Only recently I had a strange condition. On a Monday night after going to the Gym, my wife and I had a Falafel wrap for dinner. We sat in front of the TV and I suddenly felt a strange itch at a joint below one of my small toes on the left foot. It was soon followed by a similar itch on the outer rim of my right foot. Walking over to the fridge it felt like having small pillows between my feet and the carpet. I didn’t really take much notice and went to bed later that night.
Next morning there was a strange tension on the skin of my feet and looking at them I realized that they had swollen dramatically over night. On top of that my left middle finger started to feel numb too.
To cut a long story short, on Tuesday evening both my hands and feet were like balloons. I could neither walk nor grab anything, but otherwise I was fine. No rashes, no itching, no swollen tongue, fever or any other symptoms.
As it was already too late again to go to the doctor, I went on the Web for the first time in my life to try and find out about my condition.
My experience was daunting. I could find all sorts of recommendations and maybes and possibilities. It was all very unspecific stuff or forum threads, where people went off topic, to discuss something completely different. After about an hour of poking my stiff fingers at the key board I gave up, being more confused than before.
I can imagine that it may be wise under certain circumstances to seek help online, but my experience tells me that you will need the guidance of at least a general practitioner to point you into the right direction. I would never attempt self treatment just because of a hint I received from a website.
Things might change dramatically when Australia will honestly attempt to build the National Broadband Network (NBN) (Conroy, 2009). Especially in rural areas E-health (Eysenbach, 2001) can be of great help to the population of Australia. In some places doctors might be hours away. Getting online and seeking immediate advice and guidance might be life saving under certain circumstances. However, it takes more than a random intermediated website to provide quick and efficient help.
I can imagine well trained nurses to work on patients under guidance and observation, by means of a high speed Internet connection, in rural areas of Australia. At the same time general practitioners could maintain network relations with specialists. Unusual cases, requiring specific knowledge that goes beyond the capacities of a general practitioner, connections could quickly be established to add further helpful advice to an urgent case.
Coming back to the Falafel and the strange reaction in my extremities, we first thought it was an allergic reaction to the food (additives possibly). However my general practitioner couldn’t read the symptoms either. He provided me with a pack of histamines and the swelling was gone by the end of the week.
References
Conroy, Senator the Hon. Stephen (2009, April 7th). New National Broadband Network. Media Release, Canberra Press Office. Retrieved September 20th, 2010 from: http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2009/022
Eysenbach, Gunther (2001, March). What is e-health? Journal of Medical Internet Research, Vol 3 No. 2 2001. (J Med Internet Res 2001;3(2):e20) doi:10.2196/jmir.3.2.e20. Retrieved September 20th, 2010 from: http://www.jmir.org/2001/2/e20/
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