Quote: (09-15-2018 08:28 PM)Heretohelp Wrote:
Hi, abdominal pain in general is a tricky business and pinning down the cause can not always be straight forward as the differential diagnosis list is long.
Checking for STIs and seeing a doctor are both great ideas and that’s where I would have started too.
Top of my differential for fever and loin pain would be pyelonephritis - an infection usually not sexually transmitted, testing the urine for infection with a dip stix test and sending a urine sample would be a good start when you’re unwell and treating with antibiotics if required. (A visit to the GP would be the best way to do this).
I ordered a PCR assay because I suspect mycoplasma. Results back this weekend.
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Your doctor thought it could be pneumonia, this can often cause abdominal pain so isn’t as weird as I’m assuming you think?
True. But I've had this issue before unaccompanied by pneumonia or anything else, which leads me to believe that the upper respiratory tract infection is incidental and a result of lowered immunity.
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Also the antibiotics often cover more than one kind of infection. If you choose to not take antibiotics your body may well kill off the infection itself (If present) but on the other side you could get more sick.
I'm aware of the trade off. Are you aware of how dangerous some routinely prescribed antibiotics are? The fluorquinolones for instance.
Most upper respiratory tract infections, including various types of pneumonia are self-limiting and require bed rest and a little patience.
Here in southeast asia there's a particularly bad situation with antibiotic resistant bacteria. I'm a young man and otherwise healthy. So I'll take antibiotics, but only as a last resort.
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I’d be very careful when choosing to not follow the doctors advice, perhaps asking the doctor why or how they came to their diagnosis might help communication on both sides.
Appreciate the heads up but most of the doctors here are a small step above mentally retarded. There are a few notable exceptions.
I don't know if you've spent much time in Thailand but you can very quickly tell what kind of doctor (and person) you're dealing with here. If he's more concerned about trying to be your buddy and making stupid jokes than with getting to the heart of the matter you're dealing with a (probably) Thai trained doctor who hasn't been sufficiently exposed to Western medicine methodologies.
I'm telling this guy about my history of this exact issue and he's forcing a stupid smile and barely even concealing his absolute indifference to the data I was providing him as context for my arrival at the hospital. I'm not going to take the generic advice of a person like that unless it tallies with my own understanding of the situation and pros vs cons. And it didn't. And lo and behold I was right.
See, doctors don't pay any price for being wrong. They're completely indemnified. And here in Thailand they give out antibiotics like breath mints. So do pharmacists. And to whom are they accountable?
I went to the hospital last year with a furuncle that had gotten out of hand and required treatment and only when I insisted on a culture did they order one up for me. The antibiotic they prescribed for me turned out to be useless against the straight of staph I had. Hmm.
So there's a lot of people taking unnecessary and/or ineffective drugs and getting well in spite of them rather than because of them. And for those that don't get well but rather get worse, Somchai the doctor loses no sleep over it.
I consider doctors to be the gatekeepers of diagnostics I need and helpers with interpretation of the tests. I've been lucky in that a few doctors I've found have respect for their patients and the spirit of their profession (primum non nocere). But they are rare indeed.
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If I were you - if I had no further episodes I wouldn’t worry since you’ve done tests for STIs and ruled that out. If you have further episodes I would take advice from a doctor you trust.
I've had about 5 episodes in several years. That's why I posted this thread.
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It’s good to do your own research just be careful it’s not making you anxious or costing you lots of money on potentially unrequired tests.
Thanks. They're already into me for half a G but I'd pay that to take a piss in an American hospital so I can't really complain.
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Also, can’t believe they sent you the Hep B normal result in that format what the hell are they thinking???
haha indeed.