Posts by mellowraven32

Since nobody is answering my questions in the "Looking for a doctor..." thread...
Does any private facility in the US actually perform ERCP??

You really need to get your ferritin checked since it’s the best way to gauge your actual iron stores. Obviously, you should check UIBC and TIBC too...

vividsailor7 said:Likely a urinary tract infection; you should get some antibiotics (personally, I’d go with Solutrim).

So my colleague thinks Sulfamethoxazole trimethoprim is the way to go....
I guess Solutrim is just about picking a favorite pharmaceutical brand...... 🙂
Just teasing a little bit 🙂

brightotter492 said:21 months old and running a fever up to 104 degrees for five days now. Ever since he started preschool, it feels like he's running a temperature almost every single week...

Results:

SE 64 (0-20) H...
Leukocyte 14.2 (6.0-16.0)...
erythrocyte 3.10 (4.00-5.00) L...
Hgb 109 (range 109-138)...
Hct 0.249 (0.320-0.404) L...
MCV 80.2 (73.8-89.4)...
MCH 35.2 (24.3-29.2) H...
MCHC 438 (300-350)H...
Platelets at 281 (range 150-450)...

Lym% 43.4 (18.0-60.0)... looks normal to me.
Mid% 9.9 (5.0-22.0)...
Grn% 46.7 (57.1-75.0) L...

eosinophil 5.0 (0-6)
Basophil count 0.0 (range 0-2)...
Neseg. 7.0 (0-3) H...
Segmented 51 (23-66)...
Lymphocytes at 34 (ref range 18 - 60)...
Monocytes at 0 (normal range 5 - 13)...
Reactive lymphocytes at 3.0...

Thanks in advance...🙂

This all smells like some kind of bacterial infection to me...
Depending on the clinical picture and symptoms, you'll probably need antibiotics... check in with your pediatrician... Absolutely...

Brian Cox5 said:My TSH is 0.418 (ref: 0.470-4.640), while my mom’s is over 6. They told me I have hyperthyroidism and she has hypothyroidism. Isn't that backward? Logic says if the result is above the range it's hypo, and if it's below, it's hyper... 🤷

It’s not a mistake...
TSH is just the pituitary hormone that tells your thyroid how much to pump out. If the thyroid goes rogue and ignores those orders by overproducing T3 and T4, the pituitary senses the excess through a feedback loop and dials back the TSH production...
You can't really call someone hypo or hyperthyroid based on TSH alone... you need to check the actual thyroid hormones too.

Aspirin Protect isn't an anticoagulant, and there's zero danger in taking it alongside Synthroid. End of story...

Jessica Brown7 said:I'm 32. I was dealing with some health issues recently and had to be on bed rest for a while, but now I just can't seem to get back to normal. My heart keeps racing and I'm feeling palpitations... What other tests should I look into?

What were you sick with? It might be related. Maybe you're anemic? Or maybe your heart is just out of shape after being stuck in bed for so long... Just wait until you see what your cardiologist says

Jessica Brown7 said:Everything looks perfect on paper. Kidneys, iron levels, electrolytes, blood pressure, thyroid... everything is fine. But the tachycardia hits right after I eat. I’d probably take beta blockers because it started once every other week and now it's happening daily, and I'm just waiting to see my doctor. A regular GP here can prescribe them easily enough. What really scares me are those skipped beats during the stress test. I heard that's a bad sign... anyone know anything about that? Thanks to you both.:-)

It doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong. You didn't mention your age, and there's a huge difference between being 25 and being 80. It's true that asymptomatic PVCs don't need treatment if there's no underlying pathology, but certain patterns like bigeminy can point to heart issues, so that definitely needs looking into...

Jessica Brown7 said:It looks like others are dealing with tachycardia too. Mine only seems to kick in after meals, maybe triggered by sparkling water. I’m out of shape because I was stuck in bed for a while following surgery, but I can't pin down the cause. My stomach feels fine—no issues there, no bloating or anything... Doctors say my heart is okay. It doesn't even happen every week.
Thanks

You might have a hiatal hernia. Try eating smaller, more frequent meals, and make sure you take a walk or at least stay upright after eating—don't lie down. Also, cut out the stuff that causes gas and bloats your stomach.

lonejackal71 said:Hey everyone!
Can someone help me make sense of these sentences from my scan? I'm totally lost with all this medical jargon. 😕

"Increased glucose metabolism in the right-side paravertebral musculature at the level of Th2 is likely non-specific in nature.

CT shows a sharply demarcated, highly hypodense formation located subcapsularly anteriorly in segment IVa near the venous ligament, without significant post-contrast opacification, without increased radiopharmaceutical accumulation, of undetermined etiology."

What on earth is a hypodense formation?????? Is it some kind of cyst?????? 😢
And what does it mean when they say something is "non-specific in nature" or of "undetermined etiology"?

Honestly, I don't understand any of this and would be so grateful for any answers!!

I don't know for sure, but just thinking out loud... "Undetermined etiology" means they don't know the cause. It's actually a good sign that there's no post-contrast opacification, meaning the mass isn't vascularized. Usually, those things turn out to be cysts...

steelscout6 said:She’s been caught twice. Sinus and subventricular tachycardia with skipped beats and some weird T-waves. But I'm hearing that Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome isn't always easy to spot, so I'm starting to freak out. These tachycardias happen every single day and last about an hour at a time, pulse hitting 160.

If you can scan both ECGs and post them here. Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome isn't actually that hard to diagnose—it's basically a pre-excitation syndrome...

Brandon Diaz29 said:So, I need emergency surgery for my lower back. They found a 12mm herniated disc that's pressing right on my nerves. I've got this pain in my lower spine, mostly on the left side of my buttock, shooting all the way down to my foot. My leg muscles and toes on the left side are going numb. I have to get an MRI before the surgery, but the waitlist is huge. I was thinking about just using some extra cash from my savings to try and fast-track the MRI within the next week. In the meantime, I was considering seeing a chiropractor to see if they could help. Given what's going on, would you guys even recommend that? I'm terrified of making things worse...

Don't gamble with your life. If someone uses the word "emergency," a chiropractor is definitely not the answer...

steelscout6 said:My dad has WPW syndrome. Lately, I’ve been having bouts of tachycardia, but no one has actually diagnosed me with the syndrome yet. I get dizzy and short of breath. I'm 32. I already saw a cardiologist. Is this syndrome hard to catch, and what should I be looking out for?

What kind of tachycardia are we talking about? To get a clear answer, you need an ECG while you're actually having an episode, or maybe a Holter monitor. Having symptoms doesn't automatically mean you have WPW...

I think this looks more like something for cardiothoracic surgery, specifically bypasses...

urbanscout50 said:How is a director supposed to just sit there while his staff screws around on the clock?
Maybe those "poor souls" with zero education or accountability think that if the boss messes up, they should get to mess up too...

They don't slack off like that, not on my watch. But you have to admit the playing field isn't level—you've got an ER nurse grinding through shifts versus a midwife who clocks out at 4 PM because she gets paid extra for being on call.

The midwife works hard maybe once a month, while everyone else is just messing around...
meanwhile, the ER nurse puts in the work every single day without a word...

Sam Hall15 said:I agree regarding the workload—it really depends on where you're stationed. Even within a single hospital, some departments are night and day compared to others when it comes to how much doctors and nurses actually do. That said, there shouldn't be such huge pay gaps between doctors; everyone has enough on their plate, it just comes down to how much someone actually steps up. For instance, a nurse in Ophthalmology or ENT might barely have anything to do with their patients all day, whereas an ICU nurse probably does more in a single shift than those two do in an entire year. 😁 That’s where I’d make the distinction in nursing salaries—not just based on education, but based on the actual unit they work in.

Totally agree. In my experience, most nurses barely lift a finger all year long. But back when I was doing my residency, the ICU nurses were actually working hard... they weren't just sitting around...

Scott Allen10 said:😁....yeah, the USA.....looks like nothing's changed for me either.....😁.....

Well, I just got carried away :P

Scott Allen10 said:😁....like I said, there's some kind of situation going on somewhere....
There's no debate here—the doctor is the one running the show. It's true they might end up taking the fall in court if things go south, but that actually makes sense if they're the ones in charge. Nurses still seem to be viewed as this undefined group when it comes to actual liability (at least from what I can tell), but that won't last forever... boundaries regarding competence and responsibility really need to be clearly drawn out...
....and yeah.... something about those coefficients you mentioned doesn't sit right with me. I have no idea how someone with a base salary of over $5 $0.00 multiplied by a coefficient could end up with a paycheck of $1333?...😕...and which nurse is pulling a 3.2 coefficient? Maybe an Assistant Director of Nursing, but even that feels way too high....give me some more specifics....🙂

Look at the state of the country 😁

That's why I was trying to figure out the approximate amount in dollars
The system here uses different coefficients, starting at 1.0 for custodial staff and going up to 4.5 for sub-specialists or directors. The base pay is roughly 218 miles ($467)

Just don't forget who actually holds the bag and carries the responsibility here...
When medical malpractice happens, who's the one everyone points their finger at?

In my hospital, an RN has a multiplier of 3.2 and pulls in about $1400
while a GP has a 3.5 multiplier and makes roughly $1533

That’s before any benefits kick in, and honestly, that gap is pathetic

I see it firsthand at work... they spend half their shift messing around, just counting down the minutes until they can clock out.

As a director, my multiplier is 4.5 😁

Dana Hill73 said:draft = corrente d'aria (Italian)
draft = courant d'air (French)

Even the instructions on plants from IKEA say "keep out of drafts."

unknown... Air currents are a thing here too—we call it draftiness. People around here swear by the idea that a breeze causes illness, but modern medicine doesn't recognize any link between the two... period.