OT: Group like this for Medical Questions?

[Scott Townsend]

I was wondering if there is a group that has this type of participation that we can ask medical type questions?

Thanks, Scott

[Rich256]

There are many. They usually specialize in one area. For Example:

alt.support.heart-defects alt.support.sinus alt.support.cancer alt.support.cancer.breast alt.support.cancer.prostate sci.med.diseases.cancer sci.med.prostate.bph misc.health.alternative alt.support.hearing-loss

Search in the areas you are interested in.

[Stubby]

I find

very reliable. Check the message boards. They have some real docs answering selected questions.

Scott Townsend wrote:

[Norminn]

sci.med or sci.med.nursing are the closest for groups. Be careful out there. You might get better answers here :o)

[Rich256]

When you look at specialized groups such as sinus and prostate you can get some excellent information. Some even have specialist doctors posting.

[Kurt Ullman]

Stay away from the general group, sci.med. Taken over by anti-doc trolls and congenitally weird docs.

[Scott Townsend]

[mm]

I like to get a second opinion, so I ask on the sinus group about my prostate, and on the prostate group about my sinus.

[Rich256]

Do that. You will get some very clear answers about what you can do about them.

Seriously, I have gotten some excellent information from those groups. Especially telling me about new techniques and equipment that the doctor I was visiting didn't have and didn't tell me about. For example a laser method in lieu of a knife!!

[Stormin Mormon]

I've seen some really great dentists on sci.med.dentistry

Not sure what the question is. SEriously, do a google search at

and see what you find. I'd spent about $2,000 on ingrown toe nails and many days of missed work. One bored night, I did a google, and found a couple web pages. No more doctor bills, I found out all I needed to know.

[mm]

Wow, I had ingrown toenails in both big toes from before I could remember until I was 18 years old.

They weren't a problem until I turned 13 and thought I was old enough that I should get rid of them, and I let them grow out, leading to 5 years of soreness, etc. and maybe infection (I was never sure if all the other symptoms meant there was in infection, or if they were only responses to the nail.)

I had a doctor who wasn't so old, but who kept using remedies that I later learned were not effective: Hydrogen peroxide, potassium permanganate.**

Then I was sent on to a surgeon, who didn't surge but put cotton under the corners. The corners were weakened from stuff my body generated and the corners just broke off when he put enough cotton under the nails. Then he wanted to cut, but I wouldn't let him do it.

I finally succeeded in letting it grow out by suffering 5 years of pain, especially every time my big toes touched something. It would grow one millimeter and then be eathen back 7/8ths of a millimeter. It finally healed just in time to go barefoot spring of my first year in college, except it turned out that no one in college did that where I was. Still, I was happy that the pain was gone.

How did you solve your problem?

**We couldn't complain though, even had we known, because for some reason, he never charged us. I saw his books once, and on the day the book was open to, he didn't charge about 1/3 of the patients. But the toenail failure was small potatos. He also, when I dislocated my shoulder, only took an x-ray to see if it was broken, but didn't put my arm in a sling, which might have prevented recurrences and the surgery I had to have 10 years later. He also diagnosed me with epilepsy when I was about 13, and had me take drugs, when all I had was feeling faint when I stood up, and actually passing out a couple times. Apparently about half the population feels light-headed if they stand up suddenly. (My mother wanted me to see a specialist, and he said "If you want to", meaning he didn't think it was necessary. The neurologist we went to confirmed the diagnosis and added a second drug to take in addition. When my mother asked in 1960 "Is it habit- forming, the doctor replied, "What do you think we are doing, Mrs. Meirman, running an opium den?" and I don't think he answered her question.

After a month of that, my mother wanted another specialist and the GP sent us to a neuro-surgion, who actually sat there when I had another electro encephalograph, and told me about the Valsalva Maneuver, which is also a children's game. A kid will breathe very deeply for a while and another kid will put in a bear hug from behind and squeeze pretty hard, and the first kid will faint. I'd never heard of it. Have you?

Anyhow he wouldn't contradict the first two doctors but he took me off all the pills and I was fine. About 5 years later as part of another wild goose chase by the GP, he sent me all the way to Chicago to see another neurologist, head of neurology at the University of Illinois hospitals, and an early developer of the EEG, and he examined me and said I didn't have epilepsy and had never had it.

So yes, it pays to do your own reading, and certainly not to take your doctor's word for everything.

OTOH he cured my pneumonia (with penicillin, which is I guess almost a no-brainer), and all I had to do was say "My mother hasn't had a booster shot against polio, and he nodded to his nurse who got some from the little fridge and injected her within three minutes of my mentioning it. No charge like usual. My mother thought that only children could get polio, but it wasn't true.

[Norminn]

clipped

It is a critical maneuver for a couple of dire situations - changes pulse rate, for one.

As for epilepsy, it isn't always dramatic, as in "that is an epileptic seizure"! There can be mild symptoms, like "absence seizures", where a person just "tunes out" but doesn't show outward signs.

I know someone who was diagnosed with epilepsy after a grand mal seizure while asleep - the real deal. They woke up to a room full of EMT's. It was before anyone knew what sleep apnea was, and was corrected before sleep apnea became a widely know malady. One can have a seizure just from fainting, so it isn't always easy to diagnose. This person is part of a family with low "seizure threshold". Kind of interesting to find out that so many people in the family had had seizures from a variety of problems - stroke, diabetic glucose level, fever, etc.

Doc's generally don't contradict each other much - not much sense to it unless the previous doc was a real flake. They have to work together on lots of stuff, and the second doc wasn't there when the first took info and made a decision, so it is hard to second guess.

Absolutely one of the best steps toward staying alive and healthy. Same theory applies to home repair and contractors :o)