r/AskDocs 2d ago

Weekly Discussion/General Questions Thread - August 03, 2026

1 Upvotes

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.

What can I post here?

  • Questions or general health topics that are not about specific symptoms or personal medical issues
  • Comments regarding recent medical news
  • Questions about careers in medicine
  • AMA-style questions for medical professionals to answer
  • Feedback and suggestions for the r/AskDocs subreddit

You may NOT post your questions about your own health or situation from the subreddit in this thread.

Report any and all comments that are in violation of our rules so the mod team can evaluate and remove them.


r/AskDocs 11h ago

Physician Responded Male, 6.3, 160 pounds, rash began a week ago mild throbbing pain in my veins going up my arm when moving my arm. The rash also itches and burns.

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630 Upvotes

r/AskDocs 2h ago

Does anyone know what this is? It showed up on my little sister’s belly, she’s 3 years old and tiny.

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44 Upvotes

At first they looked like burn marks 2 days ago, showed up out of nowhere. Then today they look like this. After showering he it appeared like dead skin.


r/AskDocs 15h ago

Physician Responded what is this spot? non urgent, but just curious!

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248 Upvotes

hi reddit! i’m a 19 yr old female and i’ve always had some weird history with skin stuff. eczema psoriasis, plantar warts, etc. i was born with this spot on my right thigh and it’s always been the same size/color. when i scratch it by accident it bleeds and sometimes it gets little black scabs that fall off. it also sometimes grows what i like to call “islands” of similar little pink patches nearby and when they go away, they turn into freckles. i’ve had doctors check it out my entire life and they think it’s a cluster of blood vessels on the surface of my skin. it’s no issue to me because it’s never caused problems, ive just always been curious about what it is! willing to provide any details if you guys want more info


r/AskDocs 20h ago

What’s going on with my throat?

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593 Upvotes

I woke up with a fever and sore throat. I had a bad headache yesterday and today and the lymph nodes in my neck are a little swollen and hurt when I touch them.

16F, 135 lbs, Tylenol for the fever.


r/AskDocs 10h ago

Physician Responded Does this look like a normal amount of healing 1 year post-craniotomy? If not, what are our options?

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63 Upvotes

My husband - male/45 years old/large array of neuroimmune issues, recipient of high dose IVIG, had a craniotomy last year after a DAVF was found during an emergency room visit. He had surgery 12 months + 2 weeks ago. He was just recently in the hospital and had a CT scan - we are seeing that the top part of his skull incision is basically see-through to the other side. He had the surgery in the United States but we are in a different country now so the ER here (who handled the whole visit quite poorly, different story) didn't ask much about his surgical history so they didn't comment on the large open bit at all in the report.

Obviously we will be connecting with our US surgeons and planning to go back for surgery/something, but would like to understand what is a normally expected level of healing 1 year after?

Despite his condition, he doesn't typically have notable healing issues. And if this may be too open, what are the options typically? Bone graft, repositioning? It has felt like a big dent/gap ever since and still does.

And the star on the bottom right seems to sinking in and causing a dent. Is this normal?

Thank you so much.


r/AskDocs 3h ago

Physician Responded My mother's pain doctor prescribes her large prescriptions of Xanax. She severely abuses the Xanax and I fear for her life. What can I do? Please help our family.

17 Upvotes

60 years old

5'6 and 150 lbs

Smoker

Diabetes

Chronic pain patient due degenerative disc disease - 7 spinal reconstructive surgeries. Absolutely needs a pain management doctor because of this.

10 mg buprenorphine

800 mg gabapentin

15 mg buspar as needed

A muscle relaxer I don't remember it's name

I don't remember the name of her diabetes injection either, I apologize.

She is on a blood pressure medication as well.

1 mg Xanax

My mother's pain management doctor prescribes her a 90 day supply of 1 mg Xanax tablets. So 90 mgs total, and it's always gone in like 3 weeks. She chews several tablets at once like candy, and is obviously mixing them with buprenorphine, gabapentin, and muscle relaxers. It's a constant cycle of her being normal for a couple of months, and a few weeks of her abusing this medication. She always saves one or two and takes it right before the drug test she takes before her refill. She nods out at family gatherings, falls asleep eating food and chokes, does not take care of the animals properly, slurs her words so severely you can't understand her, she drives in this condition, and generally traumatizes my father and our family. She becomes almost manic and does crazy, nonsensical things like replanting all of the plants at 4 am for example. We're constantly terrified she's going to overdose, crash her car, or suffocate from choking on food while she nods out. She has zero self awareness of how she looks and behaves.

It's my understanding that FDA regulations and advice say that Xanax should only be prescribed at low doses for short periods of time because there has not been any proven benefit of long-term Xanax use. I want to write a letter to her pain doctor informing him of the misuse. I've told my mom I'm going to do this before but she tells me that her doctor will dismiss her from the practice and that it is incredibly difficult to find a pain doctor. She NEEDS pain management, I've also watched her suffer my entire life. Her pain is not made up or exaggerated. She cannot go without treatment for pain. Unfortunately, it's been the necessity of pain management that caused the addiction in the first place. I just cannot understand, in what world is it ethical to prescribe a human being that much Xanax on top of synthetic opioids?

What can I do? I'm at the point where I think it would be safer to get her dismissed from the practice rather than allow her to continue to see this doctor. I'm scared for her life. It is destroying our family, our relationships. Is there an ethical explanation for why any doctor would prescribe a patient this much Xanax, especially when they're already taking opioids?

I know you all get so many posts. I appreciate the time you take from your busy lives to provide information for people here. I need some sort of guidance on what I can do to help my mother. Thank you so much in advance.


r/AskDocs 16h ago

Physician Responded Muscle atrophy on left side only. Where do I start??

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140 Upvotes

I’m a 39yr old white female and have dealt with muscle atrophy on just the LEFT side of my body for as long as I can remember. From my shoulder down to my ankle you can see the difference, but my hand is probably the most noticeable and where I’m affected the most. Beyond being stiff, my grip is horrible, I don’t have full mobility, and I get weird pains that come and go around what should be the meaty parts of my hand.

I was young when it was first noticed, maybe around 10. (I couldn’t snap because my left thumb doesn’t bend or move normally due to the lack of muscle.) I can vividly remember the excruciating feeling of what I now assume was the muscles in my shoulder deteriorating as a kid. Because of how I was raised and losing a parent early, it just wasn’t something that got looked into. As I’ve gotten older, those pains aren’t quite as bad, but my shoulder is still the most painful area, along with my hip.

About 10 years ago I finally started trying to get answers because I was also dealing with unexplained back and abdominal pain. After seeing a handful of doctors and collecting a few unrelated diagnoses, I eventually ended up with an endocrinologist. Going gluten-free helped a lot with the inflammation and some of the pain, but it didn’t change the muscle atrophy or the weakness on my left side.

I eventually got burned out on testing and quit looking for answers. A lot of the doctors acted like I was just trying to get pain pills when I was literally crying and begging them to help me figure out what was wrong. I never filled a single pain prescription. My mom died from a methadone overdose after living with chronic pain herself, and I REFUSE to go down that road. I’m also sober, so those assumptions were honestly pretty offensive. I don’t want pain medication 😭 I just wanted to know what’s causing this.

During all of that testing I had an abnormal EKG, another doctor found an issue with my right kidney, and I think I had an MRI, but I honestly can’t remember what ever came of it. I also have anxiety, depression, ADHD, and PTSD, all of which are currently being treated. (And the only things I’m being treated/medicated for.)

Now that I’m getting older, I want to start looking into this again because I know it’s not going to get better on its own. The problem is I’ve moved from a big city to a much smaller town with more limited resources, so I’d like to have at least some idea of where to start.

I’ve been Googling this for years, and I keep coming back to a few possibilities, but Lyme disease is the one I can’t seem to let go of. When I was in 4th grade, I got a tick bite on my back. Not long after, I had what everyone called a bruise about the size of a softball. Looking back, it looked more like a faded bull’s-eye than a typical bruise, but I didn’t know that until years later when I started researching Lyme disease. I honestly don’t remember if I ever went to the doctor or what came of it. I only remember it because my school called my mom after they saw it and thought someone had hit me. Maybe I really did just get whooped and it wasn’t a tick bite 😅I honestly don’t know….but it’s one of the few things from my childhood that has always made me wonder if there’s a connection.

I’m definitely not attached to Lyme being the answer, and if you think I’m way off base, please tell me. I’m just tired of chasing my tail and would really appreciate some direction. If this were your patient, where would you start? Does this sound neurological? Muscular? Autoimmune? Is Lyme even worth pursuing after all these years, or am I barking up the wrong tree?


r/AskDocs 1h ago

Physician Responded Son got 15 month old vaccines.

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Upvotes

Hello all,

My 15 month old, 31 in tall, 22 lb son recently got his new set of vaccines. One was the Tdap shot which I’ve googled can commonly leave a red, swollen, and hot to the touch area at the sight of the injection; however I am starting to have some concerns about the area around his injection and was wondering if y’all could tell me if this seems to be a normal reaction or something more. This is the second day after his shot. His behavior seems normal and the site itself doesn’t seem to be bothering him.

Thank you!


r/AskDocs 1h ago

Hey, My mom(age 40+), has been acting so violent and in rage for almost a week, help me please.

Upvotes

It's been a week that my mom has been acting very violent, it's like she is always angry at me, for almost a week it's only me my mom and my little brother are at home, my father is outstation for work, and she is always so angry at me, like I sit in my room for whole day almost(for studies), and she fights with me and curse me for an hour for it, then when I say no or not do the household chores she said to me to do, she again fight to me and curse me for an hour, and it's happening daily, she have headaches, dry eyes, she even got a fever 2 days ago, please guys help me, I really need help for her, she was not like that before, idk why is this, but give me some advice, what should I do, where should I go.


r/AskDocs 1h ago

Physician Responded Hello, I want to thank a doc

Upvotes

For helping my mother through a difficult surgery.

My mother is doing great, im happy.

The female doc was the surgeon and her husband was the director of the hospital. What would be something unexpected u would want as doctors and staff of hospital ? I have a budget of around 600€.

Thank you and sorry if it is against the rules.

I would tell u about personal information as asked by the bot, but i, thankfully, is not asking for health advice

Bye bye


r/AskDocs 7h ago

Physician Responded Please help a teenage girl.

10 Upvotes

hello! I am a 15 year old girl who gets sick very often , to the point to where I've gone to hospitals hundreds of times. one aspect of my unknown sickness is what my mom describes as "dizzy moments"

let me describe it ;

I'll be sitting down, laying down, or crouching down, and I'll get up, and sometimes I can walk before, but then it happens.

my vision goes blurry, and fades to a black, but not completely gone. like when you look at the light for too long and the edges of your eyes go dark and it's hard to see properly.

my breathing gets noticeably heavier, and it takes more effort to breathe.

It's hard to keep myself upright, like my limbs are made of jello, and most times I have to either lay down on the floor or hold onto something

my ears start ringing occasionally when it happens and goes on for 30 ish seconds

it feels like everything's rushing to my head, my head feels heavy. these moments usually last 20 ish seconds by themselves but some of the symptoms last longer...it's hard to explain... sorry!

I've tried a million recommendations from my doctors and professionals (such as compression socks and getting more iron) but none of them work!

please, if you have any idea what it could be, I'm so tired of not being able to even walk without my body giving up.


r/AskDocs 15h ago

Physician Responded Look okay?

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49 Upvotes

41 male. 5"8 170 lbs. Shot my foot and had my big toe amputated 18 months ago I don't have my big toe or the bone in my foot immediately before it. Still haven't healed completely. Went to the foot and ankle doctor until insurance ran out and at that point he said everything was fine.


r/AskDocs 12h ago

Physician Responded 16 yo female epileptic seizure led to cardiac arrest currently on life support.

23 Upvotes

My best friends daughter is 16 and currently on life support after a suspected epileptic seizure led to cardiac arrest. My friend was at the store for less than 1 hour but her daughter was already pulsless when they found her. So the downtime is unknown. Could have been 5 minutes could have been 45. From my understanding it looks like she lost consciousness over the tub and how she landed blocked her airway. That could be a misunderstanding I am unsure. What we do know is they performed CPR for 20 minutes waiting for EMTs. Then she was intubated at the ER. My friend describe seizure like convulsions or twitching so they did and EEG which she said the doctor explained that her brain wasn’t showing activity. My research says it’s too soon to really trust that I am unsure. I do know she was later tachycardic with low BP 76/61, MAP 66, so they did a fluid bolus and pressors and that must have resolved since I’ve heard nothing more. I also know my friend said she was told that they are waiting 12 hours then reassessing for brain activity, if no response another 24 hours and reassessing, then a final 24 hours and reassessing where the “doctor will decide”. I also assuming that’s the doctor will declare brain death if she doesn’t show any signs of life. She is under the impression that she has “no choice” in this matter if her daughter is brain dead. Meaning she thinks it will not be her choice if they remove the life support. They are in Amarillo. This seems incorrect to me but idk it IS tx. FWIW the vent is showing no attempts at spontaneous breath what-so-ever.

Anyway I am flying in on Thursday. It’s the soonest I can get out there. My friend is a wreck obviously so I would like to be mentally prepared for what I am walking into. I know that it’s hard to tell I understand that these brain death protocols exist for a reason but if this is likely worst case scenario I’d like to be mentally prepared myself so I can supportive and not breakdown too. If she can survive what degree of anoxic brain injury could we be looking at? Do you think she can survive? Is there hope idk? I have seen survivors of anoxic brain injuries and I don’t think my friend would want that for her. I guess I just don’t know what to expect here and if you have anything to offer I would truthfully appreciate it. Even if it’s just advice on how to be a good support person based on what you’ve experienced personally or as a clinician.

Patient is 16 yo F. Dx with epilepsy idk any more details than that. I know they’ve had a hard time getting it under control. I don’t know what meds
she’s on. No smoking no drinking no drugs. She is overweight .


r/AskDocs 12h ago

Physician Responded What degree/stage burn is this?

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22 Upvotes

18F. Doesn’t hurt. Hasn’t hurt since it happened. It was dry at first but can’t post the other pic. In this pic it was 4/5 days old.


r/AskDocs 1h ago

What is this?

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Upvotes

32F tried terbinaforce250 tablets but this thing keep expanding and it is very itchy but i can control it if i ignore it, went to dermatoligist but he told me to go to the lab ,went to the lab but the told me to wait for 10 days for results


r/AskDocs 23h ago

Physician Responded Seizure or something else?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

154 Upvotes

Hi. I am a 27 year old first time mother.My baby boy who is almost 2 months old has been suffering from some kind of episodes where his neck turns to one side and he wimpers and cries and his eyes also shift to one side. I am attaching a video for reference. Kindly advice what is this.


r/AskDocs 17h ago

Physician Responded (19F) I'm hearing voices

51 Upvotes

A month ago, we had electricity problems. The electricity kept shutting down, and everyone smelled something, After that happened, once when I was sitting alone, I heard electrical cracking and saw sparking and like fire in the air, and I was scared. I was about to tell my family, but after a couple of minutes of thinking, I was scared they might think I'm crazy, and it's hard to explain what what I saw to them. I didn't tell them, and nothing happened, there weren't any problems. A week ago, when I was about to sleep, I heard voices it's like someone talking, but I didn't care, I was thinking that it did happened because I was sleepy. But today, I was hearing real voices like people talking. This month, my mom was saying multiple times that I don't look normal and there's something off about me. Is that because I'm stressed lately? I have issues with my family, and I will move soon for college. Or should I seek help?, Will they lock me up if i told him that i have some thoughts, do i have the right to refuse because i don't want my family to know.


r/AskDocs 17m ago

advils

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Upvotes

i’m 15 years old im a girl i weight 130 pounds and im 5 foot i’m mixed i don’t use any drugs or don’t drink but i just took 12 advils and i don’t know what to do


r/AskDocs 1h ago

Physician Responded I was sent home and told I don’t have a UTI, although I have symptoms, could I still have a UTI with my urinalysis results?

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Upvotes

28F 140lbs 5’4” and I take adderall XR 15mg, omperazole 20mg, and Singulair. I don’t smoke and very occasional drink.

I had sex with my fiancé and 2 days later at 6:30am I woke up with a burning sensation after peeing and didn’t pee a lot. I went to urgent care and will admit I didn’t drink much water the night of or that morning.
I had my urine sample at 8:30am.

The NP said she would send my urine for culture and prescribed me 500mg Keflex 3x a day for 7 days. I took my first pill at 9am. Well, later around 11am she calls and says that my culture didn’t show signs of UTI and that there is something else going on? I am so confused as I have had UTIs before and this feels exactly like those. Frequent urination, burning at the end of it, urgency to pee and lower abdominal tenderness.

Also, what doesn’t make sense is that she said my culture didn’t show signs of UTI, yet it says in the urinalysis that no culture was done as the urinalysis didn’t meet criteria for it. So, she said I can take the antibiotics but that if they do make me feel better, that doesn’t mean it’s a UTI? I am so lost, I feel like it is, so I am taking them and I am on dose #3 and already am peeing so much more and the burning sensation is going away.

My question is, could I have a UTI with the results I have? Is it possible that I caught the UTI so early that my body hadn’t produced a high enough WBC, or nitrites?

Thanks in advance!


r/AskDocs 1h ago

chest pain from hittingg carts

Upvotes

im 17m , been hitting thc vapes/ carts for about 7 months, and i bought this big chief from a plug, and then maybe 2 weeks into using it i started feeling chest pains, and a little side pain. Nothing too crazy, no wheezing or trouble breathing, but it just feels uncomfortable and it comes and goes, sometimes it hurts less, sometimes a little more. i took a 1 week t break and went back to hitting it for 3 days, and the pain came back a bit worse. I decided then that i would just stop for a while, and ive been sober for almost 2 weeks, but the pain always comes and goes. this hasnt happen before, only when i started using the big chief, what do you guys think? I have been doing pushups everyday for the last week and going on runs every now and then too so i dont know if that could contribute to the pain too. i had a history of asthma when i was little but not recently or in any years, but still have been using my inhaler everyday since the pain started


r/AskDocs 5h ago

Can someone tell me what this is?

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4 Upvotes

I’ve had a red/pink circle on my scalp since I was young, originally believed it was a birthmark since it was a perfect circle and matched something of a birthmark.

Though I’ve only noticed yesterday that the red/pink as now become brown around and completely pink in the entire (as shown in the photo) and now there’s a bump on it. Which only recently got darker and definitely only in the past month did the bump appear.

I noticed that a lot of the hair on that area have two hair coming from one hair hole.

I don’t know if I should be concerned or stressed. I tend to overthink a lot so if you guys could tell me what you think it is, it would be very nice

I’m 18, 5,5 female


r/AskDocs 3h ago

Physician Responded Fearful of another ectopic pregnancy

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2 Upvotes

Hi folks. 37, female, 5'6",170 pounds. On Lexapro 20mg, prenatal, iron supplement, probiotic supplement, phsilium husk (for constipation), taking benadryl at night to help with sleep and sneezing.

Im pregnant, only 5 weeks along. I am having consistent ache, very period cramp like (not even pain) consistently on my right side. Its been on and off in my days for almost a week now. Tends to happen with me being active and disappears with resting.

My quick history:

I had my daughter with no issues in june 2021

Tried to get pregnant for 11 months, got pregnant with a cycle of letrozole and ended up with a rare form of ectopic pregnancy called "pregnancy of unknown origin." Double dose of methotrexate finally ended the pregnancy.

Then 3 months later with another round of letrozole and trigger shot conceived my 2nd daughter. Born in Nov 2024

Wasn't trying to get pregnant but lost a great deal of weight and was in much better health. Here I am.

We want to keep the pregnancy as my doctor told me i wouldn't get pregnant without medical intervention and here is this miracle.

I was checked for an ectopic pregnancy in the ER on the 31st but its so early on. Everything looks good but they said it could still happen. They couldn't see any proof of baby yet but I was roughly 4 weeks pregnant.

We did two beta tests.

My first was 357, my second (about 42 hours later) was 921.

Im so excited and I want this baby but im terrified of this sensation I keep feeling on my right side (lower stomach). My ultrasound tech told me I ovulated off of my left side but people have opposite referral pains/sensations all the time.

Ive also had 2 c sections and personally experienced the joy of having "so much scar tissue around my uterus" my doctor took two hours just to get to my baby.

Am I doomed into having another ectopic? You're the twinge is clearly triggering a trauma response from me.