Note: Some responses were pulled from this Reddit thread.
1.“Your water breaking is RARELY like on TV. Most folks don’t wind up with a giant puddle. You might feel a pop (or not), you might think you peed yourself, and when you move or have a contraction, it’ll usually keep leaking until you deliver.”
“It’s also NOT an emergency! Don’t freak out and drive like a bat outta hell. Yes, if your water breaks, we’d like you to head to the hospital, especially if your labor hasn’t started on its own, because you might need help to get it going in a timely fashion. But unless you’re bleeding, or the fluid is greenish/brown, or the baby hasn’t been moving like normal, it’s ok to grab your go bag at a safe, normal pace. No screaming, speeding, or ambulances required.
2.“Pharmacist here. Please don’t confuse side effects with allergies. Weight gain with prednisone is a side effect. Nausea and itching with codeine and morphine are side effects. A documented allergy to a medication on your chart will trigger an alert with any similar medication.”
“Can’t get codeine? Better not order vicidin or percocet for that patient!”
3.“People believe ‘if you are an organ donor, emergency crews are less likely to save you if you are badly injured so they can get your organs.’ No. Stop it.”
4.“When you have an IV site, there isn’t a needle in your arm. There is a tiny, flexible, plastic catheter, and it’s not going to tear through your veins and skin if you bend your elbow.”
5.“Wearing high heels is not harmless and can lead to foot problems. When wearing sneakers, your weight is distributed all over your feet in a healthier, more comfortable pattern. When you’re on high heels, that redistributes your weight in a way that can damage your heel.”
6.“I’m a surgeon. ‘We can’t find anything wrong with you’ does NOT mean ‘nothing is wrong with you.’ Medicine is not nearly as advanced as most people think. There was a time we had no idea what multiple sclerosis (MS) was. So, all those people suffering from MS were told, ‘We don’t know what’s wrong with you. Our tests all came back normal.’”
7.“Reading in the dark won’t make your vision worse. It just affects the type of light entering your eye; it doesn’t change anything within the organ itself. You may feel a little uncomfortable and deal with some eye strain, but there’s no long-term problem.”
8.“Doctor here, but I need to say this: Your doctor/provider may not know best. Get a second or third opinion when dealing with a difficult diagnosis or a diagnosis that will need potential surgery. Specialists and surgeons will have different approaches to the same disease.”
“Keep your medical records organized: copies of recent labs, imaging studies, medications, etc. This will reduce duplicate studies and labs and help inform your doctor/specialist while keeping costs down. Always get a CD/film of your imaging study, and take it to any relevant doctor visit — unless they are in the same system.”
“We will never, EVER mind if you ask for a second opinion. If your case is difficult, we have probably already gotten multiple other doctors’ opinions.”
10.“Taking 1000 mg+ of vitamin C a day isn’t necessary. Your body only absorbs a certain amount and pisses the rest out.”
—Anonymous
Beo88 / Getty Images
11.“That ‘pulling the plug,’ as seen on every TV show, is shenanigans. It drives me up the wall to see people unplug an IV, only to watch a person choke to death. They’re battery-powered.”
12.“Don’t stop taking medications just because you ‘feel better.’ This includes antibiotics, but I’m talking about all meds (psych, blood pressure, insulin, and steroids). You feel better because the medicine is working and doing its job! (Duh). Even if you legitimately don’t need them anymore, many meds can cause bad side effects if stopped cold turkey. You need to wean off.”
“Also, make sure you research HOW the medications should be taken. With or without food? At night or in the morning? Can they be taken with other medications, or will they be more effective if taken alone? These little things are important.”
13.“Parents with kids over 18: No, I cannot give you health information on your child after they turn 18. It’s called HIPAA. Also, ethics.”
—Anonymous
Jacob Wackerhausen / Getty Images
14.“If you’re clinically dead and are brought back to life, there’s a good chance you won’t last long afterward. You don’t just get up and get back to life; you probably suffered brain damage from a lack of oxygen for X amount of minutes.”
“I’ve been a trauma nurse for two years and can definitely confirm this. I have seen 672 patients require CPR. Of the 672, only 23 lived.”
—Anonymous
15.“Clinical assistant for an urgent care here. Masks are NOT just for COVID. They were used in clinical settings before then and will continue to be used. We don’t care if you’ve tested negative for COVID; you could carry another highly transmissible virus, like strep or the flu.”
“If we ask you to wear a mask because of your symptoms, either take it and put it on or go wait in your car.“
16.“A defibrillator isn’t used to restart a heart that has stopped beating. It is used to stop the fibrillation of the heart and will ‘reset’ it to its normal rhythm. Thanks to TV shows and movies, many people have this misconception about what the device will do and what it’s meant for.”
“Also, when the shock is administered, the patient won’t spasm violently. The muscles in the chest area will contract, but it’s nowhere near as violent as often portrayed.”
17.“So many people have weird ideas about losing weight that involve weird dietary restrictions and only eating certain food groups. If you want to lose weight, you need to watch what you eat and reduce calories. Don’t starve yourself. You’ll be miserable and have lots of cravings. Instead, try to find healthier alternatives to what you currently buy.”
“There are specific, numbered steps to hand washing that we are tested on, and if we do it incorrectly, we fail and have to retest the next time they can give us a date. This even includes how to dry your hands and wrists after washing. It’s also why many CNAs/LPNs/RNs can’t wear fingernail polish at work. It’s a health concern because bacteria can get between the polish and the nail, and washing your hands is harder.”
A British biotech company is hoping to harness an infamous side-effect of cannabis use, commonly known as ” the munchies”, to help improve the lives of cancer patients.
Use of the drug has long been associated with an increase in appetite.
Pharmaceutical firm Artelo has been working on a drug which it says imitates the effect of the cannabis plant but only on the body and not the brain, so patients will not get high.
OvarianVax teaches the immune system to recognise and attack the earliest stages of ovarian cancer and researchers believe it could be given to women preventatively on the NHS.
What is the ‘cannabis’ drug?
The drug, currently referred to as ART27.13 was originally developed by AstraZenecca,
Researchers at pharmaceutical firm Artelo Biosciences and Trinity College Dublin have been experimenting with evolving it for use on cancer patients.
In a paper published in the journal Pharmaceuticals last November, they said it had provided a breakthrough in cancer cachexia, which is a change in the body causing people to lose weight despite eating normally.
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Depending on the type of cancer, between 60 per cent and 80 per cent of patients lose weight.
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And they believe it could protect against the muscle degeneration associated with colon and lung cancers (cachexia) and may also positively impact life expectancy.
Dr Steven Reich, Artelo’s chief medical officer, said last year that data from their research “supports our confidence in ART27.13’s potential as a supportive care therapy for cancer patients as it may not only increase appetite, but also prevent muscle wasting.”
How will it work?
Researchers hope ART23.13 will be able to restore appetite, reverse weight loss and improve the quality of life for cancer patients.
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Artelo has taken the drug and formulated it into a once-daily capsule which is currently being trialed in the Cancer Appetite Recovery Study (CAReS)
Dr Andy Yates, chief scientific officer at Artelo, said the drug activates the CB1 and CB2 receptors within the body but it is restricted from going to the brain.
He said: “Those receptors are known to be important in people’s appetite control, so if you switch them on they get hungry and they eat more.
“And that’s what we are looking to determine in the CAReS study.”
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What have researchers said?
Dr Barry Laird, from the University of Edinburgh’s Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, is the principal investigator in the CARes trial.
He said: “This really represents a new area of therapeutic development and really had the potential to improve things for our patients.
“What’s really key about this to me is it’s a change from standard cancer care.
“We are not just focusing on the tumour we are focusing on the patient.
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“That’s what it’s about, helping these patients live as well as they can.
“And if we do that, they will live as long as they can.”
While Dr Yates told The Times: “Ultimately, there’s a big correlation between the weight of a cancer patient and their outcomes.
“Sadly, there are not very many treatment options available for those who are suffering weight loss, so we hope that our drug will help transform that by giving people their appetite back.”
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However, he admitted getting the drug to clinical trials had been a “nightmare” because of the need to get licences from the Home Office.
That will be on the water slide that starts with a scary 90-degree drop.
Packing in 6,769 passengers and more than 30 places to eat and drink, World America will be island-hopping in the Caribbean from Miami starting in April, with prices from £779pp for seven nights.
The ship has lots of places to eat, even more places to drink, with no one telling you what to wear, and a sports complex that becomes a nightclub in the evening.
Aqua holds 3,571 passengers and will be sailing from Port Canaveral in Florida to NCL’s private island in the Caribbean from April, with seven-day prices from £1,041pp.
The World’s Biggest Cruise Ship
The Star of the Seas’ sister vessel Icon of the Seas was launched by Royal Caribbean earlier this year.
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It weighs 250,800 tonnes and is longer than The Shard is tall at 1,198ft in length.
It has seven swimming pools and 22 restaurants among the on board offerings for its 7,600 guests.
One of those pools is the largest ever built for a cruise ship. There’s also a swim-up bar, and not one but two infinity pools, both engineering firsts.
Kids’ clubs will keep little ones happy while parents enjoy the sun.
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However, families will also have plenty of chances to have a ball together with arcades, laser tag, mini golf and the largest ice rink at sea all among its attractions.
At the front of the ship is the multi-deck glass AquaDome.
It provides floor-to-ceiling ocean views, as well as a 55ft waterfall tumbling into a pool that by night promises thrilling aerial acrobatics and daring dives.
Meanwhile, the ship’s Royal Theatre features a West End-style production of the Wizard of Oz, and there are endless live music and theatrical performances, day and night.
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There are 28 different types of room for guests to stay in. Some have an ocean-view balconies, while others overlook the ship’s Central Park, which has 30,500 plants, trees and flowers between shops and restaurants.
Strictly Come Dancing viewers were left in tears after Dr Punam Krisha was the first star to perform a Bollywood number on the BBC One show in its long history
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