Moderators' Announcements: Please Read Before Posting

[smilewarrior]

Here are some rules with regard to posting in the medical forum. Please take a few minutes in going through them ( made by Ira, eyedoc, marbles and smilewarrior).

1. Please don't use text lingo or slang terms when you post. My fellow doctors here would agree that it's very hard to understand them. Post your replies clearly, that way we won't misunderstand and give you the wrong advice.

2. Use the Search function of this board to check for the existence of a topic before you ask your question. And if a topic exists, please read the replies first, especially for those asking ob-gyne- related questions. Chances are, they've already been asked. Please understand that it's also tiring on our part to answer the same questions over and over again, especially since some questions require long answers.

3. Give complete information about your problem when you want to ask something--associated symptoms, character of the problem, what you've been taking, what makes the problem worse, where the symptoms occur and where it spreads, etc.

4. It's our policy that we won't help out with school assignments. Sorry, guys.

5. Please don't ask about cosmetic brands or "As Seen On TV" goods. They aren't under the realm of medicine, and with most, if not all, of the "medical" products being sold on TV, they don't do what they're purported to do. If you want to open a thread about the products sold on TV, post them in Style and Fashion.

6. If it's asking for help about an illegal action (e.g. advice on where to have an abortion, where to get illegal drugs, how to commit suicide, etc.), sorry, we will not help. We are bound by both Hippocratic and Philippine laws.

7. Don't use this forum as a substitute to see a physician. If you're ill, it's better to see a doctor who can actually see you, talk to you, and examine you completely. We do our best to give you the right advice, but our resources and abilities are limited when we can't interact with our patients or see what the problem is.

8. Do not make fun of or belittle someone's problems here, no matter how witty you may think your reply might come across. You wouldn't want it to happen to you if the situations were reversed.

9. If you are a medical student, and especially if you are pre-internship level, be sure you know what you are talking about. While we appreciate your help in this forum, a lot of times, the medical advices given are wrong. If you aren't 100% certain, don't answer.

10. Do not make moral judgements on other peoples' problems. This forum is purely for medical advice, and it's not the proper venue to castigate someone else's way of life. Take those somewhere else. We will tolerate these questions as long as they're not asking about illegal medical procedures or management.

11. Outright ads are not allowed in this forum. If it's an ad to begin with, we'll move it to Classifieds. If it's an ad posted in several forums, we'll delete it and the admin will warn you. If it's an ad within a thread, we'll delete the post.

12. For referrals, it's okay to post here at What's Up Doc the doctor's name, and the hospital or office the doctor is affiliated with.

13. For lab results, please wait for your doctor to explain them to you so that you can also direct other related inquiries to them. Lab results do not mean anything unless it's correlated with a proper patient history and full physical examination.