Serious answer: I try to ask my patients if they have googled their symptoms. It gives me a lot of information about what they are worried about. I then try to stay humble about their findings, and try to not be a jerk about that. Trust is not built by telling people they are stupid. However, it is hard to keep a straight face when a 50-year old male walks in and says “I think I have caught the Down’s syndrome”, or when a young woman thought she had testicular cancer.

My ex wife diagnosed herself (correctly) not off WebMD but at the local medical school library.

She was tired of scores of doctors doing nothing but prescribing yet another medicine to treat symptoms. She eventually began to wonder what the odds were that she'd have 10 different diseases with 20 different symptoms as opposed to having one disease that could account for all of them.

So she set out to find out if such a disease existed.

It did.

She then studied the clinical diagnostic criteria for that disease and began looking at her dozens upon dozens of test results and started putting two-and-two together.

She brought it up with our family practitioner who thought she just might be on to something. All of the specialists she saw thought she was an idiot, though.

"It's a one in a million chance you have that!" they all said.

"But the odds of me having these ten separate diseases to account for all my symptoms are one in 25 million," she'd point out. They still dismissed her as crazy.

She finally fought with the insurance company—with the family practitioner standing by her side the whole way—enough to get permission to visit probably the best specialist in the world for what she thought she had. He was in Seattle.

He confirmed she did. She had a relatively simple operation and was cured of all of those 20 symptoms overnight.

The whole experience of not being listened to by her doctors who were just interested only in prescribing medicine to treat symptoms instead of diagnosing root problems led her to go to medical school and become an endocrinologist.

Today she's an endocrinologist at one of the best hospitals in the world, and a medical school professor.

Tl;Dr After 7 years of brain cancer remission, my husband's cancer came back with a vengeance. He had 5 more surgeries and after each one the side effects worsened, one of which is brain injury. He is now an entirely different man, but we are working on getting to know each other again. /end of tl;dr

We had been together for 7 years and living together ever since his first round of surgeries before his cancer came back. After the first resection surgery he recovered remarkably fast and had zero side effects. After recovering he even got a BS degree in Civil Engineering and was working towards his professional engineering license. I was in school on track for a PhD in a STEM field. Fast forward 6 years, and an annual MRI showed that the cancer was back and my husband needed it to be removed ASAP. We scheduled the surgery to happen 2 months after we found out it had come back.

The next 19 months were pure chaos. The only recourse for this kind of cancer was through surgical resection due to its location on the brain stem. In a short 19 month time frame (in no particular order), my husband had 4 resection surgeries, 1 emergency surgery that arose from a complication from one of the resections, and 30 treatments of IMRT radiation. The radiation happened between resections 2 and 3. It was h**l for him. It didn't help stop the cancer from growing, and my husband had two more resections and an emergency surgery after the radiation was complete.

During this time I got pregnant and had a baby boy. Trying for a baby was a contingency plan if the cancer ever came back. We wanted kids but we wanted to wait until we were graduated and settled into our careers, but if my husband needed more surgery we agreed to try for a baby before surgery. We had one month to try and were totally surprised when we conceived. Our son gave my husband the strength to fight this cancer and the motivation to focus on his recovery.

After each surgery the side effects got worse. Remember I said he had zero side effects when the cancer was first diagnosed and resected. Now that he was in his 30s rather than his 20s, his recovery time was a lot slower. Between those 5 surgeries and 30 treatments of radiation, I had to help my husband relearn how to walk and talk again (with inpatient and outpatient help, of course). As a matter of fact, our son and him learned to walk at the same time. It was a emotionally happy and proud time for us all!

The last two resection surgeries left him with a side effect called an acquired brain injury. He also has severe visual disabilities due to the surgeon disrupting the 3rd and 4th cranial nerves in an aggressive attempt to get all of the cancer out. My husband can no long look up or down nor open his eyes. He must use his forehead muscles to be able to open his eyelids slightly. His pupils are different size dilations, and this damage is permanent.

The visual disabilities were a cakewalk as compared to the brain injury. The brain injury transformed my type A, empathetic, highly trained engineer of a husband into an angry child with absolutely no empathy and A LOT of anger. It's been almost 2 years since he was formally diagnosed with a moderate brain injury. He is an entirely different person now. He has different interests, different tastes in clothes, food, etc, and requires so much sleep because of the damage to his brain. He didn't ask for this to happen; he just wanted to survive the cancer so he could be there for his son.

As of today he's made a lot of progress. He can function independently at home and is the caretaker of our 2.5 year old son while I work to support us. Our roles have changed 180 degrees, and he still struggles with empathy. He is now permanently disabled due to his visual and cognitive disabilities from his brain injury.

Most days are difficult because I'm still grieving the husband I once had. However just because it is difficult doesn't mean I'm giving up on him. We go to counseling (individual and marriage) and brain injury support groups. We attend a local church, which saved my sanity. I have single handedly built a support network that is made of my husband's medical doctors, our friends, our church family, and the few DNA family members and friends who have stuck around through this life change.

The sad part is that my husband's entire family (brothers, mother, father, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc) have ostracized us from the family. They have chosen to avoid and deny the situation because it's too difficult for them. That hurt a lot because my husband and I were very close to his DNA family for many years before the brain cancer came back. I am estranged from my family and have been for years and his family knew that. So I was left alone to handle my husband's rehabilitation and long term recovery. It was the hardest and darkest time of my life. I'm happy to say that our family of choice is better than what we had in our DNA family.

I love my husband and I will always be there for him. I take my wedding vows seriously. He needs love and support, not avoidance and denial. He's made a lot of progress in the past couple of years. I'm proud of him! Most days are hard but some days are good. I'm still getting to know this new husband of mine. We take life one day at a time and things are finally looking up for us.

There's a lot more to this situation, but I've already written a book! Hope someone will read this and be encouraged.

ETA: During the time my husband was having all of these surgeries, radiation, and subsequent recovery, I never gave up working on my PhD. I graduated and got an excellent job right away in my field. It has great pay, excellent benefits, and the perfect schedule for my little family. I get a 3 day weekend every other weekend! Despite all the chaos and struggling, I knew I couldn't give up on my degree. I knew that my husband and son depended on me to support them, so I had no choice. It was so hard. I can't express in words how hard it was. I wouldn't wish my life on my worst enemy. Brain injury changed our lives indefinitely.

My husband and I eloped; just the two of us in a foreign country with witnesses we met locally. We got married in jeans, sneakers and t-shirts. Pure effortless bliss.

On an opposite note, we had this wonderful couple at my wedding that silently celebrated their 22nd wedding anniversary whilst celebrating our special day with us. We had no idea but the fact they kept it silent was so respectful, even though we wouldn’t have minded

I had the sweetest golden retriever known to man. She was 100% sunshine.

She ran into my room once and barked like crazy, which was unusual as she was normally so quiet.

I gave her pets and went back to the assignment I was working on. She grabbed my sleeve and dragged me, ripping my shirt in the process.

I finally followed her to find my T1 diabetic dad with extremely low blood sugar.

She was the best girl and I miss her more than anything.

Our puppy can watch another dog perform an activity or have us show her how to do something one time and then know exactly how to do it herself. We got her as a rescue a few weeks ago and are pretty sure she never got to run or play like a dog should be able to (the first time she decided to run, she flopped around like a few weeks old puppy but she's 6 months) and she acted like every toy or treat we offered her was us tricking her into doing something wrong and she was going to be punished for it. I take her to the dog park a lot to try to get her used to other dogs, especially bigger ones, and one day she sat between my legs watching a dog play fetch for about 15 minutes... From that point on she's known how to play fetch and brings the ball back to me every time. She hadn't ever been in water before and wasn't sure she liked it, but after seeing that same dog go into the creek and lay down one time, she began to do that exact same thing every single time we go to the creek.... And yesterday, we were walking towards the creek and saw another dog chasing the ball into the water and swimming. My puppy immediately decided she wanted to try it and full on swam for over four hours.

There's other instances of behaviors and skills she's learned too, but every single time it's been because she watched a different dog do it once, literally only once and for a few minutes maximum, and then knew exactly how to do it and has been able to consistently perform.

She started alerting me to seizures just weeks after getting her. Just being 12 weeks old and knew I had found a possible service dog. Ended up being an amazing one for 6 wonderful years. Rat Terriers are wonderful breed if right for you and your lifestyle.

My dog had major surgery, and was recovering in his protective onesie and cone of shame.The meds made him nauseous, and I couldn't get him to eat, which made everyone upset.

Enter the black cat who had up until that point (two years) treated the dog like an unwanted houseguest she couldn't get rid of. She took one look at the sad pile of dog on the carpet, turned around and walked into the garden. Not 20 minutes later she drops what I can only describe as a filleted mouse torso in front of the patient. She'd chewed off the head and the appendages, and basically presented him with only the juicy bits. Before I could do a damned thing my dumb dog horked his bloody gift down and the cat was out the open patio door again.

For the next two weeks no matter how I tried to keep every door and window closed, nothing could stop her. I have no idea how she managed it, but she'd wait for me to take my eyes off them for a second, and BOOM new corpse on the floor, happy dog. She seemed to know exactly how fast I could get to any location, and timed her drops perfectly. I threatened/told the people in the house daily to make sure she couldn't get out, or in with illegal cargo, but we were all just laughable pawns in her game of chess. She'd go to the other side of the house, make a ruccus, and when we'd go investigate she managed to get around us and to the dog with his lunch.

Two weeks. Every single day. At least 3 lightly prechewed mice. It was as revolting as it was adorable.

At the end of the two weeks she stopped removing bits from the mice and started dropping them whole, until one day she dropped a very alive one and flounced off while chaos reigned in the living room. That was the day she(and the vet) declared the dog "healed", and she went right back to slapping him if he tried to play.

She did this for every subsequent surgery the dog went through, and when I had my hysterectomy two years ago I came back from the bathroom and on my pillow was a lightly flayed and prechewed mouse.

I miss that cat.

I jokingly told him I was hiding his medication in his meal and that he wasn’t aware.

He understood and looked at me in horror and flipped the little bowl.

They do understand..I had to change my approach.

Once I met a guy, we had a date planned and I forgot his name. Found his graduation online and watched 3 hours worth of graduating to find his name😂

There was this girl who went to my high school that was not very popular and was picked on a lot. She wasn't attractive and was just a social dud. There was a dance or something coming up, one of the ones that you get a big mum for your sweetheart for. Well, one of the ways that these kids decided to pick on her was to get her one of those mums as a "secret admirer" and send it to her, saying they'd reveal their identity to her at the thing.

I felt so mad and sorry for her that I showed up and I made myself that "secret admirer" and showed her a good date. She somehow found her confidence in life down the road, and ended up late blooming into a complete stunner. Maybe I contributed to that change in her outlook? Idunno. I'm happy for her and her husband.

Edit:

Thanks for the nice words yall. That girl was a kind person and didn't deserve a bad day like that. I guess karma paid off for me bigtime, because I married a different, but awesome woman, myself :).

I was dating this guy and at the time had no reason to suspect he was cheating. Went to the DMV and obviously you wait forever. This girl comes in and we’re making small talk and somehow get talking about our “boyfriends.” It’s super uncanny how similar they sound! I swear it’s like we’re dating the same guy! Finally I ask her, “Wait… *are we* dating the same guy?” She pulls out her phone and shows me a picture of her boyfriend. Yep, we’re dating the same guy. We both walked outside, she called him from her phone and handed it to me. I put him on speaker so she could hear too and he answered “hey baby!” Then audibly s**t his pants when I was the one who said hello back. We both dumped him. She and I are still friends to this day. 😂.

I am 47 years old and still have an imaginary friend. When I'm bored, scared or stressed, out he comes. He's great, the best version of everyone and he thinks I'm great too. I'm aware it's avoidance and escapism, or my way of working out problems. I'm aware he's not real, but he's grown up with me. His name is James.

I don’t love my DH and it was a deliberate choice. Married 25 years with one child. I’d always been in messy relationships before that left me strung out and exhausted and, quite frankly, destroyed so I chose the steady regular guy who adored me. It works. Every now and then I have a crush on someone else and those crazy feelings come up and it reminds me of the terror and pain and I’m glad of the choice I’ve made. But I don’t love him. He’s very happy though.

Getting my ducks in a row. I dream of a tiny seaside cottage/bedsit/beach hut where no one can find me, especially husband. I will go and visit the now adult kids but not sure if i will tell anyone where I am actually living. I'll change my name, too. Thinking about it keeps me going when life gets too depressing. I am doing what I can to make it happen though, it's not just wishful thinking.

I pretend to listen to my husband but just smile and nod.

Cult leaders.

You'll *never* be their favourite spouse.

You know who's not on here? Engineers, because we just make things work.

I live near the Canadian border in central Washington State. More bears than people in my little valley. One afternoon, I was walking up the hill near my house, and saw, after passing a large tree, about 20 feet away, a very large cougar. My estimates for size, probably very accurate, are-weight- 175 to 190 pounds. Length from nose to tip of tail-very close to 9 feet. Thick. Bulky. Male, Muscles on the back of his neck like a large pit bull, or breeding bull. Not a scar on him that I could see, no chunks out of his ears from previous fights. Hair was long and perfect. You could see the muscles rippling through hair that was 1 1/2 to 2 inches. He was coming down the hill, and had just stepped from behind a tree of his own. We both froze in our tracks. He was staring at me like I had never been stared at in my life. Intense, xray vision, never blinking kind of stare. It knocked the wind out of me. We stood there, frozen, staring at each other intensely, for about .....seemed like 15 or 20 minutes. Neither one of us moved. He was slightly higher on the hill, looking down at me. Maybe 1 or 2 feet taller than I was-he seemed to like that. Neither one of us moved. I had a 9mm pistol in a shoulder holster, but I didn't pull it out. I could have very quickly, but probably not quickly enough considering they can jump really far. It was a very intense sharpening of the senses, and perceptions. Probably the effects of adrenaline. It was like time stood still, and I could count every hair on his face. After 15 minutes or so, to my great relief, he slowly blinked once. Still staring, however. I felt like the "spell" had been broken though. He took a deep breath, and slowly and very smooothly, turned uphill and walked away at a pretty good clip, never looking back. It's been 3 years now, and I have seen his tracks twice. One of my neighbors got a picture of him from his trail cam. So he's still here. Sometimes I think he's around, but it's impossible to tell. I dont know how anybody else would react to that, but for me it was a VERY creepy encounter, but at the same time I realized how lucky I was to have had that encounter. I love this place BECAUSE he's here. The bears too. Had some encounters with them too. But whatever you think, and whatever you have heard, the male cougars in the wilderness are the apex predator in the northern woods. I have seen a whole lot of cougars in zoos. NOTHING in a zoo can even come close to this guy. He was the most perfect, and terrifying thing I have ever seen. Supremely confident.

his inbox was full of women turning him down 😭 it was so embarassing, like I was fighting for a prize NO ONE wanted 😭😭😭