Got a medical question? Let me stretch my brain.

[pnoon]

Why does Tom's butt itch?

[icehog3]

Originally Posted by pnoon

Why does Tom's butt itch?

[pnoon]

Originally Posted by icehog3

You're such a douchebag.

Originally Posted by pnoon

Why does Tom's butt itch?

I believe it is because Tom's butt was always meant to itch. Without an itch, one could not define Tom's butt. It's like saying "Why is the sun hot?"

I will tackle Fumes' next. But in the meantime, do a search on my posts and you will see that I put in some fairly lengthy posts into a back-pain thread about a month or two ago. It would be good background reading. I will re-read it myself and may just post a link to it if I think it covers the info well enough.

But for now....

Back to painting (baseboards are done)

Thanks for the info John.

I appreciate the help.

Originally Posted by Cenookie

First of all thanks, a couple months ago I was helping a friend move furniture when I felt what I can only describe as a warming sensation and pain in my shoulder. I immediately lost strength in my shoulder. In fact I wasn't able to put my truck in gear to drive home. My shoulder only hurts when I move it a certain way. And at night in bed it's not a pain like in the muscle, but more of an ache. I can massage it and fell no sore spots, but move it a certain way and PAIN.

Move it which way? How about holding arm straight down at side with palm facing forward. As you rotate the shoulder up to the side (like a properly on a plane, spinning), and then over the top until you touch the opposite shoulder with your thumb (with elbow over head. Does that hurt? Maybe reaching behind your back to scratch your back with your knuckles. Does that hurt? How about holding elbows tight to side and then rotating forearms outwards. Does that hurt?

I am presuming right off the bat that you may be dealing with a rotator cuff injury. However the differential diagnosis (its the concept of "a list that contains every diagnosis that a particular condition could be"...things only get struck off the list when they can no longer possibly explain the situation) would also include a biceps tendon rupture (but I think you would describe the situation differently).

And by the way....Tom might have worms. That might explain the itch.

[Opusfxd]

I'll give this a shot. It feels like I have a NASCAR restrictor plate in my adam's apple area. Sometimes it gets constricted and restricts my breathing. Whether it's going up the stairs, running a few miles, riding the bike it feels like I could be fine if I could only get enough air into my lungs past this constriction. BTW, thanks to sleep apnea I have no uvula, tonsils and my sinuses have been reamed out. I also have incredibly active sinuses. Any guesses?

Originally Posted by Opusfxd

NASCAR restrictor plate???

I haven't a foggiest regarding what that is. We don't have any real NASCAR in Canada so I don't even recognize the reference.

That being said, it sounds like you have something obstructing the area. Well, that wasn't all that helpful right? This could either be because of anatomical masses (but seeing you have had an ENT-ream-out-job, then I doubt that), or it could be due to secretions (sinus related). Another potential might be due to a cyst of some sort, maybe a thyroid cyst (or enlarged thyroid), or possibly a pharyngeal branchial cyst (remnant of a gill slit...believe it or not).

A simple physical exam (maybe with some simple blood work) might give you some answers.

[sikk50]

Ok, I'll play.

When I first moved to Chico they had these weird things called "seasons," yea we don't have those in SoCal. So naturaly the trees lose their leaves and polonate rather more dramaticly than down south. Sortly after the move I had the worst sore thoat of my life, so bad that it would wake me up at night, it lasted for a couple weeks with verying degrees of intensity. During that time I also suffered from swollen tonsils, pink eye (first time in my life) and plugged ears. My insurence didn't work up here so I went to the schools med place and she said it was allergies intensified by a nasty cold that had been going around of some sort and just gave me a script for sudifed. Well it helped but I was still displeased and drinking three cups of hot lemon tea and honey a day was rather old at this point so i went to the health clinic. There the doc said that I had a sinus infection at was looking pretty brutal and that he felt that was the cause off all of this, saying as it would max out one area it would move to another. He gave me Leviquin. It helped, but I still wasn't top notch for a week or so after the pills were gone.

Anyway regardless to this day I have wat look like little bumps on the soft tissue above my dangley ball thing in my throat. My family doctor has looked at this and asked promptly if I drink a lot of hot liquids, "why yes, about a whole pot of coffee daily." Do you drink alcohol, "well its safe to say there wont be any breweries closing while I'm around." Do you smoke, "5 cigars a week." then he says that its just an irritant because of all of these things. Now I may just not have paid that much attention to the inner dynamics of my mouth before this ordeal, but I feel fairly confident the little bumps came with that. They don't bug, no irritation, just there hanging out, rather small, about like a pin poke size.

What do you think doc?

[bonjing]

Originally Posted by sikk50

What do you think doc?

Stop hanging around Darrell

[sikk50]

Originally Posted by bonjing

Stop hanging around Darrell

[RGD.]

My grandfather died from a pulmonary embolism. He actually had what they said was a saddle pulmonary embolism and several clots in his left leg. One of the left leg clots actually ripped the artery as it traveled and there was nothing that could be done.
Last spring my mother survived a saddle pulmonary embolism and four clots in her left leg.
A couple of months ago one of my brothers (8 years my junior) wasn't feeling good and drove himself to the hospital. He collapsed in the hospital parking lot. He also had several clots in his left leg and a saddle pulmonary embolism.

So - can this be something hereditary. I'm nervous for my other younger brother and sister. Is there something they should be doing? Check ups or screening of any kind?

Having three family members with the same thing kinda puts you on edge.

Thanks,

Ron

Originally Posted by RGD.

My grandfather died from a pulmonary embolism. He actually had what they said was a saddle pulmonary embolism and several clots in his left leg. One of the left leg clots actually ripped the artery as it traveled and there was nothing that could be done.
Last spring my mother survived a saddle pulmonary embolism and four clots in her left leg.
A couple of months ago one of my brothers (8 years my junior) wasn't feeling good and drove himself to the hospital. He collapsed in the hospital parking lot. He also had several clots in his left leg and a saddle pulmonary embolism.

So - can this be something hereditary. I'm nervous for my other younger brother and sister. Is there something they should be doing? Check ups or screening of any kind?

Having three family members with the same thing kinda puts you on edge.

Thanks,

Ron

I will answer this one next, then later see if I can handle a couple of the others.

MOST CERTAINLY, there are about a dozen genetic/heritable conditions that could lead to this sort of story. With so many people having similar stories in your family I would definitely get them all lined up to do the testing.

Depending on what the genetic distribution of the specific condition is, you may be looking at 50% of your siblings having it. If you do not have it, then your children would not be able to have it. But, different conditions distribute in different ways....thus everyone should still get tested.

Originally Posted by sikk50

Ok, I'll play.

When I first moved to Chico they had these weird things called "seasons," yea we don't have those in SoCal. So naturaly the trees lose their leaves and polonate rather more dramaticly than down south. Sortly after the move I had the worst sore thoat of my life, so bad that it would wake me up at night, it lasted for a couple weeks with verying degrees of intensity. During that time I also suffered from swollen tonsils, pink eye (first time in my life) and plugged ears. My insurence didn't work up here so I went to the schools med place and she said it was allergies intensified by a nasty cold that had been going around of some sort and just gave me a script for sudifed. Well it helped but I was still displeased and drinking three cups of hot lemon tea and honey a day was rather old at this point so i went to the health clinic. There the doc said that I had a sinus infection at was looking pretty brutal and that he felt that was the cause off all of this, saying as it would max out one area it would move to another. He gave me Leviquin. It helped, but I still wasn't top notch for a week or so after the pills were gone.

Anyway regardless to this day I have wat look like little bumps on the soft tissue above my dangley ball thing in my throat. My family doctor has looked at this and asked promptly if I drink a lot of hot liquids, "why yes, about a whole pot of coffee daily." Do you drink alcohol, "well its safe to say there wont be any breweries closing while I'm around." Do you smoke, "5 cigars a week." then he says that its just an irritant because of all of these things. Now I may just not have paid that much attention to the inner dynamics of my mouth before this ordeal, but I feel fairly confident the little bumps came with that. They don't bug, no irritation, just there hanging out, rather small, about like a pin poke size.

What do you think doc?

When you say "on the soft itssue above my [uvula]", I presume you mean the soft-palate (soft part of the roof of the mouth, posterior to the hard-palate).

Well, you had me on this one, so I did a little research. At this time I will plug a little more info for the layperson (I intend on slipping this stuff in all over the place). A particularly good website for researching information for yourselves is the patient section of uptodate . com. The doctor end of this website is becoming the world leader in condensed medical information. Its my first source (then I go through many other sources as needed). Both ends are written by world experts on the topics they write.

In this case, the research didn't change what my approach would be regarding this one (it confirmed that some fears were warranted, and that no easy "better diagnosis" was immediately obvious to the specialists).

This is a case where having eyes-on is very important. Its what determines is on the differential diagnosis and what is not. But, let me tell you, when a medical student comes to me with this sentence:

"My patient is a daily cigar smoker who occassionally drinks alcohol and has noticed persistent non-painful papules to his soft-palate over [insert timeframe here...months? years?]" then the first thing that should come to my mind is cancer. In fact it is what we call a an UPO diagnosis (until proven otherwise). Now, don't freak out to much. Its probably not cancer. But, I would want to be 100% comfortable with being able to say "its not cancer" before I would be so bold. Maybe in your case having a brief look at it would make a physician comfortable that, indeed, it is not. Otherwise, a biopsy would be in order.

Keep in mind, that the majority of mouth mucosal cancers start out as "pre-cancer" lesions and stay like that for a very LONG time. Only if ignored long enough, combined with a large amount of bad-luck do they transform into cancer. A biopsy would tell you if it were pre-cancer or not, and give plenty of time to cut it all out and aim for cure.

Finally, many of these mouth/throat cancers are conditions of chronic exposure over LONG periods of time. I assume you may be fairly young (sounded like you were talking about university life, so likely you are fairly young). If that is the case, then the invincibility of youth is on your side (in that you probably haven't been exposed to daily cigar smoke for 20 years), providing you take the steps to rule it out.

[sikk50]

Thanks for the tip. I'm 23 I've only been smoking for barely two years and didn't drink till I was 21. That was my fear when I went to the doc but he assured me not to worry just figured I'd see what you thought on the whole thing.

There are 5 crucial questions to ask when you are playing with thoughts of oral cancers:

Bleeds? (mouth, nasal)
Skin changes? (in the mouth, around the mouth)
Throat/ear pain?
Obstructions?
Voice changes?
Enlarged lymph nodes?

Well that's six, but really two of them fit together in my mind. And of course, answering yes to these doesn't mean cancer (a sinus infection could have you answering yes to 5 of them), but it does sharpen your focus.

[bonjing]

Thank you John for providing information.

[sikk50]

Yes thank you!

Something I neglected to mention is that they are almost unnoticable anymore and the thing my doc said he would attribute them to most likely is my horendous allergies. But I must tell you, everything you have said are the samethings my doc and I talked about. Just wanted to see what another doctor had to say. hope I gave your noddle the jog you were looking for, and I will deffinatly keep an eye on it

Glad you caught it the way I pitched it. I was feeling a little anxious cutting you the straight deal over an online forum like this. The C word is not one I like to throw out there and leave festering on its own.