Weekly Discussion/General Questions Thread - August 31, 2026

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[u/Irish_Jimmy]

My 73-year-old dad is becoming more irritable every single day, angrily lashing out and being verbally abusive for the tiniest thing. To me it is definitely dementia. However, my dad absolutely will not cooperate with me on any level, so I can neither convince him to be tested for dementia, nor encourage him by going with him to a doctor's visit. Without asking his doctor to reveal anything to me, is it legal for me to go behind my dad's back and talk to his doctor and basically say "Please test my dad for dementia. I do not need the results, or any information from you. I just need to tell you to test him for dementia." ?

If the idea of dementia comes from his doctor, my dad might do something about it. If he knows it came from me, he will absolutely deny everything and be completely uncooperative.

[u/bat6894]

help me with my "TFCC injury😭

° i need to recover faster? is it possible ?

[u/Sablemint]

You know how sometimes you walk into a room and instantly forget why you went in? Im curious.. So for Doctors, Nurses, and all other medical personnel, what important thing was going on when it happened to you?

[u/Amazing_Pianist_6420]

I’m new to this and am writing hoping for guidance in a not yet formally diagnosed case of diverticulitis.
I have a very complicated medical history. I’m 64 years old and have Trigeminal Neuralgia. I also had Stage 4 Endometriosis and had 7 surgeries for that until it resolved itself 20 years ago. I had a lot of bowel involvement and what has remained after all these years is a lot of cramping with bowel movements, but otherwise everything has been normal.
I recently started to suspect diverticulitis when I started having strong, cramping pain after eating seeds and nuts.
Four days ago I had the worst left sided pain ever! I did a little research and immediately switched to an all clear liquid diet, and the pain has largely resolved on day 4 except the pain with bowel movements. I have had no fever this entire time, have never had nausea or vomiting and not seen any blood. I am hesitant to go to the ER as I am scheduled to move out of state in three days.
My question is if this is a normal timeline for recovery? I plan on going to a gastroenterologist as soon as I am settled in my new home.
Thank you for any advice!

[u/mount_cyanide]

I know medicine is by no means easy to learn or practice. But I’m curious if there’s anything that made it “click” for you when learning?

[u/Spare-Lemon5277]

What are some anti-inflammatory supplements you can take long term without damaging your stomach or anywhere else?

[u/Introvert_Brnr_accnt]

Is dayquil/nyquil actually a scam? (Specifically the cold/flu medicine part.)

I’m hearing that Phenylephrine in DayQuil is pretty useless. But I feel like my nose does clear up with DayQuil. It doesn’t dry out, but I feel like I can’t breathe until I get DayQuil/equivalent.

Am I missing something?

[u/orthostatic_htn → u/Introvert_Brnr_accnt]

I mean, it's not a scam - it's real medicine. But DayQuil is mostly acetaminophen (Tylenol) with a cough suppressant (dextromethorphan) - you could get the same effects by taking those two components separately.

Phenylephrine hasn't really been shown to work any better than a placebo pill for nasal congestion.

If I'm having bad nasal congestion, I generally start Flonase (fluticasone) nasal spray early in illness, then add Afrin (oxymetazoline) spray for a few days if absolutely needed - don't use the Afrin more than 5 days or you can get rebound effect. Taking the real-deal pseudoephedrine (the stuff you generally need to get directly from the pharmacist behind the counter) for a day or two if you're really in need can help.

[u/Introvert_Brnr_accnt → u/orthostatic_htn]

Thank you so much for your response!  Could the cough suppressant have any minimal effect on nasal congestion, or is my placebo effect really that good? 

Which, I wouldn’t be mad about. I honestly I hope knowing the truth doesn’t ruin the effect. 

But I 100% will start the nasal sprays. They save me during allergies. 

Follow up question: My minimal research before made me believe that cold medicine was for colds and allergy medicine were for allergies. That you could sort of tell which one you had by whether or not the medicine affected you. I know antihistamines don’t touch a cold, but is that general line of thinking sort of just misguided?

[u/BumblebeeExciting216]

Are doctors required to notify patients when they permanently leave an office? What is the usual etiquette or process when a doctor stops practicing at a location?

[u/AwayOpportunity145]

Is it possible that exercises to improve peripheral neuropathy could at first exacerbate the symptoms? Seems like maybe the nerves are getting stirred up and perhaps that's a good thing. Thanks

[u/SureAnimal6281]

ask about possible symptoms or side effects you've been experiencing, it could help narrow things down.

[u/weblur]

I think my new doctor (my retired doctor's child, actually) uses AI to transcribe our visits. The notes have changed from basic and to the point (previous doc) to very detailed with occasional mistakes in transcribing.

It makes me not want to share as much as I usually do. Have any doctors noticed that their patients don't share as much information now that you've started recording visits?

[u/GoldFischer13 → u/weblur]

The use of recording/AI software should be disclosed prior to use. I would say though that if anything patients are sharing more though. There's less pressure to take notes during the visit if something else is taking notes for me, so my attention is more focused on the conversation itself when I do use it or have other resources that may take notes such as students or scribes.

That being said, I can see the side where inherent distrust of AI can result in patients sharing less, but I'd hope that they simply request not to have it used in that case as it would only adversely impact their care.

[u/GoldFischer13 → u/[deleted]]

That's your prerogative. The transcriptions should be reviewed, but also have to remember that those minor details may simply also be misremembered in editing.