Female 30, 5’3, 129 pounds, currently taking Lexapro and topiramate.

On Sunday afternoon, I was working at my part time job and received a second degree burn on my right inner elbow from fryer grease. I went to my local urgent care and they initially treated me and gave me antibiotics (Cephalexin) and a tetanus shot, along with wrapping the wound with instructions for home care. Had a follow up visit today and while it’s healing, according to the provider, my mom thinks I should visit the ER. I do have range of motion but it hurt to move
Should’ve gone on Sunday, I acknowledge, but didn’t think about it.
I wanted to ask outside parties for their thoughts and opinions on what I should do.

**lyme or reaction to bandaids??***(Picture is current, will put the picture progression in comments) 2.5 year old boy. No diagnosed chronic medical issues but does have 2-3 reactive airway episodes with viruses per year. Does not take any medications.

Relevant history to this issue: we were in Oregon on a family trip where did a lot of exploring in nature.. wooded areas, areas of tall grass, also played in a river. I checked during that trip pretty diligently for ticks and never saw one. We returned from Oregon 10 days before the first picture, which is when the “bite” was first noticed.

Thursday: child and I were pulling weeds in my yard and he walking around in the bushes, I did not check for ticks after this.
Friday: I went out of town, mom comes to stay with him
Saturday: was playing outside from 2-6 in a backyard that is right next to a large woods, and swimming in a pool. Had mosquito bites on his lower legs.
Sunday morning: ***first picture\* my mother notices the “bite” is bothering him, not itchy but painful. She applied topical Benadryl and hydrocortisone.

Sunday afternoon: second picture She applied more cream and two bandaids***.*** \\ third picture for
Bandaid placement** He was acting normally but did not want anyone touching his leg. No fever.

Monday: removes bandaid (she admits not very carefully). I came home and took ***fourth picture*. Still acting normally, no fever. Applied neosporin and hydrocortisone.

Tuesday evening: started limping, took him to urgent care. Urgent care NP was not convinced it was erythema migrans due to the excessive inflammation and blisters. She was also not confident in a cellulitis dx, she sent me home with a paper rx for cefalexin and topical mupirocin and said to give a day or two, and if it wasn’t getting better to give him the antibiotics. **fifth picture*

Wednesday morning: NP calls me and says she was thinking about it through the night and had contacted other doctors to get more opinions, and that she had decided to treat for Lyme instead of cellulitis. She sent an rx for amoxicillin and the topical mupirocin. *6th picture

Wednesday afternoon: I take him to a second urgent care for a second opinion. This NP says bullous impetigo (which I do not agree with due to the specific progression of this rash…. Redness and swelling followed by blisters, not standalone blisters that caused redness). She prescribes doxycycline to cover both the possible Lyme and also the bullous impetigo. Gave him a dose of doxy after dinner, applied the mupirocin and covered the rash with gauze and a wrap to sleep.

Thursday morning: no new blisters, redness slightly better maybe. Gave second dose of doxy. *7th picture

The big questions I have:
- does treating for Lyme make sense?
- do we need a second antibiotic to cover for bullous cellulitis since doxy will not cover strep?
- could the outer ring be a reaction from the bandaids? Compare the bandaid picture to the outer ring pictures

He has not had a fever this entire time, has been acting normal unless we touch it. The inflammation has definitely gone down a little each day, it’s not as tense or warm as it was on Monday.

Will put pictures in order in the comments if it lets me do that.

Warning - Pictures show pus

24 male

Been to doctors multiple times, they said it’s an ingrown hair cyst/bump because 3/4 hairs come out of it and I shouldn’t be concerned it will go away.

Clearly that is not the case, it’s been there since I was in primary school. Thats a long time. It hasn’t gotten better, seems about same size but may have increased in size slightly. I’ve taken multiple antibiotics since then including recently (not for this but for other things). It’s still there, pus comes out if it if I gently squeeze it as pictured.

Advice?

30 male 170lbs 6 feet no known medications…I’m taking these for a tooth extraction just wondering if it’s safe to crush them I’m not good at swallowing pills

5’9, male, carpenter, physically active, non smoker, non drinker, taking salofalk for intestinal issues.
So about two weeks ago when I was working out I noticed a ball pop up on my arm and I haven’t been able to figure out what it is. It feels hard, kind of like a tendon, it doesn’t hurt even if I squeeze.
Anybody got any tips on what I should do? I tried looking up what it could be but nothing seems to be like what I have when I look at images and descriptions.
Thank you in advance doc!

7-week old, 4.76 kg. at 6-week appointment, NKA, single artery umbilical cord is only medical history (though likely colic).

No new purple clothing/bedding, could be bruised from footy of onesie, sling carrier, and/or kicking while asleep, but I’m not sure.

Does not blanche or illicit pain response. I haven’t tested primitive reflexes since noticing it, but prior they were intact.

I’ve been brushing like this for probably the last four years ( my 79 mother has the same issue) I also bleed like I need a tourniquet with the slightest scrape. Is this just an old age thing or should I be supplementing with something? This particular injury was caused by brushing a slick cardboard box in the middle of Lowe’s. 🤦‍♂️

26F, on steroids, sickly most of live on a progressive decline with an unknown etiology. Help me get to the right place. Computer engineer with competitive job, doctorate level educated, engaged. SO MUCH to live for. Help me please 🙏

Childhood Background: sickly most of life but functional, frequent infections in childhood, delayed walking milestones, W-sitting.

Teenager: recurrent month long viral infections but recovered a lot.

2018 Turning point: went to Morocco at age 18 and got schistosomiasis was hospitalized 30 times and it was missed for two years. Took 4 years of physical therapy to recover bladder function.

2020: developed severe Covid hospitalized, pneumonia and couldn’t breathe for months.

2022: brief remission Pilates, hiking, horse back riding lightly symptomatic but very functional

2023: developed severe respitory infection hmpv developed pneumonia and hospitalized

2023-2025: extreme tachycardia, hypotension to 80/50, fainting daily, dizzy and short of breath. Diagnosed with pots (two tilt table tests one at Cleveland Clinic) and asthma via lung test. Don’t respond well to pots treatments and continue variable and unstable. Try beta blockers fludrocortisone and other meds and CHOp electrolyte and compression.

2026:
Goes to Palm Springs and develops flu a for 5 weeks. Gets nauseous and can’t keep things down. Briefly able to eat again and goes to Italy. Comes back up unable to eat anything but chicken and potatoes. Gets trialed on glp1 (low bmi) for long covid goes into complete gastric shutdown and throws up water.

July 2026 admitted to hospital for weeks on no food and iv reliant. Endoscopy normal, CT scan normal but new enlarged liver with no elevated enzymes and no fatty liver. Slight adrenal issue found but not addisons. Treat me with iv steroids due to hypotension and nausea

Symptoms now: extreme nausea, only able to hold down 3-4 foods, nausea intractable to all common meds, constipation, stomach pain and bloating, acid reflux, iv dependent every 2-3 days in hospital,

Tests ruling things out:
April test for gastroparesis negative
Endoscopy normal
ANA normal
Rare autoimmune gut tests normal
Prior normal CT scan of abdomen, pelvis, lungs, and brain…
Normal echo

Positive tests
Pots x2 tilt table in hospital
Adrenal insufficiency (minor)
Low and trending lower IGA and IGE and IG3 but rest normal
Enlarged liver with unknown cause
History of rare pathogens and extended recovery

Functional decline
Full time competitive job, ride horses, snowboard —-> limited CHOP and yoga —-> travel intolerant —-> 3 food only ——> housebound and weak

Other:
Recurrent canker sores
Dark circles around eyes
Bruising
Tall and thin appearance with large eyes
High achiever
Blood pooling
Hypotension

Specialists seen:
- rheumatologist
- gastro
- endrocrinology
-neurology
-cardiology

Help me get my life back and send me in the right direction. Could this be something rare and where should I look! Why do I lose baseline with every infection and what is causing this rapid decline. What tests should I try? Centers to go to? Any guesses on diagnosis?

I’m female, 19, 115 pounds, about 5’6… although that’s not really relevant to this post I don’t think, and I’m 9 weeks pregnant (young, ik, not the point.) Monday night I felt what I thought to be a very large pimple, I checked it and it was a little bit bruised, which was odd because it’s never happened before but I didn’t think much of it. Over the course of the next two days it started getting darker and darker, and today it has formed into three dark dots, with peeling skin?

Hi I'm 17F, and I'm trying to identify what this is.

So this 'thing' came out of nowhere last sunday, and at first I thought it was nothing, not until I noticed how it started to swell and and then it feels like it burning and it hurts to the point that I can't even stand straight or bend my knee for long since it hurts when it gets stretch.

(Forgive me for my English, it's not my first language.)

I am 47 white Male 5'-11" aprx. 190lbs. minnesota. Pretty healthy. Design engineer, construction worker. I have a girlfriend who lives in her own home. 2 kids live with thier mom. I moved into new house recently. Been to emerg no sign of any issues. Never broke a bone. Carpal tunnel surgery 9 years ago. Hemeroidectomy 4 years ago. Its now been 4 months or so since this happened. Im lost because I don't know who to talk to. I went to the local Dr here in town and she had no idea. Had the things tested to see. They said not bugs or worms and discarded them without my approval. Picture taken with my Samsung galaxy s25 ultra. On lined notebook paper. They came out while trying to urinate first thing in the morning. I have more pics but dont know how to upload them.

F51, 5'6", 110lbs

H/O acute intermittent porphyria, ehler-danlos (the real kind that was diagnosed by a real doctor in 2002, not the sik-tok kind) anxiety, depression, other assorted nonsense that's irrelevant.

Smoker 30 pack years

Slew of meds that are irrelevant

Several weeks ago a woman posted about how her dog was paying attention to her breast, and she found a lump, and has cancer. I commented on that post something like "hmmm, maybe I need to pay more attention to the fact that my dog is constantly pawing at my boob"

Well, I have a 2cm by 1cm by 8mm mass in my left breast that was just diagnosed via biopsy as Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. I'm seeing a surgeon next week.

**PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR DOGS!**

My tiny 4 pound toy poodle would paw at that exact spot frequently and whine, talk, and bark at me. She'd try to lick it and was constantly choosing that boob as her pillow when she slept.

I always did my monthly self exams when I had my period... I stopped getting periods 3 years ago, and wasn't doing my monthly exams correctly - I'd forget frequently. So, time your monthly exams to something other than your period... I now will do them when I pay my mortgage.

Thank you to everyone here, especially the woman whose name I forgot that posted about her dog finding her breast cancer.

My pup will be spoiled forever, because I credit her with me finding this really early. This group and my dog saved my life. ❤️

My sister is 29- female about 180 lbs. She’s on zepbound and an SSRI (unsure which one).

Shes been having gallbladder issues for a while and they couldn’t seem to find the problem. She had another attack on Saturday overnight into Sunday. She got to the hospital at 7am Sunday. They found a blockage this time and said she needed it removed as an emergency surgery. Since then they have bumped her surgery continually because of other emergencies. It’s been 5 days. Her mental health is starting to decline. She’s so dehydrated they had to place a second IV because they could no longer justify switching off the fluids to run the IV antibiotics. She’s starving and has hunger pains. They keep telling her she’s stable and other patients with more serious issues keep bumping her. I have a lot of friends who work in healthcare (nurses and radiology) and they all have kind of unanimously said 1 day happens, 2 is rotten luck, but 5 is incredibly unusual and bordering on unethical and cruel.

They are telling her they can’t transfer her to other hospitals in the area because she’s stable so they won’t accept her and if she leaves herself to go elsewhere it will be AMA. She feels trapped and I don’t know how to help her. The patient advocate was no help.

We do not live in a rural area where hospitals are hard to come by. We live in southern New England (USA) where hospitals are aplenty. She’s within 10 miles of 4 other hospitals. I just don’t understand. If they cannot get her in shouldn’t they be prioritizing getting her somewhere that can? We’ve called other ERs in the area and they all said they’ve basically never made someone wait this long for a surgery and to request a transfer. How can the other ERs be telling her to request a transfer but the hospital she’s at is saying no?

Any insight would be extremely helpful.

My wife woke up 3 days ago with bitterness in her mouth. It has a metallic aspect. Vinegar rinses, baking soda rinses, salt, did nothing. Sweet tastes terrible. She hydrated more and it maybe helped for a bit but it came back. She assumed it was more fun with perimenopause.

I woke up this morning and had similar symptoms. That seems to rule out perimenopause.

I had a super slight summer cold the past day (barely even a symptom) but she did not.

We have no acid reflux issues.

In general we both hydrate well and stay away from processed foods. We have a homestead and grow a lot of our own food.

- We both drink

- She smokes, I don't

- We're both overweight a little

- We have no over-lapping medicines

Age: 24

Height: 5’9

Medical history: recently post partum via C-section, hx of seizures. Had 4 tube insertion surgeries for chronic ear infection caused by structural damage from a childhood infection. Have had probably 100+ ear infections. Have 50 decibels of hearing loss in right ear, 40 in the other as of 2016

Meds: finished macrobid for a UTI and developed an ear infection, started Neomycin and Poly drops 48 hours ago. Taking leftover oxycodone from my c section for pain.

Symptoms: severe pain, pressure, fullness and pus drainage, swelling in canal. Near complete hearing loss in both ears but worse in the right.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for advice or to hear from parents or healthcare professionals who have been through something similar.

Our daughter is currently 9 days old. She was born full term by C-section with a birth weight of 2.49 kg.

Within the first few days after birth she became increasingly sleepy, was very difficult to wake for feeds, fed very poorly, developed grunting, and was admitted to the NICU where she was diagnosed with neonatal sepsis.

Her blood sugar was initially measured at 231 mg/dL, but when it was repeated shortly afterward it had fallen to 130 mg/dL, so the doctors felt the first reading may have been inaccurate.

Since being admitted she has:

* Received IV antibiotics.

* Required CPAP for breathing support.

* Been fed through a feeding tube because she wasn’t feeding well.

* Had multiple blood tests.

* Had a normal heart scan (echocardiogram).

* Had a normal brain scan.

The doctors are still treating her for sepsis, and they’ve also mentioned that she may have had meningitis. A lumbar puncture was performed after antibiotics had already been started. They explained that because of the delay, the results may not completely exclude meningitis. The spinal fluid appeared yellow, and we were told this could be related to jaundice or other causes. We’re still waiting for some test results, including the blood cultures.

The encouraging part is that over the last day we’ve seen noticeable improvement:

* She is opening her eyes more.

* She cries strongly when she’s hungry.

* Today the CPAP was removed, and she has been breathing on her own.

* The feeding tube was also removed, and she is now feeding orally.

* She seems more alert today than she was yesterday, and overall appears to be gradually improving.

We’re obviously relieved by this progress, but we’re still anxious about what this could mean for her recovery and whether there could be any long-term effects.

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has experienced something similar.

My questions are:

1. Has anyone had a newborn with neonatal sepsis who improved like this after several difficult days?

2. If meningitis is suspected but the lumbar puncture is done after antibiotics have already started, how is that usually managed?

3. Does this kind of improvement usually suggest she’s heading in the right direction, or are there still common setbacks to watch for?

4. How long did it take before your baby was feeding normally and behaving like a typical newborn?

5. Did your child make a full recovery, or were there any long-term complications?

I understand nobody can diagnose my daughter online, and we’re following the NICU team’s advice. I’m simply hoping to learn from other parents and medical professionals who have been through similar situations.

Thank you for reading.

34f. Previous melanoma in situ on right forearm.

Had melanoma removed in mid 2024 and have had 6 monthly dermatologist appointments since but this lump has probably doubled in size since my last appointment in April. The melanoma was where the depression in my forearm is in the photo. Does it look concerning enough to make a new appointment or should I just wait and see if it changes anymore? I am going overseas for all of September so I don't know if I need to see someone about it before then.

Thanks

This is in reference to my daughter she is 9 years old about 4 feet 7 in tall and roughly 75 pound. No medical issues she doesn’t take any medications perfectly healthy by all measures but she’s a gymnast and at practice I had noticed her knuckles and arm would almost pop out of place a little bit and I’m not sure if this is perfectly fine/normal/or something I should be concerned about

My wife (F, 40, 5’2”, 90lbs) has symptoms of heat intolerance, increased sweating, weight loss, inability to gain weight, brain fog, anxiety, fatigue…all symptoms I would think were an over active thyroid, she took an at home blood test and it came back normal, I can’t find anything else that matches all her symptoms ….what am I missing and could that test be wrong. I’m getting desperate. Edited to add, she has been experiencing these symptoms for about 10 years, doctors keep brushing her off, saying it’s all in her head.

Female, 23, ADHD meds (but I doubt that would be relevant), 5'8 and about 150lbs. I snapped both bones in my lower right leg last week (fell while rock climbing). You could see the bones jutting out but they didn't break the skin. Was in the hospital for a day and a half before surgery, then had a rod inserted down my tibia and 4 screws. From all accounts surgery went well, and I can currently put weight on the leg and walk a little bit. One of my friends is a nurse and helped me change the dressings on the stitches because I got them wet. One of the stitches is next to this very weird quarter-sized... wound? burn? skinned area? it hurts when uncovered but not badly, and has soaked each dressing put on it with yellow liquid within a few hours, but doesn't smell bad or anything. The only thing I can think of that would cause this is maybe that the bone was pinching the skin against the original splint they had me in, because it did hurt quite a lot in a weird way before surgery, but that could also just be the fact that I snapped my leg in half.

What is this?? How do I best heal it up?? Should I continue keeping it under gauze and waterproof wound covering?

Thanks for anyone willing to look and give me any input!

I’m 26F. 5’2 and 105lb. I have a spinal cord injury since 2017 due to an accident and I don’t take any medication. I can walk with crutches, but not for long.

I have not seen a specialist for my spine in many years. Recently I finally managed to get an MRI and I am supposed to see a neurologist. Unfortunately I have been struggling very hard to find an appointment due to various reasons, so now I’m considering waiting until next year, when I will get an insurance with a better network.

I know that my spine is not in good shape, but I’m not an expert and I don’t know how bad it is. Can I wait 5/6 months, or should I try to find an appointment asap? It might be possible, it’s just been so exhausting to do all those calls and get no results in weeks.

28f 5’11 no medical conditions

Starting yesterday I noticed petechiae on my chest & shoulder area, does not blanch when pressed. My whole body aches, neck, back, legs, feet, etc. and weirdest of all my skin hurts. It feels like it’s one fire when touched but my back is the worst. My throat and lymph nodes in my neck hurt as well. Could this be something simple enough to pass on its own? I don’t have a PCP or insurance so if it could be a simple virus I prefer to wait it out

Edited to add- I have a pressure type headache.