Medical Advice

I (21M) have back pain in a specific spot in my vertebrae. It's in the middle of my shoulder blades.

It appeared suddenly yesterday and I'm scared it's permanent. What should I do?

There hasn't been a post here in a long time, but I'll try my luck.

Could there be any background medical reason for someone to get tendonitis a lot, in different places?

I've had it everywhere from palm to elbow, in the other wrist, in both knees. Am I just using my extremities too much or could there be some illness that makes me more susceptible to it?

TIA!

Is it safe to wash your anus with water and your (ungloved) hand after pooping, assuming (of course) that you don't touch anything with your hand until you wash it with soap and water?

I'm currently traveling in India. It's common here, instead of using toilet paper after deification, to pour water down your back and use your left hand to wipe your anus clean of feces. I googled to find information from medical professionals to understand if this is safe or not, but I (surprisingly) couldn't find any information on the Internet about this.

Of course, let's assume that we're doing this properly:

1. You only use one hand (typically your left hand), so feces only contaminates one hand.
2. You don't touch anything in the bathroom (eg pitcher, faucet, door knob, etc) with your soiled left hand until after you wash your hands
3. You wash your hands properly, following best-practices: using soap and water, scrubbing vigorously for at least 20 seconds.

I'm less interested in your personal opinion, and more interested if any studies have been done analyzing the efficacy of safety in this scenario, using a proper scientific study.

Have any studies been done to analyze if it's safe to wipe your ass with your hand (and wash your hands properly with soap and water after)?

What are the differences between the different types of Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) tests for laboratory blood work?

I went to a medical laboratory to get yearly blood work done. In addition to testing for some specific "me" things that I'm monitoring, I want to get a CMP (Comprehensive Metabolic Panel).

I'm in a foreign country where I don't really speak the language. When I said that I wanted blood work done at the lab, the agent at the front desk handed me a form with a lot of boxes to choose what I wanted to get. There is no "CMP" option, so I tried to tick the boxes for the 14 blood tests that compose a CMP, but I got stuck when I tried to check the box for the ALP (Alkaline Phosphatase) test – because there were 3 boxes:

1. Fost. Alcalina
2. Fost. Ácida Total
3. Fost. Ac. Prostatica

What are each of these, and which of these three is the "normal" ALP test that should be included in a CMP?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingles

I'll get some Aciclovir tomorrow. Any other advice? The rash is in the worst possible spot central to all of my major bone fracture injuries.

It just had to piggyback the 10 year anniversary of a broken neck and back...

I'm currently scheduled for some specialists for the issue, but I thought maybe I could talk to people on here about it.

I injured my neck about 10 days ago, something fell off a shelf and hit me a bit under my Adam's apple. I didn't notice anything right away and felt alright.

Then the next day my neck was a bit sore and swollen and I gave a ring to a nurse hotline from my insurance and they said that it was more than likely fine and to go to the hospital if it doesn't improve after 48 hours after it happened. So I ended up going to the hospital the following night when my neck was feeling worse and I was walking around with my head cocked at an angle. They checked to see if my vein on the side that was hit was working with an ultrasound after the Dr couldn't feel anything through the swelling. They gave me a lidocaine patch some anti-inflammatories and sent me on my way.

Then went I woke up 7 days after I was feeling pain all the way up the whole side of my neck all the way up to my ear and I had several fits of gasping for air. I went to the hospital again over the whole difficulty breathing thing and they did a CT and saw that my trachea was fractured and had signs of healing. So they gave me steroids and some pepcid and sent me on my way.

The following day I had several fits of difficulty breathing where I was gasping for air while the part of my neck that got hit was feeling a good deal of pain.

I've gone to my PCP and he gave me a referral for a gastroenterologist and an ENT. Both of which I'll be waiting about a month or so to see.

My concern is that since the problems breathing it's been happening occasionally when I move and especially if I lie down or get up from lying down and it feels like I'm being choked constantly.

Idk I appreciate any thoughts or feedback or anything like that.

There may or may not have been a μL or two of pus the first time

The second time it was mostly clear stuff with a little blood mixed in

When vomiting uncontrollably, it is obviously best to go to the doctor. What other ways are there to recover from receiving treatment for Salmonella besides waiting it out after being given antibiotics?

Like the title says. I wake up during the night to find my pinky and ring finger on both hands asleep. I need to wiggle them a lot to wake them back up. The rest of each hand is still awake. Trying to reposition my arms helps a little, but it seem to go back to whatever positions are causing the issue during the night, so it happens a lot. Not sure why the nerves would be this sensitive all of a sudden. I don’t lean on them during the day and use ergonomic keyboard pads.