Hello there! I'm a combat medic in the US Army, been deployed since Feb. of this year and I was just wondering if anyone out there had any general medical questions for me? I've been dealing with nothing but trauma, well mostly trauma this past year and I'd like to brush up on my clinical skills! So I was thinking that I might be able to help you if you guys could help me and ask me some questions :)

This is by no means, official legal medical directions, I don't have my own license to operate under so just think of it as "medical advice." Like if you had a friend who knew a lot of stuff about things and you asked them a question about that certain thing. In this case, it's medical stuff! Yay!

Ok guys, hit me with your best shot! I need to get back on top of things so when I get back to the USA I haven't forgotten all about coughs and colds and stuff. lol... and I even know some things about physical therapy.. and working out as well ;)

Dr. Zephi is in :D

http://www.menewsha.com/forum/commun...ng-lovely.html
Anything to say on that?

Well if you could tell me why it is that I keep getting on and off back pains outta no where that has been going on for over ten years, I'd love to know if you have any ideas as to what it is -3- (I mean I'll get a really bad ache in my back from doing every day things that shouldn't throw your back out).

I have the same job as Zephi, but I have clinical experience, not the combat experience. Some things that you can provide in your questions that REALLY help with pain inquiries include:

-Did you have any trauma in the area? (a fall, a car accident, etc)
-What triggers the pain? (anything from temperature changes, changing positions, exercise or lack of, etc)
-What do you do to treat the pain? What works and what has no effect? (ex. medicines, stretches, ice/hot packs)
-Have you seen a provider before to get treatment?

*high fives fellow 68W and runs off to let her run the show* xD

@Hark: Myself I prefer Palmer's Cocoa Butter Lotion for all over body use. I work with my hands and need them to be sensetive enough to feel a weak pulse, people are always surprised at how soft they are. If you try an all over body exfoliator scrub type thing first and then put lotion or right after you shower, it'll probably help a lot ;)

Also to get more defined abs, stick with crunches instead of sit-ups. Crunches make your waist smaller and more defined while sit-ups make the muscles bigger and then they start to stick out more. Unless that's what you want then go ahead with the latter. Also, "flutter kicks" are a good ab work out. Lay on your back with your head to your chest, hands under your butt and hold your feet 6 inches off the ground. Alternate kicking one up about 2 feet and then back down to 6 inches off the ground. Remember to keep your legs straight and your chin tucked. Do as many repetitions as you can on a 4-count.

@Lalia Izuka : A few questions to better answer yours :) 1. Have you ever seen a doctor for it? 2. What part of your back is it? 3. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the worst pain you ever felt in your life) where would you place the back pain? 4. Do you take any medication for it? 5. Have you ever had kidney stones? 6. Any history of scoliosis?

:D

Originally Posted by Zephi

@Hark: Myself I prefer Palmer's Cocoa Butter Lotion for all over body use. I work with my hands and need them to be sensetive enough to feel a weak pulse, people are always surprised at how soft they are. If you try an all over body exfoliator scrub type thing first and then put lotion or right after you shower, it'll probably help a lot ;)

Also to get more defined abs, stick with crunches instead of sit-ups. Crunches make your waist smaller and more defined while sit-ups make the muscles bigger and then they start to stick out more. Unless that's what you want then go ahead with the latter. Also, "flutter kicks" are a good ab work out. Lay on your back with your head to your chest, hands under your butt and hold your feet 6 inches off the ground. Alternate kicking one up about 2 feet and then back down to 6 inches off the ground. Remember to keep your legs straight and your chin tucked. Do as many repetitions as you can on a 4-count.

@Lalia Izuka : A few questions to better answer yours :) 1. Have you ever seen a doctor for it? 2. What part of your back is it? 3. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the worst pain you ever felt in your life) where would you place the back pain? 4. Do you take any medication for it? 5. Have you ever had kidney stones? 6. Any history of scoliosis?

:D

1. Yes I have seen a doctor for it before, but they couldn't find what the problem was (though I didn't go see a specialist)
2. Erm, mainly the bottom part of my back -3-
3. Well the pain in my back varies from time to time. But when I absolutely cannot move, it would be at about a five or so.
4. Nope, I don't take medicine for it. I just take normal aspirin whenever it starts to hurt and I cannot really move.
5. I believe that one of my cousins has scoliosis, but I don't know if any direct family members have it o.o

Ok well since a doctor who saw you didn't say that it was scoliosis I'm gonna guess that it's not. Hmm... pain that comes and goes... ok.. does it feel muscular or does it feel more like bony? Sometimes I get pains in my sides or right over my Iliac crest, not sure why but probably just from standing up too much. And... never had any problems with blood in stool, right :S

I've been to a doc who wants me to get a polysomnogram. I forgot to tell the doc that I never sleep on my back (as in, it's pretty much impossible for me to fall asleep when I'm on my back, even if I'm extremely tired). Would that affect the test?

The point of the PSGis to see how you naturally sleep, this is best if you sleep normally. Because they want to look for reason why you might have sleep apnea or other sleep disorders like that. So the best thing to do is just sleep how you always sleep, because if you change your routine it might give them false positives or false negatives. You can let them know when you go in to take the sleep study but I was under the impression that it's actually better for you to sleep on your side, especially the left side because it somehow boosts your blood circulation and lests your heart work a little less while you sleep.

Hope this helps.

Ah, that's good to hear. I've just been doing a lot of reading on sleep apnea, and one of the "lifestyle changes" was to sleep on your side to prevent the apnea from occurring as frequently. I was getting nervous since I already sleep on my side. :sweat:

Thanks!

People get sleep apnea for a lot of different reasons. It's pretty common actually. As long as it doesn't wake you up at night and interfere with your sleep then a lot of people have it and don't even know it. But since you've been to a doctor I imagine that's not the case for you. Hmm.. some reasons for sleep apnea can be resolved like possibly losing weight but then again i've known some stick figure looking people that had it. :lol: Also it might effect people who sleep on their back more the same reason why people snore more often on their back, because their tongue blocks the airway partially. Now if it's just because you get so relaxed that your body goes into a state of depression, that's an issue. I've only had that happen to me once in my life and I thought I was going to die :sweat: Then again I just had my daughter and they insisted on giving me percocet for pain, which I said I didn't need, but they made me take it. I was so relaxed, combined with tired that I had stopped breathing and woke up gasping for breath over and over. Wanted to get up but before I could move I was back asleep... scary. I hope that your sleep study goes well, maybe they will find a correctable cause for your sleep apnea :D

Meh, I need to find a new doctor first. Mine fell off of the face of the earth I think. I kept emailing him about seeing a specialist to do the test (since the only clinic in town that can do one is in the county hospital) and he never referred me to one.

The reason he thought I had sleep apnea is because I've had chronic sleeping troubles. Like, I require a minimum of 10 hours of sleep a night to feel rested. That's nearly half my day... so if I could do something to allow me to feel rested with less sleep, I'd gladly do it. Apparently I've been like that since I was a toddler, so I hope it's not something metabolism-related, since that's not really something I can fix.

What is a celiac? XD lol

Thoth Star, is that a serious question...?

I'd like to know if you've ever heard of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome? I have EDS and so many people have never heard of it. I doubt you'll run into it in combat lol but I'm curious

EDS huh? I have to say that I have not heard of it but I'm looking it up right now.

Oh I see. Kind of what we might call "double jointed." My sister is actually like that. Her fingers, she just bends them all the way back or makes her thumbs do things that it shouldn't be able to do.

Is your condition a more life threatening one or is it just a little above normal, if you don't mind?

I imagine that people might have severe cases of arthritis when they get older from this EDS.

Yes I started getting arthritis when I was 9.

Docs are trying to figure out the continuity of EDS...for some, including me, it can be life threatening...there are many types of EDS and not all the genetic markers are known but we know mine is caused by a deletion of a gene. If you were to touch my skin you'd see that it stretches and is very velvety and doughy and I get cuts, scars, and bruises very easily. I dislocate my shoulder just turning over in bed and putting my shoes on dislocates my fingers...stuff like that.

Hi doctor Zephi :3 Maybe you could help me out to find a cure for my asthma? It started triggering this year. I had it since I was born but it never took effect until this year. I think I had primary tuberculosis too when I was around 1 year old. Also, one of my relatives has nose cancer, and my mom has asthma too but hers got cured, so I guess this is why I have asthma? Well it just bugs me, I breathe really loudly and my friends get creep out about this.
I don't like having this it's very uncomfortable.
I'm sorry if you aren't an asthma specialist I'm not really sure what type of disease you know much about teehee. But any thing you know about this would be helpful. n3n I just really want to get cured.

Well sorry to say Riri there really isn't a known "cure" for asthma, or else no one would have it. But you develoop it for different reasons like allergies or pollution or it can also be genetic. Though you can't "cure" it sometimes it's possible that your body grows strengths against what makes you have this pulmonary reaction. Could I ask where you live as to have had TB so young?

Some things you might want to try are... always having your inhaler on you for one. So if you start to feel an attack coming on then you can stop it quickly. To avoid any attacks you might want to have a good idea of what sets it off. For some people it's animals. For others it's walking in the city, or even through a park in the country. And for some people all it takes is some stress to cause them to have an attack.

If you never had symptoms before now, ask yourself what you have been doing that was new. Did you move to a new area or start a new sport? Have you gotten a new perfume recently?

Until your body can fight off the causes of your attacks you might want to look into a daily asthma medicine that is suposed to help prevent any attacks from happening. There are a lot fo questions that I'd ask you if you were my patient in real life, a lot of things are documented to pinpoint what exactly is causing your attacks. But even though some people are very thurough, sometimes there is no set irritant for asthma.