Medical Consult for Bitcoins

[DrG]

So I was looking to get some rep in the trading community and realized I didn't feel like doing loans.  I have pretty good Heatware but wanted to build up a rep with the Bitcoin community.  I guess I'll just have to use my professional skills... so since I am a licensed and practicing medical physician in the state of California I decided I could help with medical questions.  I'll do a trial where all the proceeds would go to my medical missions which I do once or twice a year.  I am currently practicing only with inpatient medicine so if you got a detailed dermatology question about a rash or itch down there I probably won't be able to help too much (please don't send me pics lol).  I did 1 year of urgent care so I can answer most basic outpatient stuff (sprains, headaches, flu vs bacterial illness, heartburn, etc) and I can answer pretty much any internal medicine related question.

So I thought of asking tips from 0.1 BTC to 5 BTC depending on what you think is the complexity of the problem - the link is in my sig.  If you're not sure how complicated it is, just send a small amount and you can always tip more afterwards if I give you a good answer.  For legal purposes obviously without a physical exam my answers are not the same as seeing a physician in office so my advice is just that - advice.  You will need to confirm with your doc if your doc if you're going to be doing something that requires prescription medication or changes in lifestyle.

So just send me a PM with your question and let me know your address so I know if you donated.  If you happen to live in the SoCal area and would like to help out on a medical mission let me know.  I've been to mundane places like India and exotic lands like Miami, FL with my medical missions

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[bb113]

I have doubts any service you can provide over the internet is much better than google. Maybe my background in biomed is making me overestimate the ability of people to interpret what they find though.

What if we test you first? People find the symptoms of some non-obscure medical issue online (or from memory, or some free trials), add in some history, then ask you for an advice/diagnosis.

[genjix]

OK, here goes.

I'm now around 25. When I was younger I used to do lots of sports (boxing, judo, ...). Around 20, when I was wrestling, my arm got overextended and there was a loud 'crunch' sound. The guy doing it with me immediately stopped because he heard the noise. It was really loud krrrrnch sound. I didn't feel anything (adrenaline) so kept at it for the rest of the session.

After the session, there was immediately intense pain. I went straight to emergency and saw a nurse. She told me my arm was sprained. Looking back now, I know that was stupid (I know what a sprain feels like) but I didn't protest it and said whatever (assuming that it would go away eventually). During that week my arm could not be used. It eventually stopped aching.

From then on, I stopped exercising because whenever I would put pressure on that arm, I would get a dull ache.

Anyway fast forward to 1 year ago in Amsterdam. I was at some hotel and banged my elbow. the edge of the door frame hit the soft spot in between my elbow joint and there was a sudden shooting pain. Ever since then my arm was aching and sometimes I get tingling in my fingers.

I went to see a doctor when I was in Poland at the ER (4 months ago). He said it is a soft tissue damage and I need to rest my arm (I don't do anything anyway). I asked him what the best position is, and he said to keep it at a 90 deg angle (bent) rather than straight. If it didn't heal I should see another doctor in 2 weeks time. He told me it likely won't heal quickly (soft tissue damage takes a long time to heal) or maybe not at all, and there isn't much they can do about it.

It doesn't hurt. It just aches or sometimes I get a bit of tingling (which is worrying). I've put off seeing the doctor because I'm under a huge amount of stress for time (which is affecting my health, but OK I am having fun). It seems to be getting better, but I could be wrong since it alternates between periods of being fine, to periods of aching.

Using the arm in a funny way (weird twisted angle) or putting pressure on it (lifting heavy things) are not good, so I avoid those activities. It's a dull/slow ongoing ache.

[bitlane]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ndcPkzpgkQ

[eroxors]

I have doubts any service you can provide over the internet is much better than google. Maybe my background in biomed is making me overestimate the ability of people to interpret what they find though.

What if we test you first? People find the symptoms of some non-obscure medical issue online (or from memory, or some free trials), add in some history, then ask you for an advice/diagnosis.

Methinks you underestimate the benefits of medical school.


This sounds like a great idea.

[DrG]

OK, here goes.

I'm now around 25. When I was younger I used to do lots of sports (boxing, judo, ...). Around 20, when I was wrestling, my arm got overextended and there was a loud 'crunch' sound. The guy doing it with me immediately stopped because he heard the noise. It was really loud krrrrnch sound. I didn't feel anything (adrenaline) so kept at it for the rest of the session.

After the session, there was immediately intense pain. I went straight to emergency and saw a nurse. She told me my arm was sprained. Looking back now, I know that was stupid (I know what a sprain feels like) but I didn't protest it and said whatever (assuming that it would go away eventually). During that week my arm could not be used. It eventually stopped aching.

From then on, I stopped exercising because whenever I would put pressure on that arm, I would get a dull ache.

Anyway fast forward to 1 year ago in Amsterdam. I was at some hotel and banged my elbow. the edge of the door frame hit the soft spot in between my elbow joint and there was a sudden shooting pain. Ever since then my arm was aching and sometimes I get tingling in my fingers.

I went to see a doctor when I was in Poland at the ER (4 months ago). He said it is a soft tissue damage and I need to rest my arm (I don't do anything anyway). I asked him what the best position is, and he said to keep it at a 90 deg angle (bent) rather than straight. If it didn't heal I should see another doctor in 2 weeks time. He told me it likely won't heal quickly (soft tissue damage takes a long time to heal) or maybe not at all, and there isn't much they can do about it.

It doesn't hurt. It just aches or sometimes I get a bit of tingling (which is worrying). I've put off seeing the doctor because I'm under a huge amount of stress for time (which is affecting my health, but OK I am having fun). It seems to be getting better, but I could be wrong since it alternates between periods of being fine, to periods of aching.

Using the arm in a funny way (weird twisted angle) or putting pressure on it (lifting heavy things) are not good, so I avoid those activities. It's a dull/slow ongoing ache.

Well you didn't need to post it publicly (but doesn't sound like anything any of us couldn't have).  I myself have broken many bones from playing sports and taking Judo and have hardware still in me.  It sounds to me like you have 2 separate things going on.

First - the injury when you were wrestling is probably a ligament tear, possibly rotator cuff (this is comprised of 4 ligaments to control arm motion).  That's why you felt the intense pain.  Since it wasn't looked at right away you probably have some scar tissue.  Nothing can be done now except for possibly having surgery (I'm not a big fan of this unless an orthopod sees scar tissue in the joint that should be removed) and doing exercises to gain mobility and strength back.  If you can afford it - goes see an orthopedist for this.  They need to do a physical exam and check for muscle/tendon weakness.  Usually a good physical exam and they can tell what's going on without Xrays or fancy tests.  If they seem to eager to operate then run.  A MRI may be warranted depending on what the orthopod thinks.  If you don't figure out what's going on now you'll pay for it later since your body mechanics have changed and you'll probably develop osteoarthritis in that should very early on (crippling joint damage that's permanent).

Second - the bumped elbow sound like you compressed some nerves (we call it hitting your funny bone here).  With all the wrestling and other activities you may also have some nerve compression in your cervical region.  When you bumped the elbow the localized swelling further compressed the nerves traveling from you neck to your fingers. Nerve pain is usually sharp stabbing pain in nature but can sometimes be a dull ache as you describe.  I have carpal tunnel which only popped up after I went overboard with a wet vacuum cleaning my house and since then I have tingling in my right hand and it won't go away.  Hardcore gaming sessions result in dull achy pain sometimes.  The location of the ache would give a clue as to where the nerve is pinched and what nerve levels are compressed.  For this you would need to see a neurologist.  What they did in my case was do nerve conduction studies and confirm I did have nerve damage.  The damage is reversible - but the problem is the cause is not reversible usually.  So in my case I have to just learn to live with the compression and avoid putting pressure on my wrist to avoid swelling which further compresses the nerve.  Once you know where the compression is you can sometimes do exercises that help reduce the compression.  In some cases surgery is required - to be honest I'm not fond of surgery for compression unless it gets really life altering since surgery fails about 1/2 the time.

I'm not big on seeing docs (physicians often make the worst patients since we think we can diagnose ourselves) but when my hand got so bad I couldn't use a mouse I knew I had to get it looked at.  In your case since you're young and these are not trivial problems I would shell out the time and money to see a ortho/neuro.  At least you should have a diagnosis which would allow you to hopefully prevent further damage.  Hopefully that answers your q.

[DrG]

I have doubts any service you can provide over the internet is much better than google. Maybe my background in biomed is making me overestimate the ability of people to interpret what they find though.

What if we test you first? People find the symptoms of some non-obscure medical issue online (or from memory, or some free trials), add in some history, then ask you for an advice/diagnosis.

Methinks you underestimate the benefits of medical school.


This sounds like a great idea.

Lol  .  Thanks for the backup eroxors - I hope I didn't waste 1/4 million dollars and 12 years of my life to loose to LMGTFY.  I wasn't number one in my class but I can say with confidence google is useless for the majority of people as far as self diagnosis.  For information on disease states it's great - but it's not a clinician.  It's not like you can google "loud thump car turning" and know what's going on with your car.  The human body is 100x more complex than car - you're in biomed and you should know that.  Google is a great tool and I use it everyday, but it's only a tool.  If you gave a Digital Multimeter to a chef they would be like WTF.  Now google would be able to spit out more info than I ever could about any 1 topic, but google wasn't forced to rectals on every admission while on call during it's intern year (or at least I hope not).

[notme]

PM sent

[notme]

My google-fu is pretty strong, plus I've long had an interest in health (from an Ayeurvedic perspective, but a body is a body), so DrG really just confirmed my self-diagnosis.  That said, it's comforting to have a professional double check my thought process, and provide some extra detail.  He also cleared up one point I was unsure on (should I force eating, or wait for hunger).  Highly recommended.

[FreeMoney]

This could be helpful, I'll keep you in mind.

[DrG]

Hehe, getting some crazy questions here   PMs replied to 

[bb113]

I have doubts any service you can provide over the internet is much better than google. Maybe my background in biomed is making me overestimate the ability of people to interpret what they find though.

What if we test you first? People find the symptoms of some non-obscure medical issue online (or from memory, or some free trials), add in some history, then ask you for an advice/diagnosis.

Methinks you underestimate the benefits of medical school.


This sounds like a great idea.

Lol  .  Thanks for the backup eroxors - I hope I didn't waste 1/4 million dollars and 12 years of my life to loose to LMGTFY.  I wasn't number one in my class but I can say with confidence google is useless for the majority of people as far as self diagnosis.  For information on disease states it's great - but it's not a clinician.  It's not like you can google "loud thump car turning" and know what's going on with your car.  The human body is 100x more complex than car - you're in biomed and you should know that.  Google is a great tool and I use it everyday, but it's only a tool.  If you gave a Digital Multimeter to a chef they would be like WTF.  Now google would be able to spit out more info than I ever could about any 1 topic, but google wasn't forced to rectals on every admission while on call during it's intern year (or at least I hope not).

Godspeed to you if you can be helpful. I would encourage more public diagnosis/advice as long as it isn't embarrassing to the patient. I always wished there was some way to quantify general practitioner success rate. I mean you should be transparent and publish your success, false positive, and false negative rates. Obviously this is more complicated than it sounds due to difficulty in determining the end of treatment. It would be awesome to make an attempt at it though. If you develop a scoring system that works well it could be adopted world wide. There is a need for this type of thing.

[bg002h]

DrG,

I'll be your consulting radiologist. I'm currently in training in southeast MN.

DrGoss (hopefully not too confusing!)
1GCDzqmX2Cf513E8NeThNHxiYEivU1Chhe

PS - please direct all questions to DrG...Radiologists are docs for docs

[DrG]

DrG,

I'll be your consulting radiologist. I'm currently in training in southeast MN.

DrGoss (hopefully not too confusing!)
1GCDzqmX2Cf513E8NeThNHxiYEivU1Chhe

PS - please direct all questions to DrG...Radiologists are docs for docs

Whoa cool! Another doc!  With Medicare slashing reimbursement and private insurance following suit I'm looking at Bitcoins to save my financial butt   

[Matthew N. Wright]

I had this idea in the DCAO about 4 months ago, but it got shot down for some very serious reasons, the main two reasons being:

1) Potential negligence on the part of the individuals giving the medical advice. You can be sued, banned from medical school, degree revoked, etc just like lawyers can because the livelihood of people is in your hands; and even if that's not a problem in your specific country,

2) You cannot physically check (even with a webcam) enough parameters to do much more than WebMD does. Can someone send you blood samples? can you touch their back to see if you find a tumor?


Aside from these, I fully support anyone giving basic advice based on medical texts. WebMD kind of fails because they take too long to respond on issues. If you can solve that by doing this, I think it isn't that bad of an idea.

[genjix]

Thank you DrG. I am in the UK, so our health care is free (luckily), otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford a specialist.

Scary stuff. I will go tomorrow right away with your message and demand a specialist from my GP. You probably saved my health a great deal otherwise I would definitely have put this off for longer. Thanks for the wakeup call.

8384c11b2b074e9004a07ddfe747ef566f27ced071a58ffe3562fc32f4315ee2
Sent a bitcoin.

[Boognish]

Hah, very interesting idea. I'll be following this.  I'm just a lowly 4th year med student myself.  Hopefully matching into Neurology next month.  Only 25 days, 12 hours, 51 minutes and 10 seconds until the match 

Assuming Bitcoin doesn't crash & burn in the next few years (big if), maybe I can join in as the local Neuro consult.  Good luck

[genjix]

BTC-Hospital Saves Me
That guy on the bitcoin forums literally saved me from crippling injury in a few years time. Had I not spoke to him, it may have been too late before I got it checked out. I always kept putting it off since I'm so busy and it didn't seem like a big deal.

[Matthew N. Wright]

BTC-Hospital Saves Me
That guy on the bitcoin forums literally saved me from crippling injury in a few years time. Had I not spoke to him, it may have been too late before I got it checked out. I always kept putting it off since I'm so busy and it didn't seem like a big deal.

Weaver saved my soul once, can I start a thread for the Church of Bitcoin?

[Raoul Duke]

Would you guys(the doctors here) be interested in a website for your consultation only?
Like pay some bitcoins/bitcents to unlock your answers type of thing? Or maybe run on donations only?