Take a Picture of All Your Serious Medical Problems
We’ve advised you to take photos of your kids before a big outing, take screenshots of your boarding pass while traveling, and take pictures of your luggage while you’re in it. And that weird rash you had, or that injury you’re about to bandage? Be sure to take a picture of this too.
This tip is from the LifeProTips subreddit , but it’s endorsed by medical professionals in answers and elsewhere. (Doctors even sometimes take their own photographs during a visit because they can be helpful in monitoring how well a wound or rash is healing.)
Take a picture of the wound before dressing it
If you go to the emergency room to get stitches, one of the first questions you’ll be asked is how bad the cut is. Instead of unwinding bandages that could cause the wound to bleed again, it’s better to offer to show a photograph. (Be sure to ask before sticking your phone in the admin’s face, redditors note.)
So before you go to the emergency or emergency room, and before you bandage the wound, take a picture of it. Obviously , do not put off any necessary first aid ; if the bleeding is severe, it is much more important to stop the bleeding than to take a picture. But it’s often safe to take a good photo; we just don’t think about it at the moment.
If possible, make sure the photo shows enough of your body to create a sense of scale. You can also follow the Reddit custom and frame the banana. Everyone knows how big a banana usually is.
Take pictures of this rash in case it gets worse.
Some rashes change over time. The rash often comes and goes, reappearing in different places. Cellulitis is a skin infection that can be serious, and one of its notable features is redness that increases over time.
By the time you’ve had a rash for a while – it could be hours or days, depending on what the rash is or what caused it – you might start thinking, wait, is it getting bigger? One common way to determine size is to draw a line around the edge of the rash with a ballpoint pen, and you can still do it. But photographs can also be helpful, especially for a rash that can change in more than just size. For example, monkeypox foci go through stages, transforming from flat spots to pustules to scabs. If you can say “this is what it looked like on Friday and this is what it looked like yesterday,” it can help your provider diagnose the disease and track if it’s getting better or worse.