Speaker 1: Thanks for staying with us. It’s time now to answer some of your medical questions. And joining us with all the answers is News Channel 5’s medical specialist, Dr. David Soria. He is the chief of emergency medicine at Wellington Regional Medical Center. Thanks as always for stopping by.

Dr. David Soria: You’re very welcome. Good to see you.

Speaker 1: Nice to see you. Welcome back.

Dr. David Soria: Thank you.

Speaker 1: Our first question today comes from a viewer in West Palm Beach who wants to know how is Crohn’s disease diagnosed and is there any association with MS, multiple sclerosis?

Dr. David Soria: Yeah, very interesting question. And Crohn’s like ulcerative colitis, both are called inflammatory bowel disease, they are diagnosed based on its symptoms, which leads the doctors to get certain tests. The symptoms are fever, abdominal pain. You can get diarrhea, many times bloody diarrhea. Once you have that, the best test is going to be colonoscopy. You take a look, get a biopsy and you can make the definitive diagnosis that way.
As far as the association with multiple sclerosis, there is one. Matter of fact, they’ve shown that it’s about twice the prevalence in patients with Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis versus the normal population.

Speaker 1: Interesting.

Dr. David Soria: So it’s something to be aware of. Know the symptoms. And if you are concerned, obviously see your doctor, and they’ll do the appropriate testing.

Speaker 1: Okay. All right. Our second question for you today is kind of interesting, “I stubbed my toe, and now the swelling just won’t go away. Could this be an ingrown nail?”

Dr. David Soria: It is an interesting question. And actually, that happens a lot. And let me tell you, it hurts, both stubbing your toe, as well as ingrown nail.

Speaker 1: It’s the worst, yeah.

Dr. David Soria: Typically, it’s easy to tell the difference. But first off, obviously we wanna rule out a fracture. Get an x-ray. Let’s make sure it’s not broken. Once we’ve done that, now it’s bruise versus infection. With a bruise, many times first day it hurts the most, and then it gets better every day. With an infection, starts off mild, and then, of course, gets worse quickly, second day, third day, much more swollen, much more red. May see pus, you may not.
With a bruise, rest it, elevate, ice, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories. It’s gonna go away. With an infection, like an ingrown nail, it is pus underneath the nail bed. Many times we have to cut it open, open it up, pack it. That’s the only way it’s gonna heal. Antibiotics many times will not help it.

Speaker 1: Gotcha. Okay. And our third and final question for you today, “I’m training for the Palm Beach Marathon in December.” Oh, good luck. The question is, “I’m getting shin splints. Is there anything I can do to reduce the pain?”

Dr. David Soria: Yeah. Well, good luck is what you are going to need, because shin splints can definitely ruin your game. They hurt. They are chronic, meaning it doesn’t go away overnight. But typically what it is, is it’s a symptom of an underlying problem. And that underlying problem can be a few things. Well, it can be tendonitis from overuse in the area of the shin, very common because you’re doing this a lot. Secondly, it could be his flat feet, and you’re putting a lot of stress on that area. So it’s something that you wanna get checked out if that might be the cause. And then also you can have a stress fracture, which is a hairline fracture through one of the bones in the shin, and it’s very important to get that evaluated.
But once you’ve had it evaluated, then the treatment is obviously dependent upon the cause. Typically, you’re gonna need to rest it. Ice, anti-inflammatories, probably orthotics in your shoe to give your arch support. And then of course, if it’s a fracture, the appropriate treatment there. So, be aware. Know what to look for.

Speaker 1: All right. So advice for our marathon runner in training.

Dr. David Soria: You got it.

Speaker 1: All right. Thank you so much. If you’ve got a question for Dr. Soria, we welcome you to send it in right at our website, WPTV.com. Just click the health link. You’llright-handn the right hand side there toward the bottom to send us your question.
We’re gonna see Dr. Soria again next week, and we’ll see you right after the break. Stay with us.