I Love Playing Doctor

[Insulinshock]

So my little brother is sick: oral ulcers, slight fever, general malaise, and enlarged nodes.

Anybody else find great joy in researching the symptoms, causes, etc, and trying to find the cause, mechanism, and treatment of said disease? I probably sound really weird, but I find great joy in doing this when family members get sick, and then get even more excited if I find out I was correct after they go to the doctor.

haha anybody else do this or am I just really weird?

btw I predicted viral infection, and I was right

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[TupacalipseT96]

Whats the differential on this one guys?
I wanna have this case wrapped up in time for House

 

[armybound]

ummm I kind of like that people will come to me asking me questions, but 90% of the time I'm pretty clueless about what it could be, so I actually feel pretty bad that I don't actually have a valid response

 

[Cegar]

I felt funny one day, went to my doctor and told him that I thought I had appendicitis.

Except it didn't hurt. At all. Turns out that my appendix wasn't quite in the right place.

At any rate, I did have appendicitis.

 

[tncekm]

Well, I can't say I'm finding "joy" in it b/c I'm usually pretty concerned when my family members get sick, but I will admit I have very compulsive behavior and do have to research everything and do what I can to make sure they feel better.

I do the same with my animals, too, so its not just humans. I was recently giving one of my poor rats nebulizer treatments 3-5x/day along with 2x/day subcutaneous gentamicin injections. She wouldn't take her prescribed baytril, so I researched the hell out of respiratory infections (it was likely an event of Mycoplasma taking advantage of her suppressed immune system due to mammary carcinomas) in rats and found a albuterol nebulizer / gentamicin course to be safe (despite some common misconceptions--its rat safe at relatively high doses) and very effective. I got the vet to agree to this treatment, and it was soooo worth all the effort. It was so incredibly satisfying to see my rat go from "deaths door" to eating and drinking, and it a happened within about 4-6 hours. The results were absolutely amazing! So anybody with rats, keep gentamicin and albuterol treatments in mind! The vet may bring up kidney issues associated with gentamicin, but I believe this research was done on dogs where there was nephrotoxicity. In rats there is research where no toxicity was noted as high as 20mg/lb of bodyweight, about 5-10x a standard dose, given over a 3 week course (3x longer than a standard course). <--- I only bring this up b/c its been my experience that most vets don't do much work with rats! I visited quite a few, and the sentiment of the rat fanciers was pretty much right on which was essentially vets don't have much experience with rats.

/tangent

 

[dd128]

I like to play doctor, but in the same capacity as you all have mentioned

 

[iampremed]

So my little brother is sick: oral ulcers, slight fever, general malaise, and enlarged nodes.

Anybody else find great joy in researching the symptoms, causes, etc, and trying to find the cause, mechanism, and treatment of said disease? I probably sound really weird, but I find great joy in doing this when family members get sick, and then get even more excited if I find out I was correct after they go to the doctor.

haha anybody else do this or am I just really weird?

btw I predicted viral infection, and I was right

i do get curious when i see symptoms. thanks to the internet, my attempts at doing differentials have almost always resulted in the diagnosis for terminal illnesses like cancer. thankfully i've been wrong almost 100% of the time.

 

[tncekm]

i do get curious when i see symptoms. thanks to the internet, my attempts at doing differentials have almost always resulted in the diagnosis for terminal illnesses like cancer. thankfully i've been wrong almost 100% of the time.

Hhahhahahaha. That's so flippin' true! According to google hemorrhoids = cancer, swollen lymph nodes = cancer, etc, etc.

 

[The Doctor]

btw I predicted viral infection, and I was right

Haha, I was thinking lupus given those symptoms - then again I guess occam's razor applies, and it's NEVER lupus.

 

[Handy388]

So my little brother is sick: oral ulcers, slight fever, general malaise, and enlarged nodes.

Anybody else find great joy in researching the symptoms, causes, etc, and trying to find the cause, mechanism, and treatment of said disease? I probably sound really weird, but I find great joy in doing this when family members get sick, and then get even more excited if I find out I was correct after they go to the doctor.

haha anybody else do this or am I just really weird?

btw I predicted viral infection, and I was right

it could be AIDS.

 

[HumidBeing]

Hoof and mouth disease.

 

[Cegar]

 

[tncekm]

Mickey Mouse about to be suffocated by a large boa constrictor!?

 

[HumidBeing]

Ebola!

 

[Cegar]

Ebola!

Congratulations! You're now bleeding.


Everywhere.

 

[GoldShadow]

Ebola rules! Well, as long as nobody has it.

Anyway, I know exactly what you all mean. It is quite flattering that sometimes when one of my friends is sick or hurt or just curious, they come and ask me knowing that I'm premed/an EMT/Scrubs enthusiast.

 

[Cegar]

On topic, I try to stay away from diagnosis lands unless it involves me.

Otherwise I risk being labeled as a toolish pre-med.

 

[iduwanna]

Whats the differential on this one guys?
I wanna have this case wrapped up in time for House

House isn't on tonight because of some dancing show. Sucks, I know.

And yeah, I concur with whoever said AIDS.

 

[SaveThisLabRat]

On topic, I try to stay away from diagnosis lands unless it involves me.

Otherwise I risk being labeled as a toolish pre-med.

Winner.

 

[tncekm]

House isn't on tonight because of some dancing show. Sucks, I know.

And yeah, I concur with whoever said AIDS.

Well, diagnosis is a rather strong word I don't think anybody here is diagnosing anyone.

Anyway, it may not be of much help to people, but it sure as hell helps a lot when I go to the vet being that animals don't communicate very well

 

[nu2004]

playing doctor is, to borrow a line from Kubrick, "silly and ignorant."

let the pros do it, guys. you'll have your chance.

 

[Cegar]

Well, diagnosis is a rather strong word I don't think anybody here is diagnosing anyone.

Anyway, it may not be of much help to people, but it sure as hell helps a lot when I go to the vet being that animals don't communicate very well

They don't actively lie either.

Well, they do. But it's not quite the same.

 

[neuro1617]

So my little brother is sick: oral ulcers, slight fever, general malaise, and enlarged nodes.

Anybody else find great joy in researching the symptoms, causes, etc, and trying to find the cause, mechanism, and treatment of said disease? I probably sound really weird, but I find great joy in doing this when family members get sick, and then get even more excited if I find out I was correct after they go to the doctor.

haha anybody else do this or am I just really weird?

btw I predicted viral infection, and I was right

Yes! haha, I knew I wasn't the only one. I also do it when friends get sick/I get sick.

 

[J1515]

On topic, I try to stay away from diagnosis lands unless it involves me.

Otherwise I risk being labeled as a toolish pre-med.

Thank you. Finally an SDN premed who proves he isn't a total tool.

I wish there were more like you.

 

[Cegar]

Thank you. Finally an SDN premed who proves he isn't a total tool.

I wish there were more like you.

Oh, don't kid yourself. We're all tools.

 

[tncekm]

Oh, don't kid yourself. We're all tools.

Bingo... there is something wrong with most of us, that's for sure. Not only are we going into a very grueling professional school and very demanding profession, we sit on these forums for countless hours either stroking each others egos or getting in e-battles over who has the biggest "brain muscle"

 

[Cegar]

Bingo... there is something wrong with most of us, that's for sure. Not only are we going into a very grueling professional school and very demanding profession, we sit on these forums for countless hours either stroking each others egos or getting in e-battles over who has the biggest "brain muscle"

What in the hell are you talking about? The brain isn't a muscle.

 

[tncekm]

What in the hell are you talking about? The brain isn't a muscle.

I think you forgot your e-etiquette. When you're sarcastic you need to add a smily face. Like: "Oh, gee, I had no idea the brain wasn't a muscle?! Thank you for the enlightenment! I always thought that when my head was throbbing it was b/c my brain muscles sarcoplasmic reticulum decided to play a joke on me and start slamming and clearing my brain muscle's cytoplasm with Ca++"

 

[nu2004]

^ lol, i love the "edit for bio correctness"

 

[Cegar]

I think you forgot your e-etiquette. When you're sarcastic you need to add a smily face. Like: "Oh, gee, I had no idea the brain wasn't a muscle?! Thank you for the enlightenment! I always thought that when my head was throbbing it was b/c my brain muscles sarcoplasmic reticulum decided to play a joke on me and start slamming and clearing my brain muscle's cytoplasm with Ca++"

It's much more entertaining if I leave no smiley face because then there's a chance that I've gone into pre-med mode and forgot what jokes are.

 

[tncekm]

It's much more entertaining if I leave no smiley face because then there's a chance that I've gone into pre-med mode and forgot what jokes are.

Well, I'm glad neither of us went into premed mode and forgot what a joke was

 

[Insulinshock]

It's much more entertaining if I leave no smiley face because then there's a chance that I've gone into pre-med mode and forgot what jokes are.

And yes AIDS did cross my mind. I also considered syphilis too, but since he's only 16 I felt fairly confident eliminating those hah. (and yes i know syphilis is bacterial)

 

[Particleinabox]

I actually kind of hate it when premeds pretend to be doctors or when people ask a premed for advice and they give some bull**** answer.

 

[Cegar]

And yes AIDS did cross my mind. I also considered syphilis too, but since he's only 16 I felt fairly confident eliminating those hah. (and yes i know syphilis is bacterial)

Syphilis is actually the manifestation of an ape demon.

 

[Insulinshock]

I actually kind of hate it when premeds pretend to be doctors or when people ask a premed for advice and they give some bull**** answer.

That's why nobody asks me and I likewise don't "give out" advice, I keep it to myself, and only discuss it on an anonymous internet forum. But in case you weren't directing that at me, then yes, I hate that too.

 

[TheRealMD]

Er... House already had it's season finale. Didn't you notice when they spent a lot of money on all the props?

 

[SaveThisLabRat]

countless hours either stroking each others large, massive, rock hard, throbbing egos...

At least, this is how mine is.

 

[nu2004]

At least, this is how mine is.

sometimes, a Cegar is just a Cegar

 

[Cegar]

sometimes, a Cegar is just a Cegar

Actually I'm a giant penis.

 

[bcat85]

WebMD is a powerful tool.

 

[HumidBeing]

WebMD is a powerful tool.

which, in the wrong hands, creates a powerful fool.

Thought I'd finish your rhyme for you.

(not insinuating that you're a fool. LOL Just because it begged to be finished)

 

[tncekm]

At least, this is how mine is.

Yes, yes it is

 

[SaveThisLabRat]

Actually, I was insinuating that you're all hard, throbbing penises about to rupture in ecstasy.

 

[SaveThisLabRat]

Yes, yes it is

 

[tncekm]

Actually, I was insinuating that you're all hard, throbbing penises about to rupture in ecstasy.

Well... you thought you said something clever, didn't ya? Turns out we ARE big hard peni (if octopus plural are octopi, and cactus plural are cati, doesn't it only makes sense that we're peni)? Proof below.

Actually I'm a giant penis.

 

[Raryn]

except penis ends in -is. and the plural of octopus is NOT octopi (octopus is greek derived as opposed to latin derived. the proper linguistic plural is octopodes, but the proper english plural is octopuses.)

and i concur with the above posters, its NEVER lupus.

 

[brianmartin]

So my little brother is sick: oral ulcers, slight fever, general malaise, and enlarged nodes.

btw I predicted viral infection, and I was right

Continuing on the toolish bandwagon, did they actually do a strep screen?

 

[tncekm]

except penis ends in -is. and the plural of octopus is NOT octopi (octopus is greek derived as opposed to latin derived. the proper linguistic plural is octopodes, but the proper english plural is octopuses.)

and i concur with the above posters, its NEVER lupus.

I've been learned. Gracias.

Octopodes = octopuses &#8800; octopi && -us &#8800; -is &#8756; penises &#8800; peni.

Great article... clears up all the confusion.

 

[8744]

So my little brother is sick: oral ulcers, slight fever, general malaise, and enlarged nodes.

Anybody else find great joy in researching the symptoms, causes, etc, and trying to find the cause, mechanism, and treatment of said disease? I probably sound really weird, but I find great joy in doing this when family members get sick, and then get even more excited if I find out I was correct after they go to the doctor.

haha anybody else do this or am I just really weird?

btw I predicted viral infection, and I was right

Don't forget to complete ten pages of useless paperwork, try to get your brother to give you some of his allowance money when he thinks that your time is his right, have your mother sue you for misdiagnosing an ear infection, and then stay up all night in case your brother or his friends get sick again.

I mean, if you really want to simulate the medical profession....

 

[8744]

So my little brother is sick: oral ulcers, slight fever, general malaise, and enlarged nodes.

Anybody else find great joy in researching the symptoms, causes, etc, and trying to find the cause, mechanism, and treatment of said disease? I probably sound really weird, but I find great joy in doing this when family members get sick, and then get even more excited if I find out I was correct after they go to the doctor.

haha anybody else do this or am I just really weird?

btw I predicted viral infection, and I was right

Don't want to burst your bubble but "viral infection" is a no-brainer diagnosis and also the diagnosis to which we gratefully cling when we can't think of anything else.

Vague abdominal pain and diarrhea at three AM? Negative $5000 work-up? Viral infection.