Best Docs Network Magazine Fall 2013 | Page 36

Best Docs Network | Dallas/Fort Worth Hospital Spotlight Q&A Do you have a question you’d like to ask our Forest Park Medical Center doctors? Email us your question to editor@bestdocsnetwork.com and we may address it in a future isssue. Q A Can someone with severe allergies be helped with surgery? A lot of patients have severe allergy problems and many of them also have chronic sinus infection problems and/or nasal obstruction. Sometimes those patients can be helped with surgery. Typically, I like to make sure that we have their allergies under as good of control as possible before deciding to proceed with surgery. In other words, the allergies themselves might be contributing to swelling in the nose which could be contributing to blockage of their breathing, and it could be blocking the openings of the sinuses that lead to sinus infections. Our hope would be that we could treat the allergies by themselves which would decrease the swelling enough to improve the airway and decrease the severity and frequency of the infections. In some patients, based on their anatomy, that’s not possible and those patients are ones that would benefit from surgical intervention. COLIN PERO, MD Double board certified Otolaryngologist / Head & Neck Surgeon and Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon, who practices out of Forest Park Frisco Q A How do I know if I have a broken bone? A lot of people grow up being told by their mothers or other family members, whoever plays the doctor in the family, that “if you can move it, it’s not broken.” I know I was told that when I was a kid. That’s definitely not true. Even if it’s badly broken you can still move it. The signs of a fracture are pretty consistent though. It’s going to be pain that does not resolve over the first two or three days, same goes for the swelling. A simple injury will often feel better the first or second day, but a fracture does not. It will feel worse – more painful, more swollen, and very difficult to move. Some movement can be done, but it’s definitely not normal movement. Other signs of a fracture are bruising or any discoloration, bluish or greenish, that occur quickly; significant swelling that doesn’t go away in a day or two; and difficulty with weight bearing, meaning you can’t put weight on it after a couple of days. These are also signs that you probably need an x-ray to verify whether or not the bone is broken. DANIEL ALDRICH, MD Board certified Orthopedic Surgeon and Chief of Surgery at Presbyterian Hospital of Rockwall, who practices out of Forest Park Dallas Q A I have been diagnosed with HPV, what does that mean? I see a number of young women in my practice who come to me with an abnormal pap smear showing HPV changes and this has patients extremely concerned because they feel like they have been exposed to a sexually transmitted disease. Part of what I tell my patients, is that the HPV virus is endemic in the population. That it’s present in most people who have had sexual intercourse and for the majority of these patients it doesn’t create any issues. The body sees it and it clears it or isolates it, so it doesn’t create a lot of problems. For a small percentage of patients it can create abnormal pap smears but even these abnormal pap smears can be very readily handled and treated non-invasively as long as people keep up with their exams. JONATHAN OH, MD Board certified Gynecological Oncologist and OB / GYN, specializing in Gynecological Oncology, who practices out of Forest Park Frisco to make an appointment | call: 1.888.367.3787 | email: referrals@forestparkmc.com 36 Best Docs Network BestDocsNetwork.com