Laying in bed is best for the edema, but it’s very much not good for the rest of me. I need to stay relatively active in my apartment and keep doing things to maintain my mental health and so on (hobbies, movies, music, games). I’ve often seen the same trend with others who document their health online – all manner of people trying to fix them when they have no clue at all about their circumstances.