Plantar Warts

Get all your skin lesions seen by your doctor and DO NOT use this site for medical advice! Those pesky, ugly little bumps that you find on your hands and feet, what the hell are they and how do you get rid of them!? Plantar warts are found on the hands and feet most commonly in children. Just google

Going Under

Going under a general anesthetic seems common place these days, most of us would have experienced it ourselves or know someone who has.  After all, it all seems fairly safe as our technology advances and only in a small minority of simple procedures does anything really go wrong. If you have ever been under a general anesthetic you would

Superbugs

The astonishing amount of antibiotics prescribed by Doctors on a daily basis has led to a new superbug.  In my post ‘Why won’t my Doctor give me antibiotics’ I discussed how this may come about.  But to refresh your memory I will summarize. When we overuse antibiotics, the bacteria evolve and develop new ways to fight off our antibiotics. 

CryingBaby

Controlled crying: friend or foe?

New parents can often find themselves in a frustrating position when it comes to trying to get their little one off to sleep.  They struggle with torn emotions and hearing that heartbreaking cry.  Do I go in and pick them up? Or do I allow my child to cry?  This is a debate that has emerged in the parenting

toomuchmoney

Do Doctors get paid too much?

Depending on where you live in the world, your doctor can be paid in different ways.  In some countries doctors are paid by the government, in others they are paid for by you or an insurance company.  How much do Doctors make?  Doctor’s salaries are highly variable depending on how they are paid, how many hours they work and

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Stories from Emergency – Alfred

Working in an emergency department is never boring.  It is a fast paced and demanding job.  Emergency departments deal with almost anything, from mild ailments to life threatening illness.  Here are their stories. (Details have been changed to protect patient identity) Alfred Alfred is a 45 year old man who is in reasonable health.  He is happily married with

vaccine

Vaccination for Dummies

I would have to say that most patients I come into contact with will vaccinate their children and themselves, however there have been an increasing number of anti-vaxers emerging.  Their argument against vaccinations range from ‘wanting to be immune the natural way’ to vaccinations causing autism. What is a vaccination? Let’s start by looking at our immune system.  When

The Zika Virus

The Zika virus has become the new Ebola, it is everywhere we look.  How do we make sense of it all? Lets starts at the beginning… The Zika virus was named after a forest in Uganda where the virus was first found in a monkey in 1947, so it has been around for quite some time.  For unknown reasons

Stop yelling at me

Imagine you just got a new job, you will be a doctor working in the emergency department.  You have never worked in an emergency department before so you are a little bit nervous but you know that those more experienced than you will guide you and teach you.  It’s now 3 weeks into your new job, things are going

To die or not to die

Anyone who wishes for death will wish for one that is quick and painless.  What about those who are doomed to die a long and painful death?  I have watched this process; it can go for hours, days, weeks or months.  It is painful, it is long, and it is devastating.  I once watched a 49 year old man

Take this pill or don’t get paid

The new method aimed at preventing children being born into welfare dependent families has emerged.  The proposal is this: take the Oral Contraceptive Pill (OCP) or don’t get paid.  Welfare systems these days can be so good that they allow people to have children for a living at the cost of the tax payer, those of us who endure

Medical Marijuana

This is one that has been a controversial issue in recent times.  But why?  We take all kinds of drugs to better our health, what is so controversial about using marijuana to treat or manage our health ailments? Marijuana comes from a plant called Cannabis sativa and THC or tetrahydrocannabinol is the chemical responsible for most of marijuana’s effects.

What’s up with my dangly bit Doc?

The arduous task of being a medical student often included examinations on a ‘pretend’ patient performed in front of an audience for maximum humiliation effect.  When performing such examinations, medical students must state out loud their findings, both positive and negative.  This formidable task often meant stating all the signs the patient did not have as well as the

Get out of my Emergency Department

It is not uncommon to hear about the abuse of doctors and nurses in emergency departments around the world.  You have a group of professionals whose primary role is to help people and they are subjected to both verbal and physical abuse. In my time working in emergency departments I encountered this type of abuse.  This did not only