I had a stomach so huge it looked like I was pregnant. I was also plus size, so the doc told me I needed to loose weight and that all my other symptoms were caused by my weight. Few months later I was in extreme pain and felt extreamly bloated, so I went to the ER clinic. They said I had a bladder infection and gave me antibotics even though I didn't have symptoms and the urine sample came out negative. The pain went away and a month later, it came back full force with vomiting. Went to Er and they told me it was the stomach flu even though I felt this same pain before a few months ago and I only felt it on my left side. Pain got worse and went back a few days later demanding test and they found a 40 pound ovarian cyst in my whole abdominal cavity and my felopian tube was black and dying. Had to get emergency surgery and all the issues the first doc said was due to being over weight were gone.
The doctor's "defense" was probably that he sees so many patients and 95% of those other patients are just fatty and there's nothing else wrong with them, how was he supposed to know you were different? Of course his loser self diagnosed those other patients as "just fat" and they probably all have issues contributing to their weight gain.
Twelve years ago my parents took me to the doctor because I kept complaining about headaches. The doctor was certain that I was trying to get attention. Eventually, we saw a new doctor who officially diagnosed me with chronic migraine syndrome. My parents apologized for acting like I was being overdramatic and I've been dealing with it for the last 12 years.
My father had halo migraines in early to mid 30’s. So he got about 30 minutes in warning. After several years they went to none. I reached the same age and migraines started pouncing. But, some were already in progress and wake me up, some were triggered by smelling tobacco smoke, some had a series of muscles tensing up from my neck, over my head and to above my eyes… about one in five was a halo. Me crammed into a recliner with half a dozen quart baggies and washcloths and towels to hold them in place and me finally asleep-bliss was a baggie of ice. When Imitrex came out that was a godsend. They were giving me T-10’s (T-8’s and T10’s are no longer made, I would like to find out how much codeine was in them) which gave benign hallucinations and cut the migraines from four days to 4-24 hours. I can still trigger a force-10 instant one that puts me into shock and a few minutes max to get painkillers swallowed and lie down before I pass out.
Ugh, migraines are awful. I once told my sister that if I had the energy to cry I would. I have thick curtains to block out the sun. Emgality has helped so much. I hope you all have better days ahead.
Last year, I felt slightly off. I felt a bit uncomfortable trying to take a nap with my my toddlers, I woke up in ungodly pain and I straight up Exorcist projectile vomited. I was suddenly freezing and hurt all over. I called 911 because I didn’t feel safe to drive and I had two toddlers (single mom). The EMTs who showed up spent their visit forcefully talking me out of going to the hospital saying it was just virus and then push me to sign a paper that says if I die they can’t be sued. That night my skin became grey and I no matter how long I spent in a hot bath I just couldn’t warm up and get any color back. The next day after the older of my 2 went to school and I took the youngest to daycare I managed to drive myself to the ER. Figured it would be nothing serious. I explained my symptoms and their seemingly sudden symptoms. They took blood and started an IV. Suddenly I had both attending physicians on duty in my room absolutely flabbergasted that I had driven myself in and been able to function. They told me I had almost 0 kidney function and if I hadn’t come in I would have died because I had a severe bacterial infection in both of my kidneys. I was immediately hospitalized for a week of IV antibiotics. So fk those EMTs
@@Agender_Potato oh yeah, I told both of the physicians on staff that day. They were flabbergasted because they said if I had not been able to get myself there or listened and kept trying to sleep it off that day I would’ve died.
I know not all EMTs are bad. I just don’t know the names of them. I have mat amazing ones and know that they save lives every day. Those guys were dismissive ass hats.
Not really a misdiagnosis but rather a lack of professionalism. A few years ago my mother went to the hospital for an ear infection, and she still wasn't taken in after hours of waiting. So instead my father drove her to the next major hospital and she was taken in instantly. Turns out she was hours away from losing hearing on said ear. And a few years prior, same hospital, she goes in for an incarnated toenail, tells the doctors that her body being pretty resistant to anesthesia she needs more than the average does, but because she has dreadlocks they took her for a junkie just trying to get high on meds. The painful scream convinced them otherwise.
This will seem like an odd question but is or was she ever "double jointed"? Im not a Dr. I have a genetic connective tissue disorder called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. It usually makes people flexible (but not always). There is no such thing as double jointed. It's a connective tissue disorder every time. Unfortunately EDS also makes anesthesia less effective. EDS can be life threatening depending on the type (there are 13)
@@kryw10look at my other comment please. Especially if you are or ever were "double jointed" bc there is no such thing as double jointed. It's a connective tissue disorder every time and can be life threatening depending on type. Anesthesia affects people with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome less. I am not a dr. I have EDS.
I had 4 impacted wisdom teeth. We were able to get in with a surgeon before they started bothering me, but they also didn't put me completely under the first time. They didn't do a lot of testing how conscious or pain resistant I was before they started trying to break and pull chunks of my teeth out of my head. I think I remember saying I was still awake before they started, but I was ignored until I started screaming. My second surgery was a much better experience. It was also a mouth surgery, a gum graft (taking a slab off the roof of my mouth to fill out my very thin lower gums). I was still a little aware, but I felt no pain this time. One of my favorite songs came over the speakers. Apparently everyone in the room got a kick out of me humming along.
Had doctors for years tell me that I just had depression and anxiety. Two failed kidneys and permanently being on dialysis later and it turns out I have Lupus Nephritis. Most doctors don't listen, want an easy fix, and won't do the testing needed to rule out serious causes. In the US they get paid the same as if they'd put in more work, and don't have to deal with insurance companies as much if they just brush patients off. Laws protecting them have been passed to the point it's nearly impossible for most patients to hold a bad doctor or hospital accountable, because people bought into the "Lawsuits are out of control" narrative. The chance of bad medical experiences increases with each marginalized identity a person has. Some doctors are still being taught that women don't feel pain the same way as men, and that black people don't feel as much pain and are prone to exaggerating symptoms. The marginalized identities also include if you're disabled. So people with chronic health issues, the people who need to see doctors the most, often are treated more poorly than the average patient by a good section of doctors. Many doctors also have an ego about things they don't know, so if s patient has something they don't understand they'll come up with bullshit rather than helping the patient find someone who does understand what's going on. Good doctors are worth their weight in gold because you have to wade through such crappy ones to find them. I'm looking for a new primary care right now because mine decided it was appropriate to try and remove stitches with no local anesthesia, no disinfectant, no gloves, and no mask. I essentially don't have a working immune system anymore. When I pointed out "Should we clean the site with alcohol or something first" he said "Oh yeah probably". When I asked him to wear gloves he said "Sure I can do that." As if it isn't the default to use gloves when interacting with a patients open wounds.
For people with healthy immune systems suture removal requires nothing but some snips and either fingers or forceps and no local; lots of people do it themselves. No pain worse than stinging, if anything. Still, your doc should've thought about the state of your health first.
@@thepinkestpigglet7529 Stitches are an infection risk, so the policy around here is to remove them after a couple weeks. Also so they don't end up harder to remove. They should have stayed in an extra week though because I'm a slow healer which didn't help the situation. The specific wound I had, the skin also ended up dying anyway so the stitches only kept it in place for the first couple of weeks, and after that I've been seeing wound care for it. It's still a little bit open, and I've been seeing them since January. You can't leave stitches in for 6 months safely.
My mom got pregnant when she was in her 40's and everything was fine, until around month 3 or 4 of her pregnancy. Her doctor told her the fetus wasn't growing properly and she should just abort it because she was clearly too old to be pregnant. She dropped that doctor and got another one. She did deliver my little sister a month early, but both of them were fine. The reason my sister wasn't growing properly in utero? Cancer. My mom had ovarian cancer and it was basically leeching off of my sister. My mom died from it after three years of battling it. Maybe if the first doctor had actually looked into why a fetus wasn't growing properly, instead of just assuming it was because my mom was over 25, maybe they could've gotten to the cancer earlier.
@@Allantitan At least I got to say good bye and I love you to her one last time, as knowing what I know now, I might've missed that if I had made a couple different choices. But yes, one more hug would be a great thing.
@@labyrinthgirl17 i have a grandfather who died of lung cancer when I was 15 that I’d love to go back and hug one more time especially since at the time I was a selfish teen who couldn’t be bothered to spend more time with him
Patient speaking: When I was eleven I had heavy menstrual cycles lasting two weeks… then eventually the whole month. Think three weeks “shark week” with only one week to have a break from the bleeding. I told my family and my doctor about it and everyone assumed I was irregular and said I'd grow out of it eventually due to being petite. However, over the years (yes, years!) the bleeding only worsened to the point where I bled for two months straight and my health declined rapidly at fourteen. I was constantly nauseous, tired, pale and looked hobbled over in pain. After a trip to the family doctor, they did detect a lump in my lower quadrant and assumed it was constipation on top of the stress at the time we had as a family. I half-heartedly agreed to try keeping a healthy diet and relax despite my constant nausea. Everything was alright until I collapsed and was sent to our family doctor again only for her to make a horrid discovery after she looked over my abdomen again. After a trip to the OB/GYN and an MRI scan they found a tumour half the size of a football in my abdomen that was pressing against my stomach and slowly starving me to death. My body was fighting like hell but didn't have the strength to keep the tumour from growing. Unfortunately, they couldn't save my ovary due to it being part of the tumour and my parents and family doctor felt guilty for not catching the tumour in time. The bright side is the tumour was benign, I'm healthy with a regular menstrual cycle. To this day we don't know when the tumour began forming but we all theorise that it started as a cyst and just simply grew out of control. Ladies, please take this as a lesson to get checked and if you notice something isn't right, get a second opinion! Don't wait days, weeks or even years like we did to get help.
@@Allantitan A good tip is that if you're going for a third opinion, try to find a specialist who's an expert in something specific to your condition. If you have a suspicion about what's wrong with you, look for an expert in that condition, otherwise an expert in your symptoms or the area of the body involved, or something that seems similar to what you have because they'll likely have high knowledge of similar conditions as part of being an expert (e.g. for excessive bleeding, look for an endometriosis expert because they'll likely know what can mimic endometriosis, which commonly has excessive periods as a symptom). Get a name and bring that name to your doctor to ask for a referral. I have a skin condition that takes on average 7 years to diagnose and was diagnosed in my first appointment with my dermatologist because I figured out what I probably had and found an expert in that condition. I'm in treatment now and in a few years, if things go well, I should be totally cured of it.
My mother was misdiagnosed by 2 physicians. It took a PA to guess she had glaucoma. He walked her over to the ophthalmologist, who tested and diagnosed her correctly. She had laser surgery the next day. She was days away from permanent blindness.
If her pressure was close to blindness it was probably near 40. That's blindness. And laser surgery cannot fix that dangerously high pressure. It takes a completely different type of invasive eye surgery to reduce that pressure.
I was an alcoholic from mid 2016 to March 2019, and was in and out of hospitals for acute pancreatitis. One ER trip, a doctor declined to admit me, despite me being in severe pain. The attending didn't bother with any kind of test beyond a blood draw. I went to a different hospital immediately after discharging, and was admitted almost an hour later. All the textbook markers were off the charts.
Kudos on your recovery from alcohol abuse. My ex had a similar story- heavy drinker for years and developed pancreatitis. However he still wouldn’t stop drinking, he passes away at about 40 yers old. Take care of yourself! We only have 1 pancreas
And when you have dependency issues of any kind, every ailment is suddenly due to it or you’re just faking for pills. Ive seen this from close up, even doctors can have weird biases about medical matters. My friend nearly died of infection in her uterus, before she got help, even then it was kinda cruel and dismissive. Another had a brain bleed, he would’ve fared better, if he would’ve gotten help the first time. Major props for sobering up, hardest battle of your life!
If there’s one bit of advice I will agree with doctors on, it’s your body you know it, so if anything feels off and they dismiss it argue with them till they finally look.
@@jayewrite1256 Tried that one time. Just kept getting hand waived and passed along. Luckily the pain hadn't hit "punch a hole thru brick" bad by then. It's likely I was admitted within a week after that.
@@aubreymorgan9763 Addiction is something I'd only wish on my worst enemies. As much as we know we need to change, it's hard to leave certain things behind.
I started getting headaches when I was about 15, Doctor said to take Tylenol. I started getting menstrual issues (severe cramping, bleeding for weeks) when I was 18, Doctor told me to take mydol and advil. Started having bowel issues in my 20’s, was put on stool softeners. Started having heart issues, started a special diet. Started getting migraines and diarrhea and vertigo. Was told the problems “all in my head”. Got a new doctor (insurance change), they did bloodwork. Turns out it was all in my head…I have a brain tumor on my pituitary gland. This gland is a part of your endocrine system. The endocrine system ( hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid, and adrenal gland) all release hormones into your body that not only deal with your emotions but tell your organs how to function. My organs have been slowly shutting down. Since this discovery we’ve treated it with medication, surgery and radiation. But unfortunately, it will keep coming back until I am dead. I have no pituitary gland left, my adrenal gland is dead, my thyroid gland is dying but my hypothalamus is still functioning. Thanks to this tumor I have right brain damage, epilepsy, bouts of dementia, peripheral blindness, vertigo, thyroid growths (forget the proper term), enlarged liver (I don’t drink), UV allergy, hyper acidic stomach, ulcers (the hormone the pituitary releases deals with stress, so I can’t), severe anxiety, nausea, diabetes, major depression (honestly are you surprised?), lymphocytic colitis (autoimmune disorder where stress causes my body to attack itself), infertility (probably a blessing at this point) and anemia. I’m 45 and I’ve been in a hospital bed for three years now…all because no one would listen to a teenage kid complaining that their head hurts really bad.
Friend's son was sick, went to the ER and they diagnosed him with leukemia. We all went into a frenzy, crying, freaking out, etc. A few days later they walk into the oncologists office and he grabs the ER report and starts turning it upside down, sideways, whichever while scratching his head then said, I'm not sure what med school that doctor attended, but your son has an INFECTION, not freaking cancer, here's some antibiotics, he should be fine in a week. Another friend's teen daughter was having numbness on her left side, ER doc said she's fat and to lose weight. A week later the numbness came back accompanied by slurred speech. CT scan and they're like oh, you have a brain tumor, another doctor thankfully walked by, saw the scan and started yelling that it was not a tumor, she was having a stroke! She was immediately airlifted to the children's hospital. My ex's uncle went for shortness of breath, they said it was asthma, here's an inhaler. He dropped dead a week later from a heart attack (dead before he hit the floor). I moved away from my hometown and if there's one thing I don't miss, it's the absolutely horrible healthcare there.
The 1st story is very similar to what happened to my mom about 20 years ago. My mom was told by a doctor that she had pneumonia. My mom's sister was a doctor in a different state and she thought something was off about the symptoms, so she flew out and took my mom to see other doctors and it turned out to be lymphoma (cancer). My mom was treated and recovered, but she might not have survived if not for her sister.
A previous GP saw that my heart rate was high during a routine checkup and thought it was due to my ADHD meds interacting with my anxiety meds, she told me to half my dosage of my anxiety meds. That was an absolutely awful week, my psych raised my meds back up and started looking at new GPs after she refused to treat a separate issue. New insurance meant going to a new practice, I went in due to heat intolerance and excessive sweating. I would sweat buckets after only unloading the dishwasher and it was very dysregulating as an autistic person. Got seen by an assistant physician, who gave basically prescription strength anti-perspirant to me. Didn’t work in treating the heat intolerance so the AP tried a medication that would dry me out and would maybe treat the heat intolerance; it did not. Went to the naturopath for a second opinion, she noticed my heart rate and with the symptoms I had suggested POTS. A cardiology referral and tests later I was diagnosed with something similar: inappropriate sinus tachycardia. Basically my heart rate was high 24/7 for no reason and just small amount of physical activity would work me up into a sweat because my heart was working hard already. Now I’m on meds that will lower my heart rate and have not experienced any of those awful symptoms since, just in time for the incoming summer too! Now I plan to switch to my mom’s awesome GP.
Google Ehlers Danlos Syndrome especially if you are or were ever "double jointed" because there's no such thing. It's a connective tissue disorder every time. ND people have a higher chance of having it. Im not a Dr. I am Autistic with ADHD and I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.
women in general, and women of color specifically, are often dismissed and ignored as "hysteria". their pain, symptoms, and reports are often dismissed. If your doctor won't look at you, they cannot diagnose you. don't leave until they look at whatever it is. and if you still doubt them, find someone else.
Yeah. They used to say hysteria, now they say it's stress, anxiety, depression, (all of which are legitimate diagnosis by the way, but should not be thrown at every woman with any symptoms), or even worse, "sometimes women are just emotional". Treatment of women in the medical field needs some serious work. It's not just male doctors either. Women doctors are often no better than the men when it comes to dismissal of women's symptoms.
Ive been super sleepy for 14 years, I cant even count how many doctors have said “well, everybody is little tired sometimes”. I think Im beyond little tired by now, but ok. I also had a lady doc, who simply refused to treat me for depression, back pain (turned out to be infection), knee pain (turned out to be tears in my patella) and uterus related stuff. It got so bad, another doc intervened and made a complaint, she got removed after years of not treating young girls. I wasn’t the only one, it turns out.
I was in the ER about a year ago. They were remodeling so all treatment was done in waiting rooms and hallways (total chaos) and there was a young black woman in a wheelchair with an IV. The IV wasn't moving. She kept trying to get someone's attention to tell them it wasn't working, and they would tap it a few times and just tell her it was working. I was sitting across from her and I could see for myself it wasn't moving at all. There was another young black woman they started screaming at because she wouldn't sit where they wanted her to and an older black lady sitting next to me, who was still sitting there five hours later when I was being discharged. I felt so bad for all of them.
Men are treated way worse, I had a pancreas illness and 1st time they kept accusing me of being a alcoholic but I literally don't even touch alcohol ever, never,
My mother is black and once she was in excruciating pain, i thought It could be kidney stones because from what i read about It in life her simptons matched that, but well, i'm no doctor. The doctor first guess was a STD. My mother was around 55, had been a teacher for 30 years, only ever had been with my father, who, by the way, was bed ridden for nearly 10 years (so no sex for them in that time). Like, i researched the desease he suggested, It was something not common and a STD. I imediatly knew that my mother didn't had that and suspected he assume that diagnostic because he was dealing with a black woman. They did some tests. Guess what, she had stones in her urinary canal, something quite close to kidney stones. I didn't knew shit about medicine but had a better idea than the doctor.
Went to a doctor when i was 16yrs old for severe abdominal pain, weight loss, diarrhea and blood loss from my back end. They asked me really personal questions and i was honest. They asked how adventurous i was with putting stuff in my body through the back end.. I was honest, never done anything like that. They did a scope, a rather uncomfortable impromptu scope up my back end and saw tons of inflammation, blood, ulcers, scar tissue.. then they sent me home telling me to stop shoving stuff up there. I argued that i didn’t do anything like that, they still sent me home with a “receipt” for my visit advising me to stop putting stuff up there. No medications, no referrals to other doctors, they just figured i was lying. Took 1-2 years but i finally got a diagnosis after i saw a specialist and was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. I still live with it to this day but at least i have treatment and finally put it into remission. I’ll never forget how that doctor completely ignored what i said and made his own conclusions.
Ulcerative Colitis SUCKSSS, my local GP (who granted, has pretty much the WORST reputation in my county but we had to go to as it merged with our old good one) called it "anxiety" for around three years, even AFTER they had stool samples from me that looked like pure liquid disease with the amount of blood and mucus in there. Come in a second time, barely able to move, and there was some kind of temporary staff there who took one look at me and said I had to go straight to the hospital. Yeah, it was UC. I was resistant to every medication and after a scope revealed my colon was extremely close to perforating, I had surgery to get it out. I was FIFTEEN when I started having symptoms, and had the surgery when I was EIGHTEEN. Perhaps if the GP had taken me seriously, I would have never been gotten so bad. Oh, and I just glossed over the whole "they gave me so many steroids after my surgery I went into psychosis and had to spend a few weeks in a psych ward" bit, that wasn't fun either. I'm twenty now, it's been a lot to get used to but I'm doing okay.
Ftr: the appendix does have a function; it's a repository of gut bacteria and keeps the large intestine functioning correct. People with my genetic condition have reported gastroparesis episodes get worse after appendectomy. So it's actually untrue (And quite obsolete) data that the appendix doesn't do anything.
To add onto this, since he was also asking about the gallbladder, the function of the gallbladder is to store and secrete the bile produced by the liver, which is used to help digest fats. People who have undergone gallbladder surgery usually have to avoid fatty foods. It won't kill them or anything extreme, but ingesting a lot of fats can result in them having some issues coming out of the other end.
There is no part of our body that has no function, I always thought that was bullshit even when I was in junior high and they told us the Appendix has no function.
@@asssalt7347Yep, as someone who had their gall bladder removed, if I'm not careful with some fatty or oily foods, I can spend up to an hour on the bog. It is not the most pleasant thing in the world either.
We also know that the tonsils are important for immune health as well. My niece had her tonsils removed, but she had to have strep throat 3 or 4 times winter before last, and bad cases too, before they'd remove them. It's funny that I'm not that old and in the course of my life, all of those so called "useless" organs actually have pretty important functions. You just have to pay attention and collect some data.
After experiencing joint pain and my hands going numb I went to my primary care doctor to see if I could get a referral to a specialist (neurologist) and she told me to lose weight, so that's exactly what I do and symptoms got worse. 5 months later I'm seeing a physical therapist (I was recommended to via a spine and pain specialist whom I was recommended to by a neurologist) because I'm now using a cane, experiencing seizures, POTS like symptoms, general leg weakness and more joint pain and now back pain- I tell my physical therapist that my now former primary care doctor told me to lose weight and after attempting to things got significantly worse. He laughed and said that he's heard similar stories from that place. A year later, I'm still experiencing the symptoms plus gut issues and we still have no idea what is wrong with me lol. I love that physical therapist though, he's the only doctor who admitted he had no idea what was wrong with me and didn't want to keep me in physical therapy if I was going to experience more weakness and pain.
Have you considered Ehlers Danlos Syndrome or something autoimmune related? Joint pain, pots like symptoms and general weakness and pain is what is making me think it might be EDS
@@sachikawaii Honestly I've suspected that for a couple years because of a couple of small symptoms I've always had, but recently I've become convinced I do have EDS. I've thought about getting the test done for it but my neurologist has talked me out of it multiple times. Today I actually scheduled an appointment with my primary care doctor for a generics test for it though haha. I feel kind of crazy because I would Google my symptoms and EDS would pop up a lot. EDS is the only thing I have looked into and have had every symptom of, I just feel a little crazy telling my doctors that because they pretty much always tell me I am too young and that's too rare.
@@anonuser1279 EDS is a genetic condition from birth. If they're telling you you're too young they're stupid. It is very rare but definitely exists and causes real symptoms. Don't let them talk you out of investigating it, even if it's not that, you've ruled it out. You've got this love!!! I was diagnosed with EDS at 18 or so after I dislocated my knee getting out of bed and suddenly my whole life of pain, nausea, anxiety and depression etc all made sense. ❤️
Sounds like textbook EDS. Not all forms of EDS come up in blood tests. Ask for a referral to rheumatology or a geneticist, but rheumatology is usually faster. your GP cannot diagnose it, it has to be by a rheumatologist or geneticist. There's no cure, but OT and orthotics will be the best thing in your life. Orthotics are the ones that figured out my hip subluxing all the time was because I have almost an inch length difference in my legs. 3D printed insoles to correct it, combined with ankle braces, and I don't need a cane, because I'm not unstable when standing any more, and it doesn't feel like I'm a walking marionette! The POTS is still a problem, and it was worse after losing weight.
When I was 13 I was on an antibiotic for acne, and about a month after I started taking it, I started feeling really itchy and noticing some bumps all over my arms and chest, I immediately thought "huh, what if I'm allergic to that antibiotic" so I went to my dad, a doctor, to see what he thought. He said, "man, looks like you got a family of mosquitos in your room" and told me to put some hydrocortisone cream on it for the itching, and then he left me, with my older sister watching me, to go to dinner with his girlfriend. While he was gone, the itching was getting worse and worse and the bumps were getting larger and redder, so I went to my sister to complain, she took one look at my arms and instantly knew they were hives and called my dad. He came home and apologized for not realizing it and not taking me seriously, but still didn't take me to the hospital and instead watched me over night himself. By the morning I was 100x worse, hives were so big, red, and painfully itchy and my hands and feet were swollen to the size of baseball mitts, and my dad's girlfriend finally convinced him to take me to the ER. Turns out I was exactly right and was in a full blown anaphylactic reaction that was so bad it sent me to the ER twice in two days.
Jesus...the problem with allergic reactions is that they need to be treated asap! The longer you're suffering the worse off you are because all that histamine doesn't just disappear. Your body has to process it. Do you want to process a teaspoon or a gallon? That's how I explain it anyway. Same with pain. Treat it early, treat it seriously. I have chronic pain and sometimes I just forget something is hurting me until it's not anymore. During a migraine I might be walking around the house with the lights turned on, squinting, shielding my eyes, and apparently looking very uncomfortable, and my dad comes in and says, "What are you doing with the lights on? Lemmie turn that off!" Then a wave of relief. Thankfully for me the one thing my nurse mother took seriously was hives from medication. The one I hated most was, one year I went as a dalmatian, painted a big black spot around my eye with a greasepaint crayon from one of those cheap Halloween makeup kits. By the time I got to school the next day it was hot, red, and getting itchy. Went to the nurse and had to call my mom for her to bring me pills or cream. It was getting pretty bad and I was begging her to bring some during her lunch break. She was literally a 5 min drive away at one of the other schools. She refused. I went the rest of the day like that. Got home, alone, took some Benadryl and fell asleep. When she got home she woke me up and legit YELLED AT ME! It had already gone down by half and she was losing her crap over it, "Why didn't you tell me it was this bad?!" Uh, yeah. I tried, my school nurse tried, but in her mind I'm perpetually an attention seeking faker, so I was clearly fine regardless of what I said. Yup. Absolutely my fault for not being more insistent. 🙄
@@jamieweatherwalk2752Oh God the SJS is so awful! Thankfully I've never been through it but I take a few meds that have sjs warnings. My bipolar medication is pretty well known for sjs problems, but it's the one that works, and I've tried so many things that haven't... With a Bactrim allergy, especially a serious one, you should probably be checked for a sulfa allergy if you haven't been already. Sulfa drug allergies are rough and while they're used less these days they still work well for certain things.
When I was a newborn I would frequently get pale and limp and very weak and fussy and wouldn't nurse, my mom saw several doctors who all told her different things, I had an ear infection, I had the flu, etc. Finally a doctor who actually paid attention realized I kept going into tachycardia, and I had to be kept on heart meds until I was in middle school before I outgrew the tachycardia and stopped getting it.
I had a friend who in the summer of 2019 started experiencing pain in her body. And was told by many doctors that it was a myriad of things from sciatica, muscle disorder, joint disorder, bone disorders, all the way to drug seeking. It took her waking up one morning literally paralyzed for someone to take her seriously. She was later that month diagnosed with Stage IV Ewing Sarcoma. It was already in her hip, femur, and spine. It had eaten so much of her bones, she had to get metal rods put in to allow her to move again. Took 6 months for someone to take her seriously. She died on May 22nd 2022, a month before her 27th birthday. Leaving her two young daughters (9 and 5), her parents, sisters, niece and nephew, many extended family, and her friends. She was initially given 6 months…. And lasted nearly 2.5 years. I miss her beyond words, and we’re coming up to the 2 year anniversary of her passing next month. Time keeps on marching on… but it hasn’t been the same without her. There has just been so much I’ve wanted to talk to her about since she died… and I can’t. I lost one of my best friends…. All because a bunch of doctors couldn’t take her complaints seriously. There’s now a hole in my heart, that will never heal.
My mother kept complaining of dizziness, migraines, and lack of coordination. Doctor had to be pestered into giving her an MRI or Catscan, not sure which. He told her there was nothing and that it was probably "all in her head". He hinted my mother was just being dramatic and whenever she would tell him the medication he was giving her wasn't working, he would get angry and tell her to get her primary physician to give her something. Fast forward a year, and mom gets another MRI/Catscan because insurance demands it for her to continue with this doctor (neurologist) three days later, mom gets a frantic call from neurologist's partner. Tells her to come in and informs mom that her original test had not even been looked at by the original doctor. How do we know? Because my mother had a brain tumor the size of a lemon and nobody told her. The only reason they found it with the second test was because mom had been getting chemo for stomach cancer and the tumor had shrunk which was making the dizziness and migraines worse because the empty space was filling with cerebrospinal fluid and throwing her off balance and the tumor had been growing around nerves at the base of her brain that were impinged, hence the migraines.
About a month and a half ago I developed abdominal pain, and the doctor in the ER was SUPER prompt in figuring out my gallbladder was causing a problem. A week later I got surgery before the infection spread too far. I’m so thankful they figured it out fast, sounds like gallbladder gets misdiagnosed a lot!
The gallbladder's job is to store bile, which is made by the liver, and is used to aid in digestion. Bile is that gross yellow-green stuff that you puke up when you're vomiting on an empty stomach. You can live without your gallbladder and you won't need medication afterward, generally speaking, because the liver will continue to make bile whether it has the extra storage space or not. Some people struggle with eating foods that cause higher bile release, like fatty foods, after gallbladder removal. I had mine out 11 years ago because I was in and out of the hospital, super sick to my stomach, for like a year and a half and I've had no ill effects from the removal other than a little bile reflux but that is because I have severe acid reflux(GERD). By severe I mean despite the pill I take having a 40mg/day max, I have to take 80mg/day.
9:30 perhaps doctors ought to start explaining the difference between infertile and sterile/what they mean. I’ve seen waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many stories were just knowing the 2 terms and what they mean would have been a literal and/or metaphorical lifesaver. Infertile: makes conception a lot harder/less likely, but never IMPOSSIBLE. Treatments may or may not make things easier, but will cost A LOT of money. No matter how low the odds, infertile never means 0% chance of conceiving. If an infertile person absolutely does not want to have a kid or get pregnant, they should still take all the same precautions they would if they weren’t infertile. Because the chance is never 0, even with both parties being infertile with as low of odds as possible, it’s still NEVER 0. Sterile: completely incapable of conceiving. Sterile=you cannot have a kid that is biologically yours, full stop. Sterile means there is absolutely no chance. Not even the slimmest of slim. It means absolute impossibility. It’s also very rare to be completely sterile naturally, and a lot of surgical and medical forms of sterilization can reverse themselves. But if you are naturally sterile (i.e. were not made sterile but just are sterile) then there’s nothing to be done for it. Whether that is good news or awful news is entirely up to the individual. TL;DR infertile=low but nonzero fertility. Conception possible. Sterile=zero fertility. Conception impossible. This needs to be something people are taught.
Note how many of these are woman... I got kicked by a horse in the stomach. The ER doc refused to believe it could be anything other then pregnancy. 16 pregnancy tests later and it wasnt until i went septic that he decided to maybe address the chief complaint. Turns out i had torn my intestines from the force of being kicked by a 1500lb+ animal and needed surgery.
Wow, kicked by a horse and the problem wasn't that you're pregnant? How odd. I don't know... did you have a pregnancy test? Because usually being kicked in the stomach by a horse causes pregnancy.
I had chronic issues with my period from the very beginning at age 11. I would bleed an absurd amount and had horrific pain almost every month, like so bad I would get cold sweats, throw up, and pass out. Even ovulation was painful and for most people they don't even feel it. Doctors had me try birth control which ended up giving me a pulmonary embolism at 19 which is a whole other ridiculous story. I tried non-estrogen based ones that didn't help and even made things worse. Then I began bleeding nonstop all day every day. Sometimes I would spontaneously hemorrhage for about 30 minutes. It was so bad that I would soak through the most absorbent tampon and pad combined in 3-5 minutes. So I would just have to sit on the toilet for those 30 minutes until it passed. This happened about 1-2 times per month in addition to the standard amount of period bleeding the rest of the time. This went on for three years before I was finally referred to a specialist. He immediately did a hysteroscopy and found that I not only had polyps in my uterus but it, along with my cervix and fallopian tubes, we COVERED in endometriosis. That absolutely explained the heavy bleeding and the insane period and ovulation pain. So off to hysterectomy I go, happily. that was a few years ago and my life has improved drastically. I spent most of my life extremely anemic and in tons of pain because no doctor would listen to me. They all thought I was exaggerating. It literally required something they could physically see, ie the nonstop bleeding, for someone to believe me. By the way the specialist was incredible and if anyone is in need of a hysterectomy and is struggling to get one I'll give you his info. He was the one who suggested it in the first place. I didn't have to beg and plead like so many are forced to do.
I’ve read a story about a New Zealand woman who had a c-section, spent the next 18 months in severe abdominal pain, before finally the doctors stopped doing X-rays and did a CT scan of her abdomen, where they found that they had left a DINNER PLATE SIZED MEDICAL INSTRUMENT INSIDE OF HER from when they did the c-section. FOR EIGHTEEN MONTHS. It was made of plastic, hence not showing up on the x-rays.
I was injured at work, right hand, had 3 puncture wounds in my palm. Massive infection just a few mm away from the bone and joint. Had 2 surgeries to try and fix the lack of movement and pain. Was showing many signs of CRPS. Spoke to my first pain specialist, gp, OT, physio and hand therapist, they all dismissed me. 9 months later i demand to see a different doctor as I could barely function and my pain had been out of control for the whole year. Second pain specialist diagnosed me with CRPS within 15 minutes (incurable and progressive disease of the nervous system). My crps caused me to develop 4 other incurable diseases of the nervous system and I’ve now had to medically retire at 28. My fiance has become my full time caregiver and I can still barely function. If my first pain specialist took me seriously, I would have had 70% chance of remission. Because it took so long to get the diagnosis and start treatment, I now have only a 5% chance of remission and will require spinal surgery to implant a spinal cord stimulator to try and reduce my pain. My function will never improve and eventually I’ll have CRPS full body as well as potentially have it in organs.
Patient here. For 2-3 years I had a thing where I basically had my period all the time - the usual number of days a month plus the rest of the time gross bloody sludge. It was gross and I was anemic. Had to give up donating blood because they wouldn’t accept me with my levels. Even iron supplements and food didn’t help since I was freaking bleeding every day. I was in my late 20s and while not sexually active, knew I ought to make a regular OBGYN appt. For exam and then also to ask about the problem So I found a doctor nearby and he asked me some questions. I told him about this nonstop bleeding I was having, and he was like “huh.” Then followed up, asking me if I was trying to get pregnant? I said no. I am asexual so I don’t even have sex. And then he tells me since I’m not trying to get pregnant, there’s no reason I should even care about my period, whether it’s coming or not coming. I accepted this and put up with it for I think at least another year. I saw the guy again and he said the same thing. Finally, I got another doctor and during our first appointment I told her my issue. She immediately told me “we can do something about that, no problem.” She told me it was unacceptable to say that wasn’t an issue. I had to go on birth control for like a year just to get my hormone straightened out. It sucks that so many obstetricians and gynecologist have this attitude that all their care is based around pregnancy, and that women who aren’t pregnant and don’t want to be are second-class citizens. (Before someone says this is a man versus woman doctor thing, throughout my life I have preferred male OV/GYNs and male doctors generally. In this case one was just a jerk, and the other had empathy and practiced holistically.)
I was having trouble with my joints swelling, and the pain was terrible. My doctor was going away for a month and had another doctor cover for him. The doctor, with only looking at me, told me I had an acute lupus. He put me on a high dose of steroids. I told him that I didn't want to take steroids because I know I'll gain weight. He told me that he was giving me a new steroid that doesn't cause weight gain. I called BS, but figured I had no choice. Three months later the swelling and pain was still there. I was able to get in to see my own doctor. When I told him what I was diagnosed with and the steroids I was taking, he slammed his hand down on the table. He had me get X-rays. Turns out I have osteoarthritis. And yeah, I gained weight that I have trouble keeping off.
My mom had a septic infection on her finger. I saw it and as it was a holiday and her doctors office was closed, i told her to go to the hospital. Even the receptionist nurse at the hospital saw it and said, yes, that's a sepsis, the incompetent docter gave her some ointment to put her finger into and nothing else. Two days later my mom went to her usual doctor who immediately sent her to the ER while calling the incompetent hospital doctor to berate him. Long story short, my mom now has one finger less, as it had to be cut off due to necrosis to the bone. Tbf she has diabetes and polyneuropathic nerve damage, so she didn't have any real pain.
I almost died when I was 10 due to anemia. I was born with an intersex condition, and it caused me to undergo precocious puberty(basically early puberty, started at 8 years old instead of a much healthier 12 or 13), my condition causes me to bleed excessively to the point of anemia when I menstruate. I was pale, delirious, and in so much pain I couldn't breathe without it feeling like I was being stabbed. The first doctor my parents took me to insisted that I was drug-seeking, and being dramatic "as all children are". By the time my parents were able to get me to a second hospital, I was unconscious and my brain was at risk of dying from all the blood I'd lost. The severity of my menstruation anemia has gone down, thankfully, but it still causes me to black out and puts me out of commission for a week. Still trying to get the uterus yeeted do I don't bleed anymore, but despite getting 22 second opinions, doctors refuse to give me a hysterectomy. Doctors are fun /s
Def relate to one of these. Woke up one night with the worst pain of my life, 10/10, which being chronically ill as I am is saying something. I was ready to throw up and could barely walk, I equated the pain to what id imagine being shot in the chest felt like. The only thing that got me to walk was my parents asking if I needed an ambulance (hell no, we too broke for THAT). Got to the ER and was told it was a back sprain. I sprain my back practically every month, I know what that feels like, this wasn't it. Got meds and sent away, luckily it cleared up for a bit. Few days later it happened again and GP sent us to the hospital where we got rushed in so that I could have emergency surgery that night. Turns out i had stones getting stuck and so my gallbladder was trying to kill me. Got that sucker removed but can confirm that for an organ I didn't even know the name of before my issues, it does quite a bit of work.
Not a doctor, myself. My mother is overweight and as a result, her legs are discoloured around the shins. She's been to the GPs in her area of England and they just tell her that it's all weight-related without actually looking into it. We go on holiday in 2022 to Florida. Midway through the holiday, my mum starts feeling bad and stays in the villa with my dad. They go to a doctor there and they prescribe her woth some antibiotics, which seemed to clear up whatever was wrong. Towards the near end of the holiday, she feels worse after getting off a water boat ride. My sister's husband rushes her to the hospital where they performed tests. They diagnosed my mum with Cellulitis, which could have gotten fatal if ignored. Where our GPs had failed her, doctors in America actually made sure to check their patients. If it weren't for the hefty fucking bill that the American healthcare system gave her (and the insurance that's dragging their feet to pay to this day), I couldn't give them a higher amount of praise. Imagine how many more lives would be saved in the US if healthcare was universal.
Second story, happened years before to a friend of my brother. He was diagnosed with leukemia. As he went for chemotherapy, he wouldn't improve. By the time the doctors discovered what he actually had, it was already too late. He had TB and the chemo weakened his immune system enough to let it kill him. He was young - about early 20's at the time. I really hope the parents sued the doctors who misdiagnosed the kid.
In a car accident at 11, I was hit in the back and thrown against the 150lb diamond plate toolbox on my back because I was in the bed of a pickup truck. We were stopped, waiting to turn left and someone fucking with their phone hit us at 35mph. My doc did every test imaginable EXCEPT an MRI. It was concluded to be a "deep muscle bruise". 10 years later, I'm living in a different state and my new doc orders an MRI. Turns out I have a herniated disc, pressing my nerve roots against the canals they thread through, causing sciatic issues on the left side. But by the time this was figured out, insurance had already settled. I got about $1500 and a lifetime of pain. Oh, and why did the doc not do an MRI, you ask? He was "afraid [I'd] be clostrophobic". Mind you I'd had a bone scan, CT, and other "clostrophobic" imaging done as well as an MRI at 15 when I tore out the TFCC in my wrist in a rollerblading fall. 🙄🤦🏻♀️
In middle school, I got sent to the school nurse because my stomach hurt really badly. She decided it was obviously period cramps even though mine are never that bad and it was entirely the wrong time of month, and called my parents to take me home to rest. Next morning, I woke up in the most pain I've ever felt. My parents rushed me to the hospital, and it turns out I had appendicitis. I had to get surgery and spend weeks in the hospital, and I could've died if I'd gone undiagnosed another day or two. Mom then made it her life's work to get that school nurse fired. I don't know the details, but the nurse did end up retiring suspiciously abruptly a couple years later. I miss my mom. She was a badass.
I'm very obviously hypermobile. Like, my teachers in school could tell just by the way I walk and how my arms bend when I hold them out "straight" (they bend up at the elbows). Not only was I never formally diagnosed as a kid, but the doctor straight up lied to my mom and I and said "This is normal for kids, (he'll) grow out of it." Fast forward several years, I'm still hypermobile. Its starting to cause pretty gnarly health issues. I'm in pain every day, but I don't want pain meds because addiction runs in my family. My doctor thinks I might have a connective tissue disorder. It's infuriating because it's such an obvious and visible issue, and I could have avoided so much pain if I'd just gotten... literally any help for it.
I'm chronically ill. I have multiple disabilities. Especially with my heart. I start having chest pains, shortness of breath, dizziness, fatigue, the whole thing. This goes on constantly. For a long time. The school nurses constantly tell me it's probably just anxiety since my vitals are showing up fine. I have a literal lifelong history of heart problems. I was born with 6 major defects. I know when things are anxiety and when things are my heart. I'm constantly telling these nurses that I think there's something going on with my heart. They either tell me it's anxiety or try to treat me for my diabetes. Completely ignoring my history of heart problems. I go into the ER multiple times, I even have to ride in an ambulance at one point. The ER can't find anything wrong with me other than the symptoms I'm complaining about. These symptoms keep getting worse. I'm almost failing school because I'm physically unable to get to classes. I bring this up to my grandparents and they immediately get me set up to see my cardiologist. My cardiologist tells me I'm having two valve problems and he'll have to talk with the surgeons to see how severe things are. Meanwhile the school nurses finally acknowledge that maybe yeah it is my heart while also telling me it's still likely to be anxiety. My symptoms get so bad that I start using a wheelchair. I'm going to the hospital at least once per month. I'm still told it's anxiety. My cardiologist has already diagnosed me with having two heart valve problems currently. My symptoms continue getting worse. I already know it's my heart. I'm still told it's anxiety and panic attacks. Even when I quite literally collapse and start struggling to breathe and can't move. I finally got a heart cath this week. One of my valve problems is in the severe stage. I knew from the start I was having major heart problems. I probably need another heart surgery. Tl;dr: I have a literal lifelong history of heart problems and start experiencing worsening symptoms of heart issues. I'm constantly told it's anxiety. Turns out one of my heart problems is in the severe stage.
Clearing up potential misinformation: There are *so many* different kinds of birth controls that affect everyone differently. Some people have bad side effects from every form of birth control they try, and other people who have 0% risk of being pregnant are on birth control because they feel BETTER on it.
Ive been on birth control nearly 20 years now to treat cysts, I can’t say I’ve had a single side effect. There are many options and like my other medicine if you don’t feel right on it talk to dr about trying something else
My last gf had horrible blood clots and almost constant leg cramps during the night, but that stopped when she got different contraceptives. Current gf just gets bloated. Not 100% sure, but i think they used the same birth control pills
Everyone’s body is different too. Mine reacts badly to all birth control. This is likely at least partially due to having an autoimmune response to both my own and synthetic progesterone. There’s one or two I can take, chosen because they cause the least number of harmful side effects. Luckily though, people like me are unusual.
I wish they would change the name of birth control. The name is why people who dont do research have such a hatred of it. My mom refuses to let me on birth control even though my periods were extremely irregular at one point. She says it will make girls think its ok to have sex, as if women are not people with individual traits. A girl who wants to have sex will have sex, pill or not. Not to mention she knows I am not sexually active whatsoever, I dont even have a partner, so why it matters in my situation is beyond me. Birth control helps with acne, less painful periods, skin, and can prevent reproductive diseases. Once I am in charge of my own healthcare, I am probably going to go on birth control even after I have gotten a hysterectomy
When I was 26 I was told I had to have a heart transplant or a year to live. Went for a second opinion was told I didn’t need a transplant. To top it off that doctor sent me a bill for $1000 dollars I never paid him sent him a letter telling him if tried to take me to court for it. I would sue for millions. Never heard back from him.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It took me 24 years to get a proper diagnosis and only the fourth cardiologyst I went to could actually identify what I had. The second cardio literally told me all of my problems were in my head and if I started to hit the gym all of the guys would line up after me, which... was not what I needed to hear while constantly fainting.
My moms "minor throat infection" ended up being cancer. My "ignorance and antisocial behaviour"? Autism. My "Just growing pains"? Scoliosis that was now too bad to be helped. I dont trust doctors anymore.
Nor me. Severe scoliosis and very severe dystonia here. Doctors dismiss me with "so what, just accept that you are disabled and go into a nursing home", and threats to send me to psychologists if I don't just accept that I'm disabled. I was very active and doing sports until five years ago and am not even middle aged yet so excuse me for having asked for tests and treatment... which I never got by the way.
This happened around December, I was incredibly ill with a fever of 102 and a heart rate of 130, I went to urgent care and they told me it was anxiety. My parents didn't like that answer so they took me (I couldn't drive I was so sick) to another urgent care a few towns over. I had Covid and Strep throat. Two things that are not hard to test for in the slightest.
I gota dumb quick story to this. When I was 2 I was badly down sick. My parents took me to the hospital in bowmanville Ontario. ( I’m the 3ed out of 4 kids with older siblings so my parents weren’t exactly new parents ) the hospital basically told them I was find and was just sick with a flu that they were just scared new parents and what I was going through was normal for a 2 year old. But that dident sit right with my parents and on the way out of the hospital a friend of theirs that drove for a taxi company ( this was 1992 ) seen them and offered them a ride home. But even he noticed I dident look healthy and my parents explained to the driver they still thought something was wrong with me. So the cab driver drove us to the hospital in Oshawa Ontario. As soon as the dr seen me he said I had taken a massive heart attack.. at 2 years old.. gave me a catheter and I dident even flinch which showed how bad of a state I was in A 2 year old little boy getting a catheter and not even blinking from the pain?. Turns out I had suffered a massive heart attack. Obviously Oshawa hospital saved me cuz I’m here typing this now. But the negligence of the bowmanville hospital staff to just shove a 2 year old off as a simple cold or flu that nothing was to worry about. That the parents were just over worried. When in fact I was suffering a heart attack right in front of the hospital staff. It’s not a really a second opinion story.. but I guess it can fall under this
In 2018 I started having weird episodes of double vision. They weren't common then so I didn't say anything to my doctors. By 2023 though, they were so common, I spent more days laying on the couch, unable to function, than days being a normal person. I had first started trying to get them figured out in 2021 and I saw all kinds of doctors like my regular doctor, my eye doctor, a neuro eye doctor, and a neurologist and none of them could figure out what the cause was. I asked them each, more than once if it could be caused by any of my meds and they all said no. Well back in November 2023, I had forgotten to take my morning dose of one of my medications (was supposed to take it twice a day) and I realized I wasn't having double vision when I was only taking the medication once a day. I then tried taking it twice a day again and boom. Double vision was back. So I stopped taking the medication all together because I realized that I was on the lowest dose when the double vision started in 2018 and it caused me to have issues then, so it could cause them again when my body got used to the low dose. I haven't had double vision since the last week of November 2023. Only problem is, the med that was causing the problem was a mood stabilizer and now my mental health is worse than its been in probably a decade. Oh and my new psych put me on the same medication, just the extended release version and a super low dose to try and help but I haven't seen a difference in my mental health... I'd never hurt myself but I don't see a point in being here... all of that to say, I was my own damn second opinion.
My issue has not been the fact I am alone, but the fact I am normally having to argue when I am already deeply ill and do not have the energy or mental capacity to argue. Maybe I am severely ill with pneumonia and would like nothing more than to lay down or my 02 is actually in the high 80's/low 90's and I am told I have a cold and yes, this has happened. It's the arguing when you are at a complete disadvantage to someone who is completely healthy and has a position of some authority as they can deny testing and treatments despite your requests for further care and basically call you a liar or mark that you are a drug seeker when you are actually in legit pain. The next sees you come in for pain and that label can follow you so instead of the testing you need you are thought to be seeking medications when you would really rather have people cut out your pain surgically if that would fix everything. It's a terrible position to be in and especially when you are already sick.
My mom was told she couldn't have children. She was devastated. Then when she was 40 she felt real weird, went to the clinic. "Early menopause" supposedly. Felt weirder, went to her normal dr. Got the shock of her life that she was going to have a kid. Now I'm here and she's stuck with me wahahaha 👁️👄👁️
Jesus I'm no medical expert, just a little more keyed in on the human body and ailments because autism wanted me to 🙃 But the first story I was like there's no damn way they thought that was pneumonia. I had an inkling it was leaning toward the big C which is really unfortunate. How the heck do they miss something like that.
Mine was an intentional misdiagnosis. I must have seen more than 20 docs in all different fields between the ages of birth and 18 (but specifically 8-18). There was something wrong with me. In most basic terms…I couldn’t move my body well, it would go through times where it just wouldn’t respond. When things like MS, MD, CP, etc were ruled out we asked if this could be something like a brain injury from a traumatic birth (something listed on my med chart). The docs always brushed us off. A week after I turned 18, after years of fighting for a diagnosis and help, a doc finally says it’s brain damage. Others agree and it seems quite accepted now. How funny that they would only diagnose it when I could no longer sue the doctor that caused the damage? The day I turned 18 I lost that ability legally.
Some of my fun medical stories: I started gaining weight rapidly when I was 12. Doctors blamed puberty, changing schools, my parents splitting up, and me being lazy and unwilling to eat right and exercise. When I was 23 a new doctor checked my thyroid. Over a decade of untreated hypothyroidism, with some lifelong problems from not being treated. Similarly, I started experiencing serious depression and struggling in school around 12. Everyone blamed puberty, new school, parents breaking up, and "everyone feels this way." At 17 I was diagnosed with PMDD, at 19 depression and anxiety, and before 30 I was also diagnosed with c-ptsd, ADHD, panic disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. I'm doing a LOT of therapy, and I have permanent physical damage to my muscles from being scared and tense for the first 23 years of my life. Finally, I got sick a little after the height of the covid shut downs. Fever, congestion, sinus pain. Went to a minute clinic. First doctor said I didn't have a fever. Even after I explained that my normal body temp is lower than average, so a "slightly elevated temp" is actually really high for me. Second doctor said I had covid (despite two tests proving I don't), pneumonia, an ear infection, and sleep apnea. It was a sinus infection. I get them every year and told them it's most likely what was causing my sickness.
Oh! One more! Due to the muscle damage, whenever I'm too stressed they spasm and sometimes don't unclench for days. This mostly affects the muscles between my ribs. In order to breath, our ribcage expands to make room for air in the lungs. If the muscles can't move, the ribs can't move, and breathing in feels like breaking ribs. Went to the ER. They were familiar with me, knew which meds worked, and I was usually in and out pretty fast. They're required to do heart scans and xrays, but after that I get a shot of a powerful muscle relaxer, then they call my emergency contact to bring me home to sleep it off. This one time though, there was a new doctor who decided not to check my file or listen to me. Put me on overnight self-unaliving watch. No meds. I was left in a tiny empty room with a stranger staring at me all night while I went back and forth between screaming and passing out from pain and lack of breathing.
I had a doc tell me my debilitating cycle pain was "normal for some women" and it "might get better after your first baby (I do not and never wanted kids so I felt like she'd told me there was no hope). I went to a new doctor several years later (because I was 18 when I got the original "diagnosis" and was young and dumb). The new doctor let me fully explain everything, was stunned to silence to find out the pain was so bad each month that I had been suicidal for two years and was terrified of my own body. She ordered tests to figure out what was wrong. We still aren't sure what's causing it, but I've finally found treatments that are kinda working so I can function through it each month. I'm not even thirty yet, and this is going to be a life-long struggle that a doctor told me, WHEN I WAS EIGHTEEN, having a baby would fix. Still don't want kids and tell people not to go to that doctor when I hear her name in conversation.
Around late 2008-early 2009 my mom began to have a lot of swelling in her extremities. The swelling spread to the rest of her body. She was having a harder time breathing. She went to the ER at our rural hospital several times. She would be told to quit smoking, lose weight, etc. one doctor even told her to “stop eating so much chocolate”. She reached the point of accepting she was going to die because the doctors wouldn’t listen or look into much of anything. My dad convinced her to go again one night. The doctor was on a rotation from a larger hospital. He diagnosed her with congestive heart failure. This triggered a laundry list of medical issues over the next five years. Month long hospital stays, long medication lists, she needed help with most things, especially as she declined. She suffered a few small strokes as well. Near the end she was sleeping most of the time. She passed away in January 2014 at 51 years old. I was 19. Most of my high school years were spent trying to help my dad take care of her. As she declined she got really abusive. She was angry that this was happening to her so she took it out on us. I’m almost 30 now and still go to therapy to work through the trauma of everything that happened over those five years.
Ok to start this off...I have alot of respect for nurse practioners. They are great for the most part. I also have dealt with asthma and chest and sinus infections all my life. I am 44. So because of my experience I blow my nose and its coming out yellowish green. Infection...if I wait too long to get it treated it will move to my chest and become an upper respitory infection. I saw this one NP their "best practice" is to not give antibiotics for 10 days after start of infection. I had a fever of 102 for 3 days which is what made me go to the ER. I get it...I am not a doctor..but I told her if I could not get something for it it would get worse. I was told to use a neti pot to "clear the infection out." I told her I had tried them in the past and it made me panic and then told to me to get an over the counter nasal spray. I was like nasal spray is not going to get rid of the infection. Oh and I was told not to take cold and sinus meds. Because they "mask" the symptoms. Yeah that's the point...I don't have time to suffer through an infection. I have work and responsibilities. I cannot try and work lifting and walking 8 hours a day with a fever that made it hard to stand. I was still sent home. Now keeping in mind...I just want an antibiotic...not narcotics. And for those who whine...well antibiotics are over prescribed...in my case I needed one. I went home suffered with this for another 3 days and it turned into pneumonia. (like I said it would) I then went to my doctor and he gave me an antibiotic and 3 refills on it (he has been through many a sinus and chest infection and he trusts me to know when i need it because again...not narcotics and I have been dealing with this for 40 + years) So I got the antibiotics got better and went about my day. Oh also...On a whim I asked this woman what I should do about my depression...nurse Granola as I call her now told me Yoga. I at the time was weaning myself off some semi powerful antidepressants because I chose to treat it when I started having dark thoughts and my doctor and I agreed that I was doing better and I could try to go with out them. (also have an awesome counselor who was hugely helpful) Yeah Yoga might help with some happy chemicals...but if your brain is not able to use those chemicals it will not matter if you produce more. So yeah...was not impressed. If you don't believe in medical science why are you in the medical field? I am all for alternative medicines if they work...but a neti pot which would help with the congestion (if I could stand feeling like I am drowning while useing it...could not do it) for a sinus infection that was causing fevers for multiple days with out breaking...seriously.
I went to the ER once thinking I mightve had a miscarriage because of the shear amount of pain I was in, the Dr told me it was just a bad period and gave me ibuprofen. We started to go home, planning on just trying to rest and let it pass but we didn't even make it home before my husband took me back and demanded they do something for me. The second doctor actually did a pregnancy test and real pain medication, still said he thought it was probably really bad cramps but at least cared enough to treat the pain
The one about midwives is unfortunately far too common. At least in California there's barely any certification of them and there's a temptation to say it's nothing about all issues around childbirth because it usually goes smoothly but it regularly does go very wrong and need real medical intervention.
I went to see my Dr because I was in extreme pain, throwing up within 5 minutes of eating or drinking anything, and my eyes are yellow. Dr prescribed pain pills. I came back the next day because nothing stayed down and he prescribed a different pain pill. I was diagnosed with gallbladder problems. Dr was dismissive but consulted with a surgeon. The surgeon said I was severe but not critical so I could wait 3 weeks for surgery. I was driven 35 miles to a different hospital clinic. After the Dr examined me and reviewed my previous test results, she left the room and came back with a guy in scrubs. The surgeon admitted me immediately, started me on IV fluids, I was extremely dehydrated, and antibiotics. About 24 later I had my gallbladder removed. The surgeon told me after, that no one has the test results I did without having gangrene. Plus my liver and pancreas were very enlarged. He was very shocked that I didn't have gangrene or permanent liver damage. I NEVER went back to my Dr and when the first surgeons office called to set up the surgery, they weren't happy to hear I'd had emergency surgery almost 3 weeks prior.
*Dozens of flashbacks to Four Springs Animal Clinic's first opinion victims* ...Probably when a "glaucoma" and "dental disease" on a toothless(!) cat turned out to be a highly invasive mouth cancer that had eaten through part of the skull and into the eye socket, pushing the eyeball forward. Cat had been bleeding from the mouth for at least a month before owner had lost faith in previous vet. Eye was clearly not affected by glaucoma, the intraocular pressure was so low I couldn't even get a reading. So many other horrible stories. I can't believe that Dr Susie isn't in jail for gross veterinary medical malpractice. Without going in depth, of the top of my head I can remember "Bubble Butt Syndrome", misdiagnosing severe heart disease and excwsaive unneceasary medication, denying an obvious pregnancy, completing missing a flail chest, getting diabetes and insulinoma mixed up, and thinking that a vitamin B6 injection will cure anything.
When I was an infant I got sick. Prior to sending me home with an antibiotic, doc had me tested for penicillin allergy. Came back positive, and doc looked my mom in her face and made her promise to never let a doctor try to prescribe any form of penicillin ever. Then in kindergarten, I had an allergic reaction to sulfa drugs, which is not uncommon when you’re already allergic to penicillin. Anyway, a few years ago I was dealing with recurring UTIs. One day I’m at urgent care again, and I have a PA trying to tell me that I’m most likely not allergic to penicillin as “back in the day doctors were overly cautious and just said everyone was allergic to penicillin”. It didn’t matter that I also had a reaction to sulfa. I told that to my primary doctor when I was in for my annual check up and she rolled her eyes. She’s like it’s pointless to test you considering your other drug allergies, and was like if we had to hospitalize you and we needed a certain form of penicillin we’d test you then and keep you under extreme observation. Seriously don’t mess with drug allergies.
I am chronically sick and its a genetic issue, my mom has it, my sister has it, i have it. My adopted parents dont ever listen to me when i have symtoms anymore because there have been a few cases where i was in excruciating pain (unable to walk, sleep, or do much of anything with my legs) and my tests came back normal. I know when theres something wrong with my body. i dont think i should be getting random pulsing pains in my knees that cause me to physically recoil and nothing solves it. because im a minor, i cant really go to other doctors on my own, and i have no clue how to manage my own doctors things because my parents refuse to tell me how to do it. the many times i was right? 3X cases of pneumonia dead teeth from physical trauma sinus infections, bronchitis, and other things
Personally being the "second-opinion-doctor" saved my grandfather's neighbour's leg. My grandfather had been updating us every weekend he came to visit on what such and such new doctor or clinic or treatment didn't work to help try and save this guy's leg. At one point, my grandfather update was that they'd decided amputation was the only option left, and at that point in my life... succeeding when professionals didn't was kinda my thing, so after calling for consent to share the images he'd sent my grandfather. It took me one look through the photos before I told my grandfather that they should treat his neighbour for Brown Recluse venom before butchering his leg. A call back to his neighbour confirmed that this hadn't been done yet or even brought up. The doctor was willing to try since his patient wasn't too keen on losing a limb. Bingo. It's been almost 7 years, but that geezer's still kicking, and he's a grandfather now too. I had an Autism-related special interest in spiders when I was in elementary school. When this event happened, I was in a personal state of validating living by proving myself just as competent as, or competent compared to "professionals", people with "experience" and people who thought and said I was weak, worthless and a mistake... among other things. Brown Recluses had a 3-time help count in that regard. 😅
In 2012 my great grandma took 2 falls she was 86. The first time she went to the hospital she was in severe pain they chopped it up to old age. She fell a week or two later and went back. She was in the hospital for a month and they found out a month later she had two broken vertebrae in her spine. She eventually was transferred to rehabilitation center sadly she never left the rehabilitation center she died there on September 4,2012
3:00 this is a distressingly common story, especially if you are a woman. The first diagnosis is nearly always "it's all in your head." Took me six years to get a doctor to take me seriously enough to actually do proper tests, after I had been put on nearly every mental health type drug under the sun to treat randomly selected mental health problems i didn't have. Anything but run tests. It took my father getting fed up with it and coming in with me one day for the newest doctor to take it seriously.
When I was 12-14 I started having like major lightheaded spells and could barely keep balance was about to pass out every time they hit and they last for about 2 to 3 hours and I have them constantly throughout the day with only a few minutes of rest in between episodes. First doctor, I went to told my mom I was doing it for attention. Second doctor sent me to a cardiologist who told me that it was just growing pains and associated with rapid growth in a child. Got sent to an ENT specialist who told me I have vertigo issues. Finally when I was 13 I got sent to a neurologist who also specialized with rheumatology. He saw seven out of nine symptoms I was showing that lined up with lupus. Ended up getting diagnosed later after a positive blood test. For two years straight, I was having a severe flareup at one point the lightheaded spell got so bad my vision went and my hearing went away for about 15 minutes. Doctors still don’t know how to explain that one or Wyatt happened, but they know it’s correlated to the lupus
Story 25: I had to have my wisdom teeth taken out for the exact same reason. Bottom two were completely horizontal. We had to have x-rays done beforehand to see if it was even safe to do a full removal due to the teeth being so close to nerves. If they were closer, there was potential for me to have permanent nerve damage in my face. Thankfully my surgery went over fine and I am completely healed now.
I have a heart condition that I see several doctors for several times a month to monitor. Saw one of those cardiologist and he decided to run a test on me - I was showing no unusual symptoms. Test diagnosed me with amyloidosis, and it's attacking my already weak heart. BAD. I'm immediately put on stupidly expensive meds, I'm sent to a oncologist. For a year I'm jumping through hoops trying to figure out what's going on. But my second cardiologist is concerned. I'm a black female, in my 30's. Amyloidosis usually pops up in white men in their 60's. That doctor sent me to the mayo clinic. One day with 12 tests later, and we're the pretty sure first test was a false positive. We can't know for sure without invasive surgery, but since I'm on blood thinners that's dangerous for me to attempt when we have so many tests that already give enough information.
I got them not infrequently as a prepubescent child for seemingly no reason at all. I definitely was not having sex at 9 goddamn years old and if I was there'd be way bigger concerns than a UTI.
My grandma was misdiagnosed multiple times, she was first told that it was just a cold. A few weeks later she couldn't keep anything down, was told it was the stomach bug. 2 months later and 3 trips to the ER she is puking blood, very dehydrated, weak, starving, 200lbs less, she gets rushed to the ER in an ambulance, and in 2 hours they found out that it was cancer in her esophagus. I'm a teen, and I'm homeschooled, so I'm over there most of the day. She's only got about 4 months left and I miss her already. We all spend as much time with her as we can right now. If they were able to find it sooner they might have just been able to get it removed
For whoever needs to know, if you have a medical practitioner who treats you badly or gives you poor care, please, PLEASE, report them to the medical board. The doctor doesn't have to know it was you, but you will have to disclose your records from the period in question to the review board. They don't use the information for anything else. This act flags poor choices made by doctors or mps who otherwise fly under the radar. Even if it doesn't change your situation, you could save the life or health of another person. You don't have to sue or anything like that, but the medical review board is there to keep egos and negligence in check.
Jesus, I had so many misdiagonis for so many years. I was having mentrual cycles that lasted upwards of 10 days, only 3 or 4 days in between, then the cycle would begin again. It started when I was 12, but you know, it takes a while for puberty to settle. The pain was so bad that I couldn't move some days. Losing so much blood all the time. Vomiting and passing out on a regular basis. People don't talk about it much, but bad periods also give you a lot of bowel problems, like can't leave the bathroom kind of problems. When I was 17, I started asking for a hysterectomy. I was told I was being dramatic, and periods are sometimes uncomfortable. All throughout my 20s and 30s things just got worse. Twice, I was taken to emergency as a suspected drug OD because I was unconscious and vomiting. No drugs, just kinda painful periods. Women have always dealt with this. Suck it up, take some Tylenol, go to work like everyone else who gets mestrual cramps. No, a hysterectomy wouldn't be a good idea, "you will want kids somday". Finally when I was 40 years old and things were still absolutely horrible, a "kind" doctor decided that I was probably old enough to make a decision about not wanting to have kids. Thank you kind doctor. Ugh. When they finally took out that cursed uterus and sent it to the lab, the lab results were kinda gross. Endometriosis, cysts, multiple areas of active hemorrhaging, and many old scars from past damage due to ruptures and hemorrhaging. "Wow, how were you even walking around?" I. didn't. Have. A. Choice. I lost nearly 30 years of my life living in constant pain and fear. The number of times I thought of and attempted the end game is disturbing to think about. I saw at least 15 doctors about this over the years, and the diagnosis was a dramatic woman. In reality, one of my organs was regularly ripping itself apart. I still have horrible nightmares about living through that. If I get sweaty in my underwear, I have a sore back, I get gas, I eat something that gives me a loose BM, any number of other things, I can feel this fear grip my throat in the anticipation of what's coming. I know in my brain, my uterus is gone. It can't hurt me anymore, but my body can't forget. I think I have like, bad menstruation PTSD or something. So many misdiagonis that robbed me of half my life, and the fear will probably haunt me forever. Jesus doctors. Do your damned job.
That's exactly what I went through. I only managed to finally get a hysterectomy because I came across a foreign gynecologist. All the British ones (I'm in the UK) dismissed me with "you will want children one day". One berated me for two hours that "it's not normal not to want children", which caused friends to think he wanted to personally get me pregnant. I suffered anemic heart failure from the severe blood loss. The pathology report after the hysterectomy was an entire A4 page long. I still get into a panic too when I get pain in the abdomen - which I do all the time.
I'm not a doctor (and also not the patient) but this happened to my husband (and it wasn't just a "second" opinion). When he was 5, a psychiatrist diagnosed him with bipolar disorder type 1 and put him on meds. For those who don’t know, bipolar is incredibly difficult to diagnose in a child of that age and usually presents around puberty if not later in life. I met him when we were in our 20s and until then he had been seeing a psychiatrist as and when he needed (not the same one who had diagnosed him btw). After we had been dating for about 6 years, I convinced him to get his meds checked by another doctor, not the one he had been seeing for the past 15 or so years, to check they were balanced as he had recently lost a fair amount of weight and his moods were cycling far too rapidly (I'm talking hourly if not daily). This was on the advice of a family friend who is a psychiatrist but, because of the family connection, couldn't treat him. So he sees the new psychiatrist who prescribes a lower dose of the current meds due to the weight loss and takes him off one of them gradually. A few months later we moved to the UK and managed to get his prescriptions transferred here so he could carry on with the meds he'd been prescribed from the doctor back home. About 2 years later, I noticed his behaviour was getting more sporadic than it has been since we met. I kept brushing it off but eventually asked that family friend doc what we should do and it was suggested to get the meds rebalanced again. Here in the UK, the system works differently to back home. So we go through the process, starting with the GP who sends him for a re-evaluation to adjust his meds. This psychiatrist had one 10-minute conversation with my husband, asked him to take one extra test and said "You don’t have bipolar disorder. You're autistic" and promptly advised him to wean off all his meds. The change in my husband's mood swings and rapid cycling behaviour went away within days. He says he has never felt better. We're almost 30 now and we are living our best lives. TL;DR: My husband was diagnosed bipolar at the age of 5 (very young and difficult to do). Roughly 20 years later, he was re-evaluated and meds changed for erratic cycling of moods and weight-loss. Almost 5 years after that and a whole country later, he's diagnosed autistic and taken off all medication and has never felt better.
Finally one i Can Answer, I was the Patient! I was about 1 year old when my parents brought me in to the hospital with Breathing Problems. First Doctor diagnoses me With Asthma and a Pectus Excavatum, which is a condition where your chest is caving in, Doc schedules a Surgery to fix the Pectus Excavatum. my parents do a little research and learn just enough to question the first doc, they ask for a Second Opinion. Second Doctor Examines me and Diagnoses me with an Interstitial Lung Disease, a very rare disease in which the immune system attacks your lungs. While i did have the Pectus Excavatum, my Breathing was so difficult that if they put me under for the surgery to correct it i wouldn't be waking up again. Needless to say my parents weren't going back to the first doctor, they had to fight the insurance company to make sure that didn't happen. Interstitial Lung Disease isn't a pretty diagnosis, its about a year of slowly suffocating to death as your lungs are destroyed, it was considered 100% Fatal, it took conscious effort to breathe so procedures like the lung Biopsy to Confirm couldn't be done under Anesthesia, as i would die if they did, so just imagine a toddler who can barely even speak being tied down to a bed being cut open just so they could remove a piece, its not as though i could understand it, my mom vividly remembers me giving her such a look of betrayal that she broke down and cried over it. Its not an Understatement to say my whole family was Traumatized by the experience, i got PTSD from it, might have broken a record for that disease. they could only repair the Pectus excavatum after i went into remission, and i was the only one who had made it to remission, broke all my Ribs and reset them so they wouldn't be caved in. TL;DR First Doc ordered infant me a surgery that would have killed me, and misdiagnosed me with Asthma.
This is the thing I love the most about these Reddit compilation threads where people all share a experience. It gives the opportunity to the community as a whole to see that these are not isolated incidents
6-7 months back doctor told me that i would require a hip replacement along with a knee or ankle replacement to ease the pain in my left leg. Went back to the doctor, 1300 kms away, who performed a hip surgery on me 20 years back and all i required was a 6 weeks calcium d3 course...😂😂😂
When I was 7 I started getting pains in my side. I was told it was psychological. It got worse over three years. In the end we got a new doctor. It took him about a minute to notice that it was my kidney. Basically my kidney got blocked regularly and couldn’t empty, which caused pain like kidney stones for three years. By the time it was discovered the kidney was nearly destroyed, but I did get to keep it in the end. My pain tolerance was so high afterwards that it took my mother five hours to realise that I had broken my arm the year afterward, since I just got on with it. Not much pain in my then eleven year old world.
Sorry for any typos or weird autocorrect, I'm typing this on mobile. tl;dr: had to convince the doctors my appendix was the problem. I was right and died on the table to prove it. Got better just to say 'I told you so'. . . When I was sixteen, I started getting lower abdominal pain. I had a history of bad and heavy periods, so at first I thought it was just that. About 3 days later, late at night, it got so bad that I could barely breathe. When I pressed down on where it hurt, there wasn't any change, but when I let go the pain spiked so much that I threw up from it. About two weeks earlier, my teacher had come back from emergency leave after having her appendix out. She told us that one of the criteria used to diagnose it was to push down, and if it hurt more upon letting go, that's a classic sign of appendicitis. So I woke my parents up and said I needed to go to the hospital *now*. My mum took me and I got in fairly quick. Doctor came and looked at me and told me that it was just reflux and to go home. My mum accepted that but I refused. I knew it was my appendix and told the doctor that. He sent in some nurses to draw blood. Came back a while later to say that the blood tests didn't show anything. It was reflux. Go home. Again, I refused. It was my appendix. So they did an ultrasound, which was agonising. A while later, the doctor comes in, tells me the ultrasound was inconclusive. That it's reflux and to go home. By this point my mum is embarrassed at my refusals and arguments and is trying to persuade me to leave, but I refused. "It's not reflux. It's my appendix. And I will sit here in the middle of emergency and get in everybody's way and make the biggest scene I can until SOMEBODY listens to me!" So the doctor offered exploratory surgery, to put a camera in through the bellybutton and check it out. I agreed on the spot, and for the first time I see doubt on his face. I'd cried earlier at the blood draw because back then I had serious needle phobia, so for me to not hesitate to agree, it made him rethink. My mum agreed and I don't remember much after that. Next thing I remember, I'm in the ward, and there's a doctor talking to both of my parents. A different doctor. He says, "it was her appendix-" and I announce I've woken up by saying "fucking TOLD YOU" and was immediately told off by my parents for swearing at a doctor. Found out later that they'd found a severely inflamed appendix and were just starting keyhole surgery to get it out when it actually burst. They had to do a massive side-to-side cut to get it out and clean me out. My heart had to be restarted, and I needed 7 units of blood transfused. At the time, I was about 4'11 and 50kg/110lbs, so that was pretty much my entire blood volume. That's how I found out that I'm O-neg so that would have put a huge dent in the rural hospital's supply. Also they'd removed two ovarian cysts, one the size of a grapefruit and one the size of a baseball. They were the kind that had hair and teeth in them. (We later found out I was allergic to morphine, when I started hallucinating and was convinced that they'd stolen my organs to put spells on me, and at one point I thought the hospital was alive and had eaten me and I was being digested. Allergic reactions are weird. Can't blame the doctors for that one, since it was my first exposure to it, and they were very nice when I had my mental faculties back and apologised for trying to fight them.) This happened nearly 20 years ago now, but I'm still bitter about it. If I'd gone home when they said to, my appendix would've burst when I was in my bed, at about 4am. I would've died. Some doctors need to be reminded of their Hippocratic Oath. Not just the 'do no harm' but the rest of it too. They need to own up to their damn mistakes instead of doubling down at the cost of someone's life.
These things are more common than most people think. I've fought tooth and nail for 15+ years to get my illnesses diagnosed and I'm still fighting to get help for different issues, some related to my diagnosed chronic illnesses, some not, and some related to my mental health. I started antidepressants in my early 20's, it took until this year, several admissions for unaliving prevention, a failed attempt and several threats of more attempts to get an appointment for evaluation by the psychiatric office. I've gone to the 3 assessment appointments and am now waiting for a decision on what kind of therapy I can get and an estimate on how long I have to wait until I can get started...My physical health journey is even longer and I'm still working on it. My aunt had trouble breathing for several years but was refused x-rays, told she had asthma because she was overweight and told to work out and ear less. A couple years ago her breathing was just getting worse and she had trouble moving around. X-ray showed stage 4 small cell lung cancer. Thanks to new cancer meds she's gotten a couple years instead of the 6 months she was first told she'd have. She'll die from it eventually and the time is getting closer since her first meds have stopped working. I also know people who've had horrific childbirth experiences, like getting their cervix cut open to get a much too large baby out after having been neglected by staff for so long that when the new shift came and saw that a c-section was needed it was too late and they had to pull the baby out and to do that they basically had to filét the mom's privates first... Another friend who was bleeding constantly was told it was nothing to worry about but it turned out both mother and baby had an infection and had to stay in the hospital to get IV antibiotics for a week. One who was carrying twins in a high risk pregnancy and had nausea so bad she couldn't keep food or drink down was told there were no meds for nausea for pregnant women, she then got lyme disease and couldn't keep her antibiotics down and ended up unconcious and throwing up on the floor. The ambulance personnel didn't even want to bring her to the hospital but a friend convinced them and she had to stay for a couple weeks as her nerves were inflamed and she couldn't keep her balance while walking for a while. When her twin boys were born one of them had a hard time breathing and had to stay in the hospital and a week after he came home he was having trouble breathing again but when they called the hospital they were told not to come in but in the end they went anyway. The boy died in the hospital and the hospital staff called the police and CPS on the family like the hospital staff telling them not to bring in their dying baby weren't the problem. A friend of mine got a wound on her leg and it was obvious it was infected but the doctor refused to give her antibiotics and told her it was a rash or something and he refused to take any tests. It started to get that red streak aswell so it was getting bad. She had to pretty much nag the doctor during several appointments into giving her a prescription. And surprise surprise, the antibiotics worked! I have more stories about myself and others but I'm done writing for now.
My cousins first opinion was he’s fine The second opinion was his appendix had burst and needed emergency surgery NOW. He ended up in the ICU for a while. My mom was diagnosed with depression, the real diagnosis was she broke her arm. Dr thought all the pain was just depresssion- when my mom literally has been diagnosed with MS. You’d think it’d be considered first 💀
Dude, I've had doctors refuse to take my ASTHMA into account, much less my complex and painful genetic illness. Some doctors should have washed out in med school.
I have a history of back issues with a severe scoliosis since I was a child and signs of mild rickets. When I turned 26, I started having leg pain often and I became partially incontinent out of nowhere. I saw multiple doctors, including 2 orthopedists and a few neurologists. Every time I suggested it could have something to do with my back issues, their reaction was like “No way! You’re so young!”. They talked to me as if I was oversensitive and playing victim, and insisted that I didn’t need any exam. Someone even prescribed antidepressants lying to me about the real purpose of the drug (he said it was to cure muscle tissues, after in my blood test I had levels indicating overexertion, while I was doing no physical activity at all because in that period leg pain was very bad). I also visited a gynecologist, since I gave birth few years before the incontinence started, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t maybe a prolapse or something like that. He said I was fat, it was normal for a woman that fat not to control the bladder (I am indeed overweight, but at the time I wasn’t like severely obese, I only waighted 80 kg, I’ve never heard of someone suffering from incontinence just for a weight issue at a similar weight.) At 29 I went to the E.R. for the worst back pain in my life. They made a physical exam and said it could be a hernia, but they couldn’t give me imaging because it was not an emergency, so for the imaging I needed the prescription from family doctor (I’m from Italy, almost everything needs to pass from family doctor). I went to my doctor (one that I barely knew, because my previous doctor just retired) with the papers from the E.R. and she laughed in my face saying I was faking for attention. I immediately changed doctor (it wasn’t the first time she totally dismissed me, that was enough!) Having the new doctor, convince him I was not exagerating, and the waiting list for the MRI, it took more than 2 years. They were right! (sarcasm) I don’t have a hernia. I have 5 of them. And arthrosis.🥳 But, don’t worry! When you are “too young for a condition” you are totally immune to it! 🙄🤦
Not a Dr, but was being treated by ENT FOR 6-7 months without improvement. Decided to get 2nd opinion. Had a huge Merkel cell tumor in my sinus, rare. 2years of chemo, radiation and immunotherapy treatment and at least I’m here. Came so close to seeing the reaper.
My story is about me. In 2014, I ended up falling on some ice and smashing my elbow. Somehow, I landed there first. There was a guy who worked for the housing complex right nearby but wouldn't help me up. I then went to their office crying and in pain. I had been falling behind on rent, which is why I was out in the first place. I go inside and talk to the lady about the fall and why I had originally come in. She said she'd check with her bosses if it was okay for her to take me to the E.R. I think they told her no, so I had to wait for an ambulance. The ambulance came and took me to the hospital. The ambulance people wanted to cut my jacket off of me. Since I am also stubborn and the jacket was a gift from my grandma, which also cost $100 (which is expensive to me), I worked it off myself. We get to the E.R. and the doctor sees me then says he doesn't think I broke my arm because of no swelling. He wanted to do x-rays anyway, thankfully. They take me in for x-rays and ask me to move my arm around this way and that. I was in a fair bit of pain but still did my best. When I got back to the room and the x-rays were checked the doctor came in and told me I had managed to snap the knob of my humorous (the actual funny bone spot) off and it was in my cartilage. They had to take me into surgery and reattach it with 2 headless screws.
My aunt’s gp wouldn’t listen to her. She kept going to his office complaining about feeling ill and tired she even lost 15kg but still he wouldn’t listen to her. This went on for years until her partner came with her at another appointment and the thing that needed the gp to eventually listen was that her partner had to slam his fist on the table and demanded him to send her to the hospital. She got diagnosed with colon cancer but they could treat her. So we’re all relieved. She went back to her gp to confront him but this liar told her she hadn’t visited him in the last 10 years. Later they found out that the cancer was too aggressive and they couldn’t treat her anymore because it was too late and now she is not with us anymore. Her cremation took place a year ago. Only if that gp would’ve listen to her, she could’ve been saved because the cancer was ‘easy’ to treat but aggressive if it’s not treated in time. Too young to die and in what way. We miss her so much. Rip
The fall of last year I was diagnosed with a UTI becorse I had blood in my Uribe I’m male by urgent care and got antibiotics in the new year I started to have seizure almost daily, got an X-ray and they found a tumor on my kidney that leaked blood into my bladder, got blood transfusions and got operated a couple of weeks maby a month later! They removed 4,5lbs of canceros cells the tumor was 2lbs but they had to remove alot more! And becorse of the seizure I got one time I trashed my ankle and ended up temporary hopefully in wheelchair.
I told my GP about having heart problems for about 5 years, during this times I was a runner and for all intents and purposes should have had a happy, healthy heart. I was having problems with my heart rate randomly shooting up at inappropriate times (210-250 bpm). They told me for YEARS that it was just anxiety, even went as far as to prescribe me medication. I finally got to a point where I hit him with a "Well, if it truly is just anxiety can you refer me to a cardiologist to get checked out so I can have one less thing to be anxious about" Went to cardio, got an echo and a 24 hour halter monitor. I have unspecified Supra ventricular tachycardia. running theory is years of high stress and malnutrition during my formative years have left lingering damage on my body. I'm on medication now but that super sucked
In 2010 I was descending an outdoor staircase and nearly fell down the entire set of stairs. I also developed slurred speech, a weirdly nodding head, and my face drooped on one side - but only when I was upright, not when I was laying down. It went away immediately when I tilted my head sideways, and then came back immediately when my head was upright again. The fatigue was crushing. I went through many, many tests, including an EEG, VNG, CT scans, MRIs, and a bunch of others I can't remember. The first neurologist I saw wrote a letter to my primary care doctor and said, "Good news! There's nothing wrong and she just needs emotional counseling." Well, definitely not - except for a large number of doctors who up to that point were telling me I was just crazy. I have a condition that makes me allergic to everything and makes the dura around my brain thicken, and makes it difficult for the CSF to flow properly between my brain and spinal column. The cerebrospinal fluid basically gets trapped somehow in my cranium when I'm upright and puts pressure on my cranial nerves, which is why I experience paralysis in my facial nerves and speech and processing. When I move my head around and tilt it sideways, it takes pressure off the nerves. A few years ago I found one other person in the world who sort of has issues similar to mine and she just started having symptoms 2 years ago. She lives in another country and her doctors have really given her a difficult time as well, telling her that she just needs counseling too. I've had 10 brain surgeries so far to try to correct my issue but we've decided to stop operating since the operations haven't fixed the issue.
My Mom was told she needed back surgery because of pain. Went for a second opinion. Got prescribed pills for a month, Fixed it. She had just overdone it on walking too hard on vacation and it was a nerve issue, not a spine issue.
At 22 weeks pregnant with twins, something felt wrong to me. Waited all day with that weird sensation still there and then finally called my obgyn. They said I was being a paranoid first-time mom, and I'm too young to know what I'm talking about. I hung up and told my mom to take me to the hospital now. In the time it took my mother to drop me at the front door to the hospital, she went and got gas across the street, then pulled back in. I was being wheeled to surgery for an emergency C-section at 8cm dilated, and water never broke.. 4 years later now, and I have a wonderful little toddler running around earth side and one soaring beside us in spirit👼🏾 he lived for almost 4 months in the NICU before he passed❤️🩹
LOL I'm a complete accident baby! My siblings are 9-13 years older than my little brother and I. Doctor told mom since she had over half of her reproductive organs removed from cancer she can't get pregnant. Guess who did years later after meeting my dad? 😅 She was NOT HAPPY. Like she thought she was done with kids
When I was 32, and breastfeeding my son I found a lump and went to the doctor. She told me it was mastitis even though I had mastitis many times before and It grew to the size of a peach within 3 months. I went in 4 times and was told the same thing each time. I then got pregnant and went to the OBGYN. I told her about the lump and she sent me to the breast care center and I was diagnosed with stage 3C grade 3 invasive breast cancer. Did chemo while pregnant, had my daughter, radiation and more chemo, all in all treatment took about 2 years total and I’m here now 7 years post diagnosis to tell this story.
Since I got Covid in october, i have had throbbing migraines and vision loss when I would cough or sneeze. The pain would be behind my eyes and at the bade of my skull and my head felt like it was going to explode. I was not fully conscious most of the time when doing things. I was told it was a tension headache (which I knew it was bullshit). The meds they gave did jack shit. I go to the ER and finally get a referall for a neurologist as I was at my wits end and thinking about unaliving myself from the pain and how I can't function or get a job with my symptoms. I have intercranial hypertension. The cerebrospinal fluid (csf) in my head is under severe pressure and I could have lost my vision if I hadn't come in sooner to get meds. I am still in the process of treatment with medications that are awful and give you kidney stones but yeah its not fun. I still have terrible migraines and some vision problems. Neurologist says that covid likely caused brain damage and I can't filter csf as well as I use too. Intercranial hypertension is rare but my doc is seeing more cases of it since covid started.
Feet kept swelling up. Went to urgent care. Was lectured on not drinking enough water and it was dehydration. No tests. Nothing. It happened again. Doesnt go away for three days so i call husband and he realizes it something serious because i will anything to avoid doctors and there i was begging to go to the hospital. He takes me. They do tests at the ER. They take blood, not once, not twice, three times. I then get informed that i am so far from dehydrated that if i drink even more water like urg3nt care suggested, i would be in danger of being overhydrated. I was admitted for emergency blood transfusions because i had practically zero iron and potassium levels to record and if it got worse, i might be dead of heart failure in a month. That was a year ago. I just have shitty iron absorption and the only symptom i showed was swelling joints. Nothing else. Glad i got a second opinion.
This happend to me in two different ocasions 1- A tearcher said there was something strange when I walked, whent to the doctor, nothing, during a family vacation my step sister realized one of my shoulders was higher then the other, when to a different doctor, scoliosis on surgery level 2- My therapist fond out I was autistic and did not have anger issues like my older therapist said, I was Just constantly overwhelmed :)
I can understand how story #3 happens. I had a couple of abdominal surgeries a decade ago and just recently had a CT scan. I read the report and it mentioned my appendix had been removed. It must have happened in one of the previous surgeries, but they never mentioned it. Back when I was recovering from the abdominal surgeries, I kept losing weight and was taking a long time to heal. The surgeons kept telling me to increase my calories because healing requires extra energy. So I increased my calories and still lost weight. It never occurred to any of them to order a blood test. I finally saw my GP about some tremors I was having. I was severely hyperthyroid from Graves' Disease.
I had a stomach so huge it looked like I was pregnant. I was also plus size, so the doc told me I needed to loose weight and that all my other symptoms were caused by my weight. Few months later I was in extreme pain and felt extreamly bloated, so I went to the ER clinic. They said I had a bladder infection and gave me antibotics even though I didn't have symptoms and the urine sample came out negative. The pain went away and a month later, it came back full force with vomiting. Went to Er and they told me it was the stomach flu even though I felt this same pain before a few months ago and I only felt it on my left side. Pain got worse and went back a few days later demanding test and they found a 40 pound ovarian cyst in my whole abdominal cavity and my felopian tube was black and dying. Had to get emergency surgery and all the issues the first doc said was due to being over weight were gone.
Holy cow! A 40 pound tumor? Jesus christ. I can imagine.
I hope you sued.
What the heck. Forty pounds sitting on your abdomen.
The doctor's "defense" was probably that he sees so many patients and 95% of those other patients are just fatty and there's nothing else wrong with them, how was he supposed to know you were different? Of course his loser self diagnosed those other patients as "just fat" and they probably all have issues contributing to their weight gain.
Sue. SUE. That's GOT to qualify as malpractice. They really need to treat women better in medicine....
Twelve years ago my parents took me to the doctor because I kept complaining about headaches. The doctor was certain that I was trying to get attention. Eventually, we saw a new doctor who officially diagnosed me with chronic migraine syndrome. My parents apologized for acting like I was being overdramatic and I've been dealing with it for the last 12 years.
i’m on disability for my migraines, it’s not just a headache. it’s absolutely debilitating, i’m glad you finally can feel sane about it
My father had halo migraines in early to mid 30’s. So he got about 30 minutes in warning. After several years they went to none. I reached the same age and migraines started pouncing. But, some were already in progress and wake me up, some were triggered by smelling tobacco smoke, some had a series of muscles tensing up from my neck, over my head and to above my eyes… about one in five was a halo. Me crammed into a recliner with half a dozen quart baggies and washcloths and towels to hold them in place and me finally asleep-bliss was a baggie of ice. When Imitrex came out that was a godsend. They were giving me T-10’s (T-8’s and T10’s are no longer made, I would like to find out how much codeine was in them) which gave benign hallucinations and cut the migraines from four days to 4-24 hours. I can still trigger a force-10 instant one that puts me into shock and a few minutes max to get painkillers swallowed and lie down before I pass out.
It sure is :(
My heart goes out to both of you.
Any advice besides buckets, toilet, and IVs?
Ugh, migraines are awful. I once told my sister that if I had the energy to cry I would. I have thick curtains to block out the sun. Emgality has helped so much. I hope you all have better days ahead.
I have chronic migraine as well. I love the people who tell me that Tylenol or NSAID’s will help.
Last year, I felt slightly off. I felt a bit uncomfortable trying to take a nap with my my toddlers, I woke up in ungodly pain and I straight up Exorcist projectile vomited. I was suddenly freezing and hurt all over. I called 911 because I didn’t feel safe to drive and I had two toddlers (single mom). The EMTs who showed up spent their visit forcefully talking me out of going to the hospital saying it was just virus and then push me to sign a paper that says if I die they can’t be sued. That night my skin became grey and I no matter how long I spent in a hot bath I just couldn’t warm up and get any color back. The next day after the older of my 2 went to school and I took the youngest to daycare I managed to drive myself to the ER. Figured it would be nothing serious. I explained my symptoms and their seemingly sudden symptoms. They took blood and started an IV. Suddenly I had both attending physicians on duty in my room absolutely flabbergasted that I had driven myself in and been able to function. They told me I had almost 0 kidney function and if I hadn’t come in I would have died because I had a severe bacterial infection in both of my kidneys. I was immediately hospitalized for a week of IV antibiotics. So fk those EMTs
Did you report them to the hospital?
My gf used to be an emt, if she was awake rn this comment would piss her off
@@Agender_Potato oh yeah, I told both of the physicians on staff that day. They were flabbergasted because they said if I had not been able to get myself there or listened and kept trying to sleep it off that day I would’ve died.
I know not all EMTs are bad. I just don’t know the names of them. I have mat amazing ones and know that they save lives every day. Those guys were dismissive ass hats.
@@Kageoni187 Jesus christ
Why did those emts bother to wake up that day.
Bet they still charged for the ambulance
Not really a misdiagnosis but rather a lack of professionalism.
A few years ago my mother went to the hospital for an ear infection, and she still wasn't taken in after hours of waiting. So instead my father drove her to the next major hospital and she was taken in instantly. Turns out she was hours away from losing hearing on said ear.
And a few years prior, same hospital, she goes in for an incarnated toenail, tells the doctors that her body being pretty resistant to anesthesia she needs more than the average does, but because she has dreadlocks they took her for a junkie just trying to get high on meds. The painful scream convinced them otherwise.
I am anesthesia resistant and it’s a whole mess. No one listens.
This will seem like an odd question but is or was she ever "double jointed"? Im not a Dr. I have a genetic connective tissue disorder called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. It usually makes people flexible (but not always). There is no such thing as double jointed. It's a connective tissue disorder every time. Unfortunately EDS also makes anesthesia less effective. EDS can be life threatening depending on the type (there are 13)
@@kryw10look at my other comment please. Especially if you are or ever were "double jointed" bc there is no such thing as double jointed. It's a connective tissue disorder every time and can be life threatening depending on type. Anesthesia affects people with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome less. I am not a dr. I have EDS.
I had 4 impacted wisdom teeth. We were able to get in with a surgeon before they started bothering me, but they also didn't put me completely under the first time. They didn't do a lot of testing how conscious or pain resistant I was before they started trying to break and pull chunks of my teeth out of my head. I think I remember saying I was still awake before they started, but I was ignored until I started screaming.
My second surgery was a much better experience. It was also a mouth surgery, a gum graft (taking a slab off the roof of my mouth to fill out my very thin lower gums). I was still a little aware, but I felt no pain this time. One of my favorite songs came over the speakers. Apparently everyone in the room got a kick out of me humming along.
Had doctors for years tell me that I just had depression and anxiety.
Two failed kidneys and permanently being on dialysis later and it turns out I have Lupus Nephritis.
Most doctors don't listen, want an easy fix, and won't do the testing needed to rule out serious causes. In the US they get paid the same as if they'd put in more work, and don't have to deal with insurance companies as much if they just brush patients off.
Laws protecting them have been passed to the point it's nearly impossible for most patients to hold a bad doctor or hospital accountable, because people bought into the "Lawsuits are out of control" narrative.
The chance of bad medical experiences increases with each marginalized identity a person has. Some doctors are still being taught that women don't feel pain the same way as men, and that black people don't feel as much pain and are prone to exaggerating symptoms.
The marginalized identities also include if you're disabled. So people with chronic health issues, the people who need to see doctors the most, often are treated more poorly than the average patient by a good section of doctors.
Many doctors also have an ego about things they don't know, so if s patient has something they don't understand they'll come up with bullshit rather than helping the patient find someone who does understand what's going on.
Good doctors are worth their weight in gold because you have to wade through such crappy ones to find them.
I'm looking for a new primary care right now because mine decided it was appropriate to try and remove stitches with no local anesthesia, no disinfectant, no gloves, and no mask. I essentially don't have a working immune system anymore.
When I pointed out "Should we clean the site with alcohol or something first" he said "Oh yeah probably". When I asked him to wear gloves he said "Sure I can do that." As if it isn't the default to use gloves when interacting with a patients open wounds.
For people with healthy immune systems suture removal requires nothing but some snips and either fingers or forceps and no local; lots of people do it themselves. No pain worse than stinging, if anything. Still, your doc should've thought about the state of your health first.
Wait why were they removing the stitches if your wound was still open
@@thepinkestpigglet7529 Stitches are an infection risk, so the policy around here is to remove them after a couple weeks. Also so they don't end up harder to remove. They should have stayed in an extra week though because I'm a slow healer which didn't help the situation.
The specific wound I had, the skin also ended up dying anyway so the stitches only kept it in place for the first couple of weeks, and after that I've been seeing wound care for it. It's still a little bit open, and I've been seeing them since January. You can't leave stitches in for 6 months safely.
My mom got pregnant when she was in her 40's and everything was fine, until around month 3 or 4 of her pregnancy. Her doctor told her the fetus wasn't growing properly and she should just abort it because she was clearly too old to be pregnant. She dropped that doctor and got another one. She did deliver my little sister a month early, but both of them were fine.
The reason my sister wasn't growing properly in utero? Cancer. My mom had ovarian cancer and it was basically leeching off of my sister.
My mom died from it after three years of battling it. Maybe if the first doctor had actually looked into why a fetus wasn't growing properly, instead of just assuming it was because my mom was over 25, maybe they could've gotten to the cancer earlier.
I'm so sorry. May your mom's memory be a blessing.
It is. She was an amazing woman and I miss her every day, despite it being nearly 17 years.
Just wish I could give her a call some days, you know?
@@labyrinthgirl17kind of makes me wish we had Time machines just so we can go back and give those we lost a big hug at least 1 more time
@@Allantitan At least I got to say good bye and I love you to her one last time, as knowing what I know now, I might've missed that if I had made a couple different choices.
But yes, one more hug would be a great thing.
@@labyrinthgirl17 i have a grandfather who died of lung cancer when I was 15 that I’d love to go back and hug one more time especially since at the time I was a selfish teen who couldn’t be bothered to spend more time with him
Patient speaking: When I was eleven I had heavy menstrual cycles lasting two weeks… then eventually the whole month. Think three weeks “shark week” with only one week to have a break from the bleeding. I told my family and my doctor about it and everyone assumed I was irregular and said I'd grow out of it eventually due to being petite. However, over the years (yes, years!) the bleeding only worsened to the point where I bled for two months straight and my health declined rapidly at fourteen. I was constantly nauseous, tired, pale and looked hobbled over in pain. After a trip to the family doctor, they did detect a lump in my lower quadrant and assumed it was constipation on top of the stress at the time we had as a family. I half-heartedly agreed to try keeping a healthy diet and relax despite my constant nausea.
Everything was alright until I collapsed and was sent to our family doctor again only for her to make a horrid discovery after she looked over my abdomen again. After a trip to the OB/GYN and an MRI scan they found a tumour half the size of a football in my abdomen that was pressing against my stomach and slowly starving me to death. My body was fighting like hell but didn't have the strength to keep the tumour from growing. Unfortunately, they couldn't save my ovary due to it being part of the tumour and my parents and family doctor felt guilty for not catching the tumour in time. The bright side is the tumour was benign, I'm healthy with a regular menstrual cycle. To this day we don't know when the tumour began forming but we all theorise that it started as a cyst and just simply grew out of control.
Ladies, please take this as a lesson to get checked and if you notice something isn't right, get a second opinion! Don't wait days, weeks or even years like we did to get help.
We're so sicialized to just take what we're given and listen to authority... Its like they want us to die.
As well as a third or fourth opinion if needed which honestly goes for anybody reading tbh
@@Allantitan A good tip is that if you're going for a third opinion, try to find a specialist who's an expert in something specific to your condition. If you have a suspicion about what's wrong with you, look for an expert in that condition, otherwise an expert in your symptoms or the area of the body involved, or something that seems similar to what you have because they'll likely have high knowledge of similar conditions as part of being an expert (e.g. for excessive bleeding, look for an endometriosis expert because they'll likely know what can mimic endometriosis, which commonly has excessive periods as a symptom). Get a name and bring that name to your doctor to ask for a referral. I have a skin condition that takes on average 7 years to diagnose and was diagnosed in my first appointment with my dermatologist because I figured out what I probably had and found an expert in that condition. I'm in treatment now and in a few years, if things go well, I should be totally cured of it.
My mother was misdiagnosed by 2 physicians. It took a PA to guess she had glaucoma. He walked her over to the ophthalmologist, who tested and diagnosed her correctly. She had laser surgery the next day. She was days away from permanent blindness.
How's her sight now?
PAs are great. Hope your mom did well after the surgery
If her pressure was close to blindness it was probably near 40. That's blindness. And laser surgery cannot fix that dangerously high pressure. It takes a completely different type of invasive eye surgery to reduce that pressure.
@@lorie4412 Thank you. I had assumed it was laser treatment. She couldn't describe it and I wasn't there.
I was an alcoholic from mid 2016 to March 2019, and was in and out of hospitals for acute pancreatitis. One ER trip, a doctor declined to admit me, despite me being in severe pain. The attending didn't bother with any kind of test beyond a blood draw. I went to a different hospital immediately after discharging, and was admitted almost an hour later. All the textbook markers were off the charts.
Kudos on your recovery from alcohol abuse. My ex had a similar story- heavy drinker for years and developed pancreatitis. However he still wouldn’t stop drinking, he passes away at about 40 yers old. Take care of yourself! We only have 1 pancreas
And when you have dependency issues of any kind, every ailment is suddenly due to it or you’re just faking for pills. Ive seen this from close up, even doctors can have weird biases about medical matters. My friend nearly died of infection in her uterus, before she got help, even then it was kinda cruel and dismissive. Another had a brain bleed, he would’ve fared better, if he would’ve gotten help the first time. Major props for sobering up, hardest battle of your life!
If there’s one bit of advice I will agree with doctors on, it’s your body you know it, so if anything feels off and they dismiss it argue with them till they finally look.
@@jayewrite1256 Tried that one time. Just kept getting hand waived and passed along. Luckily the pain hadn't hit "punch a hole thru brick" bad by then. It's likely I was admitted within a week after that.
@@aubreymorgan9763 Addiction is something I'd only wish on my worst enemies. As much as we know we need to change, it's hard to leave certain things behind.
I started getting headaches when I was about 15, Doctor said to take Tylenol. I started getting menstrual issues (severe cramping, bleeding for weeks) when I was 18, Doctor told me to take mydol and advil. Started having bowel issues in my 20’s, was put on stool softeners. Started having heart issues, started a special diet. Started getting migraines and diarrhea and vertigo. Was told the problems “all in my head”. Got a new doctor (insurance change), they did bloodwork. Turns out it was all in my head…I have a brain tumor on my pituitary gland. This gland is a part of your endocrine system. The endocrine system ( hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid, and adrenal gland) all release hormones into your body that not only deal with your emotions but tell your organs how to function. My organs have been slowly shutting down. Since this discovery we’ve treated it with medication, surgery and radiation. But unfortunately, it will keep coming back until I am dead. I have no pituitary gland left, my adrenal gland is dead, my thyroid gland is dying but my hypothalamus is still functioning. Thanks to this tumor I have right brain damage, epilepsy, bouts of dementia, peripheral blindness, vertigo, thyroid growths (forget the proper term), enlarged liver (I don’t drink), UV allergy, hyper acidic stomach, ulcers (the hormone the pituitary releases deals with stress, so I can’t), severe anxiety, nausea, diabetes, major depression (honestly are you surprised?), lymphocytic colitis (autoimmune disorder where stress causes my body to attack itself), infertility (probably a blessing at this point) and anemia. I’m 45 and I’ve been in a hospital bed for three years now…all because no one would listen to a teenage kid complaining that their head hurts really bad.
that is absolutely brutal, my heart goes out to you
Yea medical system sucks, I relate heavy
I am so so sorry. 🫂
Friend's son was sick, went to the ER and they diagnosed him with leukemia. We all went into a frenzy, crying, freaking out, etc. A few days later they walk into the oncologists office and he grabs the ER report and starts turning it upside down, sideways, whichever while scratching his head then said, I'm not sure what med school that doctor attended, but your son has an INFECTION, not freaking cancer, here's some antibiotics, he should be fine in a week.
Another friend's teen daughter was having numbness on her left side, ER doc said she's fat and to lose weight. A week later the numbness came back accompanied by slurred speech. CT scan and they're like oh, you have a brain tumor, another doctor thankfully walked by, saw the scan and started yelling that it was not a tumor, she was having a stroke! She was immediately airlifted to the children's hospital.
My ex's uncle went for shortness of breath, they said it was asthma, here's an inhaler. He dropped dead a week later from a heart attack (dead before he hit the floor).
I moved away from my hometown and if there's one thing I don't miss, it's the absolutely horrible healthcare there.
The 1st story is very similar to what happened to my mom about 20 years ago. My mom was told by a doctor that she had pneumonia. My mom's sister was a doctor in a different state and she thought something was off about the symptoms, so she flew out and took my mom to see other doctors and it turned out to be lymphoma (cancer). My mom was treated and recovered, but she might not have survived if not for her sister.
A previous GP saw that my heart rate was high during a routine checkup and thought it was due to my ADHD meds interacting with my anxiety meds, she told me to half my dosage of my anxiety meds. That was an absolutely awful week, my psych raised my meds back up and started looking at new GPs after she refused to treat a separate issue. New insurance meant going to a new practice, I went in due to heat intolerance and excessive sweating. I would sweat buckets after only unloading the dishwasher and it was very dysregulating as an autistic person. Got seen by an assistant physician, who gave basically prescription strength anti-perspirant to me. Didn’t work in treating the heat intolerance so the AP tried a medication that would dry me out and would maybe treat the heat intolerance; it did not. Went to the naturopath for a second opinion, she noticed my heart rate and with the symptoms I had suggested POTS. A cardiology referral and tests later I was diagnosed with something similar: inappropriate sinus tachycardia. Basically my heart rate was high 24/7 for no reason and just small amount of physical activity would work me up into a sweat because my heart was working hard already. Now I’m on meds that will lower my heart rate and have not experienced any of those awful symptoms since, just in time for the incoming summer too! Now I plan to switch to my mom’s awesome GP.
I have a similar story to yours, I’m diagnosed ADHD and suspect I’m also autistic. Diagnosed with POTS. First three doctors ignored my symptoms
I mean adhd meds are stimulants, they raise your heart rafe
Google Ehlers Danlos Syndrome especially if you are or were ever "double jointed" because there's no such thing. It's a connective tissue disorder every time. ND people have a higher chance of having it. Im not a Dr. I am Autistic with ADHD and I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.
@@bec1.618read my comment please and google Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.
Please tell me that it wasn't Duloxotin you were told to half... absolute nightmare.
women in general, and women of color specifically, are often dismissed and ignored as "hysteria". their pain, symptoms, and reports are often dismissed. If your doctor won't look at you, they cannot diagnose you. don't leave until they look at whatever it is. and if you still doubt them, find someone else.
Yeah. They used to say hysteria, now they say it's stress, anxiety, depression, (all of which are legitimate diagnosis by the way, but should not be thrown at every woman with any symptoms), or even worse, "sometimes women are just emotional". Treatment of women in the medical field needs some serious work. It's not just male doctors either. Women doctors are often no better than the men when it comes to dismissal of women's symptoms.
Ive been super sleepy for 14 years, I cant even count how many doctors have said “well, everybody is little tired sometimes”. I think Im beyond little tired by now, but ok. I also had a lady doc, who simply refused to treat me for depression, back pain (turned out to be infection), knee pain (turned out to be tears in my patella) and uterus related stuff. It got so bad, another doc intervened and made a complaint, she got removed after years of not treating young girls. I wasn’t the only one, it turns out.
I was in the ER about a year ago. They were remodeling so all treatment was done in waiting rooms and hallways (total chaos) and there was a young black woman in a wheelchair with an IV. The IV wasn't moving. She kept trying to get someone's attention to tell them it wasn't working, and they would tap it a few times and just tell her it was working. I was sitting across from her and I could see for myself it wasn't moving at all. There was another young black woman they started screaming at because she wouldn't sit where they wanted her to and an older black lady sitting next to me, who was still sitting there five hours later when I was being discharged. I felt so bad for all of them.
Men are treated way worse, I had a pancreas illness and 1st time they kept accusing me of being a alcoholic but I literally don't even touch alcohol ever, never,
My mother is black and once she was in excruciating pain, i thought It could be kidney stones because from what i read about It in life her simptons matched that, but well, i'm no doctor.
The doctor first guess was a STD. My mother was around 55, had been a teacher for 30 years, only ever had been with my father, who, by the way, was bed ridden for nearly 10 years (so no sex for them in that time). Like, i researched the desease he suggested, It was something not common and a STD. I imediatly knew that my mother didn't had that and suspected he assume that diagnostic because he was dealing with a black woman.
They did some tests. Guess what, she had stones in her urinary canal, something quite close to kidney stones. I didn't knew shit about medicine but had a better idea than the doctor.
Went to a doctor when i was 16yrs old for severe abdominal pain, weight loss, diarrhea and blood loss from my back end. They asked me really personal questions and i was honest. They asked how adventurous i was with putting stuff in my body through the back end..
I was honest, never done anything like that.
They did a scope, a rather uncomfortable impromptu scope up my back end and saw tons of inflammation, blood, ulcers, scar tissue.. then they sent me home telling me to stop shoving stuff up there. I argued that i didn’t do anything like that, they still sent me home with a “receipt” for my visit advising me to stop putting stuff up there. No medications, no referrals to other doctors, they just figured i was lying.
Took 1-2 years but i finally got a diagnosis after i saw a specialist and was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. I still live with it to this day but at least i have treatment and finally put it into remission. I’ll never forget how that doctor completely ignored what i said and made his own conclusions.
I'm not a doctor but even I've heard of Ulcerative colitis....but then again, I have IBS so I know a few things about guts
Ulcerative Colitis SUCKSSS, my local GP (who granted, has pretty much the WORST reputation in my county but we had to go to as it merged with our old good one) called it "anxiety" for around three years, even AFTER they had stool samples from me that looked like pure liquid disease with the amount of blood and mucus in there. Come in a second time, barely able to move, and there was some kind of temporary staff there who took one look at me and said I had to go straight to the hospital.
Yeah, it was UC. I was resistant to every medication and after a scope revealed my colon was extremely close to perforating, I had surgery to get it out. I was FIFTEEN when I started having symptoms, and had the surgery when I was EIGHTEEN. Perhaps if the GP had taken me seriously, I would have never been gotten so bad.
Oh, and I just glossed over the whole "they gave me so many steroids after my surgery I went into psychosis and had to spend a few weeks in a psych ward" bit, that wasn't fun either.
I'm twenty now, it's been a lot to get used to but I'm doing okay.
Ftr: the appendix does have a function; it's a repository of gut bacteria and keeps the large intestine functioning correct. People with my genetic condition have reported gastroparesis episodes get worse after appendectomy. So it's actually untrue (And quite obsolete) data that the appendix doesn't do anything.
To add onto this, since he was also asking about the gallbladder, the function of the gallbladder is to store and secrete the bile produced by the liver, which is used to help digest fats. People who have undergone gallbladder surgery usually have to avoid fatty foods. It won't kill them or anything extreme, but ingesting a lot of fats can result in them having some issues coming out of the other end.
There is no part of our body that has no function, I always thought that was bullshit even when I was in junior high and they told us the Appendix has no function.
@@asssalt7347Yep, as someone who had their gall bladder removed, if I'm not careful with some fatty or oily foods, I can spend up to an hour on the bog.
It is not the most pleasant thing in the world either.
Ehlers-Danlos? Type 1 here. My gastroparesis is AWFUL.
We also know that the tonsils are important for immune health as well. My niece had her tonsils removed, but she had to have strep throat 3 or 4 times winter before last, and bad cases too, before they'd remove them. It's funny that I'm not that old and in the course of my life, all of those so called "useless" organs actually have pretty important functions. You just have to pay attention and collect some data.
After experiencing joint pain and my hands going numb I went to my primary care doctor to see if I could get a referral to a specialist (neurologist) and she told me to lose weight, so that's exactly what I do and symptoms got worse.
5 months later I'm seeing a physical therapist (I was recommended to via a spine and pain specialist whom I was recommended to by a neurologist) because I'm now using a cane, experiencing seizures, POTS like symptoms, general leg weakness and more joint pain and now back pain- I tell my physical therapist that my now former primary care doctor told me to lose weight and after attempting to things got significantly worse. He laughed and said that he's heard similar stories from that place.
A year later, I'm still experiencing the symptoms plus gut issues and we still have no idea what is wrong with me lol. I love that physical therapist though, he's the only doctor who admitted he had no idea what was wrong with me and didn't want to keep me in physical therapy if I was going to experience more weakness and pain.
Get tested for active and stored b12 in the blood. B1 too.
Have you considered Ehlers Danlos Syndrome or something autoimmune related? Joint pain, pots like symptoms and general weakness and pain is what is making me think it might be EDS
@@sachikawaii Honestly I've suspected that for a couple years because of a couple of small symptoms I've always had, but recently I've become convinced I do have EDS. I've thought about getting the test done for it but my neurologist has talked me out of it multiple times. Today I actually scheduled an appointment with my primary care doctor for a generics test for it though haha.
I feel kind of crazy because I would Google my symptoms and EDS would pop up a lot. EDS is the only thing I have looked into and have had every symptom of, I just feel a little crazy telling my doctors that because they pretty much always tell me I am too young and that's too rare.
@@anonuser1279 EDS is a genetic condition from birth. If they're telling you you're too young they're stupid. It is very rare but definitely exists and causes real symptoms. Don't let them talk you out of investigating it, even if it's not that, you've ruled it out. You've got this love!!! I was diagnosed with EDS at 18 or so after I dislocated my knee getting out of bed and suddenly my whole life of pain, nausea, anxiety and depression etc all made sense. ❤️
Sounds like textbook EDS. Not all forms of EDS come up in blood tests. Ask for a referral to rheumatology or a geneticist, but rheumatology is usually faster. your GP cannot diagnose it, it has to be by a rheumatologist or geneticist. There's no cure, but OT and orthotics will be the best thing in your life. Orthotics are the ones that figured out my hip subluxing all the time was because I have almost an inch length difference in my legs. 3D printed insoles to correct it, combined with ankle braces, and I don't need a cane, because I'm not unstable when standing any more, and it doesn't feel like I'm a walking marionette!
The POTS is still a problem, and it was worse after losing weight.
When I was 13 I was on an antibiotic for acne, and about a month after I started taking it, I started feeling really itchy and noticing some bumps all over my arms and chest, I immediately thought "huh, what if I'm allergic to that antibiotic" so I went to my dad, a doctor, to see what he thought. He said, "man, looks like you got a family of mosquitos in your room" and told me to put some hydrocortisone cream on it for the itching, and then he left me, with my older sister watching me, to go to dinner with his girlfriend. While he was gone, the itching was getting worse and worse and the bumps were getting larger and redder, so I went to my sister to complain, she took one look at my arms and instantly knew they were hives and called my dad. He came home and apologized for not realizing it and not taking me seriously, but still didn't take me to the hospital and instead watched me over night himself. By the morning I was 100x worse, hives were so big, red, and painfully itchy and my hands and feet were swollen to the size of baseball mitts, and my dad's girlfriend finally convinced him to take me to the ER. Turns out I was exactly right and was in a full blown anaphylactic reaction that was so bad it sent me to the ER twice in two days.
Was it Bactrim? I'm also allergic. Like anaphylaxis allergic. I have a Steven's Johnson type reaction.
@@jamieweatherwalk2752 No it was tetracycline. Ironically, bactrim was what they put me on after I recovered
Jesus...the problem with allergic reactions is that they need to be treated asap! The longer you're suffering the worse off you are because all that histamine doesn't just disappear. Your body has to process it. Do you want to process a teaspoon or a gallon? That's how I explain it anyway. Same with pain. Treat it early, treat it seriously. I have chronic pain and sometimes I just forget something is hurting me until it's not anymore. During a migraine I might be walking around the house with the lights turned on, squinting, shielding my eyes, and apparently looking very uncomfortable, and my dad comes in and says, "What are you doing with the lights on? Lemmie turn that off!" Then a wave of relief.
Thankfully for me the one thing my nurse mother took seriously was hives from medication.
The one I hated most was, one year I went as a dalmatian, painted a big black spot around my eye with a greasepaint crayon from one of those cheap Halloween makeup kits. By the time I got to school the next day it was hot, red, and getting itchy. Went to the nurse and had to call my mom for her to bring me pills or cream. It was getting pretty bad and I was begging her to bring some during her lunch break. She was literally a 5 min drive away at one of the other schools. She refused. I went the rest of the day like that. Got home, alone, took some Benadryl and fell asleep. When she got home she woke me up and legit YELLED AT ME! It had already gone down by half and she was losing her crap over it, "Why didn't you tell me it was this bad?!" Uh, yeah. I tried, my school nurse tried, but in her mind I'm perpetually an attention seeking faker, so I was clearly fine regardless of what I said.
Yup. Absolutely my fault for not being more insistent. 🙄
@@jamieweatherwalk2752Oh God the SJS is so awful! Thankfully I've never been through it but I take a few meds that have sjs warnings. My bipolar medication is pretty well known for sjs problems, but it's the one that works, and I've tried so many things that haven't...
With a Bactrim allergy, especially a serious one, you should probably be checked for a sulfa allergy if you haven't been already. Sulfa drug allergies are rough and while they're used less these days they still work well for certain things.
When I was a newborn I would frequently get pale and limp and very weak and fussy and wouldn't nurse, my mom saw several doctors who all told her different things, I had an ear infection, I had the flu, etc. Finally a doctor who actually paid attention realized I kept going into tachycardia, and I had to be kept on heart meds until I was in middle school before I outgrew the tachycardia and stopped getting it.
I had a friend who in the summer of 2019 started experiencing pain in her body. And was told by many doctors that it was a myriad of things from sciatica, muscle disorder, joint disorder, bone disorders, all the way to drug seeking.
It took her waking up one morning literally paralyzed for someone to take her seriously. She was later that month diagnosed with Stage IV Ewing Sarcoma. It was already in her hip, femur, and spine. It had eaten so much of her bones, she had to get metal rods put in to allow her to move again. Took 6 months for someone to take her seriously.
She died on May 22nd 2022, a month before her 27th birthday. Leaving her two young daughters (9 and 5), her parents, sisters, niece and nephew, many extended family, and her friends.
She was initially given 6 months…. And lasted nearly 2.5 years. I miss her beyond words, and we’re coming up to the 2 year anniversary of her passing next month.
Time keeps on marching on… but it hasn’t been the same without her. There has just been so much I’ve wanted to talk to her about since she died… and I can’t. I lost one of my best friends…. All because a bunch of doctors couldn’t take her complaints seriously. There’s now a hole in my heart, that will never heal.
I cannot even say how sorry I am for the loss of your friend.
My mother kept complaining of dizziness, migraines, and lack of coordination. Doctor had to be pestered into giving her an MRI or Catscan, not sure which. He told her there was nothing and that it was probably "all in her head". He hinted my mother was just being dramatic and whenever she would tell him the medication he was giving her wasn't working, he would get angry and tell her to get her primary physician to give her something. Fast forward a year, and mom gets another MRI/Catscan because insurance demands it for her to continue with this doctor (neurologist) three days later, mom gets a frantic call from neurologist's partner. Tells her to come in and informs mom that her original test had not even been looked at by the original doctor. How do we know? Because my mother had a brain tumor the size of a lemon and nobody told her. The only reason they found it with the second test was because mom had been getting chemo for stomach cancer and the tumor had shrunk which was making the dizziness and migraines worse because the empty space was filling with cerebrospinal fluid and throwing her off balance and the tumor had been growing around nerves at the base of her brain that were impinged, hence the migraines.
About a month and a half ago I developed abdominal pain, and the doctor in the ER was SUPER prompt in figuring out my gallbladder was causing a problem. A week later I got surgery before the infection spread too far. I’m so thankful they figured it out fast, sounds like gallbladder gets misdiagnosed a lot!
Absolutely, my husband had his removed in December... after 2 ER visits and me going nuclear on a doctor who "wasn't sure it was his gallbladder."
Mine failed for five years before I got a second opinion. First doc didn't care about anything but stones.
The gallbladder's job is to store bile, which is made by the liver, and is used to aid in digestion. Bile is that gross yellow-green stuff that you puke up when you're vomiting on an empty stomach. You can live without your gallbladder and you won't need medication afterward, generally speaking, because the liver will continue to make bile whether it has the extra storage space or not. Some people struggle with eating foods that cause higher bile release, like fatty foods, after gallbladder removal. I had mine out 11 years ago because I was in and out of the hospital, super sick to my stomach, for like a year and a half and I've had no ill effects from the removal other than a little bile reflux but that is because I have severe acid reflux(GERD). By severe I mean despite the pill I take having a 40mg/day max, I have to take 80mg/day.
9:30 perhaps doctors ought to start explaining the difference between infertile and sterile/what they mean. I’ve seen waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many stories were just knowing the 2 terms and what they mean would have been a literal and/or metaphorical lifesaver.
Infertile: makes conception a lot harder/less likely, but never IMPOSSIBLE. Treatments may or may not make things easier, but will cost A LOT of money. No matter how low the odds, infertile never means 0% chance of conceiving. If an infertile person absolutely does not want to have a kid or get pregnant, they should still take all the same precautions they would if they weren’t infertile. Because the chance is never 0, even with both parties being infertile with as low of odds as possible, it’s still NEVER 0.
Sterile: completely incapable of conceiving. Sterile=you cannot have a kid that is biologically yours, full stop. Sterile means there is absolutely no chance. Not even the slimmest of slim. It means absolute impossibility. It’s also very rare to be completely sterile naturally, and a lot of surgical and medical forms of sterilization can reverse themselves. But if you are naturally sterile (i.e. were not made sterile but just are sterile) then there’s nothing to be done for it. Whether that is good news or awful news is entirely up to the individual.
TL;DR
infertile=low but nonzero fertility. Conception possible.
Sterile=zero fertility. Conception impossible.
This needs to be something people are taught.
Sterility was amazing news to me, but I've talked to so many people who were devastated. It can be a life-destroying situation.
Note how many of these are woman...
I got kicked by a horse in the stomach. The ER doc refused to believe it could be anything other then pregnancy. 16 pregnancy tests later and it wasnt until i went septic that he decided to maybe address the chief complaint. Turns out i had torn my intestines from the force of being kicked by a 1500lb+ animal and needed surgery.
Wow, kicked by a horse and the problem wasn't that you're pregnant? How odd. I don't know... did you have a pregnancy test? Because usually being kicked in the stomach by a horse causes pregnancy.
I had chronic issues with my period from the very beginning at age 11. I would bleed an absurd amount and had horrific pain almost every month, like so bad I would get cold sweats, throw up, and pass out. Even ovulation was painful and for most people they don't even feel it. Doctors had me try birth control which ended up giving me a pulmonary embolism at 19 which is a whole other ridiculous story. I tried non-estrogen based ones that didn't help and even made things worse. Then I began bleeding nonstop all day every day. Sometimes I would spontaneously hemorrhage for about 30 minutes. It was so bad that I would soak through the most absorbent tampon and pad combined in 3-5 minutes. So I would just have to sit on the toilet for those 30 minutes until it passed. This happened about 1-2 times per month in addition to the standard amount of period bleeding the rest of the time. This went on for three years before I was finally referred to a specialist. He immediately did a hysteroscopy and found that I not only had polyps in my uterus but it, along with my cervix and fallopian tubes, we COVERED in endometriosis. That absolutely explained the heavy bleeding and the insane period and ovulation pain. So off to hysterectomy I go, happily. that was a few years ago and my life has improved drastically. I spent most of my life extremely anemic and in tons of pain because no doctor would listen to me. They all thought I was exaggerating. It literally required something they could physically see, ie the nonstop bleeding, for someone to believe me. By the way the specialist was incredible and if anyone is in need of a hysterectomy and is struggling to get one I'll give you his info. He was the one who suggested it in the first place. I didn't have to beg and plead like so many are forced to do.
I’ve read a story about a New Zealand woman who had a c-section, spent the next 18 months in severe abdominal pain, before finally the doctors stopped doing X-rays and did a CT scan of her abdomen, where they found that they had left a DINNER PLATE SIZED MEDICAL INSTRUMENT INSIDE OF HER from when they did the c-section. FOR EIGHTEEN MONTHS. It was made of plastic, hence not showing up on the x-rays.
I was injured at work, right hand, had 3 puncture wounds in my palm. Massive infection just a few mm away from the bone and joint. Had 2 surgeries to try and fix the lack of movement and pain. Was showing many signs of CRPS. Spoke to my first pain specialist, gp, OT, physio and hand therapist, they all dismissed me. 9 months later i demand to see a different doctor as I could barely function and my pain had been out of control for the whole year. Second pain specialist diagnosed me with CRPS within 15 minutes (incurable and progressive disease of the nervous system). My crps caused me to develop 4 other incurable diseases of the nervous system and I’ve now had to medically retire at 28. My fiance has become my full time caregiver and I can still barely function. If my first pain specialist took me seriously, I would have had 70% chance of remission. Because it took so long to get the diagnosis and start treatment, I now have only a 5% chance of remission and will require spinal surgery to implant a spinal cord stimulator to try and reduce my pain. My function will never improve and eventually I’ll have CRPS full body as well as potentially have it in organs.
Patient here. For 2-3 years I had a thing where I basically had my period all the time - the usual number of days a month plus the rest of the time gross bloody sludge. It was gross and I was anemic. Had to give up donating blood because they wouldn’t accept me with my levels. Even iron supplements and food didn’t help since I was freaking bleeding every day.
I was in my late 20s and while not sexually active, knew I ought to make a regular OBGYN appt. For exam and then also to ask about the problem
So I found a doctor nearby and he asked me some questions. I told him about this nonstop bleeding I was having, and he was like “huh.” Then followed up, asking me if I was trying to get pregnant? I said no. I am asexual so I don’t even have sex. And then he tells me since I’m not trying to get pregnant, there’s no reason I should even care about my period, whether it’s coming or not coming. I accepted this and put up with it for I think at least another year. I saw the guy again and he said the same thing.
Finally, I got another doctor and during our first appointment I told her my issue. She immediately told me “we can do something about that, no problem.” She told me it was unacceptable to say that wasn’t an issue. I had to go on birth control for like a year just to get my hormone straightened out.
It sucks that so many obstetricians and gynecologist have this attitude that all their care is based around pregnancy, and that women who aren’t pregnant and don’t want to be are second-class citizens.
(Before someone says this is a man versus woman doctor thing, throughout my life I have preferred male OV/GYNs and male doctors generally. In this case one was just a jerk, and the other had empathy and practiced holistically.)
I was having trouble with my joints swelling, and the pain was terrible. My doctor was going away for a month and had another doctor cover for him. The doctor, with only looking at me, told me I had an acute lupus. He put me on a high dose of steroids. I told him that I didn't want to take steroids because I know I'll gain weight. He told me that he was giving me a new steroid that doesn't cause weight gain. I called BS, but figured I had no choice. Three months later the swelling and pain was still there. I was able to get in to see my own doctor. When I told him what I was diagnosed with and the steroids I was taking, he slammed his hand down on the table. He had me get X-rays. Turns out I have osteoarthritis.
And yeah, I gained weight that I have trouble keeping off.
So many incompetent doctors.... thanks for sharing these stories.... wishing all of you a happy and healthy life!
My mom had a septic infection on her finger. I saw it and as it was a holiday and her doctors office was closed, i told her to go to the hospital. Even the receptionist nurse at the hospital saw it and said, yes, that's a sepsis, the incompetent docter gave her some ointment to put her finger into and nothing else. Two days later my mom went to her usual doctor who immediately sent her to the ER while calling the incompetent hospital doctor to berate him. Long story short, my mom now has one finger less, as it had to be cut off due to necrosis to the bone. Tbf she has diabetes and polyneuropathic nerve damage, so she didn't have any real pain.
I almost died when I was 10 due to anemia. I was born with an intersex condition, and it caused me to undergo precocious puberty(basically early puberty, started at 8 years old instead of a much healthier 12 or 13), my condition causes me to bleed excessively to the point of anemia when I menstruate. I was pale, delirious, and in so much pain I couldn't breathe without it feeling like I was being stabbed. The first doctor my parents took me to insisted that I was drug-seeking, and being dramatic "as all children are". By the time my parents were able to get me to a second hospital, I was unconscious and my brain was at risk of dying from all the blood I'd lost. The severity of my menstruation anemia has gone down, thankfully, but it still causes me to black out and puts me out of commission for a week. Still trying to get the uterus yeeted do I don't bleed anymore, but despite getting 22 second opinions, doctors refuse to give me a hysterectomy. Doctors are fun /s
Def relate to one of these.
Woke up one night with the worst pain of my life, 10/10, which being chronically ill as I am is saying something. I was ready to throw up and could barely walk, I equated the pain to what id imagine being shot in the chest felt like. The only thing that got me to walk was my parents asking if I needed an ambulance (hell no, we too broke for THAT). Got to the ER and was told it was a back sprain. I sprain my back practically every month, I know what that feels like, this wasn't it. Got meds and sent away, luckily it cleared up for a bit. Few days later it happened again and GP sent us to the hospital where we got rushed in so that I could have emergency surgery that night. Turns out i had stones getting stuck and so my gallbladder was trying to kill me. Got that sucker removed but can confirm that for an organ I didn't even know the name of before my issues, it does quite a bit of work.
Not a doctor, myself.
My mother is overweight and as a result, her legs are discoloured around the shins. She's been to the GPs in her area of England and they just tell her that it's all weight-related without actually looking into it.
We go on holiday in 2022 to Florida. Midway through the holiday, my mum starts feeling bad and stays in the villa with my dad. They go to a doctor there and they prescribe her woth some antibiotics, which seemed to clear up whatever was wrong. Towards the near end of the holiday, she feels worse after getting off a water boat ride. My sister's husband rushes her to the hospital where they performed tests. They diagnosed my mum with Cellulitis, which could have gotten fatal if ignored.
Where our GPs had failed her, doctors in America actually made sure to check their patients. If it weren't for the hefty fucking bill that the American healthcare system gave her (and the insurance that's dragging their feet to pay to this day), I couldn't give them a higher amount of praise. Imagine how many more lives would be saved in the US if healthcare was universal.
Second story, happened years before to a friend of my brother.
He was diagnosed with leukemia. As he went for chemotherapy, he wouldn't improve. By the time the doctors discovered what he actually had, it was already too late. He had TB and the chemo weakened his immune system enough to let it kill him. He was young - about early 20's at the time. I really hope the parents sued the doctors who misdiagnosed the kid.
In a car accident at 11, I was hit in the back and thrown against the 150lb diamond plate toolbox on my back because I was in the bed of a pickup truck. We were stopped, waiting to turn left and someone fucking with their phone hit us at 35mph. My doc did every test imaginable EXCEPT an MRI. It was concluded to be a "deep muscle bruise". 10 years later, I'm living in a different state and my new doc orders an MRI. Turns out I have a herniated disc, pressing my nerve roots against the canals they thread through, causing sciatic issues on the left side. But by the time this was figured out, insurance had already settled. I got about $1500 and a lifetime of pain. Oh, and why did the doc not do an MRI, you ask? He was "afraid [I'd] be clostrophobic". Mind you I'd had a bone scan, CT, and other "clostrophobic" imaging done as well as an MRI at 15 when I tore out the TFCC in my wrist in a rollerblading fall. 🙄🤦🏻♀️
In middle school, I got sent to the school nurse because my stomach hurt really badly. She decided it was obviously period cramps even though mine are never that bad and it was entirely the wrong time of month, and called my parents to take me home to rest.
Next morning, I woke up in the most pain I've ever felt. My parents rushed me to the hospital, and it turns out I had appendicitis. I had to get surgery and spend weeks in the hospital, and I could've died if I'd gone undiagnosed another day or two.
Mom then made it her life's work to get that school nurse fired. I don't know the details, but the nurse did end up retiring suspiciously abruptly a couple years later.
I miss my mom. She was a badass.
I'm very obviously hypermobile. Like, my teachers in school could tell just by the way I walk and how my arms bend when I hold them out "straight" (they bend up at the elbows). Not only was I never formally diagnosed as a kid, but the doctor straight up lied to my mom and I and said "This is normal for kids, (he'll) grow out of it." Fast forward several years, I'm still hypermobile. Its starting to cause pretty gnarly health issues. I'm in pain every day, but I don't want pain meds because addiction runs in my family. My doctor thinks I might have a connective tissue disorder. It's infuriating because it's such an obvious and visible issue, and I could have avoided so much pain if I'd just gotten... literally any help for it.
Sounds like EDS? I hope you’re getting the medical care you need, connective tissue disorders and their symptoms are no joke xx
I'm chronically ill. I have multiple disabilities. Especially with my heart.
I start having chest pains, shortness of breath, dizziness, fatigue, the whole thing. This goes on constantly. For a long time. The school nurses constantly tell me it's probably just anxiety since my vitals are showing up fine. I have a literal lifelong history of heart problems. I was born with 6 major defects. I know when things are anxiety and when things are my heart. I'm constantly telling these nurses that I think there's something going on with my heart. They either tell me it's anxiety or try to treat me for my diabetes. Completely ignoring my history of heart problems. I go into the ER multiple times, I even have to ride in an ambulance at one point. The ER can't find anything wrong with me other than the symptoms I'm complaining about. These symptoms keep getting worse. I'm almost failing school because I'm physically unable to get to classes. I bring this up to my grandparents and they immediately get me set up to see my cardiologist. My cardiologist tells me I'm having two valve problems and he'll have to talk with the surgeons to see how severe things are. Meanwhile the school nurses finally acknowledge that maybe yeah it is my heart while also telling me it's still likely to be anxiety. My symptoms get so bad that I start using a wheelchair. I'm going to the hospital at least once per month. I'm still told it's anxiety. My cardiologist has already diagnosed me with having two heart valve problems currently. My symptoms continue getting worse. I already know it's my heart. I'm still told it's anxiety and panic attacks. Even when I quite literally collapse and start struggling to breathe and can't move.
I finally got a heart cath this week. One of my valve problems is in the severe stage.
I knew from the start I was having major heart problems. I probably need another heart surgery.
Tl;dr: I have a literal lifelong history of heart problems and start experiencing worsening symptoms of heart issues. I'm constantly told it's anxiety. Turns out one of my heart problems is in the severe stage.
Clearing up potential misinformation: There are *so many* different kinds of birth controls that affect everyone differently. Some people have bad side effects from every form of birth control they try, and other people who have 0% risk of being pregnant are on birth control because they feel BETTER on it.
Ive been on birth control nearly 20 years now to treat cysts, I can’t say I’ve had a single side effect. There are many options and like my other medicine if you don’t feel right on it talk to dr about trying something else
agreed. many people told me it’s horrible and when i got on it i can only say i have bloating and some weight gain but im happy with it!
My last gf had horrible blood clots and almost constant leg cramps during the night, but that stopped when she got different contraceptives. Current gf just gets bloated. Not 100% sure, but i think they used the same birth control pills
Everyone’s body is different too. Mine reacts badly to all birth control. This is likely at least partially due to having an autoimmune response to both my own and synthetic progesterone. There’s one or two I can take, chosen because they cause the least number of harmful side effects. Luckily though, people like me are unusual.
I wish they would change the name of birth control. The name is why people who dont do research have such a hatred of it. My mom refuses to let me on birth control even though my periods were extremely irregular at one point. She says it will make girls think its ok to have sex, as if women are not people with individual traits. A girl who wants to have sex will have sex, pill or not. Not to mention she knows I am not sexually active whatsoever, I dont even have a partner, so why it matters in my situation is beyond me.
Birth control helps with acne, less painful periods, skin, and can prevent reproductive diseases. Once I am in charge of my own healthcare, I am probably going to go on birth control even after I have gotten a hysterectomy
When I was 26 I was told I had to have a heart transplant or a year to live. Went for a second opinion was told I didn’t need a transplant.
To top it off that doctor sent me a bill for $1000 dollars I never paid him sent him a letter telling him if tried to take me to court for it. I would sue for millions. Never heard back from him.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It took me 24 years to get a proper diagnosis and only the fourth cardiologyst I went to could actually identify what I had. The second cardio literally told me all of my problems were in my head and if I started to hit the gym all of the guys would line up after me, which... was not what I needed to hear while constantly fainting.
My moms "minor throat infection" ended up being cancer.
My "ignorance and antisocial behaviour"? Autism.
My "Just growing pains"? Scoliosis that was now too bad to be helped.
I dont trust doctors anymore.
Nor me. Severe scoliosis and very severe dystonia here. Doctors dismiss me with "so what, just accept that you are disabled and go into a nursing home", and threats to send me to psychologists if I don't just accept that I'm disabled. I was very active and doing sports until five years ago and am not even middle aged yet so excuse me for having asked for tests and treatment... which I never got by the way.
This happened around December, I was incredibly ill with a fever of 102 and a heart rate of 130, I went to urgent care and they told me it was anxiety. My parents didn't like that answer so they took me (I couldn't drive I was so sick) to another urgent care a few towns over.
I had Covid and Strep throat. Two things that are not hard to test for in the slightest.
What Med School Washout could think Anxiety would cause a fever? I can understand Heart Rate, I have Anxiety myself.
@@Olimar92Thats what confused me!! I guess thats the kinda doctors you get when you like in the middle of nowhere
@@Olimar92More than you would think. I was once told that chronic organ failure just needed antidepressants.
@SewardWriter oh my gosh that's awful
I gota dumb quick story to this. When I was 2 I was badly down sick. My parents took me to the hospital in bowmanville Ontario. ( I’m the 3ed out of 4 kids with older siblings so my parents weren’t exactly new parents ) the hospital basically told them I was find and was just sick with a flu that they were just scared new parents and what I was going through was normal for a 2 year old. But that dident sit right with my parents and on the way out of the hospital a friend of theirs that drove for a taxi company ( this was 1992 ) seen them and offered them a ride home. But even he noticed I dident look healthy and my parents explained to the driver they still thought something was wrong with me. So the cab driver drove us to the hospital in Oshawa Ontario. As soon as the dr seen me he said I had taken a massive heart attack.. at 2 years old.. gave me a catheter and I dident even flinch which showed how bad of a state I was in A 2 year old little boy getting a catheter and not even blinking from the pain?. Turns out I had suffered a massive heart attack. Obviously Oshawa hospital saved me cuz I’m here typing this now. But the negligence of the bowmanville hospital staff to just shove a 2 year old off as a simple cold or flu that nothing was to worry about. That the parents were just over worried. When in fact I was suffering a heart attack right in front of the hospital staff. It’s not a really a second opinion story.. but I guess it can fall under this
In 2018 I started having weird episodes of double vision. They weren't common then so I didn't say anything to my doctors. By 2023 though, they were so common, I spent more days laying on the couch, unable to function, than days being a normal person. I had first started trying to get them figured out in 2021 and I saw all kinds of doctors like my regular doctor, my eye doctor, a neuro eye doctor, and a neurologist and none of them could figure out what the cause was. I asked them each, more than once if it could be caused by any of my meds and they all said no. Well back in November 2023, I had forgotten to take my morning dose of one of my medications (was supposed to take it twice a day) and I realized I wasn't having double vision when I was only taking the medication once a day. I then tried taking it twice a day again and boom. Double vision was back. So I stopped taking the medication all together because I realized that I was on the lowest dose when the double vision started in 2018 and it caused me to have issues then, so it could cause them again when my body got used to the low dose. I haven't had double vision since the last week of November 2023. Only problem is, the med that was causing the problem was a mood stabilizer and now my mental health is worse than its been in probably a decade. Oh and my new psych put me on the same medication, just the extended release version and a super low dose to try and help but I haven't seen a difference in my mental health... I'd never hurt myself but I don't see a point in being here... all of that to say, I was my own damn second opinion.
It's very difficult to argue with doctors when you're on your own, even when you know they are wrong
My issue has not been the fact I am alone, but the fact I am normally having to argue when I am already deeply ill and do not have the energy or mental capacity to argue. Maybe I am severely ill with pneumonia and would like nothing more than to lay down or my 02 is actually in the high 80's/low 90's and I am told I have a cold and yes, this has happened. It's the arguing when you are at a complete disadvantage to someone who is completely healthy and has a position of some authority as they can deny testing and treatments despite your requests for further care and basically call you a liar or mark that you are a drug seeker when you are actually in legit pain. The next sees you come in for pain and that label can follow you so instead of the testing you need you are thought to be seeking medications when you would really rather have people cut out your pain surgically if that would fix everything.
It's a terrible position to be in and especially when you are already sick.
My mom was told she couldn't have children. She was devastated. Then when she was 40 she felt real weird, went to the clinic. "Early menopause" supposedly. Felt weirder, went to her normal dr. Got the shock of her life that she was going to have a kid. Now I'm here and she's stuck with me wahahaha 👁️👄👁️
Jesus I'm no medical expert, just a little more keyed in on the human body and ailments because autism wanted me to 🙃
But the first story I was like there's no damn way they thought that was pneumonia. I had an inkling it was leaning toward the big C which is really unfortunate. How the heck do they miss something like that.
It seems that there's a general pandemic going around of getting sick while female. Doctors have always had trouble diagnosing and treating that one.
Oh yeah, and I'm sure that there's probably a general pandemic going on for being sick while black and transgender and everything else too right
Mine was an intentional misdiagnosis. I must have seen more than 20 docs in all different fields between the ages of birth and 18 (but specifically 8-18).
There was something wrong with me. In most basic terms…I couldn’t move my body well, it would go through times where it just wouldn’t respond.
When things like MS, MD, CP, etc were ruled out we asked if this could be something like a brain injury from a traumatic birth (something listed on my med chart). The docs always brushed us off.
A week after I turned 18, after years of fighting for a diagnosis and help, a doc finally says it’s brain damage. Others agree and it seems quite accepted now.
How funny that they would only diagnose it when I could no longer sue the doctor that caused the damage? The day I turned 18 I lost that ability legally.
Some of my fun medical stories:
I started gaining weight rapidly when I was 12. Doctors blamed puberty, changing schools, my parents splitting up, and me being lazy and unwilling to eat right and exercise. When I was 23 a new doctor checked my thyroid. Over a decade of untreated hypothyroidism, with some lifelong problems from not being treated.
Similarly, I started experiencing serious depression and struggling in school around 12. Everyone blamed puberty, new school, parents breaking up, and "everyone feels this way." At 17 I was diagnosed with PMDD, at 19 depression and anxiety, and before 30 I was also diagnosed with c-ptsd, ADHD, panic disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. I'm doing a LOT of therapy, and I have permanent physical damage to my muscles from being scared and tense for the first 23 years of my life.
Finally, I got sick a little after the height of the covid shut downs. Fever, congestion, sinus pain. Went to a minute clinic. First doctor said I didn't have a fever. Even after I explained that my normal body temp is lower than average, so a "slightly elevated temp" is actually really high for me. Second doctor said I had covid (despite two tests proving I don't), pneumonia, an ear infection, and sleep apnea. It was a sinus infection. I get them every year and told them it's most likely what was causing my sickness.
Oh! One more! Due to the muscle damage, whenever I'm too stressed they spasm and sometimes don't unclench for days. This mostly affects the muscles between my ribs. In order to breath, our ribcage expands to make room for air in the lungs. If the muscles can't move, the ribs can't move, and breathing in feels like breaking ribs.
Went to the ER. They were familiar with me, knew which meds worked, and I was usually in and out pretty fast. They're required to do heart scans and xrays, but after that I get a shot of a powerful muscle relaxer, then they call my emergency contact to bring me home to sleep it off.
This one time though, there was a new doctor who decided not to check my file or listen to me. Put me on overnight self-unaliving watch. No meds. I was left in a tiny empty room with a stranger staring at me all night while I went back and forth between screaming and passing out from pain and lack of breathing.
I had a doc tell me my debilitating cycle pain was "normal for some women" and it "might get better after your first baby (I do not and never wanted kids so I felt like she'd told me there was no hope). I went to a new doctor several years later (because I was 18 when I got the original "diagnosis" and was young and dumb). The new doctor let me fully explain everything, was stunned to silence to find out the pain was so bad each month that I had been suicidal for two years and was terrified of my own body. She ordered tests to figure out what was wrong. We still aren't sure what's causing it, but I've finally found treatments that are kinda working so I can function through it each month. I'm not even thirty yet, and this is going to be a life-long struggle that a doctor told me, WHEN I WAS EIGHTEEN, having a baby would fix. Still don't want kids and tell people not to go to that doctor when I hear her name in conversation.
Around late 2008-early 2009 my mom began to have a lot of swelling in her extremities. The swelling spread to the rest of her body. She was having a harder time breathing. She went to the ER at our rural hospital several times. She would be told to quit smoking, lose weight, etc. one doctor even told her to “stop eating so much chocolate”. She reached the point of accepting she was going to die because the doctors wouldn’t listen or look into much of anything.
My dad convinced her to go again one night. The doctor was on a rotation from a larger hospital. He diagnosed her with congestive heart failure. This triggered a laundry list of medical issues over the next five years. Month long hospital stays, long medication lists, she needed help with most things, especially as she declined. She suffered a few small strokes as well. Near the end she was sleeping most of the time.
She passed away in January 2014 at 51 years old. I was 19. Most of my high school years were spent trying to help my dad take care of her. As she declined she got really abusive. She was angry that this was happening to her so she took it out on us. I’m almost 30 now and still go to therapy to work through the trauma of everything that happened over those five years.
Ok to start this off...I have alot of respect for nurse practioners. They are great for the most part. I also have dealt with asthma and chest and sinus infections all my life. I am 44. So because of my experience I blow my nose and its coming out yellowish green. Infection...if I wait too long to get it treated it will move to my chest and become an upper respitory infection. I saw this one NP their "best practice" is to not give antibiotics for 10 days after start of infection. I had a fever of 102 for 3 days which is what made me go to the ER. I get it...I am not a doctor..but I told her if I could not get something for it it would get worse. I was told to use a neti pot to "clear the infection out." I told her I had tried them in the past and it made me panic and then told to me to get an over the counter nasal spray. I was like nasal spray is not going to get rid of the infection. Oh and I was told not to take cold and sinus meds. Because they "mask" the symptoms. Yeah that's the point...I don't have time to suffer through an infection. I have work and responsibilities. I cannot try and work lifting and walking 8 hours a day with a fever that made it hard to stand. I was still sent home. Now keeping in mind...I just want an antibiotic...not narcotics. And for those who whine...well antibiotics are over prescribed...in my case I needed one. I went home suffered with this for another 3 days and it turned into pneumonia. (like I said it would) I then went to my doctor and he gave me an antibiotic and 3 refills on it (he has been through many a sinus and chest infection and he trusts me to know when i need it because again...not narcotics and I have been dealing with this for 40 + years) So I got the antibiotics got better and went about my day. Oh also...On a whim I asked this woman what I should do about my depression...nurse Granola as I call her now told me Yoga. I at the time was weaning myself off some semi powerful antidepressants because I chose to treat it when I started having dark thoughts and my doctor and I agreed that I was doing better and I could try to go with out them. (also have an awesome counselor who was hugely helpful) Yeah Yoga might help with some happy chemicals...but if your brain is not able to use those chemicals it will not matter if you produce more. So yeah...was not impressed. If you don't believe in medical science why are you in the medical field? I am all for alternative medicines if they work...but a neti pot which would help with the congestion (if I could stand feeling like I am drowning while useing it...could not do it) for a sinus infection that was causing fevers for multiple days with out breaking...seriously.
I went to the ER once thinking I mightve had a miscarriage because of the shear amount of pain I was in, the Dr told me it was just a bad period and gave me ibuprofen. We started to go home, planning on just trying to rest and let it pass but we didn't even make it home before my husband took me back and demanded they do something for me. The second doctor actually did a pregnancy test and real pain medication, still said he thought it was probably really bad cramps but at least cared enough to treat the pain
The one about midwives is unfortunately far too common. At least in California there's barely any certification of them and there's a temptation to say it's nothing about all issues around childbirth because it usually goes smoothly but it regularly does go very wrong and need real medical intervention.
I went to see my Dr because I was in extreme pain, throwing up within 5 minutes of eating or drinking anything, and my eyes are yellow. Dr prescribed pain pills. I came back the next day because nothing stayed down and he prescribed a different pain pill. I was diagnosed with gallbladder problems. Dr was dismissive but consulted with a surgeon. The surgeon said I was severe but not critical so I could wait 3 weeks for surgery. I was driven 35 miles to a different hospital clinic. After the Dr examined me and reviewed my previous test results, she left the room and came back with a guy in scrubs. The surgeon admitted me immediately, started me on IV fluids, I was extremely dehydrated, and antibiotics. About 24 later I had my gallbladder removed. The surgeon told me after, that no one has the test results I did without having gangrene. Plus my liver and pancreas were very enlarged. He was very shocked that I didn't have gangrene or permanent liver damage. I NEVER went back to my Dr and when the first surgeons office called to set up the surgery, they weren't happy to hear I'd had emergency surgery almost 3 weeks prior.
*Dozens of flashbacks to Four Springs Animal Clinic's first opinion victims*
...Probably when a "glaucoma" and "dental disease" on a toothless(!) cat turned out to be a highly invasive mouth cancer that had eaten through part of the skull and into the eye socket, pushing the eyeball forward. Cat had been bleeding from the mouth for at least a month before owner had lost faith in previous vet. Eye was clearly not affected by glaucoma, the intraocular pressure was so low I couldn't even get a reading.
So many other horrible stories. I can't believe that Dr Susie isn't in jail for gross veterinary medical malpractice. Without going in depth, of the top of my head I can remember "Bubble Butt Syndrome", misdiagnosing severe heart disease and excwsaive unneceasary medication, denying an obvious pregnancy, completing missing a flail chest, getting diabetes and insulinoma mixed up, and thinking that a vitamin B6 injection will cure anything.
When I was an infant I got sick. Prior to sending me home with an antibiotic, doc had me tested for penicillin allergy. Came back positive, and doc looked my mom in her face and made her promise to never let a doctor try to prescribe any form of penicillin ever. Then in kindergarten, I had an allergic reaction to sulfa drugs, which is not uncommon when you’re already allergic to penicillin.
Anyway, a few years ago I was dealing with recurring UTIs. One day I’m at urgent care again, and I have a PA trying to tell me that I’m most likely not allergic to penicillin as “back in the day doctors were overly cautious and just said everyone was allergic to penicillin”. It didn’t matter that I also had a reaction to sulfa. I told that to my primary doctor when I was in for my annual check up and she rolled her eyes. She’s like it’s pointless to test you considering your other drug allergies, and was like if we had to hospitalize you and we needed a certain form of penicillin we’d test you then and keep you under extreme observation.
Seriously don’t mess with drug allergies.
I am chronically sick and its a genetic issue, my mom has it, my sister has it, i have it. My adopted parents dont ever listen to me when i have symtoms anymore because there have been a few cases where i was in excruciating pain (unable to walk, sleep, or do much of anything with my legs) and my tests came back normal.
I know when theres something wrong with my body. i dont think i should be getting random pulsing pains in my knees that cause me to physically recoil and nothing solves it.
because im a minor, i cant really go to other doctors on my own, and i have no clue how to manage my own doctors things because my parents refuse to tell me how to do it.
the many times i was right?
3X cases of pneumonia
dead teeth from physical trauma
sinus infections, bronchitis, and other things
Personally being the "second-opinion-doctor" saved my grandfather's neighbour's leg. My grandfather had been updating us every weekend he came to visit on what such and such new doctor or clinic or treatment didn't work to help try and save this guy's leg.
At one point, my grandfather update was that they'd decided amputation was the only option left, and at that point in my life... succeeding when professionals didn't was kinda my thing, so after calling for consent to share the images he'd sent my grandfather.
It took me one look through the photos before I told my grandfather that they should treat his neighbour for Brown Recluse venom before butchering his leg. A call back to his neighbour confirmed that this hadn't been done yet or even brought up. The doctor was willing to try since his patient wasn't too keen on losing a limb.
Bingo.
It's been almost 7 years, but that geezer's still kicking, and he's a grandfather now too.
I had an Autism-related special interest in spiders when I was in elementary school. When this event happened, I was in a personal state of validating living by proving myself just as competent as, or competent compared to "professionals", people with "experience" and people who thought and said I was weak, worthless and a mistake... among other things.
Brown Recluses had a 3-time help count in that regard. 😅
In 2012 my great grandma took 2 falls she was 86. The first time she went to the hospital she was in severe pain they chopped it up to old age. She fell a week or two later and went back. She was in the hospital for a month and they found out a month later she had two broken vertebrae in her spine. She eventually was transferred to rehabilitation center sadly she never left the rehabilitation center she died there on September 4,2012
3:00 this is a distressingly common story, especially if you are a woman. The first diagnosis is nearly always "it's all in your head." Took me six years to get a doctor to take me seriously enough to actually do proper tests, after I had been put on nearly every mental health type drug under the sun to treat randomly selected mental health problems i didn't have. Anything but run tests. It took my father getting fed up with it and coming in with me one day for the newest doctor to take it seriously.
When I was 12-14 I started having like major lightheaded spells and could barely keep balance was about to pass out every time they hit and they last for about 2 to 3 hours and I have them constantly throughout the day with only a few minutes of rest in between episodes. First doctor, I went to told my mom I was doing it for attention. Second doctor sent me to a cardiologist who told me that it was just growing pains and associated with rapid growth in a child. Got sent to an ENT specialist who told me I have vertigo issues. Finally when I was 13 I got sent to a neurologist who also specialized with rheumatology. He saw seven out of nine symptoms I was showing that lined up with lupus. Ended up getting diagnosed later after a positive blood test. For two years straight, I was having a severe flareup at one point the lightheaded spell got so bad my vision went and my hearing went away for about 15 minutes. Doctors still don’t know how to explain that one or Wyatt happened, but they know it’s correlated to the lupus
Story 25: I had to have my wisdom teeth taken out for the exact same reason. Bottom two were completely horizontal. We had to have x-rays done beforehand to see if it was even safe to do a full removal due to the teeth being so close to nerves. If they were closer, there was potential for me to have permanent nerve damage in my face. Thankfully my surgery went over fine and I am completely healed now.
I have a heart condition that I see several doctors for several times a month to monitor. Saw one of those cardiologist and he decided to run a test on me - I was showing no unusual symptoms. Test diagnosed me with amyloidosis, and it's attacking my already weak heart. BAD. I'm immediately put on stupidly expensive meds, I'm sent to a oncologist. For a year I'm jumping through hoops trying to figure out what's going on.
But my second cardiologist is concerned. I'm a black female, in my 30's. Amyloidosis usually pops up in white men in their 60's. That doctor sent me to the mayo clinic. One day with 12 tests later, and we're the pretty sure first test was a false positive. We can't know for sure without invasive surgery, but since I'm on blood thinners that's dangerous for me to attempt when we have so many tests that already give enough information.
I got several UTIs around 13-14 from just having generally less than stellar hygiene. Sex is not required for UTIS, men.
I got them not infrequently as a prepubescent child for seemingly no reason at all. I definitely was not having sex at 9 goddamn years old and if I was there'd be way bigger concerns than a UTI.
My grandma was misdiagnosed multiple times, she was first told that it was just a cold. A few weeks later she couldn't keep anything down, was told it was the stomach bug. 2 months later and 3 trips to the ER she is puking blood, very dehydrated, weak, starving, 200lbs less, she gets rushed to the ER in an ambulance, and in 2 hours they found out that it was cancer in her esophagus. I'm a teen, and I'm homeschooled, so I'm over there most of the day. She's only got about 4 months left and I miss her already. We all spend as much time with her as we can right now. If they were able to find it sooner they might have just been able to get it removed
For whoever needs to know, if you have a medical practitioner who treats you badly or gives you poor care, please, PLEASE, report them to the medical board. The doctor doesn't have to know it was you, but you will have to disclose your records from the period in question to the review board. They don't use the information for anything else. This act flags poor choices made by doctors or mps who otherwise fly under the radar. Even if it doesn't change your situation, you could save the life or health of another person. You don't have to sue or anything like that, but the medical review board is there to keep egos and negligence in check.
Jesus, I had so many misdiagonis for so many years. I was having mentrual cycles that lasted upwards of 10 days, only 3 or 4 days in between, then the cycle would begin again. It started when I was 12, but you know, it takes a while for puberty to settle. The pain was so bad that I couldn't move some days. Losing so much blood all the time. Vomiting and passing out on a regular basis. People don't talk about it much, but bad periods also give you a lot of bowel problems, like can't leave the bathroom kind of problems. When I was 17, I started asking for a hysterectomy. I was told I was being dramatic, and periods are sometimes uncomfortable. All throughout my 20s and 30s things just got worse. Twice, I was taken to emergency as a suspected drug OD because I was unconscious and vomiting. No drugs, just kinda painful periods. Women have always dealt with this. Suck it up, take some Tylenol, go to work like everyone else who gets mestrual cramps. No, a hysterectomy wouldn't be a good idea, "you will want kids somday". Finally when I was 40 years old and things were still absolutely horrible, a "kind" doctor decided that I was probably old enough to make a decision about not wanting to have kids. Thank you kind doctor. Ugh. When they finally took out that cursed uterus and sent it to the lab, the lab results were kinda gross. Endometriosis, cysts, multiple areas of active hemorrhaging, and many old scars from past damage due to ruptures and hemorrhaging. "Wow, how were you even walking around?" I. didn't. Have. A. Choice. I lost nearly 30 years of my life living in constant pain and fear. The number of times I thought of and attempted the end game is disturbing to think about. I saw at least 15 doctors about this over the years, and the diagnosis was a dramatic woman. In reality, one of my organs was regularly ripping itself apart. I still have horrible nightmares about living through that. If I get sweaty in my underwear, I have a sore back, I get gas, I eat something that gives me a loose BM, any number of other things, I can feel this fear grip my throat in the anticipation of what's coming. I know in my brain, my uterus is gone. It can't hurt me anymore, but my body can't forget. I think I have like, bad menstruation PTSD or something. So many misdiagonis that robbed me of half my life, and the fear will probably haunt me forever. Jesus doctors. Do your damned job.
That's exactly what I went through. I only managed to finally get a hysterectomy because I came across a foreign gynecologist. All the British ones (I'm in the UK) dismissed me with "you will want children one day". One berated me for two hours that "it's not normal not to want children", which caused friends to think he wanted to personally get me pregnant. I suffered anemic heart failure from the severe blood loss. The pathology report after the hysterectomy was an entire A4 page long. I still get into a panic too when I get pain in the abdomen - which I do all the time.
I'm not a doctor (and also not the patient) but this happened to my husband (and it wasn't just a "second" opinion). When he was 5, a psychiatrist diagnosed him with bipolar disorder type 1 and put him on meds. For those who don’t know, bipolar is incredibly difficult to diagnose in a child of that age and usually presents around puberty if not later in life. I met him when we were in our 20s and until then he had been seeing a psychiatrist as and when he needed (not the same one who had diagnosed him btw). After we had been dating for about 6 years, I convinced him to get his meds checked by another doctor, not the one he had been seeing for the past 15 or so years, to check they were balanced as he had recently lost a fair amount of weight and his moods were cycling far too rapidly (I'm talking hourly if not daily). This was on the advice of a family friend who is a psychiatrist but, because of the family connection, couldn't treat him. So he sees the new psychiatrist who prescribes a lower dose of the current meds due to the weight loss and takes him off one of them gradually.
A few months later we moved to the UK and managed to get his prescriptions transferred here so he could carry on with the meds he'd been prescribed from the doctor back home. About 2 years later, I noticed his behaviour was getting more sporadic than it has been since we met. I kept brushing it off but eventually asked that family friend doc what we should do and it was suggested to get the meds rebalanced again. Here in the UK, the system works differently to back home. So we go through the process, starting with the GP who sends him for a re-evaluation to adjust his meds. This psychiatrist had one 10-minute conversation with my husband, asked him to take one extra test and said "You don’t have bipolar disorder. You're autistic" and promptly advised him to wean off all his meds. The change in my husband's mood swings and rapid cycling behaviour went away within days. He says he has never felt better. We're almost 30 now and we are living our best lives.
TL;DR: My husband was diagnosed bipolar at the age of 5 (very young and difficult to do). Roughly 20 years later, he was re-evaluated and meds changed for erratic cycling of moods and weight-loss. Almost 5 years after that and a whole country later, he's diagnosed autistic and taken off all medication and has never felt better.
Story 19:
Normie here. Even I - who and barely scientifically literate- knew that was Narcolepsy
Finally one i Can Answer, I was the Patient! I was about 1 year old when my parents brought me in to the hospital with Breathing Problems. First Doctor diagnoses me With Asthma and a Pectus Excavatum, which is a condition where your chest is caving in, Doc schedules a Surgery to fix the Pectus Excavatum. my parents do a little research and learn just enough to question the first doc, they ask for a Second Opinion. Second Doctor Examines me and Diagnoses me with an Interstitial Lung Disease, a very rare disease in which the immune system attacks your lungs. While i did have the Pectus Excavatum, my Breathing was so difficult that if they put me under for the surgery to correct it i wouldn't be waking up again. Needless to say my parents weren't going back to the first doctor, they had to fight the insurance company to make sure that didn't happen. Interstitial Lung Disease isn't a pretty diagnosis, its about a year of slowly suffocating to death as your lungs are destroyed, it was considered 100% Fatal, it took conscious effort to breathe so procedures like the lung Biopsy to Confirm couldn't be done under Anesthesia, as i would die if they did, so just imagine a toddler who can barely even speak being tied down to a bed being cut open just so they could remove a piece, its not as though i could understand it, my mom vividly remembers me giving her such a look of betrayal that she broke down and cried over it. Its not an Understatement to say my whole family was Traumatized by the experience, i got PTSD from it, might have broken a record for that disease. they could only repair the Pectus excavatum after i went into remission, and i was the only one who had made it to remission, broke all my Ribs and reset them so they wouldn't be caved in.
TL;DR First Doc ordered infant me a surgery that would have killed me, and misdiagnosed me with Asthma.
This is the thing I love the most about these Reddit compilation threads where people all share a experience.
It gives the opportunity to the community as a whole to see that these are not isolated incidents
6-7 months back doctor told me that i would require a hip replacement along with a knee or ankle replacement to ease the pain in my left leg. Went back to the doctor, 1300 kms away, who performed a hip surgery on me 20 years back and all i required was a 6 weeks calcium d3 course...😂😂😂
When I was 7 I started getting pains in my side. I was told it was psychological. It got worse over three years. In the end we got a new doctor. It took him about a minute to notice that it was my kidney. Basically my kidney got blocked regularly and couldn’t empty, which caused pain like kidney stones for three years. By the time it was discovered the kidney was nearly destroyed, but I did get to keep it in the end. My pain tolerance was so high afterwards that it took my mother five hours to realise that I had broken my arm the year afterward, since I just got on with it. Not much pain in my then eleven year old world.
I work for Minute Clinic and I am proud of the dedication to great patient care we provide.
Sorry for any typos or weird autocorrect, I'm typing this on mobile.
tl;dr: had to convince the doctors my appendix was the problem. I was right and died on the table to prove it. Got better just to say 'I told you so'.
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When I was sixteen, I started getting lower abdominal pain. I had a history of bad and heavy periods, so at first I thought it was just that.
About 3 days later, late at night, it got so bad that I could barely breathe.
When I pressed down on where it hurt, there wasn't any change, but when I let go the pain spiked so much that I threw up from it.
About two weeks earlier, my teacher had come back from emergency leave after having her appendix out. She told us that one of the criteria used to diagnose it was to push down, and if it hurt more upon letting go, that's a classic sign of appendicitis.
So I woke my parents up and said I needed to go to the hospital *now*. My mum took me and I got in fairly quick.
Doctor came and looked at me and told me that it was just reflux and to go home. My mum accepted that but I refused. I knew it was my appendix and told the doctor that.
He sent in some nurses to draw blood.
Came back a while later to say that the blood tests didn't show anything. It was reflux. Go home.
Again, I refused. It was my appendix.
So they did an ultrasound, which was agonising. A while later, the doctor comes in, tells me the ultrasound was inconclusive. That it's reflux and to go home.
By this point my mum is embarrassed at my refusals and arguments and is trying to persuade me to leave, but I refused.
"It's not reflux. It's my appendix. And I will sit here in the middle of emergency and get in everybody's way and make the biggest scene I can until SOMEBODY listens to me!"
So the doctor offered exploratory surgery, to put a camera in through the bellybutton and check it out. I agreed on the spot, and for the first time I see doubt on his face. I'd cried earlier at the blood draw because back then I had serious needle phobia, so for me to not hesitate to agree, it made him rethink.
My mum agreed and I don't remember much after that.
Next thing I remember, I'm in the ward, and there's a doctor talking to both of my parents. A different doctor. He says, "it was her appendix-" and I announce I've woken up by saying "fucking TOLD YOU" and was immediately told off by my parents for swearing at a doctor.
Found out later that they'd found a severely inflamed appendix and were just starting keyhole surgery to get it out when it actually burst. They had to do a massive side-to-side cut to get it out and clean me out.
My heart had to be restarted, and I needed 7 units of blood transfused. At the time, I was about 4'11 and 50kg/110lbs, so that was pretty much my entire blood volume. That's how I found out that I'm O-neg so that would have put a huge dent in the rural hospital's supply.
Also they'd removed two ovarian cysts, one the size of a grapefruit and one the size of a baseball. They were the kind that had hair and teeth in them.
(We later found out I was allergic to morphine, when I started hallucinating and was convinced that they'd stolen my organs to put spells on me, and at one point I thought the hospital was alive and had eaten me and I was being digested. Allergic reactions are weird. Can't blame the doctors for that one, since it was my first exposure to it, and they were very nice when I had my mental faculties back and apologised for trying to fight them.)
This happened nearly 20 years ago now, but I'm still bitter about it. If I'd gone home when they said to, my appendix would've burst when I was in my bed, at about 4am. I would've died.
Some doctors need to be reminded of their Hippocratic Oath. Not just the 'do no harm' but the rest of it too. They need to own up to their damn mistakes instead of doubling down at the cost of someone's life.
These things are more common than most people think. I've fought tooth and nail for 15+ years to get my illnesses diagnosed and I'm still fighting to get help for different issues, some related to my diagnosed chronic illnesses, some not, and some related to my mental health. I started antidepressants in my early 20's, it took until this year, several admissions for unaliving prevention, a failed attempt and several threats of more attempts to get an appointment for evaluation by the psychiatric office. I've gone to the 3 assessment appointments and am now waiting for a decision on what kind of therapy I can get and an estimate on how long I have to wait until I can get started...My physical health journey is even longer and I'm still working on it.
My aunt had trouble breathing for several years but was refused x-rays, told she had asthma because she was overweight and told to work out and ear less. A couple years ago her breathing was just getting worse and she had trouble moving around. X-ray showed stage 4 small cell lung cancer. Thanks to new cancer meds she's gotten a couple years instead of the 6 months she was first told she'd have. She'll die from it eventually and the time is getting closer since her first meds have stopped working.
I also know people who've had horrific childbirth experiences, like getting their cervix cut open to get a much too large baby out after having been neglected by staff for so long that when the new shift came and saw that a c-section was needed it was too late and they had to pull the baby out and to do that they basically had to filét the mom's privates first...
Another friend who was bleeding constantly was told it was nothing to worry about but it turned out both mother and baby had an infection and had to stay in the hospital to get IV antibiotics for a week.
One who was carrying twins in a high risk pregnancy and had nausea so bad she couldn't keep food or drink down was told there were no meds for nausea for pregnant women, she then got lyme disease and couldn't keep her antibiotics down and ended up unconcious and throwing up on the floor. The ambulance personnel didn't even want to bring her to the hospital but a friend convinced them and she had to stay for a couple weeks as her nerves were inflamed and she couldn't keep her balance while walking for a while. When her twin boys were born one of them had a hard time breathing and had to stay in the hospital and a week after he came home he was having trouble breathing again but when they called the hospital they were told not to come in but in the end they went anyway. The boy died in the hospital and the hospital staff called the police and CPS on the family like the hospital staff telling them not to bring in their dying baby weren't the problem.
A friend of mine got a wound on her leg and it was obvious it was infected but the doctor refused to give her antibiotics and told her it was a rash or something and he refused to take any tests. It started to get that red streak aswell so it was getting bad. She had to pretty much nag the doctor during several appointments into giving her a prescription. And surprise surprise, the antibiotics worked!
I have more stories about myself and others but I'm done writing for now.
My cousins first opinion was he’s fine
The second opinion was his appendix had burst and needed emergency surgery NOW. He ended up in the ICU for a while.
My mom was diagnosed with depression, the real diagnosis was she broke her arm. Dr thought all the pain was just depresssion- when my mom literally has been diagnosed with MS. You’d think it’d be considered first 💀
Dude, I've had doctors refuse to take my ASTHMA into account, much less my complex and painful genetic illness. Some doctors should have washed out in med school.
I have a history of back issues with a severe scoliosis since I was a child and signs of mild rickets. When I turned 26, I started having leg pain often and I became partially incontinent out of nowhere. I saw multiple doctors, including 2 orthopedists and a few neurologists.
Every time I suggested it could have something to do with my back issues, their reaction was like “No way! You’re so young!”. They talked to me as if I was oversensitive and playing victim, and insisted that I didn’t need any exam. Someone even prescribed antidepressants lying to me about the real purpose of the drug (he said it was to cure muscle tissues, after in my blood test I had levels indicating overexertion, while I was doing no physical activity at all because in that period leg pain was very bad).
I also visited a gynecologist, since I gave birth few years before the incontinence started, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t maybe a prolapse or something like that. He said I was fat, it was normal for a woman that fat not to control the bladder (I am indeed overweight, but at the time I wasn’t like severely obese, I only waighted 80 kg, I’ve never heard of someone suffering from incontinence just for a weight issue at a similar weight.)
At 29 I went to the E.R. for the worst back pain in my life. They made a physical exam and said it could be a hernia, but they couldn’t give me imaging because it was not an emergency, so for the imaging I needed the prescription from family doctor (I’m from Italy, almost everything needs to pass from family doctor). I went to my doctor (one that I barely knew, because my previous doctor just retired) with the papers from the E.R. and she laughed in my face saying I was faking for attention. I immediately changed doctor (it wasn’t the first time she totally dismissed me, that was enough!)
Having the new doctor, convince him I was not exagerating, and the waiting list for the MRI, it took more than 2 years.
They were right! (sarcasm) I don’t have a hernia. I have 5 of them. And arthrosis.🥳
But, don’t worry! When you are “too young for a condition” you are totally immune to it! 🙄🤦
Hi! Gallbladder removed 4 months post partum. It's just a bile storage nothing too serious. And no, no meds after it's removal
Not a Dr, but was being treated by ENT FOR 6-7 months without improvement. Decided to get 2nd opinion. Had a huge Merkel cell tumor in my sinus, rare. 2years of chemo, radiation and immunotherapy treatment and at least I’m here. Came so close to seeing the reaper.
My story is about me. In 2014, I ended up falling on some ice and smashing my elbow. Somehow, I landed there first. There was a guy who worked for the housing complex right nearby but wouldn't help me up. I then went to their office crying and in pain. I had been falling behind on rent, which is why I was out in the first place. I go inside and talk to the lady about the fall and why I had originally come in. She said she'd check with her bosses if it was okay for her to take me to the E.R. I think they told her no, so I had to wait for an ambulance. The ambulance came and took me to the hospital. The ambulance people wanted to cut my jacket off of me. Since I am also stubborn and the jacket was a gift from my grandma, which also cost $100 (which is expensive to me), I worked it off myself. We get to the E.R. and the doctor sees me then says he doesn't think I broke my arm because of no swelling. He wanted to do x-rays anyway, thankfully. They take me in for x-rays and ask me to move my arm around this way and that. I was in a fair bit of pain but still did my best. When I got back to the room and the x-rays were checked the doctor came in and told me I had managed to snap the knob of my humorous (the actual funny bone spot) off and it was in my cartilage. They had to take me into surgery and reattach it with 2 headless screws.
My aunt’s gp wouldn’t listen to her. She kept going to his office complaining about feeling ill and tired she even lost 15kg but still he wouldn’t listen to her. This went on for years until her partner came with her at another appointment and the thing that needed the gp to eventually listen was that her partner had to slam his fist on the table and demanded him to send her to the hospital. She got diagnosed with colon cancer but they could treat her. So we’re all relieved. She went back to her gp to confront him but this liar told her she hadn’t visited him in the last 10 years. Later they found out that the cancer was too aggressive and they couldn’t treat her anymore because it was too late and now she is not with us anymore. Her cremation took place a year ago. Only if that gp would’ve listen to her, she could’ve been saved because the cancer was ‘easy’ to treat but aggressive if it’s not treated in time. Too young to die and in what way. We miss her so much. Rip
The fall of last year I was diagnosed with a UTI becorse I had blood in my Uribe I’m male by urgent care and got antibiotics in the new year I started to have seizure almost daily, got an X-ray and they found a tumor on my kidney that leaked blood into my bladder, got blood transfusions and got operated a couple of weeks maby a month later! They removed 4,5lbs of canceros cells the tumor was 2lbs but they had to remove alot more! And becorse of the seizure I got one time I trashed my ankle and ended up temporary hopefully in wheelchair.
These doctor's should get sued for malpractice.
I told my GP about having heart problems for about 5 years, during this times I was a runner and for all intents and purposes should have had a happy, healthy heart. I was having problems with my heart rate randomly shooting up at inappropriate times (210-250 bpm). They told me for YEARS that it was just anxiety, even went as far as to prescribe me medication. I finally got to a point where I hit him with a "Well, if it truly is just anxiety can you refer me to a cardiologist to get checked out so I can have one less thing to be anxious about" Went to cardio, got an echo and a 24 hour halter monitor. I have unspecified Supra ventricular tachycardia. running theory is years of high stress and malnutrition during my formative years have left lingering damage on my body. I'm on medication now but that super sucked
In 2010 I was descending an outdoor staircase and nearly fell down the entire set of stairs. I also developed slurred speech, a weirdly nodding head, and my face drooped on one side - but only when I was upright, not when I was laying down. It went away immediately when I tilted my head sideways, and then came back immediately when my head was upright again. The fatigue was crushing. I went through many, many tests, including an EEG, VNG, CT scans, MRIs, and a bunch of others I can't remember. The first neurologist I saw wrote a letter to my primary care doctor and said, "Good news! There's nothing wrong and she just needs emotional counseling." Well, definitely not - except for a large number of doctors who up to that point were telling me I was just crazy. I have a condition that makes me allergic to everything and makes the dura around my brain thicken, and makes it difficult for the CSF to flow properly between my brain and spinal column. The cerebrospinal fluid basically gets trapped somehow in my cranium when I'm upright and puts pressure on my cranial nerves, which is why I experience paralysis in my facial nerves and speech and processing. When I move my head around and tilt it sideways, it takes pressure off the nerves. A few years ago I found one other person in the world who sort of has issues similar to mine and she just started having symptoms 2 years ago. She lives in another country and her doctors have really given her a difficult time as well, telling her that she just needs counseling too. I've had 10 brain surgeries so far to try to correct my issue but we've decided to stop operating since the operations haven't fixed the issue.
I hope all of these people filed lawsuits against the doctors who misdiagnosed them.
My Mom was told she needed back surgery because of pain. Went for a second opinion. Got prescribed pills for a month, Fixed it. She had just overdone it on walking too hard on vacation and it was a nerve issue, not a spine issue.
At 22 weeks pregnant with twins, something felt wrong to me. Waited all day with that weird sensation still there and then finally called my obgyn. They said I was being a paranoid first-time mom, and I'm too young to know what I'm talking about. I hung up and told my mom to take me to the hospital now. In the time it took my mother to drop me at the front door to the hospital, she went and got gas across the street, then pulled back in. I was being wheeled to surgery for an emergency C-section at 8cm dilated, and water never broke.. 4 years later now, and I have a wonderful little toddler running around earth side and one soaring beside us in spirit👼🏾 he lived for almost 4 months in the NICU before he passed❤️🩹
LOL I'm a complete accident baby! My siblings are 9-13 years older than my little brother and I. Doctor told mom since she had over half of her reproductive organs removed from cancer she can't get pregnant. Guess who did years later after meeting my dad? 😅 She was NOT HAPPY. Like she thought she was done with kids
When I was 32, and breastfeeding my son I found a lump and went to the doctor. She told me it was mastitis even though I had mastitis many times before and It grew to the size of a peach within 3 months. I went in 4 times and was told the same thing each time. I then got pregnant and went to the OBGYN. I told her about the lump and she sent me to the breast care center and I was diagnosed with stage 3C grade 3 invasive breast cancer. Did chemo while pregnant, had my daughter, radiation and more chemo, all in all treatment took about 2 years total and I’m here now 7 years post diagnosis to tell this story.
Since I got Covid in october, i have had throbbing migraines and vision loss when I would cough or sneeze. The pain would be behind my eyes and at the bade of my skull and my head felt like it was going to explode. I was not fully conscious most of the time when doing things. I was told it was a tension headache (which I knew it was bullshit). The meds they gave did jack shit. I go to the ER and finally get a referall for a neurologist as I was at my wits end and thinking about unaliving myself from the pain and how I can't function or get a job with my symptoms. I have intercranial hypertension. The cerebrospinal fluid (csf) in my head is under severe pressure and I could have lost my vision if I hadn't come in sooner to get meds. I am still in the process of treatment with medications that are awful and give you kidney stones but yeah its not fun. I still have terrible migraines and some vision problems. Neurologist says that covid likely caused brain damage and I can't filter csf as well as I use too. Intercranial hypertension is rare but my doc is seeing more cases of it since covid started.
Feet kept swelling up. Went to urgent care. Was lectured on not drinking enough water and it was dehydration. No tests. Nothing. It happened again. Doesnt go away for three days so i call husband and he realizes it something serious because i will anything to avoid doctors and there i was begging to go to the hospital. He takes me. They do tests at the ER. They take blood, not once, not twice, three times. I then get informed that i am so far from dehydrated that if i drink even more water like urg3nt care suggested, i would be in danger of being overhydrated. I was admitted for emergency blood transfusions because i had practically zero iron and potassium levels to record and if it got worse, i might be dead of heart failure in a month. That was a year ago. I just have shitty iron absorption and the only symptom i showed was swelling joints. Nothing else. Glad i got a second opinion.
This happend to me in two different ocasions
1- A tearcher said there was something strange when I walked, whent to the doctor, nothing, during a family vacation my step sister realized one of my shoulders was higher then the other, when to a different doctor, scoliosis on surgery level
2- My therapist fond out I was autistic and did not have anger issues like my older therapist said, I was Just constantly overwhelmed :)
Always trust your gut. If you feel dismissed by a doctor you probably were. Never settle for being dismissed.
I can understand how story #3 happens. I had a couple of abdominal surgeries a decade ago and just recently had a CT scan. I read the report and it mentioned my appendix had been removed. It must have happened in one of the previous surgeries, but they never mentioned it.
Back when I was recovering from the abdominal surgeries, I kept losing weight and was taking a long time to heal. The surgeons kept telling me to increase my calories because healing requires extra energy. So I increased my calories and still lost weight. It never occurred to any of them to order a blood test. I finally saw my GP about some tremors I was having. I was severely hyperthyroid from Graves' Disease.