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Netizen Asks: “Doctors, What Are The Dead Giveaway Signs That Someone Is Faking?” – Gets 30 Tales
Interview With Expert
In one of the old science fiction stories by Herbert George Wells, there is a gentleman obsessed with the idea of "losing weight" - and one day he really finds an ancient remedy, after taking which he literally becomes weightless and is forced to wear metal weights in his clothes and underwear for the rest of his days. It's just that any obsession with your illnesses should have reasonable limits.
However, medicine does know many examples where people went to doctors, absolutely sure that they had some serious diseases, and no diagnoses, tests or explanations could actually affect them. So this collection by Bored Panda is dedicated to just such cases of patients totally faking their illnesses.
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I'm not a doctor but a nurse.
There was a geriatric patient taking advantage of the call bell, because she was an attention seeker. She always needed really basic things to get done for her because she thought the place was a hotel (it was a rehabilitation ward, and we should try to motivate patients to do as much for themselves as possible).
She would ring the bell for reasons like "please lift the blanket up for me" or "please pass me my phone" or "please feed me" and claimed that her hands didn't work. I caught her several times lifting herself off the bed with her hands, grabbing her phone when it rang, you get the gist.
After days of saying no and that she needs to start doing things for her self, she grew more and more frustrated. Eventually she snapped, grabbed me by my collar, shook me agressively and yelled "what don't you understand about the fact that my hands don't work?!?!"
I didn't know what to tell her... I just looked at her and blinked as she slowly released her death grip off me.
I guess I healed her hands. Praise the Lord. 1 up vote = one prayer for an old ladies arthritis.
WalterWhiteSavannah 4 months ago
Had a lady loke this where i work. Her room was like 15 feet from the dining table. Part of the job is promoting independence and she was perfectly capable of self ambulation in her wheel chair. So one day after multiple calls saying she needed a push to the dining table (which i declined to do for her) she pushed herself all the way across the entire unit and down the hall to the nurses office to tell me she needed a push to her table... which she rolled past to find me.
Renee H. 4 months ago (edited)
Not a doctor but an RN and Ihad a patient once that tried faking seizures. A couple of us would stand there and be like " really"? I dont remember the exact reason they were doing it but totally fake nonetheless.
KatSaidWhat 4 months ago
Had a dude on the tube do this one morning. Staff recognised him, driver announced "we know this guy, he'll be up and off in a minute, sorry for the delay". That literally did get him up and then escorted out of the station.
Load More Replies... 
Madeleine Christiansen 4 months ago
I don't know, maybe the fact that you just f*ckin grabbed me??
Becca not Becky 4 months ago (edited)
Actually, it is our job to judge pain. We have to judge if it's being managed correctly. We have to judge if we are helping it short term or making it worse long-term. This story is about a rehabilitation unit, and having worked in rehabilitation myself, after lengthy hospital stays, a lot of people get used to having a lot of things done for them in the earlier phases of recovery, then struggle to adjust to doing things independently. But mobility and function aren't things you suddenly wake up with, it takes effort and repetition. Use it or lose it, basically, and I am certain this lady had PT and OT on board, saying which tasks she should be doing. Regardless, there is no excuse to become physically a*****e like this lady was in the story.
Load More Replies... RELATED:
#2
My cousin got glasses. Her 7 year old little sister also wanted glasses because she thought it was so cool to wear them.
So she started telling her teachers she couldn't read what was on the chalkboard. And she'd squint at home, and go incredibly close to the tv to watch things because she said she couldn't see things clearly. Her parents got worried and took her to the doctor.
She read everything wrong on the vision test. Everyone seemed convinced that she needed glasses. But the doctor was a little concerned because the tests indicated she needed really thick glasses, and usually that wasn't the case unless there was a family history of vision issues. Her parents both had 20/20 vision and her sister only had astigmatism. They all realized she was faking it.
So the doctor told her parents in front of her that she'd need some pretty intense eye surgery so she'd be able to see without glasses. They even wheeled in a machine to make it convincing to say they could do the surgery right then and there.
She freaked out, confessed to faking it all and started to cry. She got grounded for a while.
#3
30y/o woman came to the ED with such "excruciating belly pain", "paralyzed", "oh god it hurts when you press there", "MUST HAVE OXYCODONE NOW". ED doc said if she can get out of the ED bed and do 20 jumping jacks, we can give her the Oxy. She did 20 jumping jacks, then got kicked out of the ED.
There are many threads on the Internet where the topic starters ask doctors about the strangest cases of their patients faking diseases, or being overdramatic (or sometimes underdramatic) - and each time, the discussion gets more than one or two thousand comments.
Are many doctors and nurses natural-born storytellers? Or perhaps hospitals just seem like places where something weird happens from time to time... Who knows?
Be that as it may, we have specially collected for you three dozen stories about different people who were being very difficult while visiting doctors, and how it all ended for them all. So please feel free to enjoy these stories - from sad to eye-opening and sometimes outright hilarious!
#4
My mom's an ER nurse and she said once some crazy lady came in and complained hat she had the whooping cough. And whenever she coughed she followed it with a loud "woooOOOP!".
#5
I'm an ICU and ER nurse. We get a lot of malingering in the ER. One day, one of our frequent fliers came in and started faking a seizure in triage. Now obviously I know this lady and she's fake-seized a million times before. But this time it's in the lobby in front of about 30 people, who have no way of knowing that it's fake.
She's lolling around on the floor making a d**n fool of herself and folks look horrified. I walked up to her and said calmly:
"Karen. What are you doing?"
To which this genius responds, "I'M SEIZING!"
I told her to stop seizing. So she did.
Edit: no, her name wasn't actually Karen. I just did that for confidentiality.
#6
Nurse for an ophthalmologist here. Had a 21 year old new patient claiming to be completely blind from a sudden and severe glaucoma diagnosis from a previous unknown doctor. Would feel around while walking, tried to keep eyes rolled back into his head. The whole 9 yards. He said he is a famous YouTube rapper that is now unable to make videos or earn a living. I exclaimed to have heard of him before and very excitedly asked him to search and show me his YouTube channel on my phone so that I could subscribe. He took my phone out of my hand and effortlessly found the YouTube app and typed away in the search bar. Oh, and of course his eyes were back to normal and focused.
In this collection, you will find tales and plots for every taste - from completely conscious manipulations of someone's health for some selfish purposes (for example, to receive insurance compensation), to completely ridiculous situations where a person is sincerely convinced that they have some kind of disease (or they have been told this for many years).
Well, and of course, a separate category of stories is related to kids and teens - because a child's sense of their body and their own psyche is often radically different from that of adults. In other words, children may simply not realize what's wrong with them - and take everything rather literally. Which sometimes makes related stories absolutely odd.
#7
Not a doctor but a nurse Once had a patient having a “seizure”. The other ER nurse and I *knew* she was faking it. He said as much. She suddenly “stopped” seizing (miraculously), looked straight at him and yelled “shut up fat boy”.
He and I laughed so hard. He (the other nurse) was referred to as such (fat boy) for few months after that.
At least she wasn’t having a seizure ;)
Edit: spelling & clarification.
#8
My brother was an EMT for two years and he told me this:
People will try to use the ambulance as a means for transportation from Fulton to Oswego (because the hospital is in Oswego), by faking seizures. Sometimes when the head EMT guy was feeling fun and knew that the person was faking, he'd say something like "man it's weird that he's having seizures but not peeing himself". Apparently the person would kind of snap out of it for a second, weigh up the repercussions, then either pee themselves or stop faking. I thought that was hilarious.
UKDeek 4 months ago
I used to pick up a regular pseudo-fitter locally to where I worked on the ambulances. We found out he lived near to the ED. We would take him in to the department, and normally within minutes he would wake up and walk out. So, next time I picked him up we took him to an ED 10 miles the other direction. He was less than impressed when he woke up in unfamiliar surroundings, and had to pay for a taxi home. Word spread quickly and other crews would do the same. Needless to say, he soon stopped calling after that.
#9
Had a patient when I was an intern feigning blindness. She would constantly be playing on her smartphone, only furiously trying to hide it when someone from the care team came into her room. The best was when my attending one day strolled pst her room and threw his hand up in a highly exaggerated ‘hello’ wave. She started to throw her arm up to but caught herself half way through, then threw her hand back into her lap and pretended to be ‘staring’ off into nothing.
It's interesting that in world history and culture, there are many cases when people, consciously or unconsciously, claimed to have some kind of illness, and it took serious efforts to dissuade them of this.
For example, the legendary play by the French playwright Moliere called "The Imaginary Invalid," or the novel "Catch 22" by the American writer Joseph Heller, the hero of which, the army officer, resorts to many means to avoid returning to war.
Well, sometimes people are just simply convinced that they are sick, often with other folks' personal insidious goals. It's quite enough to recall the scene from the "The Lord of the Rings" movie where the lying courtier Grima literally bewitched the King Théoden of Rohan, and it took the intervention of the wizard Gandalf to "cure" the king. But doctors, alas, are not magicians...
#10
I'm a nurse on a floor that deals with a lot of chronic and acute pain patients.
Most recent instance was this lady from a few weeks ago that was apparently splitting the Oxycodone we were giving her in half in her mouth and then when the nurse's backs were turned, she would stuff it in a pill jar. A night nurse caught her in the act and all of her s**t had to be searched. We found 20 half tablets of Oxycodone she had been stashing. She told us that she was "saving them for her family in case they need them because it's just so hard to get an Oxycodone prescription these days."
I had her a few days after that, and she was having some abdominal pain (STAT x-ray showed only gas. She just really needed to fart.) But she was screaming, claiming it was a 10, and making a huge f*****g scene. She DEMANDED Dilaudid through her IV, and she wanted it to be pushed fast. Huge red flag right there. She wanted the high, not the relief. Doc straight up said he wouldn't give her Dilaudid because she was already on so many opiates. She then demanded Lorazepam, still through her IV of course. Doc was like fine whatever, just one time and only a low end dose.
I was flushing her IV with normal saline first (to make sure her IV was patent) and she leans back and is like "OOOOoooo that's so much better already". Hadn't even given her the Lorazepam yet, smdh.
#11
Years ago I had a patient who had been rear-ended in an auto accident a few weeks before I saw her. She had a history of lupus. She was decked out in the usual "I'm crippled" paraphernalia (crutches, neck brace, elbow braces, wrist braces, knee braces) and could barely walk. I saw her a couple of times and she showed no improvement. One Saturday I was on call but had to take a 'back streets' route to the hospital because of an 'event' taking place on the main thoroughfare. I apparently drove through her neighborhood, because, wonders behold, there she was wearing old-lady spandex power walking down the sidewalk (holding weights in both hands). I did not call out to her.
Next week, she was back in clinic, with her "I'm crippled" getup on again. Hmmm. A few weeks later I got the subpoena for the deposition, and it all became clear.
#12
ER nurse. Bringing a patient back to a room who said he had kidney stones. I had him stop at the bathroom and get a urine sample. Dude comes out with with the specimen cup that literally has a piece of concrete in it. Looked him in the eye expecting some sort of joke.
He.
Was.
Serious.
I threw it away and walked his d*****s back to the waiting room to contemplate his stupidity.
Huddo's sister 4 months ago
I saw a tv show once where someone claimed to have kidney stones (but just wanted d***s) and when they did an xray, something did show up, but in a weird place. Turned out they had taped an old kidney stone to themselves, but it had moved before the xray.
"Sometimes many such cases are associated with the so-called Munchausen syndrome," says Iryna Stasiuk, an expert in syndromic therapy from Odessa, Ukraine, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment here. "This syndrome, named after a literary character known for his tendency to tell lies nearly everywhere, describes situations when a person deliberately simulates or induces illness syndromes in themselves in order to receive treatment."
"The reason for such behavior lies rather in the mental plane - a person simply wants additional attention, care and sympathy from others, and if these are doctors and nurses, they are quite happy with this. By the way, often, if such a person is denied treatment or is declared cured, they may well turn to other specialists - with the same goal."
"There is also a variation of this syndrome - the so-called delegated syndrome, when people try to convince everyone that their children, parents or spouses have a disease. Admitting these 'patients' for sure. In this case, it's caused by a mental need to provide increased care for the 'patients' - even if they don't need this care at all," Irina says.
#13
Obligatory not a doctor, but I got a call from my son's school nurse when he was in 2nd grade, and the conversation went like this:
Nurse sounding upbeat & cheerful says, "your son wants to tell you his terrible news."
Son gets on the phone, says "Hi mom, I cut my finger off."
I ask him, "Where is your finger now?"
Son: "I put it back on."
I said, "Can I talk to the nurse?"
Nurse gets on the phone again, says, "Sounds serious, right?" I asked, "does he have a substitute teacher today?" Ahhhhh... yes. I told the nurse to let him know I will take him to the hospital for a shot for his finger, to which he says "I think it's OK. I glued it on really good."
Nurse kept him in the office for a bit to talk about scary changes in the classroom.
Stephanie Did It 4 months ago
Mom was calling his bluff, but parents should never threaten children with medical treatment. It makes them afraid of medical staff, and panicky when treatment is actually needed. I can't count the times I've heard mothers threaten kids in the waiting room with "If you don't behave, the doctor is going to give you a shot!"
#14
Not a doctor but a therapist. For some reason adolescents like faking DID (formerly multiple personality disorder). It's a pretty rare and debated diagnosis in our field. I've seen people fake it by mimicking how it's portrayed in movies and on tv. Red flags are them telling you, "I have multiple personality disorder" and, of course, not meeting the actual diagnostic criteria. Some people feel like the common diagnoses aren't big or special enough to accurately represent their struggles, so they cosplay something worse. Whatever you're working through is a big deal to us! If you feel like you have to fake or exaggerate your symptoms for your therapist, consider finding a different therapist.
**Editing to clarify my last sentence since I'm getting some aggressive replies:**
If you don't feel like you can be authentic with your therapist, continue searching until you find a therapist you feel comfortable with. Sometimes it's just not a good fit. It happens. You're not obligated to continue seeing a therapist you don't feel comfortable with. If you feel like you need to fake or exaggerate something to be taken seriously by a therapist, it's not a good fit. Continue searching until you find someone who takes you seriously.
Also, I'm not a solid resource for DID information. It's not a common diagnosis and my experience with it has been extremely limited. Stick to peer-reviewed information and experts in the field for the most accurate and up to date information.
Stephanie Did It 4 months ago (edited)
My daughter's MIL says bizarre things, tells lies, and sabotages relationships in every way possible. She excuses her behavior by blaming it on whichever "personality" seems to fit. She knows them all, can name and describe them, as in "Cindy is a baby. You were seeing her when I was crying." It would be funny if it wasn't pathetic.All of her adult children are fully done with her.
#15
I don’t know why anyone would want to fake anything medical. Unconsciousness in particular. I got a compound fracture recently and called 911 on myself and was put on hold. Fun stuff. But got through and asked them to send help. Operator was a badass and kept asking me questions to *keep* me conscious.
The ambulance folks arrive, casually got out of the ambulance, walk up to me and then saw the bone sticking out of my body, and said, quote, “Oh! You’re actually hurt!”
YES! Did you think I called 911 because I spilled some lemonade??
Then it occurred to me that most of their calls must be horseshit. But to cause me even more confusion, I received close to a $2000 bill for the privilege of actual help and the ride to the hospital.
That ludicrous bill is no fault of the EMS - I’m very much appreciative of their existence and they don’t get nearly enough credit - but the best part of receiving that bill? The ambulance ride was roughly $1850. The fentanyl they gave me was $2.15.
UKDeek 4 months ago
You would be suprised at the amount of non-life threatening calls the ambulance services attend. This is data from the English Ambulance Services for June 2025. Over 1,103,000 emergency calls were placed to the English ambulance services. 49.2% (approx. 542,676) of all emergency calls were transported to ED. 29.1% (320,973) of calls were resolved as See and Treat (a clinician attends and deals with the incident at scene). 17.0% (187,510) of calls were resolved as Hear and Treat (dealt with by a clinician remotely), and 4.6% (50,738) of calls were transported to hospital by other means (taxi or self transported). For context, at the last census the population of England was 56,536,000.
So, when you read these stories, please try to perceive everything critically enough - in fact, what may look funny or absurd may well be a situation that actually requires medical intervention. Not, let's say, a surgeon or a dentist, but a psychoanalyst.
In any case, we're pretty much sure you'll find these tales quite interesting, so have a nice time reading, and maybe add your own stories of such kind in the comments below - if you have ever had to face or witness something similar too. The more interesting and informative the reading, the better!
#16
I went to emergency once with intense chest pain. The young (new) doctor I saw first listen to my chest and immediately concluded I had pericarditis but the supervising doctor decided I was faking it for d***s for some reason. The next morning I woke up to a psychologist in my room asking all sorts of random s**t when an orderly interrupted because the ultrasound guy was in and wanted to see me first thing (I think after talking to the first doc I saw). Turns out I had pericarditis and myocarditis and the dude wheeled me out himself and told them order an ambulance to take me to a hospital with a cardiac clinic.
The Redhead 4 months ago
My sister went to the ER in the middle of the night with sever abdominal pain, she was in tears. While she was waiting for her ultrasound the nurse on duty got an attitude & told her "stop pretending to cry" (he assummed she was after pills); it was appendicitis.
#17
Opthalmology technician. People pretend to be blind all the time. Go to check their eye pressure with the tonopen (a device you poke them DIRECTLY into the eye with) and they go WHAT THE F**K IS THAT THING!?!?!?!?!
Fluffyllama30 4 months ago
Why on earth would you fake really most of this but blindness. That doesn’t go away or heall
#18
My mom was an emergency room nurse. Years ago they brought a prisoner from the local pen in who seemed to be unconscious. The guards were suspicious that he was faking it. They checked his vitals and everything seemed to be ok. The attending doctor tried poking him in the foot with something pointy, nothing. Then he got an idea, they took a rubber hose and inserted it in the back of his throat as if they were intubating him. That did the trick he sat up very quickly coughing and gagging.
Edit: Yes, sternum rub, got it.
UKDeek 4 months ago
Oh, I used to hate those "unconscious" calls. Several, rather unofficial, tricks always helped... nasopharyngeal airway was always a favourite of mine, and the hand test as well - hold a person's hand just above their face then let it go. It will smack an unconsious person in the face, but an "unconscious" person will have their hand drop to the side.
#19
4th year medical student
On my ER rotation and a trauma came in from a women that the had been arrested. During the drive the patient “banged” her head 4 times against the window of the police car and then went unresponsive.
She came to us with a bruise over her forehead and unresponsive. We all smelled bs but the patient was a great actor, didn’t even flinch during the digital rectal exam (which is standard for all patients that come in through the trauma bay). Though some of the nurses said that they caught her “peeking” at us when would leave the room.
We ended up getting a CT scan (which was normal) and was even considering intubating her to secure her airway when our attending finally walked over to her, opened her eye lids and held them open while telling her to wake up. Finally she started fighting to close her eyes and the jig was up. The doctor called her out and she proceeded to start screaming at us. She was much more pleasant when she was pretending to have a brain injury.
Maren Villadsen 4 months ago
Why is a rectal exam standard?? you Hit your head and pass out wtf would you need a rectal exam?? Never heard of this beeing done anywhere else.
#20
It’s kinda the opposite way round, but when I was little, on Christmas Day, I was sitting at the table and my stomach starting to hurt. A lot.
I was a good kid and never misbehaved but for some reason my mum thought I was exaggerating or faking so she told me to stop being silly and eat up. I couldn’t eat, I felt horrible and was in a lot of pain. My mum just would not believe me and thought I was trying to get attention.
About 5 more minutes of me crying and she realised something was wrong so called the doctor and put me on the sofa.
So, that was the Christmas I missed because my appendix had burst. I spent a couple of months in hospital due to complications with the surgery and missed both Christmas and my birthday. Apparently they had caught it just in time as it could very well had been fatal.
My family still donates what they can to the children’s wing of that hospital as that was the first of 3 times they saved my life.
Sorry it didn’t quite fit the topic, but reading some of these posts reminded me and thought I’d share. :)
Belladonna Wexhome 4 months ago
I'm actually named after my aunt who died cause my grandmother's appendix burst when she was 8 months pregnant with her. (It's what saved my grandmother's life)
#21
Broke my leg five years ago. But the paramedics didn’t believe me and told me to stand up. They were very rude. I think they didn’t believe me because I only had a tiny fall, had had a bit of alcohol and it was a Saturday night. Also I was calm and not crying or showing pain (wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be)
After I was helped onto the stretcher(not by them) my leg bent in a way it shouldn’t, and they put a splint on and gave me gas and air. Couldn’t believe how rude they were. Later found out I have osteoporosis and that’s why it broke so easy.
UKDeek 4 months ago
If this person's leg was obviously deformed, the a fracture should have been identified immediately. However, some leg fractures aren't obvious, so you have to rely on other indicators to help with diagnosis. However, there are some very rude paramedics in the profession, so this is entirely believable.
#22
Sorta along the same idea. Working at a pharmacy we saw a guy come in to try and get a refill on some pain meds that had no refill. After pleading that his ear really hurt we told him again we couldn’t refill it. One of the other employees saw his step into a side hallway and take a pencil and JAM it forcefully into his ear repeatedly, drawing blood. He calmly left and went to the ER. He came back a few hours later with a prescription for pain meds.
#23
Not a doctor but a paramedic. Tons of calls to the jail for inmates with “seizures”, I lift the arm over their face and let it go they’ll move it to prevent hitting their face or I’ll lightly brush their eyelashes and they’ll twitch to it.
#24
If someone is unconscious, make a fist and rub your knuckles against their sternum (chest bone). Put some pressure behind it and rub quickly up and down (up towards chin, down towards belly button). It's called a sternal rub and is incredibly painful, but won't harm the person. It very, very hard to completely ignore and continue with the ruse of faking being unconscious. The only more sure thing is asking your partner to hand you the eye needle to take some ocular fluid while they're passed out so they won't feel the pain of the needle in their eye.
* ETA - There's no ocular needle, at least not on an ambulance. We say that because not everyone knows that and they don't want to risk it.
* ETA 2 - RIP my inbox. Apparently the sternal rub isn't common practice anymore because people literally went too hard. Sorry! Also I feel old af now.
* ETA 3 - ETA is used on reddit to mean "Edited to add". Yes, I know it usually means "Estimated time of arrival".
#25
Whenever the symptoms aren't there when the patient doesn't know they're being watched. I had someone fake a stroke recently and walked in on her walking around her room independently (after pretending to be limp on her left side, letting us take complete care of her and wiping her butt for her).
It was wild, y'all.
Not-a-Clue (she/her) 4 months ago
I've just read another thread of people underplaying symptoms or not getting help until it was far too late. Poor medics can't win.
#26
Not a doctor, but doctors often think my family is faking. For an unknown reason, when there's something wrong with our organs, our white blood cell count doesn't go up. My younger sister got appendicitis when she was in her early teens. Crying from the pain, but blood work showed nothing was amiss. If it hadn't been for other tests and my dad's insistance on them, she might not have been treated in time. So they open her up and surprise! A gross appendix that was close to bursting.
My dad insisted because of an operation he had just had to remove his gall bladder. He was in so much pain that he was vomiting, could hardly walk. It had been building up for a while and he was pretty sure what it was. He went to the doctor, but blood work showed his white count was normal. My dad had to scream in agony on their table for ages before they finally gave in and took him to surgery. They go in, see a perfectly healthy looking gall bladder. They pull it out, cut it open... and sand spills out. Dry sand. We learned later that it had completely stopped working and totally filled with protein chains. It was removed before it started k*****g my dad in earnest.
So yes, people fake it, people lie... but do double check just in case.
Edit: Holy cow, OK, this is now my most upvoted comment! And my first awards! Thank you! These stories took place over a decade ago, so my details were sparce and sometimes incorrect. So, after double checking with dad: the stuff only looked like grains of sand. They were deformed trypsin protein chains. We learned this when dad was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called alpha-1 antitrypsin FM phenotype. It's not fun, his lungs and liver deteriorate over time because of incorrectly shaped proteins getting stuck in his liver cells and not making it to the lungs, to put it simply.
And yes, my dad is being studied! Every time he gets a biopsy doctors gather data because his phenotype is so rare.
Aaand I got a couple of details incorrect, it had been a while since this story was told to me. The gallbladder didn't actually look healthy; that was a tidbit from a different story (my father has had basically every organ removed that he can and still be alive). Turns out that my dad found out about the white count thing during his own appendectomy. So, later, when he was in pain again from his gallbladder this time, he made sure he went to the same doctor he had gone through that whole kerfuffle with and, by that point, my dad's severe pain was enough reason to operate and take a look. They found the most diseased looking gallbladder they had ever seen, full of sand. They estimated it hadn't functioned for years.
As for the white cell thing, there is a name for it that we've since found out that I didn't know about! But no one can remember it at the moment, sorry... And weirdly, can't find it on Google.
Then, this is all exacerbated by biliary disconesia. Very small, small duct work that is easily clogged. More pain.
And to top it all off, Dad was exposed to high levels of radiation as a child. This on top of winning that dumb genetic lottery that no one wants to win.
Thanks again for all your amazing comments and questions! But an exploded inbox is what I get for not getting on reddit all day. I'll try and answer some.
Lee Gilliland 4 months ago
He's not speaking about beach sand, gall bladder "sand" is a think muck that acts like sand and is a precursor to gallstones.
#27
Not a doctor, but I once had a nurse tell me something that’s stuck with me ever since.
I had a gallbladder attack when I was younger, and lemme tell you, that’s some of the worst pain I’ve ever felt. I was doubled over, vomiting bile, and unable to move. My mom took me to the ER at 1 am in the middle of a snowstorm.
As the nurse was doing my initial evaluation, she asked me the standard “on a scale of 1-10” pain question. I thought for a couple seconds, and told her “7 or 8. It hurts really, really bad”. She nodded knowingly, and told me “Got it, it hurts really bad. Most people who tell me 10 are lying. No one ever feels a 10”.
In hindsight, I’m not sure that’s the best practice for a nurse. Still, after seeing d**g seeking patients myself, I understand her frustration. They ended up giving me morphine, which brought that number down quite a bit.
EDIT: I want to clarify my (or rather the nurse’s) comment. People can definitely feel a “10” on the pain scale, and I don’t want to invalidate your experience if you’ve felt that. I think the point is that if you do feel a “10”, the medical providers will probably know without having to ask. Conversely, if an otherwise lucid and calm patient replies with “10”, they might not be telling the truth.
BrownEyedGrrl 4 months ago
Gallstones are the worst pain I've ever had, and I went through labor 3 times.
#28
We have a guy that comes into the ER all the time faking seizures. Best actor I’ve ever seen. Sternal rub and he doesn’t flinch. Last time it was so bad he got intubated and right as they pushed the meds he stopped and said “ahhh that’s the good stuff”. Welp now we gotta tube you dude. Problem is he’s a drunk who falls a lot so he could in theory really be seizing. Biggest rule of medicine is even fakers get sick sometimes.
Becca not Becky 4 months ago
For clarification: when someone is getting intubated, you generally have to sedate and paralyze them. However, once the paralytic is in, you have to be intubated or you will stop breathing. I imagine that guy got the sedative and said that as he was getting the paralytic.
#29
I saw a father and his son wink when I was turning to face them again when I was done writing a note to stay home from school. That's pretty much it, "faking it" is a hard call to make in general.
#30
"If someone is truly unconscious, their thumb always wiggle"
Just say that out loud to yourself.
PattonPawter 4 months ago
if anyone’s confused, it’s like telling a kid “Your ears turn red when you lie”-the person will do that thing to prove they’re not lying
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What do you think ?
Fluffyllama30 4 months ago (edited)
People faking this stuff mess me up I know people who have died in extreme pain because a lot of drs won’t prescribe pain meds anymore, and others who wound up worse off because they couldn’t get an ambulance there in time due to fakers. Then there’s me who is afraid to ever go to get accused of wanting pain meds whilst I’m allergic to acetaminophen anyway
Lady Eowyn 4 months ago
I'm not allergic to any pain meds - that I know of - but most don't work. I don't ask for pain meds. I've been in the ER and an inpatient more times than I can remember and don't understand people who want to put themselves through that. Luckily over the decades I've gotten the chronic issues under control with a lot of meds. The last time I went to the ER was last August when I got attacked by a swarm of wasps on my balcony. Those stings hurt more than being kicked in the jaw by a horse. And I have been kicked in the jaw by a horse. (Not my horse, a horse who was trying to kick my horse.)
Load More Replies... LH25 4 months ago
I was accused of faking back pain once. I was in enough pain that I couldn't get out of bed without hubby helping me and me yelling all kinds of bad words. I was getting treatment for some spinal issues at the time, one really bad morning my doctor's office said to go to the ER to get checked to make sure my spine hadn't gotten worse. I get there, get put in a room. After a bit a doctor came in and lectured me about how they couldn't just give me a pain med prescription. Which I hadn't even asked for. They did give me a pill and said to go home. The orderly asked if I could walk back out to the waiting room where hubby was and to the car. I remember pretty much yelling "If I could do that I wouldn't be here". 2 days later, still in pain but now with a weak leg Dr again told me to go to the ER. This time I was admitted for 5 nights, given pain meds, OT and PT. Discussed surgery but they decided to wait a bit to see if I improved. What a difference to be taken seriously.
Marie BellaDonna 4 months ago (edited)
I lost my job at UPS because they thought I was faking back pain. I've had back problems all my life (scoliosis, kyphosis, sciatica, arthritis and degenerated discs). I'm used to back pain. I have some level if it almost every day. So I know how to move with it. So even if I pull a muscle I can still walk, sit and stand (albeit sometimes slowly). But just because I'm still on my feet, that doesn't mean I can lift 40-80lb packages. Just because I'm moving, that doesn't mean I'm not in pain. But they decided that because I was still walking, I was lying, to get out of working. They told me I could quit and be non-rehirable, or be fired and *possibly* get my job back through the union. Told 'em to take their job and shove it where the sun didn't shine. I hated that job anyway. Knew it wasn't a good fit for me. Only got it because my dad pressured me to. So, no big loss. Fúck 'em.
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Marnie 4 months ago
Autistic people have really a hard, hard time with medical professionals. (This might be why we die so much younger on average.) A lot of the early ones were pretty blatant. I didn't read much past that. But I've read a lot of things about how to tell if someone is being truthful, and it really scares me as an autistic person because they don't apply to a lot of us. And many of us have poor interoception, meaning it's hard for us to recognize and/or describe how our bodies feel. I had knee pain and when they would ask for specifics, I had a hard time answering. (I don't know. It hurts.) Went to three orthos before finally getting an MRI where it showed I have advanced arthritis with almost no cartilage.
Marie BellaDonna 4 months ago
Yes!! I'm AuDHD, and I HATE the 1-10 pain scale question!!
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Mike Phillips 4 months ago
Retired nurse here, we had a 30 something lady fake MS. Yes, faked it so well that several doctors & surgeons believed her. Had multiple admissions, surgeries etc, befriended staff. Lived in a wheelchair, had sponsored trips across the Atlantic, until she made one too many emergency phone calls. Police witnessed her walking around her home, despite being totally bed or chair bound. Munchousen syndrome.
Fluffyllama30 4 months ago (edited)
People faking this stuff mess me up I know people who have died in extreme pain because a lot of drs won’t prescribe pain meds anymore, and others who wound up worse off because they couldn’t get an ambulance there in time due to fakers. Then there’s me who is afraid to ever go to get accused of wanting pain meds whilst I’m allergic to acetaminophen anyway
Lady Eowyn 4 months ago
I'm not allergic to any pain meds - that I know of - but most don't work. I don't ask for pain meds. I've been in the ER and an inpatient more times than I can remember and don't understand people who want to put themselves through that. Luckily over the decades I've gotten the chronic issues under control with a lot of meds. The last time I went to the ER was last August when I got attacked by a swarm of wasps on my balcony. Those stings hurt more than being kicked in the jaw by a horse. And I have been kicked in the jaw by a horse. (Not my horse, a horse who was trying to kick my horse.)
Load More Replies... LH25 4 months ago
I was accused of faking back pain once. I was in enough pain that I couldn't get out of bed without hubby helping me and me yelling all kinds of bad words. I was getting treatment for some spinal issues at the time, one really bad morning my doctor's office said to go to the ER to get checked to make sure my spine hadn't gotten worse. I get there, get put in a room. After a bit a doctor came in and lectured me about how they couldn't just give me a pain med prescription. Which I hadn't even asked for. They did give me a pill and said to go home. The orderly asked if I could walk back out to the waiting room where hubby was and to the car. I remember pretty much yelling "If I could do that I wouldn't be here". 2 days later, still in pain but now with a weak leg Dr again told me to go to the ER. This time I was admitted for 5 nights, given pain meds, OT and PT. Discussed surgery but they decided to wait a bit to see if I improved. What a difference to be taken seriously.
Marie BellaDonna 4 months ago (edited)
I lost my job at UPS because they thought I was faking back pain. I've had back problems all my life (scoliosis, kyphosis, sciatica, arthritis and degenerated discs). I'm used to back pain. I have some level if it almost every day. So I know how to move with it. So even if I pull a muscle I can still walk, sit and stand (albeit sometimes slowly). But just because I'm still on my feet, that doesn't mean I can lift 40-80lb packages. Just because I'm moving, that doesn't mean I'm not in pain. But they decided that because I was still walking, I was lying, to get out of working. They told me I could quit and be non-rehirable, or be fired and *possibly* get my job back through the union. Told 'em to take their job and shove it where the sun didn't shine. I hated that job anyway. Knew it wasn't a good fit for me. Only got it because my dad pressured me to. So, no big loss. Fúck 'em.
Load More Replies... Marnie 4 months ago
Autistic people have really a hard, hard time with medical professionals. (This might be why we die so much younger on average.) A lot of the early ones were pretty blatant. I didn't read much past that. But I've read a lot of things about how to tell if someone is being truthful, and it really scares me as an autistic person because they don't apply to a lot of us. And many of us have poor interoception, meaning it's hard for us to recognize and/or describe how our bodies feel. I had knee pain and when they would ask for specifics, I had a hard time answering. (I don't know. It hurts.) Went to three orthos before finally getting an MRI where it showed I have advanced arthritis with almost no cartilage.
Marie BellaDonna 4 months ago
Yes!! I'm AuDHD, and I HATE the 1-10 pain scale question!!
Load More Replies... Mike Phillips 4 months ago
Retired nurse here, we had a 30 something lady fake MS. Yes, faked it so well that several doctors & surgeons believed her. Had multiple admissions, surgeries etc, befriended staff. Lived in a wheelchair, had sponsored trips across the Atlantic, until she made one too many emergency phone calls. Police witnessed her walking around her home, despite being totally bed or chair bound. Munchousen syndrome.
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