« Medical information and resources »

Introduction

Personally, apart from the odd painkiller or antibiotic course, I don't hold with medicines. My mum was a nurse (Midwifery sister) and I once read one of her medical books. Oh yes, drugs are a bad thing. Notwithstanding the fact your body - and the germs too for that matter - quickly build up an immunity resulting in ever stronger doses / strains, there's the matter of side effects. Scary!

I am as far from a hypochondriac as you will ever meet, but sometimes the old joke about See, I told you I was ill on gravestones is not without merit. Anyway, this will list resources for medical dictionaries and societies dedicated to research on certain ailments.

Probably wants it's own section, but for now, here's the link for the Disability Rights Commission

Medicine

• RX LIST
  The Internet medical List - gives details about many medicines and their potential side effects.
  
  
• My Pharmacy - Fairly comprehensive.
  
  
• British National Formulary
  The essential twice-yearly source of up-to-date guidance on prescribing, dispensing and administering medicines. Primarily for use by prescribers in the NHS as well as by pharmacists, nurses and other health-care professionals.
  
  Compiled with the advice of clinical experts, the BNF provides authoritative and practical information on the selection and clinical use of medicines. It reflects current best practice as well as legal and professional guidelines relating to the use of medicines.
  
  

General Medical

• MedInfo.co.uk
  Medinfo® is being developed with the aim of providing free and easy to understand medical information and advice, such as you might get from your own doctor, on a number of common and not so common conditions.
  
  
• BUPA Private Hospitals, UK
  
  
• Discovery Channel: Health
  
  
• MedicineNet - really rather good!
  
  
• On-Line Medical Dictionary
  
  

Rare Illnesses

HSP - Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia

The first place you want to look is here: HSPinfo.org ( Site down Sept 2004 )

HSP is the medical equivalent of a 'widget' or a 'thingummybob'. As a gross generalisation is a 'degenerative neural disorder' and may or may not include several complications. It means the doctors and specialists know and recognise the individual symptoms you have but haven't got a clue what's up with you exactly!

No two people are the same apparently, even in cases where if runs in the family. Mostly it comes on slowly over a few years and may start in childhood or it might wait till you are old before pouncing.

There again there is evidence it can lay dormant and be triggered by viruses. Triggered being the operative word as its genetic bullet rolls a lifelong illness into a few days...

Been there, got that!

Hardly the same fatality rate as 'Motor Neurone Disease' but the symptoms can be close enough that you need lumbar punches, cat scans and other pleasantries to tell the difference...

Asperger's Syndrome

Oh joy, another condition to cope with!
Sometimes when your children / pupils are constantly being 'difficult' maybe there's a reason beyond them being plain awkward and hard work.

You know the craziest thing, I reckon I have it and never even realised until one of the specialists investigating my son asked if we'd ever heard of it because he believes Ryan has it. Certainly explains a lot of my 'odd' behaviour in the past. Louise, my wife, blamed my 'defective genes' again, but figures indicate the cause can be a traumatic birth, something we apparently bear in common. I guess this is going to end up being yet another big section of the website!

I'm currently reading:
      Alien in the Playground by Clare Sainsbury
      Pretending to be Normal. Living with Asperger's Syndrome by Liane Holliday Willey

Links of possible interest:

• Asperger Norfolk : Symptoms. I highly recommend this one.
  
  
• MAAP Services for the Autism and Asperger Syndrome
  
  
• OASIS - Online Asperger Syndrome Information & Support
  
  
• BBC's expert column on Asperger's Syndrome
  
  
• A Directory for AS : Personal homepages listed
  
  
• AS association of New England: Asperger's Syndrome Resources on the Web
  
  
• Tony Attwood's home page
  This web site is a guide for parents, professionals, people with Asperger's Syndrome, and their partners.
  
  
• BBC OUCH! My Family and Autism
  
  

Other topics of possible interest

• Gene Clinic - a publicly funded medical genetics information resource.
  
  
• WhoNamedIt.com - a biographical dictionary of medical eponyms.
  
  
• EyeDirectory ~ Guide to conjunctivitis.
  
  
• SleepNet ~ Since 1995 - Everything you wanted to know about sleep but were too tired to ask™