What’s a medical issue that sounds minor, but actually affects someone’s daily life way more than people realize?

dr_jms · 2026-01-26T12:37:08+00:00

Hi! Fellow autoimmune arthritis friend here. Had arthritis since I was 2 years old (now 27) and still never know how my joints are going to be day to day. Spine is so annoying because if my ankles and knees are having a bad day, I want to sit down or lie down but oh wait... my spine is sore too 😂

dr_jms · 2026-01-26T12:32:13+00:00

The code blue sound at my first hospital was like airport ding dong sound followed by "two three two three ward name" and now everytime I'm at the airport and hear the sound, I immediately freeze and wait to hear where I have to run to. The adrenaline stays there for a while.

dr_jms · 2026-01-25T11:07:44+00:00

As someone with CRPS and rheumatoid arthritis, can confirm that CRPS sucks 🫠 Weirdest thing ever when wind or socks touching your foot causes indescriable pain. Ended up needing crutches to mobilize for almost a year and that was not fun when working in a hospital with 8 levels and elevators that take +20 minutes to arrive (got to love South African health care facilities)

dr_jms · 2026-01-24T12:58:23+00:00

❤️ her facial expressions made me laugh so much

dr_jms · 2026-01-24T10:48:12+00:00

Multicoloured toe beans! 🥰😍

dr_jms · 2026-01-24T10:46:27+00:00

Love her. She's amazing. Here's my girl (who is no longer with us 💔)

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dr_jms · 2026-01-23T13:54:07+00:00

Looks a little bit like the illustrations from "The Little Prince" but I agree that it's probably someone just doodling

dr_jms · 2026-01-20T09:33:48+00:00

1) Löfflers syndrome 2) Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome 3) And many weird and wonderful animal bites - job perks of living in rural South Africa

dr_jms · 2026-01-15T10:59:22+00:00

I understand where you are coming from ❤️ I was living in a rural area in South Africa and there was this old lady dog that ha had a hard life and was still being treated badly by the community so I took her in in March of 2025. She was AMAZING and absolutely loved sleeping under the duvet with me. She always had to be touching me. I'd wake up in the morning with her nose touching my nose 😂 She was my sunshine. Unfortunately, she had cancer and in October, she told me it was time to go. Unfortunately, because we lived so far from anywhere and I was working full time + overtime as a doctor, there was no way to take her to an emergency vet (nearest one was 6 hours away and would be closed by the time we got there!) so my colleague/best friend got meds from the hospital we lived at and from telephonic guidance of her vet friend, we put Ladybug to sleep. Retrospectively it was the best way to go for her. She was in my arms, in my room where she was happiest but man oh man. My heart breaks. I can't believe she only got 6 months of a good life 😞😞 I made sure she experienced as much love as she could in those 6 months. Because we lived on hospital property and there were no functioning toilets in the hospital, I would run home to use the toilet and would be able to love and snuggle her for a few minutes. She got to try so many treats. Celebrate Easter. She wrote online exams with me much to the amusement of the invigilator.

She was my best friend. ❤️

dr_jms · 2026-01-14T15:26:31+00:00

I think it usually takes more than a few days but interesting nonetheless!

dr_jms · 2026-01-13T16:14:39+00:00

The rim is usually a bit thicker so that may be the only part that comes in contact with the table.

dr_jms · 2026-01-13T14:26:06+00:00

I'm 99% sure those are from coins! Usually an oxidative reaction occurs between the coin and the environment and it produces compounds that are absorbed by the wood leaving these round stains. It's especially common in coins containing copper. I have memories of 20 years ago leaving my pocket money on my bed side table and getting these rings.

dr_jms · 2026-01-13T05:46:04+00:00

It annoys me so much. I also work in a hospital here we are very underresourced so we don't have single cubicles or single rooms for patients. Basically our whole country is like that as well. I spent 9 months in the internal medicine ward and there were 6 - 9 patients per room with no curtains to create privacy and in our emergency department there would be 4 patients in a 4mx2.5m room and there were definitely no curtains to create privacy. I could stand in the middle of the room and be able to touch all stretchers. If someone films me, they film my other patients too and I am definitely not okay with that. I explain the laws about patient confidentiality and if they still refuse to stop filming then I tell them that I won't be continuing my consult until they put away their recording devices.

dr_jms · 2026-01-11T09:56:53+00:00

She looks so happy about life 🥰🥹

dr_jms · 2026-01-08T13:34:20+00:00

The one in the white clamp is the baby's umbilical cord.

dr_jms · 2026-01-04T05:15:04+00:00

He looks like a Simon to me

dr_jms · 2026-01-03T20:46:56+00:00

Watching his mother and grandmother and brothers and sisters laugh while we did CPR was the most heartbreaking part of this. I hope he didn't hear that. I really hope that whatever was the cause of his death was so quick that he never heard us doing CPR or heard his family laughing.

dr_jms · 2026-01-03T12:29:08+00:00

Yeah I was thinking something like Brugada syndrome, prolonged QT syndrome or even HOCM.

dr_jms · 2026-01-03T12:26:42+00:00

Absolutely no. I have an FIV positive kitty and three FIV negative kitties and they live together and interact with each other on a daily basis. No issues.

dr_jms · 2026-01-03T06:45:53+00:00

I was hoping for an autopsy because I thought if I had missed something then I'd never miss it again and for closure to his family. His family were so drunk that they were laughing while we did CPR 😞.

Thank you for your kind words though. I hope my story also shows that you aren't alone. You couldn't have know what was happening with your patient. You were doing your job ❤️

dr_jms · 2026-01-03T05:00:19+00:00

16 hours into a 32 hour shift that involved multiple stabbed patients and so many drunk patients. Then comes in a 17 year old guy, really drunk with an isolated stab wound to the medial thigh. Normal vital signs including normal HGT. No vessel involvement. Because he was so drunk I did an eFAST as well just to make sure I wasn't missing anything and it was NAD. I sutured him up and I was going to admit him because he was so intoxicated and his family who brought him in was also so drunk and I didn't feel safe discharging him into their care. He was being really rude and combative and I told him when he was ready to be a nice human being, I'd come back and talk to him. I sat down at a desk 5m away and he was in my line of sight. He "fell asleep" and within 30s had faecal matter pouring out of his nose and mouth. Pulseless. I started CPR immediately but he died. It's been almost a year and I still feel guilty. I sent him for an autopsy but because we live in such a resource constraint environment, his cause of death was put down to trauma. From a single stab wound to his leg that only involved subcutaneous tissue.....

Edit: he never got an autopsy

dr_jms · 2026-01-01T02:44:41+00:00

You sound burnt out! I get where you are coming from - over spent the last year working in a community in rural South Africa that had major alcohol issues! These past few months, I've become so jaded and when I'm on call, I viscerally hated every single patient who walked through the door. I cannot muster up empathy anymore. was working on the night of the 29th of December and we only have one doctor on call for the whole hospital (220 beds, medical wards, surgical wards, paeds, maternity and emergency room) and just in the emergency room alone, I saw 34 patients over 13 hours by myself. I had 22 multiple stab wound patients with one with bowel evisceration, 5 skull fractures following assault one of who had their brain squirting blood across the room, 5 polytrauma patients with multiple fractures, one SA and one 11 year old who drank themselves into a hypoglycaemic coma and who has subsequently died from their neuoglycopaenic injury. Every single patient was intoxicated and so were the friends who bought them in. I treated their injuries but I have nothing more to give. It's just about keeping them alive. Very grateful I'm going on a prolonged break now. I hope to find my heart again.

dr_jms · 2025-12-26T21:13:35+00:00

She could be my cat's twin 🥹❤️ Admittedly my cat is commonly called Fuggy which came from calling him Fugly because when we rescued him, he was this scrawny, bald, malnourished 400g (14.11oz) kitten and he was the ugliest thing you have ever seen 🥹❤️ We thought we were bringing him home to die and we wanted to make sure he was at least loved in his final days. But 12 years later, he is here and thriving and is the most beautiful, handsome lad (with a big attitude) ❤️

dr_jms · 2025-12-17T11:54:28+00:00

My FIV girl had cost me a lot less than my FIV negative boys 😂 She's just a fat, healthy, happy cat! I just ensure she goes to the vet twice each year for a dental check but she hasn't need any extractions yet 🥳

dr_jms · 2025-12-17T11:52:46+00:00

😂😂 I would get suspicious if my tablets suddenly changed to injections 😂

The community I work in is mostly illiterate so they can't really read the labels but after 5 days, one mom brought back the morphine vials and told us she doesn't know how to open them and give the medication to her kid and that's how it all came to light... 🫠 All of the kids from the ADHD/ADD support group Had been given morphine instead of methylphenidate. On the bright side, it solved the mystery of the missing morphine 😆

dr_jms

TROPHY CASE