In-growing toe nail!

This is a disease where by the toe nail grows into the side of the skin leading to pain and infections. This disease mostly affects the big toes, and it can affect either both sides of the toe, or only one side.

The most common symptoms are:

Pain:
The pain is due to the nail constantly irritating the surrounding skin. This irritating pain can be compared to having a stone inside the shoe.

It gradually becomes worse as the nail grows hence affected persons stop putting on closed shoes.

Infection:

When infection sets in, then the affected place produces pus and sometimes a foul smell. The infection further worsens the pain in that, the pain now occurs all the time with or without closed shoes.

Hemorrhoids!.. aka.. Piles

This is one of those diseases no one wants to talk about; that is, it takes you by surprise, you can’t explain how you calprit, and you cannot easily talk about it with your friends without causing some laughter.

Therefore, the number people suffering from this condition are unknown because they are silent.

This post aims at addressing the following:

1. If you are suffering from Piles, please know that they are completely curable, therefore you do not have to suffer from them year in year out.
2.  If you do not have them, prevention is better than cure.

What are Hemorrhoids:

Hemorrhoids are swellings that arise from the normal folds in the anal canal. The normal folds are called

anal cushions. These anal cushions help you not to uncontrollably pass gas all the time. So socially we thank God for those cushions or else we would be in a “gaseous environment”. 

But when these cushions are bruised and they swell beyond their normal size. The resultant swelling beyond the cushions is called a hemorrhoid.

Sometimes this bruise affects the blood supply of the cushions so that instead of the bruise going away, it becomes bigger and bigger.

Therefore Hemorrhoids are named according to the size they attain.

Circumcision …,

Intro

My audience in Uganda may be asking, what new thing can we get from this post?

Surely a lot has been said on this topic in our country, ( that is, Circumcision and HIV/AIDS).

I will limit myself to: on how to access the service and  on some important things to consider.
Therefore indulge me:

Now let’s Dive in!

I am focusing on Safe Male Circumcision (this is defined as circumcision done in accredited health facilities by accredited health workers).

I am not talking about cultural or religious circumcision; aka... “mount Elgon” or “mount Rwenzori or “old Kampala”

Access to the service:

Circumcision in Uganda is now a National Policy but it is not compulsory. Any male person from birth to “old” is encouraged to circumcise. Access to circumcision is mainly through the following:

1.      Health NGO’s (including HIV/AIDS NGO’s) which provide free circumcision to anyone willing.

•    Either through static public (government)health facilities and hospitals or
•  Through camps set at important areas like schools, churches

 2.      Private and Missionary Hospitals and Health Facilities with credible surgical expertise.

Ulcers!!

A non clear word indeed:

This a medical word which means wounds.

All wounds, whether on the skin, or the delicate covering in the mouth, inside the eyelids, the nose, the mouth, the intestines or the genital or urinary tract are medically called ulcers.

But to us Ugandans we informally use the “ulcer” word to mean wounds inside the stomach and the beginning of the intestines (duodenum).

Therefore, this post will be dealing with our Ugandan “ulcers”:

The real term for these stomach and duodenum wounds is Peptic Ulcers.

This can be further divided into:

·         Gastric ulcers: wounds inside the stomach.

·         Duodenal ulcers: wounds in the first part of the intestine (duodenum).

What you feel when you have ulcers:

Wound = Pain

The most common symptom is pain in the upper part of the abdomen close to the chest and mostly in the midline. This is because the stomach and the duodenum are located there.

But there are other organs located in the same place like the liver, pancreas, and gall bladder, which when diseased can cause pain.

That’s why the doctor will always bombard you with questions to characterize your pain. These questions help pinpoint which organ is the source of the pain.

Welcome!

This blog is aimed at mainly non medical people; it is designed to make it very easy for the reader to understand the topics being written about.

Please feel free to leave questions and comments.

I am aiming to achieve the following:

• To be able to write about the common medical conditions in Uganda.
• To demystifying the diseases our society believes are "hard to treat."