St. Clare Memorial Hospital Services Surgery General Surgery Ask the Doc

Ask the Doc

Ask the doctor is a regular feature where we ask our general surgeon, Richard McNutt, MD, to share the answers to some of the most common questions he gets from patients. We hope you find this information helpful. And, if you need a surgical procedure, know that HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital has the expertise to care for you.

Thyroid awareness month

With January being Thyroid Awareness Month, I want to focus on the thyroid gland – how it helps and how it can cause trouble.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

It’s amazing what health concerns we detect when taking a shower.

Screening for colon cancer

While I’ve never known anyone who wanted colon cancer, I’ve also never known anyone who actually wanted a colonoscopy.

Can I live without my gallbladder?

This is a question I get often after recommending someone should have theirs out.

What kind of surgery do you do?

This is probably the question I get asked most often – by my family, friends and patients.

Will surgery hurt?

That is a question that even I have wondered more than once. Pain is incredibly interesting; there is more to pain perception than we know.

Skin cancer

Being outside and enjoying the sunshine it is part of what makes being “up-north” so unique – a blessing for all of us who live here. However, that sun carries with it not only light we can see, but light we can’t see called infrared radiation (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) radiation.