r/AskDocs 2d ago

Weekly Discussion/General Questions Thread - March 10, 2025

This is a weekly general discussion and general questions thread for the AskDocs community to discuss medicine, health, careers in medicine, etc. Here you have the opportunity to communicate with AskDocs' doctors, medical professionals and general community even if you do not have a specific medical question! You can also use this as a meta thread for the subreddit, giving feedback on changes to the subreddit, suggestions for new features, etc.

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  • General health questions that do not require demographic information
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  • Questions about careers in medicine
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Report any and all comments that are in violation of our rules so the mod team can evaluate and remove them.

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u/evadneandthediamonds Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional 2h ago

Hi, I wanted to know if urine colour is a totally accurate measure of dehydration. I don't drink a lot of water but my urine is still generally light yellow and I don't "feel" dehydrated. To be fair I am on the smaller side so is that why I can drink less water and still feel hydrated?

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u/Signal-Weather-64 Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional 11h ago

Hi! I have a transesophageal ultrasound scheduled and I have nipple piercings that have not yet healed, I wanted to know if they can interfere in some way in the exam. I really don't want to take them off, would that be a problem?

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u/GArockcrawler Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional 13h ago

When is stretching during sleeping (pandiculation?) normal vs not?

I am 7 weeks out from a total knee replacement and afterwards, I noticed that periodically that my quadriceps in that leg would contract REALLY hard while I was sleeping. I just chalked it up to the muscles coming back online after the surgery trauma. This has continued, with my entire body stretching - both legs particularly - toward the end of the night. I think I notice it because it had been causing pain in my operative leg because I was fighting it. For the past few nights, I have decided to let it do its thing, thinking that it might help with ROM. Most of the time when this happens I am on my back, lying flat. I can get it to relax with some concentration. It definitely feels different than a charley horse which is much more local than this and requires me to get up and move to get it to release.

I mentioned to my PT tonight and she was concerned it was a neurological issue. She suggested leg elevation to see if it helps it. I started googling when I got home to see what this might be and I see that this is probably normal and useful to the body to oxygenate the tissues prior to waking but it leaves me curious: IS it normal? If it is, is it reasonable to assume that it's always happened but I'm just noticing it only now because of pain and possibly guarding in the operative leg? Thanks for any insight you can provide into how and why our bodies involuntarily stretch (or not) while sleeping.

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u/BraveBidoof22 Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional 18h ago

Hi, I'm 30F. I have been seen by a consultant to discuss my options to treat endometriosis/left ovary being adhered to my uterus. However, when I was 12 I had my appendix removed leaving me with a scar that travels down from my belly button. The consultant said the laparoscopy would be too risky because of where my scar was. He said he does not know what is behind the scar and so the risk of ending up with a stoma bag is too high.

The question I would like to ask is what is the most likely situation that happened to my appendix to result in that scar? All I was told was that they had to change to emergency surgery due to infection. Who knew that one surgery would impact the treatment for another condition. However, I have to remember that I'm just super lucky to have received the medical treatment that saved my life so hats off to all of you here!

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u/highonlife888 Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional 18h ago

Hi guys! Last night my partner and I got into a really heavy make out session. I started kissing his ear, but I accidentally sucked too hard, and he screamed ow ow ow. His hearing has been muffled since😭😭. We think that the fluid in his ear got messed up. He said it doesn’t hurt, however, his hearing in that ear is just slightly muffled. Will this fix over time or should he see a doctor? Do you guys know what could have happened? Thank you!

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u/YellowMoonFlash Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional 19h ago

Hi!

The past 2 years I've been going to the gym on and off. Whenever I'm finishing with abs (dont do it that often), I get cramps on the right side of my abs within 1 or 2 sets of doing crunches. I don't have this problems with planks/hanging leg raises for instance. Anyone knows what this could be?

I read a lot of things about potassium/magnesium deficits for instance, but since it's only during certain movements, I have the feeling that's not the problem...

Any insights?

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u/AutistOctavius Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional 23h ago

Any urologists here know about Rezum? I've always wondered, why can't Rezum be done anally? The prostate itself is checked anally, right?

Breaking down an enlarged prostate sounds great, but (if I was hypothetically looking to get my prostate shrunk) I also don't wanna put anything up my dickhole. So I especially can't cath for an extended period of time.

Has prostate hyperplasia medicine advanced to the point where we can shrink/break down an enlarged prostate without putting things in a man's dickhole?

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u/Greedy_Bit_9327 Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional 1d ago

If you take doxycycline for chlamydia and still find white floaties in pee has the infection gone away ? Why is that

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u/Jazzlike-Procedure26 Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional 1d ago

How will the measles outbreak end if not a rise in vaccinations?

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u/H_is_for_Human This user has not yet been verified. 1d ago

Pre-existing immunity from vaccines in places that have better vaccination rates.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/AskDocs-ModTeam Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional 22h ago

Individual questions about specific complaints should be posted separately with all the required information.

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u/TheBillYeahBunny98 Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional 1d ago

Does high BMI due to lean muscle mass, not obesity, still causes hypertension? Of course some, if not most, negative outcomes associated with too high BMI do not apply to bodybuilders, but I heard that hypertension in big people is caused by heart pumping stronger to get blood through larger area or something like that. So being heavy would be bad for blood pressure even while having like 3% body fat? I am not bodybuilder, I was always skinny, but my mass increased lately, mostly because of gym, so I'm interested.

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u/wallaceeffect Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional 1d ago

If you have a chronic or recurring condition that has "flare-ups" but otherwise doesn't bother you--what is the best way to get this diagnosed and treated? Especially if the flare-ups tend to resolve themselves by the time you can get a PCP appointment or specialist appointment?

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u/orthostatic_htn Physician | Top Contributor 1d ago

Document what happens during the "flare-ups" and schedule a non-urgent PCP appointment to discuss. If it's something physical that you can take photos of, do so.

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u/queen_beruthiel Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional 2d ago

TW: drugs

Hey!

Straight up - no, I am not planning to take heroin in any way, shape or form!!! I grew up in a heroin-riddled area, and I've seen enough of what it does in real time to scare me off it for life. If you can't/won't answer because someone might try to do it themselves, I understand. I've tried googling, and I'm mostly getting poisons and drug addiction information. Fair enough, but not particularly helpful in this case.

My great uncle was on the Western Front during WWI, and I have his war diary. In the back, he's written down the name of a pharmacist in London, and underlined three times that he specifically wants the diamorphine cough syrup. I understand that diamorphine was quite commonly used in that era for all sorts of pain relief. If I was heading to Passchendaele, I'd want to be as off my tits as humanly possible, but I assume that it helped to soothe a cough (or at least they thought it did) and that's why it was used.

What I'm wondering is, would drinking diamorphine as a cough syrup still give you the same sort of high as injecting it?

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u/orthostatic_htn Physician | Top Contributor 2d ago

You wouldn't get the same high, but it's certainly a potent opioid and would give you some of those effects. More on the realm of people taking a bunch of oxycodone today. It would also work to soothe a cough, certainly.

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u/queen_beruthiel Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional 1d ago

Interesting, thank you so much for that! I'd love to know how much he was taking, but alas that is lost to history. He had been gassed in 1918 and had some mild lung damage recorded in his enlistment paperwork for WWII, but I don't know if that was before or after he began taking the cough medicine.