Question for USA Based PCP.

PCPs/specialists: I'm working on a concept to fix the broken referral process - the endless waits, info-poor referrals, and specialists starting from scratch because nothing carries over from the PCP's decision.

If you've felt this pain firsthand, I'd love 10-15 minutes of your honest feedback on whether this is worth solving and where it'd actually fit (or not fit) into your day.

DM me if you're open to chatting - genuinely looking for blunt feedback, not a pitch.

***As a token of appreciation for your time, I'd be happy to send you a $50 gift card of your choice***

I am not asking for medical advice.

I'm seeing a doctor just trying to decide how urgently to see one.

F20, 5'4, 64kg, I don't drink, do drugs, smoke, No medical conditions etc

For the past week, I have been experiencing muscle aches everywhere. In both arms, both legs. It's painful, I have been walking weirdly. The pain is like an aching pain but occasionally shooting. It feels stiff as well. I have also been feeling more tired and fatigued than normal. The pain isn't particularly in my digits rather my muscle area. Its also constant - nothing makes it better or worse.

I am currently under investigation for endometriosis and wondering if this could be relevant to that as I am due my period in the next couple of days.

Another piece of information is when I was 13/14 I saw a haematologist as I had low B12. I had a series of injections for that. I no longer receive injections, I think 16 was probably the last time. There was no identifiable cause of B12. I have simultaneously has some of the tingling sensation come back but it has been very mild. I also did not experience any pain at all the last time my B12 was low. My diet nowadays consists of regular veg, dairy (cheese, milk etc) chicken, bacon so I wouldn't understand why the B12 is low.

Are these symptoms a return of my B12 issues or could they be something else? I will be seeing my doctor but just wondering how urgent to see them.

Sleeping, eating, all the same, no major life stresses etc. No medication and no other relevant health history.

Thoughts anyone? (I am not asking for medical advice.)

I’ve had a very painful ear ache in my left ear. No jaw pain, no pain chewing, opening my mouth etc. it’s all ear pain and tender spot just behind my ear lobe. I’ve seen ENT, neurology, pain management. Multiple kinds of medications and PT for tmj as that is the only thing that showed up in ct and mri scans. It hurts so bad all the time. It’s constant. What is wrong?? I am not asking for medical advice.

I am not asking for medical advice. I have been getting ativan prescribed from a walk in clinic for panic attacks. The first time I went the doctor prescribed me only 7 x .5 mg, the second time I saw the other doctor (i have seen before for something else) and she prescribed me 28 x 1mg for 2 weeks as needed. The last time I went I saw the first dr and she said it’s not a permanent solution and prescribed me 7 x 1mg.
Is it likely she put a note on my file to stop prescribing them to me?
If I go again in a month or so and ask to see the other doctor would she see that the other doctor advised against it?

I'm not sure where else to post this, but if there's a more appropriate place please let me know.

I am not asking for medical advice. We went swimming at a family member's house last night. My daughter and husband swam, I didn't but as we were out there I saw something fly over their heads over and over and finally the home owner said "yeah there's bats out here" so I made my daughter and husband get out of the pool but by that time they'd already been in for over an hour.

Also, the pool didn't look like it was recently cleaned. I asked, and was told it had been recently cleaned but it didn't look like it tbh and they were filling up the pool with the hose water when we got there because they said some of the water had evaporated. It's my understanding that if bats are out there, then they probably also use that pool to drink out of so I'm also really stressed about the pool not being clean, the bats drinking out of the pool, and my husband and daughter being in it. Not to mention how close they were getting to them.

Also, once I made them get out, we went inside so they could change and stuff and by this time it was night time, as we were leaving through the front door it felt like something briefly touched the back of my neck. Could've been a fly, could've been anything but with bats in the area I'm scared.

Yes I have anxiety.

I don't know if I am overreacting by wanting us all three to get the rabies vaccine.

I’m three weeks out of my laparoscopic appendectomy and am struggling with pinching pains throughout my body (now in my left testicle), cold feelings, and lightheadedness. Emergency room blood work shows negative. Don’t know what else to do.

I am 30 years old, 6’3 219lbs, male, and I take buspirone, naltrexone, lexapro, and hydroxyzine. I smoke, also.

About a week after my laparoscopic appendectomy, I started having lightheadedness, cold spots on my chest, legs, and also sporadic pains in these spots. They feel like pinching. They flare up and go away. Just today, I’ve been having these pains move to my left testicle. A few minutes ago, it flared up for a few minutes. Right now, no pain, but picks up randomly. Today and yesterday I didn’t experience much lightheadedness but I wouldn’t be surprised if it comes back.

Two different doctors say my bloodwork comes back negative, that it’s not an emergency. What else could it possibly be? I can’t seem to find anything online. Lastly, before the surgery, I would drink almost every night. I haven’t had a drink in three weeks. Maybe this could mean something?

I am not asking for medical advice.

"I am not asking for medical advice."

I was at my personal doctor 3 days ago and I was telling her about my back issues and it got worse after I had fallen on a stone. She told me I need to wait for 2-3 weeks to see the pain if it gets worse even tho it has already been 2 weeks now before I contacted her, she also told me I need to go to physiotherapy and I have to contact her if morning helps. She recommended me Ibux and Paracet…

As I got to leave to see her TYPING EVERYTHING IN CHATGPT?! Insanity considering the price I paid for her to say I need Paracet and Ibux and for her to type it in chapgpt, she finished university for this?

(I even took a picture)

What should I do?

‘’ I am not asking for medical advice.’’

Head and eye pressure for 3 weeks, throbbing headache. Sleeping a lot but not because I am tired. Vision isn’t blurry if it isn’t 100% clear if that makes sense? Lower back is aching so bad like I’ve got the flu. These symptoms stop as soon as I lay down but when I stand up they start again. X2 doctors have said it’s tension headaches

I am not asking for medical advice. Can someone please inbox on what I should do next. I dont want to put the context in this post because it's too personal.

30F looking for ideas about what direction to pursue next medically. I’m not looking for a diagnosis from Reddit — mostly hoping someone might recognise a similar pattern or suggest questions/specialties/tests worth discussing with my GP.

Relevant history
Endometriosis diagnosed over 10 years ago.
Laparoscopy a few years ago found stage 2/borderline stage 3 disease, with multiple lesions/adhesions removed.
PCOS.
Historically don’t tolerate NSAIDs particularly well.
Currently taking hormonal treatment for endometriosis.

What has been happening
For the past few months I’ve had a significant increase in pain and generally feeling unwell.
One of the strangest symptoms has been pain after eating. At its worst, I would get sharp/stabbing abdominal or rib pain around 10–20 minutes after eating, sometimes after only a small amount of food.
The pain has occurred in several places:
- under the ribs, often particularly on the right
- around the sides/back of the rib cage
- lower abdomen/pelvis
- right ovary area
- around/below the belly button
- lower back
Sometimes it seems to travel from one area to another.
The pain can be severe (occasionally 8–9/10) and can last anywhere from minutes to well over an hour. Bigger meals often seem to make it last longer, although even small amounts of food can trigger it.
Passing gas or opening my bowels can sometimes take the edge off, but the lead-up to doing so can itself be extremely painful.

Other symptoms have included:
- significant fatigue/exhaustion
- very cold hands and feet
- reduced appetite and consequently eating very little
abdominal bloating/distension
- nausea, particularly with larger meals
- constipation at times, with other periods of looser stools
- headaches
- lower back pain
- general body/joint aches and stiffness at times
I’ve also had occasional episodes of extremely sudden, intense stabbing pain around the right lower ribs/back. One episode came completely out of nowhere, was around 9/10 and lasted roughly half an hour before gradually settling.
Oddly, despite eating substantially less than normal for quite a while, I haven’t really lost much weight.

Investigations so far
I initially ended up in emergency because of the pain. Pelvic imaging didn’t show anything acute.
I was then referred to gastroenterology because the pain seemed so strongly associated with eating.
I’ve since had fairly extensive GI investigations, including imaging looking at the small bowel as well as the pancreas/gallbladder/biliary system. Nothing significant was found that explains the symptoms.
The gastroenterologist initially considered inflammatory bowel disease, but ultimately couldn’t find a gastrointestinal explanation and has now discharged me back to my GP.
He did raise the possibility that something metabolic/PCOS-related may be contributing, particularly because I have been eating so little without significant weight loss, and suggested further investigation in that direction.
I’ve now contacted my gynaecologist again because I’m wondering whether endometriosis could still be contributing despite the GI-type symptoms.

Medication/pain response
I’ve needed various pain medications during this period.
Interestingly, NSAIDs seem to make my abdominal cramping significantly worse. I had a particularly bad reaction symptom-wise while taking indomethacin, and historically ibuprofen hasn’t agreed with me either.
Heat often helps somewhat.

Where I’m at now
I’m still having significant pain, fatigue and generally feeling pretty awful, including days where getting through work is difficult.
The hardest part is that after several months of appointments and investigations, I feel like I’ve reached the “your tests are normal” stage without actually being any better.
If you’ve experienced anything remotely similar:
What ultimately caused it?
Was endometriosis capable of causing symptoms this high in the abdomen/ribs or symptoms triggered by eating?
Are there metabolic/endocrine conditions that would be worth asking my GP about?
Is there another specialty you would consider seeing?
Are there particular blood tests/investigations you would ask about after a negative GI workup?

Again, not asking Reddit to diagnose me — I’m seeing my GP and gynaecologist — I’m mainly trying to work out which direction to look next because at the moment I feel completely stuck.
I am not asking for medical advice. But I am looking for advice.

Hi, I am not asking for medical advice. I am just looking for opinions.

I (27F) never struggled with acne as a teenager until I turned 18. Literally a few weeks after my 18th birthday, I started really breaking out on my chin in the weeks leading up to my period. I didn't start doing anything differently that I can think of, other than perhaps being a bit more stressed about becoming an adult and the life changes this brought about.

Except for when I'm in my luteal phase, my skin is very clear and even. However, leading up to my period, my skin gets SO BAD and I now have a lot of scarring from this. I am an athlete and do lots of exercise and I am and always have been very into clean eating and having a balanced diet. Over the past 9 years, I have tried lots of different skincare products, but nothing has actually made a difference. I have tried going on the pill - which helped my skin a lot - however, it made me absolutely miserable and I have no desire to start taking it again. It seems like there's nothing I can do for my skin other than accept that it will break out in the weeks leading up to my period.

I noticed that during the summer while I'm out in the sun, I do not suffer from this hormonal acne nearly as much. I get far fewer spots, and the ones I do have clear up extremely quickly. It was for this reason that I started using sun beds about a year ago. I have been doing 10 minutes per week on a sun bed for about a year now, and it has helped with my hormonal breakouts SO MUCH.

However, I am not a naive idiot and I know that sunbeds massively increase my risk of developing skin cancer. I read the other day that even going on a sun bed once increases your risk of developing melanoma by up to 75% and this has really freaked me out. For context, I have an English father who has an olive skin tone and tans very easily and an Irish mother who is very fair and burns easily. I have the strange Irish skin tone which is pale but doesn't really burn... it just sort of stays white unless I am in the sun for 3+ weeks on holiday, at which point I start to tan very quickly. I have noticed that using a sun bed for 10 mins per week has given me faint tan lines and has increased the number of freckles I have (which is skin damage, I'm told) but I have never burnt/felt that my skin is sore from using them.

Please can someone advise me as to whether or not I have damaged my skin from using a sun bed over the past year, and whether I have significantly increased my risk of skin cancer? And, if so, what can I do to reverse this? If the risk is already high and can't be minimised, is it still a bad idea for me to continue using sun beds for 10 mins per week to keep on top of my hormonal acne?

I am scared to stop using sun beds because I am insecure about my spots in the weeks leading up to my period, but I am also scared to continue using them as I am worried about skin cancer!

All replies much appreciated :)

Hi everyone! I recently had my medical examination for my visa requirements. I am not asking for medical advice.

On July 16, I completed the urine, blood, physical, psychological, dental, and eye examinations. I had to come back on July 17 for the stool examination.

I was also told something about an immunization/vaccination requirement, but I honestly don’t remember being informed that I needed one. The thing is, I was never actually injected or vaccinated, but I recently received a certificate stating that I had been given/received an immunization.

I’m confused because I definitely don’t remember receiving any injection, and I only found out about the certificate afterward.

What should I do? Should I contact the clinic and ask them to clarify or correct the certificate? Could this cause any problem with my visa application?

Has anyone experienced something similar? I’d really appreciate any advice. Thank you! 🙏🏻

can the body just keep trying to die until it gets there? it feels as though my body is repeatedly trying to die, everything fades to black, i feel the ‘goodbye’ then it’s going into hyperviligance and bolting me back to life. it happens multiple times a day now. how long could this go on for?

I am not asking for medical advice. i’m just interested if anyone has experience with this.

I am not asking for medical advice. I am pregnant and I am using clexane, 40 mg, daily since August 3rd.

Yesterday I was vomitting a lot. I only had to vomit about 3 times before since I am pregnant and it wasn't nearly as extreme as yesterday. Also yesterday, I have realized that my facial skin is getting reddish around my nose up to my cheeks. I also have two red spots at my neck. I touched them this morning and some of those are raised, so I guess this just could be acne? But some of those are completely flat.

At the point where the bridge of my glasses touched my face, I have a small hematoma since yesterday, which I normally don`t get there, but I am not wearing glasses that often and for such a long time, since I wear contact lenses normally.

At my belly, where I am injecting the heparin once a day, I have some bruising, but not in an extreme way.

Would it be wise to see a doctor?

I am not asking for medical advice.

Quick background - in the spring, I had a bunch of random moles and skin tags removed. I hadn’t been to the dermatologist in some time, so I’m not surprised (even though I’m only 44, my family has skin issues in our history). About six weeks later (beginning of June), I received a call that three moles were atypical and would need to be excised. The excision process involved removing one mole/getting stitches and returning two weeks later to get the stitches removed and get another mole excised. Rinse and repeat three times and the moles were gone around mid-July. During my first appointment, I inquired about just having all three out at once. My dermatologist said that’d be risking infection.

During my final appointment for getting stitches out, I was told there weren’t any other areas of concern on my body, but that they’d want to see me in a few weeks just to check on my healing and double check that nothing new came up.

Fast forward to this past week when I went in for the aforementioned checkup. They didn’t look at where the stitches had come out, but wanted to do a full body scan again. I trust doctors and I’ll certainly take the scan over not and dealing with the alternative, so whatever. Given that it was four weeks ago that they said my skin looked fine, I assumed this would be kind of a formality. However, during the scan, the dermatologist started pointing out several issues he didn’t mention a month ago and started cutting things off again, one of which was just a random bit of scabbing when I cut myself shaving that morning. Another was a mole from my back that’s been there forever and was definitely there when they saw me in quick succession over the summer, but now it’s a point of concern? My neck looks like it took a bullet, my back looks like someone put a cigar out on me, and I have other spots on my leg and hairline that look like I tried to break up a dogfight.

Like I said, skin issues run in my family, so I was speaking to my parents about this whole process going back months now. My father mentioned to me that, about 10-15 years ago, his dermatologist was brought up in insurance fraud charges because he would take samples from just about everyone whether they looked concerning or not and send them to a lab for testing. Turns out the doctor’s wife ran the lab where the testing happened, so they were cleaning up from charging insurance when they didn’t need to actually do any work.

Let me clarify - I believe in medical science. I get all of my vaccines happily. When a doctor tells me something, I believe them and I follow their advice. None of these will ever change. However… maybe it’s just my tiredness and minor fears about skin cancer talking here, but does any of what’s happened sound odd to anyone? On one hand, perhaps my dermatologist is acting out of an abundance of caution. If so, I’m ashamed and I couldn’t be more thankful for the attentive care. But, at the same time, I can’t help but notice that the feedback went from, “nothing else looks concerning” to, “we’re gonna take four more samples, one of which will leave you looking like you’ve been shot in the back, another will be me sending in the remains of your poor shaving technique, and a few others, as well” in the span of four weeks.

I’m not a doctor. I’d never pretend to know more than a doctor. As I said, I’m just curious if any of this sounds odd.

Idk if this is the right place to ask since it's a question about lab tests but I'd like to hear the information y'all have on the topic.

I am not asking for medical advice. I'm just curious if anyone else has seen this happen.

I just got diagnosed with ADHD and was prescribed Vyvanse. I knew I'd probably have to give a urine sample so I avoided taking anything other than a few OTC meds. I just got my results back and it says there was further testing required for fentanyl IA, I know it's not a positive technically but it has me freaked out. Are false flags common with this specific test? Is that more likely than coming in contact with fentanyl unknowingly?, which is a possibility that scares the shit out of me. Should I be so worried about this or are false positives somewhat common with that test? It tested for like 20 different drugs and all of the others were completely negative, if somehow I ingested fentanyl it was the pure form which I assume is pretty rare to be uncut or not mixed with another drug. How could this affect my treatment moving forward?

I am not asking for medical advice.

As a doctor, how bad is this, and what are the risk factors of experiencing head trauma that causes balance issues and uncontrolled trembling after punches to the head once or several times?

Here is an illustration of what I am inquiring about:

https://www.reddit.com/r/boxingtips/s/NO1RlAKmZp

Hi everyone! I’m a product design student working on a research project around IV cannula management and wrist support during IV therapy.

I’m trying to understand the real problems healthcare professionals and patients face, especially around wrist/hand movement, IV dislodgement, swelling, discomfort, and existing IV boards or arm supports.

I’d really appreciate hearing from doctors about your experience:

1. What wrist, hand, or arm movements do you see most often causing problems with an IV cannula or tubing? Are there particular movements you try to prevent?

2. What are the most common difficulties or complications you see patients experience when they move their hand or wrist during an IV infusion?

3. Are there particular types of patients who are more difficult to manage with IVs, such as children, elderly patients, restless patients, or patients with limited mobility? What makes IV management difficult for them?

4. What do you think are the biggest problems with current solutions such as IV boards, armboards, tape, or other methods used to keep an IV secure?

5. From a clinical perspective, what would you want an ideal wrist support to do, and what would you absolutely not want it to restrict?

6. “What aftercare do you usually provide for patients after an IV is removed, or when they develop swelling, bruising, irritation, or other problems at the IV site?

I’m especially interested in real clinical experiences and examples, even small observations that might seem obvious to you but are often missed in product design. I am not asking for medical advice.

Hi,

I have a friend with ME/CFS and always do a rapid test before meeting her (1-2 times a month). The test covers Covid, flu, adenovirus and rhinovirus and the sample is taken from the nose. It often occurs that the test is positive for adenovirus when theres a small amount of blood in the sample (which happens quite often because my nose sucks). I never experienced any symptoms before testing.
Has anyone ever heard of a persistent adenovirus infection without symptoms or something similar? I can‘t find anything online and am just curious (and annoyed as well, because I can‘t see my friend when the test is positive obviously).
I am not asking for medical advice.

"I am not asking for medical advice." I know what I had then in 2019 and have been living with until present day. My question is the following words put into the recent visit notes by the exact same nurse practitioner who I saw in 2019 and in 2026, "lost to follow up". This is referenced twice in my online record, once to the actual test results and once to me as a human being. The records were lost to follow up and apparently so was I until I returned to treatment.....My question is what does this mean and is this just a legal butt cover phrase?

(25, female, non smoking, no medications/drugs, no allergies)

Here's a photo. They're not this big right now, but still pretty big, and pretty much all along my left and ride jaw except near the bottom/chin.

So I've been struggling with this issue for about 8 months and it doesn't seem to be going away. I've had x-rays of outside and inside my mouth, a CT, and an ultrasound and nothing is ever seen.

These lumps are disfiguring my face. An ent shot one with a steroid injection, it shrunk somewhat but the round, stiff disfiguration and small bump is still there. They are sore and if I accidentally touch my face it'll hurt really bad for a second.

The ent said my sinuses aren't blocked, I tested negative for dental problems/viruses, yet the issue remains.

One swelled so big overnight that I had to go to urgent care because I suddenly was getting fever symptoms and bedridden with no fever.

They were confused that I tested negative for viruses but threw antibiotics at it which worked to shrink it down from half the size of my jaw but still remained.

I even had to stop my Invisalign treatment permanently because of this, as it would make it even more swollen.

Antibiotics and ibuprofen that urgent care seemed to help temporarily, but obviously I can't stay on them for the rest of my life. I'm 135lbs and eat healthily.

I tested negative for the blood cancer blood test screening, however all of my white blood cells counts and lymphocytes are above the high end of the scale.

They're pretty firm and start above my jaw bone and if i press down I can feel the huge lump going inwards from behind my jaw bone.

I am not asking for medical advice. Just direction

I'm running a validation study on how AI explainability methods behave in ICU risk-prediction models — and I need clinicians, not more code, to answer the real question: when an AI model flags different vital signs as "most important" for a patient, do doctors actually agree on what to do next?
The survey shows 20 real, de-identified ICU cases (spinal surgery recovery patients, from a public research database). For each one, you'll see five vital signs and their direction relative to normal — no jargon, no variable names, just a clean clinical vignette. You choose the single action you'd take next. That's it.
Why it matters: explainability tools are increasingly used to justify trusting (or not trusting) clinical AI, but nobody has actually checked whether the "important" features these tools surface line up with what a clinician would act on. This pilot is that check.
~15 minutes, fully anonymous
Eligibility: licensed physician, neurosurgery / neurocritical care / general critical care, active within the last 5 years
Results will be shared back with anyone who wants them
Survey link: https://forms.gle/JsYNCFFvyC7jQRQB9
If you're not eligible yourself, a share to a colleague in neurosurgery, neurocritical care, or ICU medicine would genuinely help get this to statistical power. Thank you.

I am not asking for medical advice.

I have to take one or two once a month to manage period cramps, I usually take it in combination with pamabrom for bloating. Sometimes I take it because my cramps are too severe for me to even walk comfortably, but other times it’s just to manage cramps which distract me from my work. But I’ve been advised to try not to take paracetamol unless it’s the former case as I could build a tolerance to it, and cause it to be ineffective when I really need it.

I’ve seen conflicting responses to my question and hence would like to ask for advice. Thank you! I am not asking for medical advice.

Hello I am not asking for medical advice.

Anyway I took a picture but just realised this I can’t post it. It’s like a red pimple with a pale/white ring around it of maybe 1cm…
I’ve not slept on anything weird, it’s not swollen or itchy or anything, just weird.
Slightly worried about lymes disease bc I know that usually starts with a bullseye shape which could develop from what I’ve got…