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“The Lack Of Common Sense Is Hilariously Baffling”: 45 Dumbest Patients Doctors Have Encountered
Interview With Expert
Excuse me, doctor. I have a quick question. I haven’t eaten vegetables in 17 years, sleep 4 hours each night, don’t take any vitamins and drink about 8 ounces of water a day. Why in the world am I feeling fatigued all the time?
Medical school is extremely challenging for a reason, and doctors would never expect the average person to know all of the ins and outs of the human body. But everyone should at least know how to take care of themselves (or know when to go to the hospital), right?
Doctors on Reddit have recently been sharing ridiculous things they’ve seen patients do, so we’ve gathered some of their most facepalm-worthy stories below. Keep reading to find a conversation with Dr. Scott Ross, and be sure to upvote the stories that have convinced you to stop putting off your next check-up!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I had a patient come to me in emotional distress. He was afraid because he’d found a box of dirty, used syringes on the street and used them to shoot up. He didn’t know what he had contracted.
I gave him reassurance, told him we would figure out what to do no matter what the test results were. And remarkably, he came back negative for everything. It was such a relief.
On the same visit when I gave him his results, I recommended that he get a tetanus shot. He looked me in the eye and refused “because vaccines are dangerous and kill people.”
It was hard to remain professional at that moment.
Upstaged75 1 year ago
Used street needles are OK, but god forbid a medical professional use a clean one to give you a vaccine? Some people are just too dumb to live.
Rachknits 1 year ago
Similar. I used to work with people with addiction issues and had just finished a session with a client who insisted on helping me to wash up our mugs. When I washed them in soapy water (usual water and washing up liquid) she insisted I rinse them thoroughly as the washing up liquid would 'give you cancer'. Never mind the 2 bottles of vodka she was drinking every day...
Samsquatch & Monko 1 year ago
YOU JUST STABBED YOURSLEF WITH A MILLION STRANGE NEEDLES I DONT THINK VACCINES ARE DANGEROUS IF YOU TESTED NEGATIVE FOR LITERALLY EVERYTHING
SheamusFanFrom1987 1 year ago
Yup, he contracted something from those dirty syringes alright: Moron-norrhea! Don't bother, ain't no hope left for him anymore.
Sanfransweety 1 year ago
In recovery but back in my active addiction, so many addicts, particularly meth addicts had this stance. Like you regularly partake in rat poison but draw the line at vaccines and flu shots?!
frederick clause 1 year ago
Just another example of why critical thinking needs to be reinforced at a young age in school.
Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 1 year ago
Vaccines are dangerous... but using dirty needles to shoot up isn't? :-D
RELATED:
#2
NICU nurse. Had a family with premature triplets that ended up growing, getting very healthy, and all three went home! Definitely a success story.
A few weeks later all three are back in the hospital. We were shocked. Turns out mom brought triplet A into the hospital for dehydration and fever. They ran an electrolyte panel and the different electrolytes were so off that it could’ve been deadly. Baby was immediately admitted and started on IV fluids and medications.
We sent the kids home on a premature baby formula that provides some extra calories to help them grow (Mom did pump/breastfeed, just not enough for triplets, understandably.) Mom stopped using the formula immediately and bought some weird raw goat or sheep milk product from Europe (unsure on precise details) because it’s not even sold in the US. Yeah, uh, your premature triplets either need breast milk or baby formula. They literally cannot handle or process whatever it was she gave them. She was shocked. Had to bring in the other two for testing and they were just as messed up. All three spent several days in the hospital on IVs with many medications to stabilize them so their heart and kidneys wouldn’t fail.
This goes for all infants, btw. Please don’t feed them ANYTHING but baby formula or breast milk for the first 6 months. Please. 🤦🏼♀️.
Stephanie Did It 1 year ago (edited)
And preemies are so fragile, too! Many of their physical processes just aren't ready. My 7 month son couldn't nurse because his choking reflex wasn't developed yet, so he could potentially drown. They simply poured my milk through a little tube into his stomach. He couldn't be rocked either, because his equilibrium wasn't developed and rocking nauseated him. If they're not gaining at least an ounce per day, they're not progressing so it was heartbreaking if he threw up even a tiny bit. You DON'T mess with preemies' diets! Hope those poor babies made it.
Panda Kicki 1 year ago
I think the mum might be at least a bit innocent here. There are proper, approved and tested, goat milk formulas made for babies in europe and they work well if babies have sensitive tummies. However, they are made for full term babies and any pre term baby needs to have their needs evaluated before they get it. I think the nurse may have been a bit to harsh "cant buy in US " isnt really a quality seal that makes all other products invalid.
Dainty72 1 year ago
I don't think she was harsh at all. She didn't say anything bad about her and was understanding of her plight as far as breastfeeding her baby's. She gave her good advice and sent her on her way. Many would have reported this mom and from that terrible things can happen. I don't think unless there's something wrong that babies should be given breast milk or formula. If you choose to do things differently, then always seek medical advice!!
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Panda Bear 1 year ago
Raw milk carries all kinds of nasty bacteria, mom’s lucky she didn’t give her babies TB or something
Gourdeous 1 year ago
We had a nice baby born with insides outside. She was doing well, but never really well enough to go home from ward. Turns out mum was feeding her tiny inside out baby coke and pasty.
Nikki Gregerson 1 year ago
Why do people always think goats milk is the way to go? You shouldn't even give it to new born animals. Way to much fat among other things that their little bodies can't process.
Becky Samuel 1 year ago
Goats milk was used for foundlings and orphans where no wet nurses were available in times before formula was developed. It's far from ideal, but it was the only thing that gave the children any chance of survival.
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Jungle Empress 85 1 year ago
I'm just stunned. I don't plan on ever having children but at least I know enough not to give an infant anything other than formula or breast milk.
#3
Oh boy. Guy thought marijuana cured everything, had itchy ears, maybe eczema? Stuffed weed in his ears. Went two weeks with this. Got irritated and infected. Had to pull it all out and sterilize it. I just…what? Dude with diabetes thought freezing his soda into a popsicle made it an ‘icicle’ without the sugar. That day we discussed what ice is. Dude with diabetes taped his foot back on after it rotted off. Got septic. Maggots were involved. Guy electrocutes his penis regularly for his herpes. This was done with a 9V battery. He shocks himself for his other health problems too. Guy doesn’t like water, doesn’t bathe. Also doesn’t leave his house because he doesn’t like people but likes church. Local church tried to help him but he smelled so bad they told him he couldn’t come back. He doesn’t like toilets so he just goes on himself. Shits outside. Somehow married and divorced x3??? “I’m dizzy all the time” lady drinks a 12 pack in a sitting on the regular and gets dizzy after. She is surprised to learn she may be drunk. Guy calls an ambulance, pulls a gun on the ambulance. Still goes to hospital. Guy pulls gun on the home health nurses to rob them when they come to do their home health nursing job with him. At his home. Comes to hospital because his soup tastes ‘not good’. Stays for a week because he needs special diapers sent from a special manufacturer shipped to his house. Is upset that we don’t have HBO or better soup. Lady screamed at me in the ER because she didn’t believe that the MRI I was showing her belonged to her. Her name was on it. You could see her body shape on the scout image. She then denied having the MRI at all, still wearing the MRI wristband the techs gave her. During COVID there were many people that denied that they were sick right up until we had to intubate them. They were coughing, hacking, and struggling to breathe, even on BiPAP. Still said that _I_ was the one responsible for making them sick. They all invariably died of multiorgan failure after lingering on the vent for two-four weeks. Guy comes in with gonorrhea. From an orgy. Right in the middle of 2020 lockdown. He was shocked that I was shocked. “But I wore a mask!” Me: “But no condom???” There’s many more, unfortunately.
Zedrapazia 1 year ago
I don't know what's worse. The guy who just taped his rotten foot back on and thought this was nothing, or the idiot who believed a COVID mask would help against gonorrhea
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Bill Hankel 1 year ago
These are all crazy, but taping your foot back on after it rotted off ... what in the $*%^#!!!
Upstaged75 1 year ago
Many diabetics can't feel their feet due to neuropathy. So I guess maybe it didn't bother him? I've seen a lot of people with diabetes who are in denial about their health. And gangrenous toes do sometimes fall of on their own.
Load More Replies... Valek Fermiga 1 year ago
Someone needs to invent a cure for stupidity, trouble is, if it's in a vaccine form, some people won't take.... Game over planet earth, game over....
Désirée Watterson 1 year ago
"DO you still have hope for humanity???!" O_O
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Kare Deter 1 year ago
"Dude with diabetes taped his foot back on after it rotted off. Got septic. Maggots were involved." Check please! I just can't read any more after this one.
Stardust she/her 1 year ago
Which is worse? Getting sepsis from an STI or getting sepsis from COVID-19?
To learn more about what it's like to encounter patients who are lacking in common sense, we reached out to Scott Ross, MD, who was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda. First, we wanted to know if Dr. Ross had ever encountered a patient who had made some questionable decisions.
"Certainly, all physicians see patients who do things that make us shake our heads," he shared. "One of my favorite stories involves a women who came in after eating a bag of expired vegetables. She noticed it smelled bad 'like kimchi.' She stated, 'Well, I like kimchi' and proceeded to eat the food. She was seen for severe diarrhea."
#4
I used to be a medical scribe in a pediatric office. A mom came in complaining that her daughter was turning black, obviously we were concerned what kind of infection or abuse was this child experiencing? The kid was tanning, she was running around and playing in the sun and was tanning.
Zedrapazia 1 year ago
Someone call the Boondocks, Uncle Ruckus is getting concurrence with the "illness" that turned him into a black man xD
SuperChicken 1 year ago
I can only hope that the daughter grows-up with more common sense and brain than her mother.
BoredPossum 1 year ago
Just send all those people to uranus and let them start a colony of morons.
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 1 year ago
What did Uranus do to deserve that?
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I’m friends with a nutritionist at a hospital. One of the stories that stuck with me was a mid 30s construction worker just collapsed one day. His coworkers called an ambulance and he rushed to the hospital right? Well they discover he’s nutrient deficient like in everything. So my friend is called in and she’s asking him about his diet…” well I don’t like eating breakfast, and I don’t like eating then going back to work so I don’t eat lunch and then I get home and the wife has to make dinner so I start drinking beer and by the time dinner is ready I don’t wanna eat. Just have some more beer and go to bed.” The dude was living off of nothing but beer. He couldn’t remember the last time he actually ate something.
TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago
Would have told him that "Liquid Bread" is more a nickname rather than a precise description
viimatar 1 year ago (edited)
Goes for modern beer more than the historical, unfiltered everyday variants - though the myth might half arise from the fact that they often mixed eggs and cereal into it, practically turning it into a soup.
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B Jones 1 year ago
Never saw lack of content in conversation as a symptom...I've had that my whole life.
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Giraffy Window 1 year ago
Were all his teeth loose and wiggly with horrid breath and scurvy lesions??
Terry Rex 1 year ago (edited)
You actually can live off of beer but it's not recommended. That is basically a bread and water diet with alcohol added. In the old days that was about the only thing you could take oversea and still have it be useable when you got where you were going. Because the alcohol kept it. They referred to it as "liquid bread" since it is basically just grains and hops
tori Ohno 1 year ago
Leg weakness is one of the first serious side affects of chronic alcoholism. Do his hands have a permanent tremor as well? I know this first hand, including the lack of appetite. There's hope if he quits now and gets himself healthy. My family member is going to be on medication for the rest of his life because of the pancreas damage that was done. Pancreas! His liver has healed itself, but not all organs can.
#6
My mom was an ER nurse for 30 years, so I have endless stories of idiots like this. One gem was a dude who came in because his legs weren't working. When asked if he had previous issues, he said no. He was super loopy, so she grilled him a bit and it turned out he was zonked out of his mind on pain pills and had been for 24 hours a day for more than a week because he'd hurt his leg at work. Turns out he'd broken his leg at work and started taking pain pills to compensate. He took so many the pain was totally gone, so he felt cured and spent a solid week walking around on his broken leg until the bone turned into crumbles and shredded the tendon. He didn't realize there was an issue until the bone started pushing out of his leg and the pain was too much for the handfuls of pills to counteract. Dude wound up losing his leg due to infection and internal bleeding. During his week long journey on painkiller he also punctured both eardrums with qtips while cleaning his ears. Developed awful and infected hemorrhoids from pushing too hard and wiping too hard. Broke three teeth from clenching his teeth - he was also taking speed to counteract being sleepy from the pain killers. And he had slammed his hand in his car door and broke two fingers. So they got him all fixed up but he developed an opiate addiction. My mom said he'd come in once a week begging for pills and try to steal stuff from the hospital. Then he wrecked his car on purpose, killing a college girl in the process, just to get pain killers. He wound up in prison for 15 years because when the cops searched his car the trunk was full to the brim of stolen guns he'd been selling to random people on the street to buy pills. Yes, this was in Florida.
MonsterMum 1 year ago
Maybe he would have gone to the doctor's in the first instance if it wasn't so expensive?
Ace 1 year ago
Well yes, that could apply to quite a few of these who self- or non-medicated things that would be easy to address if they did so in a timely manner. Nobody should have to think about whether they can afford to go to a doctor.
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Stephanie Did It 1 year ago
Sounds like this guy was already an addict way before he broke his leg.
Some guy 1 year ago
Yeah, I'm wondering where his handfuls of pain pills came from in the first place.
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Tiffany Marie 1 year ago (edited)
That's what I was thinking 🤔... people don't want to go to the doctor due to price. I'm one of them. I have no insurance. The tax payers are now paying for his jail time. I know "many" people who refuse to find a full time job and only work 2 to 3 days a week to stay on government medical & food stamps. Unfortunately somehow they're living better off and taking vacations. My husband works full time and trying to pay his $20,000 dental bill. Barely afford food. Lol. We shut internet off to afford medical bills. I use the free wifi at my apartments rec room.
We also asked the physician why it's so difficult for people to know how to take care of themselves. "I think for basic healthy living, most people do know what to do but make poor choices," he explained. "People know that smoking, heavy drinking and over eating are bad for them, but these remain common causes of morbidity and mortality."
#7
My paramedic gf at the time told me of a person who would call out the ambulance frequently. She was a germaphobe and would swallow razor-blades frozen into icecubes to somehow destroy the germs inside her.
Thankfully the stomach acid often blunted the blades, but still….
viimatar 1 year ago
I'm so going to steal this new-oh-loquism for practical use.
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Valek Fermiga 1 year ago
That poor woman, she needs help, that's got to be a horrible way to live....
#8
Me, a dentist, to my patient: “Please, do not superglue your tooth back in your mouth again.”
Lydsylou (she/her) 1 year ago
My cousin did that once. He thought it would be a brilliant idea but it fell out after a few hours. He was so disappointed!
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
I once got superglue into my eyes, mouth, and nose when I was in my 20s. I was gluing a figurine together, and the glue stopped coming out of the superglue tube. As one does in their 20s, I turned the tube over and looked into the nozzle to see what the problem was. I also, for some reason, squeezed the tube as I was doing this XD When I went to the ER, the doctor laughed at me (which I deserved, lol) and told me that cyanoacrylate (superglue) doesn't bond well to moist surfaces (in my case, my literal eyeballs.) So that's probably why your cousin's tooth didn't stay glued in - the cyanoacrylate couldn't bond to his moist gums XD I was lucky - no permanent damage from my idiocy - I glued my eyes shut because the glue bonded my eyelashes together, but the glue that got into my eyes didn't do any damage. The doc said I still had to flush out my eyes to remove the "granules" of superglue, as if we'd left them in there, they could have scratched my corneas. Good times!
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Marcellus II 1 year ago
Super glue has almost no shear strength. Meaning it snaps off at any twist or levering. [So 2-component glues are far better. Source: My father who kept re-glueing his teeth every few months throughout the 80s into the 90s --- he occasionally let the dentist do their thing when they told him they had a new product, but his DIY systematically lasted longer than the professional ones. Then he kind of solved it and it stayed a decade at least.]
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🦄 Unicorn Princess 1 year ago (edited)
Being in the field, it happens much more often than one would think.
#9
I'm an optometrist in the U.S. and have a couple of memorable ones.
I had an argument with one patient who insisted that there were great healing benefits to using urine eye drops. When asked about how she got these urine eye drops, she admitted to taking them directly from the toilet and putting them straight into her eyes. My pleas for her to consider the risk of developing bacterial keratitis fell on deaf ears. Still dreading the day that one returns to clinic with an infection.
And if I had a nickel for every time a patient came to me ~6 months after taking a severe blow to the eye and losing vision, only to find that they had a total retinal detachment that they thought they could just "walk off" instead of seeking care, I would have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice in the three years I've been practicing.
Stephanie Did It 1 year ago
My retinal detachment was TERRIFYING. When the other one started flashing, I didn't walk, I RAN back to the surgeon. How could anyone not take that seriously?
Noname 1 year ago
When you don't have health insurance or two nickkes to rub together, you take your chances
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HangryHangryHippo 1 year ago
I'm afraid that the second case could be more related to a lack of health insurance, considering that the OP is from the US. So sad ☹️
TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago (edited)
Sometimes I do wonder how people like the first case do survive on a daily base
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago (edited)
There is some insane belief out there that urine is "sterile" (it is NOT.) I wonder if the first person thought that urine was more sterile than... normal eyedrops? Depending on how long ago the case occurred, I can kinda understand - remember how some eyedrops were contaminated with bacteria in 2023? But honestly, the whole thing is so insane to me that the "sterile urine" thing is the best "reasoning" I can come up with XD I know that there is a city in China where there is a centuries-old tradition of preserving eggs in the urine of young boys - I imagine way back when, when there was no refrigeration or easy way of keeping eggs fresh/preserved for long, maybe they thought urine (specifically, the urea in it) had... preserving effects? They didn't know about urea specifically, of course, but urine has historically been used in the leather tanning industry and was also used (well, the ammonia that urea decays into) to clean/whiten other stuff back in the day. Whooof. But - yes, I agree with you - I have no idea how people like Urine Eyeballs Lady survive to adulthood, let alone beyond XD
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Julie Blaylock 1 year ago
Immediately called my eye doctor when I woke up with half the vision in one eye gone. Three days later, surgery for retinal detachment. How dumb are some people?
Freya (she/they/he) 1 year ago
This reminds me of those ppl that bathe in and drink their own urine
Aroace tiger (she/they/he) 1 year ago
Did the eye drop picture frwak anyone else out a little or am i just odd?
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
I can't stand to see people put eye drops in or do anything else to their eyes, ever since bad experiences with having eye drops before surgery when I was 6. Anything else medical I'm fine with but not eyes.
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Michael Largey 1 year ago
I knew a 72 year old who fell painfully but thought he could walk it off in a week or so. He had broken his hip.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
That sounds like my mother. XD She had horrific stomach pain and thought all she needed was to slork down a bottle or two of Mylanta. Turns out she had a huge, bleeding stomach ulcer. She also recently had really bad knee pain and thought she could "just walk it off" - turns out her knees are "bone on bone" (she's 79) and she also had Baker's cysts. I would NOT be surprised if she fell like the guy you knew and tried to similarly "walk off" any pain she had afterwards.
Load More Replies..."I realize there are often psychological issues that need to be addressed, but personal responsibility is important also," Dr. Ross added. "For complex medical issues, it is important to find a physician that you can trust."
And we shouldn't necessarily trust everything that we find through a Google search. "It is reasonable to self-educate with online searches, but I think it is best to use sites from medical schools or medical facilities that one is familiar with," the expert says.
#10
Had a patient with recurrent infected leg ulcers. Reason: rather than clean and dress them as instructed, she was letting her dog "lick them clean".
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 1 year ago
You say that, but have you seen some of the stuff dogs voluntarily eat?! The field near us had muck spread on it recently, and the dogs were eating up every bit of it they could find.
Load More Replies... Anna Ekberg 1 year ago
Once had someone tell me " you should let a dog lick your wound clean". No you should not, why do people belive that? Dogs eat almost anything, they lick almost anything, they lick their butts/balls clean and some eat their own or other dogs feces. Why on earth would anyone think that their mouths are clean and having them lick your wounds is a good idea?
Some guy 1 year ago
I don't even let dogs lick my face, for the reasons you listed.
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TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago
I think doctors should be able to order forced education classes for such cases
Panda Bear 1 year ago
My older dog would definitely do this if my family let him. We don’t, for obvious reasons.
#11
As a pediatrician, lots of things every day. But also I have so much empathy because when it comes to your kids, of course you're going to worry and logic goes out the window. Lots of ED visits for "fever" of 99F that improved with Tylenol, and the family waits 3 hours for me to see their healthy kid. It more makes me sad they spent their time that way! And that they were so stressed during that time! ): More egregious examples are the naturopath parents - not even anti Vaxxers, but the ones who's kids have horrific chronic illness such as IBD or lupus and refuse to give them "western medicine". It's enraging, their children suffer, are in pain, and in many cases have had irreversible damage because their parents want them to drink baking soda instead of receiving life saving medications for their systemic illnesses. Jehovah's witnesses irk me in a similar way - especially when their babies have serious congenital anomalies and they refuse the lifesaving surgery initially unless it's "bloodless", which is an entire other illogical conversation to have anyway.
Holly's House 1 year ago
Thankfully where I live, we've had JW cases where the hospital was granted legal custody of the infants for life saving procedures because doctors could show that the babies would die without the treatment
Freya (she/they/he) 1 year ago
My friend told me about this recently. Unfortunately some ppl are too absorbed into their religion to realize their child will die without proper treatment
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Karl Havoc 1 year ago
Jehovah’s Witnesses are absolute evil. There is no such thing as a “harmless” or “good” JW. All evil all the way down and the worst of the worst. Speaking from experience so the “not all…” can shove it where the Sun don’t shine
OneHappyPuppy 1 year ago
My godmother (became JW later in life) died of cancer because she refused to be treated for religious reasons. That religion is built to kill off as many members as possible for the church leaders to accumulate all of their assets. It's disgusting
Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 1 year ago
JW's refuse transplants, which I guess I get the logic if it's your own body... but if it's your child, religion be d@mned, let's get the kid a new heart or whatever!
Justanotherpanda 1 year ago (edited)
I have Lupus, I don’t like to take medication but without my ‘chemicals’ I feel really really ill, I can hardly move, let alone function. Kids need the medicine!
TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago
I'd hand out flyers for funeral homes and child sized coffins - maybe not morally OK, but if it helps at least one child...
𝐆𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐦-𝐏𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚 1 year ago
This wouldn't work. Parents who refuse treatment on religious grounds often believe the child would be better off dead than disobeying their God. You cannot scare religious zealots with mortality and death, because they UTTERLY believe their God will take care of it all, and even if they die, there will be a "reward".
Load More Replies... #12
My mother tried treating a diabetic who was convinced she was allergic to water, so she’d only drink coca cola. I’ll never forget that one….
ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago
Did she bother to look at the ingredients? Think there's a smidge of water in coca cola.
Some guy 1 year ago
It lists "carbonated water". That couldn't possibly be the same thing, could it? /s
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Tamra 1 year ago
I think one of the most important aspects of being a doctor or nurse, is being able to educate your patient. So many people seem to lack the most basic knowledge of health and well-being.
viimatar 1 year ago
I wonder if the state of the education system and the healthcare system somehow correlate... 🙄
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B W 1 year ago
This was my diabetic mother. She would always say that she couldn’t drink water because, ‘it went right through her’. I guess that 64oz Diet Pepsi will be fine though.
KimB 1 year ago
Not to mention caffeine is a diuretic lol ;) I laugh because this was my MIL (RIP) type 1 diabetic for nearly 40 years...I think it was sheer willpower she survived as long as she did her diet choices were horrendous!
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We hope you're enjoying scrolling through these stories, pandas. Please remember not to put off your own doctor's appointments if you think something is wrong, and if you're a health care worker, feel free to share your own experiences with patients in the comments below. Keep upvoting the stories you find most amusing, and if you'd like to read even more, check out this Bored Panda piece next!
#13
My mom once had a patient who was an old lady who was rushed to the E.R. after ingesting bug spray. After they managed to get her to a stable condition and had her admitted to a ward a few days later Mom asked her why she did that.
Her response? "I accidentally swallowed a cockroach so I swallowed the bug spray to kill the cockroach.".
ynyrhydref56 1 year ago
Preschool memory unlocked: "She swallowed the cat to catch the bird, she swallowed the bird to catch the spider (that wriggled and wriggled and jiggled inside her), she swallowed the spider to catch the fly ... I don't know why she swallowed the fly ... perhaps she'll die"
Robert T 1 year ago
That's the last line of "There was an old woman who swallowed a fly".
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LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
Well, to give the insane lady some credit, at least bug spray THEORETICALLY would kill a cockroach XD Lysol, while it does purport SOME ability to kill viruses, wasn't proven (at the time) to be able to "kill" the COVID virus XD
Load More Replies... ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago
🎶I don't know why she swallowed that fly, erm Roach 🎶
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Arthur Waite 1 year ago
Oh, it's really easy to do, esp. if you gobble fast. Or, so I hear, from my Mum, one Sunday evening...
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DragonofMordor 1 year ago
Pretty sure your stomach acid will kill it just as well as the bug spray.
The Darkest Timeline 1 year ago
So we look with befuddlement on someone who thinks this way but millions of people thought dear leader asking if we could inject bleach or somehow use UV lights inside of people to get rid of Covid was “just asking questions”.
#14
My patient who crawled under his truck and “leg pressed” his engine back into place two weeks after his total hip arthroplasty. Came into clinic complaining of pain….
Giraffy Window 1 year ago (edited)
My mom added a full year to her healing process after a surgery to put metal plates in her arm. She was raised on a very unhealthy set of beliefs involving "good work ethic" and only actually rested for the two days post op in the hospital.
Robert Trebor 1 year ago
I know somebody who is mad because they won't redo her knee replacement, but it is obvious to "them" that she shirrked the exercise routine after the first one because it was "boring".
Beth Wheeler 1 year ago
I used to work in a Urology Clinic and 1 of the docs did the IPP surgery (Implantable Penile Pump) on med for ED or injury. They were told do not try to do anything with it until you come back for the post op and we teach you how to use it. If you don't follow the instructions and you come to the post op appt and it's broken you are out of luck and it was $45,000 15 years ago.
KimB 1 year ago
Folks your doctor tells you these things for a reason. They know. They know how long things take to heal so if you're told no strenuous activity then take it easy! It doesn't mean you have to lie in bed and not move but it's not the time to rebuild a car or rearrange your furniture.
#15
Not a dr. A nurse. My patient, who had just had 2 toes amputated due to uncontrolled Type 2 Diabetes, "my blood sugar is only high when Im in hospital" Me: "do you check it at home?" Patient: "No". Me: "so how do you know?" Pt: "it just doesn't feel high." Me:........
Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 1 year ago
May have to remove a few more toes for it to register ;)
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Kelly H. Wilder 1 year ago
I have T2D, but for me the most dangerous thing is actually the asymptomatic lows. I do not feel any different when my glucose levels are too high or too low. One time I had labs done by my liver specialist and he called me very late that evening. He asked me why I didn't mention that I was not feeling well while I was in his office. I told him that I felt fine and was not having any kind of unwell feeling. Apparently my glucose was only 44 when they drew my blood. He had me check it while I was on the phone with him and it was normal, but he gave me a stern warning. My endocrinologist said asymptomatic lows are quite dangerous.
viimatar 1 year ago
Converted to the European measurement standard, that's 2.4 mmol/liter... oh wow. However were you still on your feet?!
Load More Replies... Lene 1 year ago
Reminds me of a pregnancy chat I stumbled upon when I was pregnant. They talked about the diabetes you can get while pregnant. One woman had gotten the test when she expected her first child and she found it so horrible to drink a cup of extremely sugary water before waiting a few hours and then have a glucose test done, that she decided that for all future pregnancies she'd say no yo the test because she claimed she'd be able to feel if something was wrong with her blood sugar. Poor future kids of hers, I thought. 😬
Zelda McLink 1 year ago
I'm a T1, and I know how it feels when it's low, but no idea what it feels like to be too high...
Leon Blaisdell 1 year ago
Reminds me of a certain former U.S. president who believed the best way to keep COVID infection rates low was to do fewer tests...
#16
EMT here. Got called out for a “hand laceration with severe bleeding” so naturally we urgently drive to the callers house.
We arrive to find this young, around 18yr old female holding her hand and wincing in pain. Confused at the lack of blood I ask her to point to her wound & she points to a cut no bigger than 1cm. She states that her family doesn’t own bandages & she didn’t want to get an infection by going to the pharmacy to buy them.
Stephanie Did It 1 year ago
World's most costly Band Aid! (Even if there was a NHS, taxpayers paid for all that!)
rullyman 1 year ago
NHS would be very unlikely to send an ambulance for a hand laceration, even one that did require care. The helpline would tell you to go to the minor injuries unit unless you'd put your hand in a woodchipper!
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Manomnomnom 1 year ago
She probably got a lecture on misusing emergency services, but I know that in at least some places in the U.S., some emergency care provided by EMTs can be done for free UNLESS they have to take you to the hospital. In the city I grew up in, there was a pretty high tax for the fire department, but my grandfather had extremely low blood sugar and needed emergency treatment several times but sometimes they were able to treat him for free if they could give him enough glucose to stabilize him without having to take him to the emergency room. Same thing for when my grandmother had a few falls, the fire department would come help us get her back up and if she was not injured, it didn’t go at anything since they didn’t have to take her in the ambulance.
#17
My best friend is in his residency right now and he had a patient that had a wound in his face that was festering so bad there were maggots living in it. He didn’t think it was important enough to be seen until they started falling into his cereal.
CanadianDimes 1 year ago
This is quite sad. Too many people think they’re being a bother by seeking medical attention they need and deserve
Bewitched One 1 year ago
This doesn’t say the patient thought he was being a bother by being seen, nor that that was his reasoning for not being seen until he was? Not that your statement isn’t true, just not sure it applies to this. He could’ve just been someone who hates doctors and/or thinks they’re all scheming, or he could just be someone in the US without insurance so he didn’t get seen until it was effecting other parts of his life
Load More Replies... Apachebathmat 1 year ago
There is a lady that frequents the area I work in, she’s an addict of some description, her poor face covered in sores, she’s really dirty too so I offered for her to come and take a shower in my funeral home where I work (upstairs isn’t used but it still has a working bathroom) I have clean clothes, soap etc maybe something to eat and a brew, she declined because she didn’t want to remember what a shower felt like, broke my heart in two
Tamra 1 year ago
That is incredibly sad. Very, very kind of you to offer, though.
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Speak easy buttercup 1 year ago
In all fairness... ruining ones cereal DOES make it important enough to see the doc!
Nay Wilson 1 year ago
I shouldn’t have read this immediately after eating my breakfast. Now I’m nauseous 🤢
SuperChicken 1 year ago (edited)
I just had my dinner, and I feel your pain.
Load More Replies... viimatar 1 year ago
I just absolutely got to comment that the nutrition value of the cereal might have gone up with the addition... it isn't food, it's cellulose with added sugar, at least the US market brands if you are to believe nutrition bloggers? (Since it's in the Internet, it must be true... /s)
#18
I once had a 50-something lady in the ER complaining of difficulty using her left hand. Turned out that it wasn’t new, rather something that had been an issue all her life.
She was right handed.
TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago
You'd be surprised what senile people can come up with
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Mohsie Supposie 1 year ago
Just tell her tat the only solution is to amputate her left hand! Suddenly all the problems will go away!
Marnie 1 year ago
This is stupid. I know it's wrong to try to force left-handed children to be right-handed, but people are capable of using both hands for things. How do you think people drive, play drums, play piano or many other instruments, or any number of untold activities where both hands are in use. People can use both hands.
viimatar 1 year ago
This wasn't the issue here at all. What was, was that the person went to the ER to complain about the natural tendency to favor one hand over the other, it appears. After living with it for five and half decades, and now, it supposedly was a problem that required urgent care in the emergency unit just like accident victims and heart attacks. Otherwise, the issue with forced right hand use is real, even today in some cases, despite the scientifical proof of it being a naturally occurring neurological variant, not a flaw, or somehow sinful.
Load More Replies... #19
Not a doctor, but heres the stupidest thing a doctor told me once. I'm a microbiology lab technician in the hospital lab. And a DOCTOR - full fledged, board certified - asked me why I couldn't just put the petri plates in the microwave so it grows faster to know what bacteria and antibiotics to use. WHAT.
Lauren K 1 year ago (edited)
A urologist I worked for didn't think COVID was real. Until he caught it and infected the whole office. We had to close for two weeks. He was a Trump supporter.
rumple slunkskin 1 year ago
Eek, I worked in a nursing Home and one of the charge nurses was a q-anon nut antivaxxer... but she gave out vaccinations and always followed ppe protocol. I guess it was good her idiotic personal beliefs didn't interfere with her work but wow.
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detective miller's hat 1 year ago
The only time I want to know what kind of grades you got in school is if you're potentially going to be my doctor.
#20
I'm a lawyer but I had a consultation with a potential client who was in a car accident and believed she lost her brain. Literally thought her brain was no longer in her head. I also had a postal worker who wanted to sue the post office because he was exposed to "potentially toxic chemicals from a leaking package." When I asked him to describe it, he said it looked and smelled like honey. I asked what the package looked like. He said it was a can that said, "honey.".
Remi (He/Him) 1 year ago
The brain thing sounds like something that could be caused by some form of brain damage, so maybe she was sorta right
Lori 1 year ago
Back when I was a court reporter, I would be involved with mainly car accident/insurance depositions and a lot of people would claim they basically ran marathons prior to the accident. When they were pushed on it they would say the last time they ran was like 1987. So that doesn't surprise me one bit from my own experience lol
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
Honey isn't "toxic" to babies - it's the POTENTIAL botulism spores or clostridium bacteria in the honey that can be dangerous. It has nothing to do with the honey itself.
Load More Replies... #21
Guy comes into ER with abdominal pain. While working him up, we are getting some history. -just released from prison a few days ago. -Living in moms house with mold growing openly on walls and ceiling. -Walking through kitchen, spotted some amber liquid in a plastic cup on top of the fridge. Tossed it back. Swallowed it. It was pine sol. -CT comes back, has intussuseption of small intestine. -While waiting for surgery consult, i’m looking at his foot. Small amount of blood on sock. Hole noted in sock, huh. Remove sock, find GSW. “Oh, yeah, I was walking around twirling a gun and shot myself in the foot”. Nonchalant-like.
Stephanie Did It 1 year ago (edited)
Some folks prefer being institutionalized because they aren't required to think. At all. GSW = gun shot wound
Ace 1 year ago
Some folk lose the ability to think for themselves if they've been institutionalised for a long time.
Load More Replies... Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 1 year ago
One woman I knew, who was released before me, was desperate to come back, because she couldn't afford to live on the outside.
Robert Trebor 1 year ago
Guy i heard of, they had to pry him out of the cell after he did all of his 25. Out to the street, took a plastic knife from a convenience store, held up the store brandishing the knife, went out to wait for the police. Armed robbery.
#22
Maybe not surprised he lived that long, but definitely lacking in common sense.
I was seeing a ~40-50 year old patient in a Pain Clinic I was working in at the time. I did a full review of systems, and he ends up saying that outside of pain, his main complaint was that he can’t sleep … because he pees over 20 times a day, at least 10 of which are overnight. Alarm bells go off. I’m immediately wondering about things like undiagnosed diabetes, but I had checked his recent labs and they were all fine, no other symptoms, etc. While I’m wondering wtf is going on, I ask about his caffeine intake and he says he’s drinking maybe 30-35 cups of tea per day. Mystery solved! The worst thing was he had started doing it not because he was thirsty, but because he kept hearing people saying that being hydrated is important. 🤷♀️.
ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago
He was drinking that much water but labs were fine? My electrolytes would be wacky with that much water.
imjustexisting 1 year ago
ah, tea is Iike, infused? so i would imagine he puts Iike milk in it too? it wasn't just water, I suppose
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Blue Bunny of Happiness 1 year ago
I saw a patient recently who didn’t sleep well. If they woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep, they’d go downstairs and have a coffee and a cigarette. They were quite shocked when I told them that coffee and nicotine are both stimulants and probably wouldn’t be helping….
viimatar 1 year ago
A person with ADHD could get the opposite effect from the stimulants, though, in reasonable doses. I've seen people fall asleep on the couch after first not being able to sleep that well, feeling tired all day, and then taking an energy drink to feel more awake and keep on going until the kids' bedtime or some other milestone hour (I definitely ain't talking about my spouse here or anything). This, while being just anecdotal evidence, is also supported by research. Both caffeine and nicotine are stimulants, but for a neurodivergent person, they often have a calming effect, as counterintuitive as it might sound. Speaking from personal experience, too.
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Hodge Elmwood 1 year ago
This is why I hate the "everyone is dehydrated all the time" trend. No one seems to realize it's the bottled water industry that's pushing this idea. There's no science to back up the idea that you should be drinking gallons of water every day, and water intoxication can literally kill you.
Some guy 1 year ago
If you want to stay hydrated, drink water! That much caffeine would be DEhydrating.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
Many flower/herbal teas do not contain caffeine.
Load More Replies... #23
A diabetic patient had heard that honey could be used on wounds to great benefit (true). He assumed that pancake syrup would also be beneficial for the wound healing process (false). Patient proceeded to treat his poorly-healing foot ulcers by diligently applying wet dressings smeared with pancake syrup twice daily.
#24
I had a lady with heart failure who was in the hospital almost monthly with heart failure exacerbations. We told her time and again to limit salt and water intake. And she’d go home and drink pickle juice.
All profits to charity 1 year ago
This was common when I worked in the inner city. My patients would drink an entire jar of pickle juice for their ‘high blood’ AKA high blood pressure It didn’t help.
#25
Worked in a physical rehab hospital and would witness this conversation between the doctor and a newly admitted patient: "Do you know what caused your stroke?" "Well, the hospital told me it was because I have high blood pressure, but I don't anymore. The high blood pressure medication cured it and so I stopped taking it." "Didn't your primary care tell you that you had to keep taking your medication?!" "Yeah, but you know how doctors are. They get kickbacks from the d**g companies for keeping us on s**t we don't need." "Got news for you. High blood pressure caused your stroke. You're lucky you didn't die. You are now back on your medication and if you go off it again, you will die. Here's the report of your blood pressure when you were admitted to the hospital." "Damn that is high. It was never that high before!" "It got that high because you stopped taking your medication. That's one of the side effects of stopping it cold turkey. DON'T DO IT AGAIN!" Some would get the message. A couple would say they were never going off their meds again because "My spouse will kill me." A few would come back even more debilitated from another stroke because they did it again. Others, we'd hear they had another stroke and died.
Stephanie Did It 1 year ago
So much devastation and death just to "stick it to Big Pharma!" So sad.
tori Ohno 1 year ago
What's extra sad is that most blood pressure meds come in affordable generic versions now. The most I've ever paid for my blood pressure med was $76 US dollars for a 90 day supply through GoodRX because I didn't have health insurance.
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EmBree 1 year ago
My husband was hell bent that his Dr said that he didn't need to take his blood pressure medications because high blood pressure do *not* cause strokes. This was after stroke #1. I showed him pages in medical books, articles from the internet and even called my sister, a nurse, and he would not take his meds. Two more strokes and he is finally taking his meds. Unfortunately he's like this with everything now. If I say it then it can't possibly be true. I have to filter all important information through friends and family.
viimatar 1 year ago (edited)
Early stages of dementia onset? (And that can sometimes happen even to people under 60, especially after strokes or head injuries, unfortunately.) Paranoia, hostile behavior, attitude change towards certain people regardless of their earlier close terms and due to no logical reason...?
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ColdSteelRonin 1 year ago
Admittedly I have a couple of conditions that they have medication for that would provide some small quality of life changes. However, they aren't life threatening and are mostly inconveniences that i choose to live with instead of risking some of the potentially horrific side effects. When it comes down to take this or you will die, side effects be damned
All profits to charity 1 year ago
My patients would deny medical history. I’d pull to their EMR and find a list of medications. They’d then admit they had high blood pressure, anemia and diabetes but their medication cured it (high blood, low blood and the sugars) It wasn’t sticking it to big pharm, they just didn’t understand that having good numbers on medication did not mean they were cured. I think this is common.
Julie Schulz 1 year ago
My dad used to do this with his anti-depressant. He would start to feel better so he'd stop taking it (face palm). We finally got through to him that while he might think he felt better, he was still a crabby a-hole to the rest of us so he needed to take his meds EVERY.SINGLE.DAY as directed.
Emma London 1 year ago
And they don't even have to be "big pharma" believers. Many just don't like taking pills, and they conveniently "forget" to take them, especially if they feel generally okay without. Yes, because high blood pressure, cholesterol or even blood sugar doesn't "feel" anything before you get a stroke or diabetes symptoms.
Calane E. Vanya 1 year ago
That one is really "popular" problem, not treating high blood pressure just because "but I feel perfectly fine". Nothing I say is able to convince them they're so f...g wrong.
Justme 1 year ago
I think some of this is due to poor explanations by the GP. I was a teenager when I started taking thyroid medication and had no idea that it would be a life-long thing.
viimatar 1 year ago
So true. But what were your parents/guardians doing, if they didn't discuss it with you?
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Deborah B 1 year ago
How much is because "big pharma evil" and how much is because they can't afford their medication? The ER has to treat them, even if they can't pay.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
Depending on where the person lives and whether or not they have insurance (or Medicare/Medicaid), high blood pressure meds are usually available as generics and can be very cheap. My boyfriend's is $2.
Load More Replies... #26
I'm and RN in cardiology and was in a patients room after the doctor popped in and briefly mentioned a low salt diet, as the patient was holding on to lots of fluid. After that, the doctor left and the patient was on a phone call with someone (i was just straightening up and making the bed, etc.) and the patient was outlining everything the doctor said, stating "I don't even add salt to any of my food, so this is no problem." I thought this was good for them! So as I finished up and was walking out, they stopped and asked if I could pick up their order of wingstop garlic wings they had doordashed to the lobby. It was stunning but also sad that the education around nutrition has failed the US and these people genuinely don't know these things so badly that it's hurting their health to the extent that it is.
Kathy Richardson 1 year ago
When the doctor put my husband on a low sodium diet and I started paying attention to labels and nutrition charts, I was absolutely flabbergasted at how much sodium in it absolutely EVERYTHING!!! Not just canned or prepackaged, but even fresh food. I worked at a convenience store that sold prepared food and the locals would breakfast and lunch both. I would wager that if I added up all the sodium that they had in one day - breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner - a person could easily be ingesting 15,000- 20,000 mg. An adult is only supposed to have 2,000mg a day.
iBlank 1 year ago
excess sugar and salt in everything. It's amazing how desensitized you can get to the flavor. It's only after eating healthier for a while that you notice just how extreme it is
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Manomnomnom 1 year ago
I had a friend from Canada when I was in college who said that one of the main things he noticed when he’d moved to the US was that there was a ton of salt in canned vegetables here.
#27
I have so many stories as a semi-doctor (dentist), but a striking case just a few weeks ago was a 40-something fellow who wondered why all of his teeth suddenly started to hurt all of the time.
We talk a bit. Coincidentally, he mentions, his acid reflux has been acting up a little but, meh, that wasn't a big concern for him. (PS: "a little bit" to him meant walking around for hours at night to settle his stomach if he ate dinner too late.)
Turns out this dude had started drinking 6 liters of seltzer water a day to try and lose weight.
SIX LITERS. EVERY DAY.
Um, yeah buddy, your GI tract is basically acid bubbles at this point! Your teeth are melting and your stomach is frothing over! Give your body a break and have some regular water from time to time! .
ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago
I have heartburn and my doctor asked if I drink carbonated beverages, I say no. A few minutes later I pull out bottle of peligrino, he just stares at me. 🤦🏿♀️ I don't drink soda, totally spaced that carbonated water is, in fact, *carbonated* water.
Juley Clark 1 year ago (edited)
Sadly I did the same thing when I was first diagnosed for GERD. My ENT that was working with me to resolve the damage to my vocal cords kept at me that I mist be drinking some, I insisted no absolutely no soda pop at all. He then asked about sparkling water, DOH! ya I was drinking that alot as I had been for years since growing up in Europe with a sodastream type device in the home. For me it was the benefit of having a Dr from Germany who I'd talked often about missing life there, he clued in I hadn't.
Load More Replies... Kesam 1 year ago (edited)
Needs to be said that this only applies to people with sensitive stomachs or other health problems. Most people can drink as much sparkling water as they want. It's completely harmless.
Say No to Downvoting 1 year ago
Uhh…six litres if fluid a day is about 3 times as much as the average person needs. Even a “healthy person” having that every single dat is probably going to some repercussions.
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Jackie Lulu 1 year ago
On my first trip to Italy, I had many meals in private homes. Everyone has some kind of sparkling water on the table. The more I drank, the thirstier I got, and the more water I drank. By the end of the trip, I was spontaneously throwing up. I don't know what kind of sparkling water it was, or how much sodium was in it, but I will never go near that stuff again.
#28
Not a doctor but former army medic. We were doing a month long training mission in a desert, I forget which one, and I had a soldier come to me complaining of eye pain. He had left his one a day contacts in for about 3 weeks.
René Sauer 1 year ago
I cant imagine ever wearing contacts. just the thoughts of getting my finger that close to my eye scares me.
ColdSteelRonin 1 year ago
Takes some getting used to. Wore them for about 30 years but the first time I had to put them in took me about an hour to do both eyes. After a few days it was no big deal.
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ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago (edited)
I left my contacts in for a few weeks in high school because I wasn't used to putting them in so I decided I'd just leave them in. Yeah... Swollen corneas and couldn't wear contacts for a while. Lesson learned.
Bec 1 year ago
I had disposable contacts in high school and early college and was told it was ok to wear them all week, I would wear them all during the weekdays (including sleep), then let my eyes rest on the weekends. Went to a different doctor in college and he told me I was damaging my eyes! I started wearing them less and less, and not at all now.
Robert Trebor 1 year ago
Never did want anything to touch my eye. Even when i was convinced that i had cataracts and needed surgery i was wary, but the end reult was that after 65 years of glasses (4-69) i (74) am glasses free. Still reach for them in the morning and still try to adjust them, but OH, YEAH!
Beth Wheeler 1 year ago
I absolutely LOVE my contacts, hated glasses and couldn't get used to them. Was so happy when my eye doc told me there were finally contacts that I could get that are multi focal and for slight astigmatism.
#29
Not a doctor, but A classmate of mine at uni for engineering gave himself scurvy by only eating chicken tenders daily.
ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago
I know someone who lives off steak and peeled potatoes, and has scurvy, and nasty gums. Just drink a glass of OJ, eat a strawberry, eat the potato skin, even suck a vitamin c cough drop.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
Even one Flintstones vitamin a day would prevent scurvy! And those are at least tasty! D:
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David 1 year ago
That is literally why the british added lime juice to the beer and rum on ships in the olden days, to prevent scurvy (also why a brit is also called a limey).
Nicole Weymann 1 year ago
German krauts: same. For us sauerkraut was the more easily accessible vitamin c source.
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Hodge Elmwood 1 year ago
I've read about people who refuse to eat anything but pizza, chicken nuggets, and maybe one other food. And they're adults. No fruits or veg (except the tomato sauce on the pizza I guess). I can't believe they can be healthy that way.
#30
One of my favorite stories from my brother who works as security for a hospital..a woman arrived with her “emotional support” mini horse to visit a family member. She didn’t understand why they wouldn’t allow her and the horse up to the room and my brother was called to escort her out. While technically not a patient the lack of common sense is hilariously baffling.
ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago (edited)
Might have been just an emotional support animal, but I thought some mini horses could be service animals?
Panflute 1 year ago
Yes, mini horses are the only other animals than dogs that are explicitly stated in the Americans with Disabilities Act. If it were a service horse that performed tasks to help a disabled owner, the hospital would have been required by law to allow the horse in.
Load More Replies... Upstaged75 1 year ago (edited)
There are mini horses trained as assistance animals just like dogs. But you don't just bring a random horse somewhere and expect people to be OK with it. Horses will pee and poop anywhere and any time, unless they are specially trained. Which I learned the hard way one time when we ran out of space in the trailer and didn't want to make another trip. So we put the mini horse in the truck cab with us. It was hysterical up to the point where he took a giant dump on the seat. :) Luckily it wasn't my truck. Not so lucky for the person who did own it, LOL!
Heather Talma 1 year ago
Mini horses can be genuine service animals. They're commonly used by people who are allergic to or afraid of dogs.
Emma London 1 year ago
USA should start regulating the guide and emotional support animal business, it's crazy that anyone can ask a "recipe" for a support animal or straight just buy a vest from Amazon and pretend. In my country it's even illegal to pretend that your animal is a certified support animal, and everyone is fine with it. (also the real guide animals are free for the disabled owners.)
Steve Hall 1 year ago
Any time I hear the term emotional support, I automatically think this person needs to be institutionalized!
#31
Not a doctor, but worked at a urological clinic for 3ish months. One story I heard was a guy (late 30s early 40s) that came in on referral because his s*****m had an inflamed rash, mostly on the back of the s*****m and on his perineum. He’s tried creams and oral medications and even trying different soaps and detergents, and nothing helps. Doctor exams him and is unsure but notices a bit of a smell but being around butts and balls all day doesn’t think anything of it (nose blind), and asks the guy to go ahead and get off the table and get dressed and noticed that this guy had left a skid mark on the butcher paper that’s laid over the bench. Turns out, this guy wasn’t washing his a*s nor really wiping, and it was causing the feces to basically be worked forward as he walked leading to what was essentially chronic diaper rash.
Kathrin Pukowsky 1 year ago
I've said it before and I will say it again: No matter how gross this is, it's important to remember that people don't just magically *know* how to wipe properly. They are taught how to do it while being potty trained. Considering the relief parents must feel when their little one proudly proclaims they can use the toilet all by themselves, I understand the parents not going back to check every few months whether the child is still wiping/wiping properly. Sniffing the child's bu77 also decreases significantly once potty training is taken care of. So it is possible for somebody to honestly not know they need to wipe, or how to wipe. That, and mental illness. And those weirdos who think touching their own bu77 is g4y. I'd still say there needs to be another man involved in SOME capacity, but, oh well.
Tempest 1 year ago
The stench must have been horrible! Lucky for the doctor to be nose blind. When I had ER rotations during my med school internship in the last few minutes of one of my shifts a patient (middle aged lady) was brought in wearing long pants and I believe feeling dizzy and unwell in general. Her left foot was covered in something dark which was trailing from the top of her leg (but covered by her pants). Everyone immediately suspected she had a chronic wound on her leg. The nurses proceeded to remove her pants and now we could clearly see the black substance trailing from her thigh to foot. Most of us still suspected dried blood. Then they started washing it off. The stench covered the entire section of the ER she was in. In was caked faeces. Lots and lots of it. I don’t know what her diagnosis was because my partner and I dashed out thankful that our shift was over. Most of the other doctors also steered clear as the nurses and attendants helped clean her up.
ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago
My close friend is a urologist and her description of the smell of smegma...Well I'm going to guess that this isn't the worst smell a urologist has encountered.
Load More Replies... 𝐆𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐦-𝐏𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚 1 year ago (edited)
Yet another man who believes touching his own b*tthole is gay, perhaps?
SDLT010 1 year ago
How is it gay? Where's the logic in that? Isn't there a saying "where there's a hole there's a goal?"
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Hodge Elmwood 1 year ago
Initially I thought the trend of men not wiping their butt "because it's gay" was made up, but I'm starting to think it's a real thing that's happening.
#32
I took care of a guy who was a religious nut. To the point where I was questioning, is this schizophrenia-religious or just really really religious. Turned out to be the latter, surprisingly. The 60 something year old guy had attempted to imitate Jesus’s 40 day fast. I am not sure how far he had gotten, but by the time he got to the hospital he needed a feeding tube and could barely move his limbs from how weak he had gotten. I was finally able to discharge him to a physical therapy rehab at the end of his hospitalization. As I left his room for the final time, I wished him luck at rehab. He responded with “I don’t believe in luck, I only believe in the lords blessings.” Me: … right.
Geoffrey Scott 1 year ago
Amazing...my SIL said she would not get the Covid vax (very religious). I told her "So God, in his wisdom, provides wisdom to scientists to prevent it and you won't do it?" Not sure if she ever did, but THAT gave her pause. Her husband was laid out for a week from it which apparently had no effect on her decision either.
Michael Largey 1 year ago
If your SIL broke her leg, would she go to a heathen anti-Christ devil worship temple (aka a hospital)?
Load More Replies... detective miller's hat 1 year ago
"is this schizophrenia-religious or just really really religious" could honestly apply to most of the members of my parents' fundie church.
ColdSteelRonin 1 year ago
People often don't realize that in the bible forty is a mistranslation of many. So, it rained for many days and nights, the Israelites wandered the desert for many years and Jesus fasted for many days. This can also be found in Ali Baba and the many thieves. Many is also subjective. If you're fasting 7 days is many
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago (edited)
You want to know what good the vaccines did? Possibly kept all those vaccinated people you know from DYING or being on ventilators, at the very least. And how fortunate for you that you got a mild case of Covid - many other unvaccinated people were NOT so lucky.
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#33
Where do start.... Diabetic patient who said their doctor told them that their blood sugar needs to be around 250 (like hell the doctor said that). Guy with IBS constipation with bouts of explosive diarrhea did not understand why eating fast food for every meal was bad... There's lettuce and tomato on burgers and potatoes are a vegetable. Would not change his diet and then got mad his IBS wasn't getting better. Lotion bathing... Not actually showering or bathing but "bathing" by putting on lotion every day. Also didn't understand why we didn't recommend he stand in a stagnant lake in the middle of summer to soak his leg wounds. Same patient also refused to wash his hands. He also got blacklisted from all 4 hospital systems in the area for indecent exposure and verbally threatening staff. He could be seen in the ED but that's it. Another patient said his doctor told him he couldn't shower or bathe.... Said doctor came in and told him to shower and/or take a bath.... Patient still wasn't sure. Milk made lactose intolerance symptoms better for a bit..... Patent was sure their child was having an allergic reaction to Benadryl when, in fact, the child was crying because they were woken up by said parent at 3 am who wanted to watch TV at a loud volume and got super cranky (as I would). I gave the Benadryl at midnight. Last one had osteomyelitis (bone infection) in a toe and needed it amputated. Went for a second opinion (which is OK) and got told the same thing but then wanted to know what his naturopath thought. Decided to use a "healing mat" (not sure what they're called) and ended up needing emergency surgery and lost his entire leg below the knee.
A_VERY_DIZZY_CACTUS 1 year ago
Can we just talk about 250 really quick? How do you get from 100-120 to 250? How is that a mistake you make?
Cerridwn d'Wyse 1 year ago
RN here. Home care. Several years ago I actually had a patient that the doctor was happy with reading that for most people would be crazy. Because it was the best control they could get. 250 is bad but 400 is worse
Load More Replies... Becky Samuel 1 year ago
When my IBS is playing up I can't have any 'healthy' foods at all. Fruit, vegetables, nuts and pulses all cause uncontrollable diarrhea, cramps, and wind. The only way to keep my calorie intake up and calm things down is through eating 'junky' foods.
ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago
FODMAPs? (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols)
Load More Replies... Hodge Elmwood 1 year ago
Lactose intolerance is weird. I can handle half & half in my coffee but milk in coffee upsets my stomach.
#34
Had a patient come to the ER via an ambulance. Got checked in and she asked how long the wait was for her nonsensical issue, the nurse told her 30+min wait. This women called another ambulance to take her to the other hospital 20 min away that had a shorter wait time. I was blown away. Not only at the audacity but, also that the other ambulance agreed to take her. It became an office joke. Who’s driving to lunch? Take an ambulance?
Pink kitty 1 year ago
Meanwhile a person having a heart attack is denied an ambulance because they are busy playing taxi service to people like this woman
Verena 1 year ago
Where I live, an ambulance only shows up if the emergency number 112 is called (999 at other places?) or ordered by a doctor/hospital/police/fire brigade. They don't do taxi services.
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Hiram's Friend 1 year ago
Worked at a Medicaid phone center in an unnamed US city (Phoenix). We had people call ambulances because they needed a ride downtown.
#35
Worked in a hospital’s Obstetrical Unit as a social worker. A woman came in, having had no prenatal care, and gave birth prematurely to a baby that was addicted to opiates, so the baby was kept in the NICU. The mother would leave the unit for smoke breaks throughout the day, but failed to return to the unit on the 2nd or 3rd day. She just…didn’t come back. Cleaning staff found her gear (spoon and lighter) when they were cleaning out her room. Baby was apprehended by child protection services. A couple months later, the mother reappeared on the unit, and asked for her baby.
ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago
No snarky comeback from me, just sad. Going through withdrawals as a newborn must be pure torture. :(
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
I was adopted at birth. My bio mom was addicted to several illegal substances and was also an alcoholic. I am told that I screamed A LOT as a baby when my adoptive parents brought me home. Not just normal baby crying/screaming, but extended, agonized shrieking. This was back in 1982, so the doctors didn't (or couldn't) really do anything for me - I apparently just had to go through withdrawals :( My dad told me it lasted for a couple of months before tapering off.
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Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 1 year ago
Guessing the baby got a new (hopefully more stable) home. Hoping the mom got some help, too.
Ormond Otvos 1 year ago
If you don't care about yourself, why would you care about a baby? I wonder if her mom was an addict.
viimatar 1 year ago (edited)
I assume that you meant the grandmother? Because it's stated outright in the text that the baby was born addicted to opioids and the birth mother had substance abuse paraphernalia found in her hospital room.
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#36
A guy came in with a badly inflamed wound (was initially a small scratch). Chief complaint was pain. I asked them if they took any pain relievers already, they mentioned they took Ibuprofen and Celecoxib, to no avail. Surprised as to how these had no effect whatsoever, I asked him how often he drank them.
Patient: "Drank?"
Turns out, he opened the capsules and applied the powder inside directly on the wound.
Jen Drake 1 year ago
I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t usually “drink” my ibuprofen. 🤔
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
In some languages (including Spanish), the verb for "drink" (in Spanish, "tomar") can be the same as "take", as in "taking a pill". The person OP was speaking to might not have been a native English speaker :)
Load More Replies... Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 1 year ago
All of the women I was in prison with whose first language was Spanish would say that they drank their pills rather than took their pills. Well, we swallow them with water, so it makes just as much sense.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
I'm adopted, and my adoptive family is Mexican. Grew up speaking Spanish. Can confirm - the verb you'd use when you say "I took a pill" is "tomar" - the same verb that can be used for "drinking" a liquid XD ("Beber" is also commonly used, but "tomar" is very common.) So - "toma un pastilla" for "take a pill" - and "toma un poco de agua" for "drink some water" XD
Load More Replies... #37
Dialysis patient on fluid restriction comes in with severe volume overload. When asked how much water he drinks, he insists he’s only drinking 8 ounces a day. The nurse pressed him a little more and he admitted to drinking a gallon of milk a day (exceeding his 64 ounces of fluids a day). He didn’t realize milk counted as fluid.
ZuriLovesYou 1 year ago
Did you forget the part where they said he didn't know milk was fluid? Freaking milk?! Or the fact that he drinks a whole asś gallon of it daily? I think you're focusing on the wrong thing here, buddy.
Load More Replies... Blue Bunny of Happiness 1 year ago
I had a patient who had daily headaches. Turned out she would have half a glass of orange juice with her breakfast and a sip of water with her tablets. Absolutely no other fluids. I explained that dehydration can cause headaches and that she really should be drinking more. To her credit, she did start drinking several cups of tea a day and the odd glass of squash and her headaches improved significantly! She did complain that she had to go to the loo more often though…
#38
Medical social worker here. I had a patient who discovered a full prescription that someone dropped in the Walmart parking lot. As he enjoyed taking d***s, he swallowed an entire bottle of blood pressure medication and wound up passing out in the middle of crossing the street and almost got crushed to death. I talked to him about how maybe that wasn't the brightest idea, he said he just wondered what they would do and I could tell that he'd do it again. He probably went right back to the Walmart hoping to score again.
Tempest 1 year ago (edited)
Addictions are so hard to cure even with long term admissions unless the patient really puts their own effort into overcoming it. During my (med student) rotations in the psychiatric ward there was a lady admitted for alcohol addiction. She was a married late 20s-early 30s lady whose husband was by her side throughout her inpatient care. The husband didn’t seem to care much or had given up or was scared of her. She had been there for about a week on d**g therapy for addiction when one day she was missing from her room. Few hours later she was brought in extremely drunk. She had slipped out of the hospital (she wasn’t allowed to leave but had freedom to walk around the hospital) because she was craving some alcohol so badly. The doctor was furious because apparently she had been constantly going in and out of inpatient care (medically discharged and returning again) for about an year and now even committing her to the ward wasn’t enough to keep her from her addiction.
Tamra 1 year ago
Addiction is a terrible disease for everyone involved - the addicted, the ones who love them, and the people who try to provide care. There are so many "moving parts", and all of it hinges on the willingness or desperation of the addict to get treatment.
Load More Replies... Bec 1 year ago
A nurse related a story to me that she had gone through a pharmacy drive thru to pick up prescriptions for her mother. She happened to look in the bag to check something before left the parking lot and realizes something is wrong, there is something wrong as there are 3 bottles and not the 2 she is expecting - this is another patient's order AND it includes a controlled substance. She runs inside to chew out the pharmacist, what if she hadn't noticed the error and had taken the medication! Pharmacist is unapologetic and says if she took the controlled substance she would be breaking the law for taking a prescription that isn't hers!
viimatar 1 year ago
Possibly in this case, it would have been decent to inform the local licensing authorities about the dangerous neglects.
Load More Replies... Justme 1 year ago
Overdosing on blood pressure medication can be fatal even in small quantities and not always reversible. Something as simple as forgetting that you already took your dose and taking another could be fatal (depending on dosage, medication, other conditions, etc)
ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago
I take meds for high blood pressure and my doctor made a dose increase. Ended up having to get off the airplane I was flying home on until I could get my blood pressure back up. Scary. And also didn't get me high.
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wowbagger 1 year ago
Sometimes I think we're the dumbest species, but then I remember all the things my dog has eaten or at least tried to eat. Like, "hmmm, here's a sock that smells like feet. I think I'll try eating that."
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
Dogs don't have hominid levels of intelligence or awareness. Humans ARE intelligent and we CHOOSE to do stupid, harmful things to ourselves. That absolutely makes us the dumbest species. Dogs don't know any better. We do.
Load More Replies... Hodge Elmwood 1 year ago
Addiction is horrible. I had a coworker who searched another worker's purse for painkillers - in the office, right in front of others. She was fired and I hope she got help.
#39
Pt waited to be seen at a level 1 trauma center ER for over 6 hours. Went to go see him around 3 am. Complaint was chronic upset stomach and heart burn. At 3 am in the ER, he had a freshly opened Mountain Dew and a big bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos.
Josh 1 year ago
These types fascinate me, because while I don't have super healthy eating habits, having an upset stomach or heart burn, or any other GI upset causes me to want/crave healthier foods. If my stomach was so miserable I went to the ED and I still needed to eat, it'd be like a brothy soup. Even going to my moms for a week (who doesn't really ever serve vegetables) made me starting craving loads of fresh vegetables and that didn't cause an upset stomach so much as just really wear me out on meat, pasta and potatoes.
B Jones 1 year ago
You have to eat fruits and vegetables before so you learn to associate them with healthy, lighter feelings. Some people probably never move past their picky eating.
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Stephanie A Mutti 1 year ago
It's not exactly mental health but I'd imagine this person was so bereft of hope and happiness that all life offered was the taste and stimulation of cheetoes and mt. dew. I get it. Very sad.
#40
As a paramedic I received a call for difficulty breathing. Arrived on scene to find 52 year old female sitting in her living room. She told me she could only breath through one side of her nose when she woke up this morning. It is now 6:00am. She could breathe out of both sides just fine when she went to bed last night. She demanded to be transported to the ER to find out why this one side is not working right.
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 1 year ago
To be fair, that is super annoying, but definitely not an emergency.
Rosemary . 1 year ago
It is super annoying! If I get sick and have stuffy nose/sinuses I get panicky when I can't breathe through my nose normally. Of course I can breathe through my mouth just fine, but that doesn't seem to matter to my internal alarm bells.
Load More Replies... Jaya 1 year ago
She must have a super nose! I'll probably have experienced it 9642862175767344318 times by the time I'm 52.
Load More Replies... Salty_Sasquatch 1 year ago
This has happened to me for years. Which sucks since I have apnea and I'm breathing through a tube anyway. And people wonder why I have big bags under my eyes!
#41
Not a doctor, but knew a guy whose diet was so terrible he got scurvy. Didn't even think that was possible these days.
ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago
Also know a guy with scurvy. It's mind boggling that's still a thing.
Awesome At Being Autistic 1 year ago
They're seeing kids with cases of rickets in the UK.
Load More Replies... Ormond Otvos 1 year ago
Scurvy is Vitamin C deficiency. Vitamin C is very delicate: heat and age ruin it, and you need a lot of it.
Zaach 1 year ago (edited)
Not a doctor but... I had a coworker who thought he was beginning to suffer from MS - tingling sensation, pale skin, headaches; after some discussion, we suggested he put some lettuce on his burgers (he was young and ate only hamburgers and hot dogs) *edit: vitamin B issue
T'Mar of Vulcan 1 year ago
I got anaemia from not eating vegetables (sensory issues that my mother wasn't willing to work around) or meat (grilled - broiled - until it was the consistency of leather so I couldn't chew it). It's popped up once or twice since, so I take supplements because I *know* that my sensory issues are causing problems. But imagine not even considering it!
TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago
Honestly, how the hell does somebody get scurvy in modern times while living in developed countries?
Josh 1 year ago
It happens more frequently in people with autism or other disorders that limit they types of food they are willing/able to eat.
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#42
Not a doctor, but I worked in the ER doing bedside registration for several years. Had a groom come in on his wedding night with a broken leg. He got drunk at his own reception, climbed up a wooden bridge and jumped off on a dare. He did not have suicidal ideation. He just didn’t think he would get hurt.
Michael Largey 1 year ago
This is minor compared to the damage some people inflict on themselves on their wedding day.
Pandemonium 1 year ago
Yes, there was lots of self-inflicted damage that began on that fateful day, but I did get a nice waffle iron out of the ordeal
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Comedy Clumbers 1 year ago
Another good reason for me to avoid drinking... I have trouble resisting a dare.
#43
“I got a 12 pack of tacos for dinner. After 5 or 6 tacos, my stomach started to hurt. By 9 I was feeling nauseated. When I finished an 12, the pain was so bad I thought I should get it checked out.” 37y/o man in the ER at 2300.
TomCat 1 year ago
I ate a donut at a fancy donut store and by that evening I was in so much pain, I called my mom to take me to the ER. I thought for sure my appendix was bursting. After a few hours in the ER, I farted so loud and long, my mom kinda jumped back. Then I felt amazing. I never knew gas could hurt so much.
Justme 1 year ago
A medical professional will never laugh at someone with gas. Gas pain is serious pain.
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Hana Hajská 1 year ago
I'm surprised by the number of people who are able to eat when their stomach hurts.
Speak easy buttercup 1 year ago
At least the man is no quitter! I have mad respect for that! Lol
Ormond Otvos 1 year ago
Lactose intolerant much? It creeps up on you with age. Dairy in the creme fillings or custard.
#44
A guy has parkinson's disease. He's very stable on his feet and doesn't fall when he takes his meds. He doesn't take his meds. He's back in hospital every 2nd week for falls ... Because he doesn't take his meds. Why doesn't he take his meds? He doesn't believe he's got parkinson's disease. He shakes like a leaf and is so rigid he can hardly move off the meds. Still doesn't believe it. Also got a cirrhotic patient who gets encephalopathic at the drop of a hat who doesn't like taking lactulose. And a type 1 diabetic who came in with diabetic ketoacidosis Got told to take his insulin Self discharged as soon as he could walk, without a script for insulin Back the next day, in dka again. I think he was early 20s.
Tempest 1 year ago
The guy with Parkinson’s probably was elderly with cognitive impairment? If so he definitely needs a caregiver. It’s normal for such patients to behave in this manner.
Hiram's Friend 1 year ago
Former in-law was an alcoholic with Parkinson's. Fell down a bunch before he ended up in care.
Load More Replies... Blue Bunny of Happiness 1 year ago
Denial is a huge issue in healthcare. I spend a lot of time working with our psychology team around understanding and accepting diagnosis. So many think that accepting an incurable disease means giving up, when in fact it’s the opposite as it’s what allows them to move forwards with treatment and self management.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
My aunt was an ER/trauma nurse for decades and was (and still is) in complete denial about her health. She is morbidly obese and diabetic. She had surgery on a hernia about 15 years ago and the incision did not heal/close for TWO YEARS. Her own mother got gangrene in one arm (you guessed it - caused by obesity-related diabetes) and had to have the entire arm amputated. My aunt insists she's perfectly healthy. Her daughter, my cousin, is 36 and is even more obese. She (cousin) has nonalcoholic fatty liver disease that is borderline cirrhotic. AT AGE 36. Most of my mother's side of the family is morbidly obese and insists they're all just fine, right up until they die. I'm probably not going to have any family members left alive in a decade.
Load More Replies... Tamra 1 year ago (edited)
My mother-in-law started showing signs of dementia and COPD a couple years ago. Certain measures were put in place to help her remember things, in addition to doctor visits and medications. She didn't comply with treatment to address either illness, and now she's much worse. She'll likely need full time care sooner, rather than later. There are some people you cannot help, if they won't be willing participants in their own care.
Patsy Robins 1 year ago
In the USA? From what I hear of their health system, maybe he couldn’t afford to buy his insulin?
#45
Patient came in to have their denture repaired. I asked to see it, they said they didn’t have it? Where is it? They said “no one told me to bring it in”. Uhh do you also not bring your car to the mechanic?
Hodge Elmwood 1 year ago
Sounds like the people who demand a refund for a meal they say was terrible ... After they've eaten the entire thing.
#46
Not a doctor, but I had a patient who decided welding with an oxygen cannula was a good idea. It was not. He had burns throughout his nasal cavity.
Blue Bunny of Happiness 1 year ago
And I thought patients wanting to smoke whilst on oxygen was bad enough….
Roan The Demon Kitty 1 year ago
honestly, when I was in hospital a while ago, I was on a nasal oxygen cannula, and that thing has a damn burning sensation even when it's just the oxygen so... yikes. D:
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
Yeah, oxygen is corrosive/oxidative D: High percentages of medical oxygen can cause that burning sensation. We don't often realize/think about the fact that the normal everyday air we breathe is only about 20% oxygen.
Load More Replies... #47
I had a patient who had no disabilities, and no debilitating heart or lung disease. She lived in a 3 story house but only used the ground floor because she didn’t want to climb the stairs. She slept in the living room because she didn’t feel like ambulating to the bedroom. She said she hadn’t climbed a flight of stairs in “at least 15 years” because “she didn’t want to” and she used a scooter wherever she went out because “why would I walk when I don’t technically have to.” She literally avoided anything that required physical exertion, and it was purely out of laziness. I’ve never met another patient like that.
Panda Bear 1 year ago
I have a chronic pain condition that is made worse by walking and using stairs. I still walk and use stairs.
#48
A farmer went into the dentist with some pain. His plaque build up made his teeth one monolithic block like Scooby Doo cartoon teeth - no gaps! As part of the procedure which included extraction, his teeth were cleaned. He returned the next day in a terrible rage, "fix my teeth, what did you do!?" There was some confusion thinking the issue was that he wanted his teeth put back in - but no! He wanted his gaps filled back in. After some yelling and crying on his part, the dentist told him the plaque would build back up in a few years of not brushing.
Occam's Chainsaw 1 year ago
I work in the admin side of dentistry, and there are so many patients who don't realize that plaque and calculus buildup are not actually part of their teeth. We had a young woman come in for a cleaning and accuse a hygienist of chipping her tooth, when in reality she just removed years of buildup. We even had to refer a patient out to a specialist at one point, because a hygienist was certain that calculus buildup was the only thing holding teeth in place--she was concerned that if she started removing it, the teeth would come out, too.
Some guy 1 year ago
I remember doing dental cleanings on some animals where the tartar was the only thing holding the teeth steady. Clean that off, and the teeth were just hanging by threads of soft tissue, like tiny wind chimes.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
::shivers:: Oh man, I'm so paranoid about my pets' health - including their teeth - that I make sure they get dental cleanings yearly. My vet jokingly "scolded" me last month when I took my three-year-old tuxedo cat Preacher in for his dental - my vet said it only took him 10 minutes because Preacher's teeth were in such good shape XD But I've heard SO many horror stories about stomatitis and tooth resorption in cats and oral lesions in dogs, all because people don't take care of their pets' teeth. (I know not everyone can afford vet care and dental cleanings, but owners could buy pet toothbrushes and toothpaste.) My only dental worry is for my dog Stilgar - he had distemper as a puppy and the virus destroyed his adult teeth. Most of his adult teeth never erupted, and the ones that did erupt have almost no enamel and have such weak, short roots that they're barely anchored in his gums. He'll have to have them all extracted at some point :(
Load More Replies... Forrest McCanless 1 year ago
Well, I've always thought that dentures without the damn gaps would be a lot more useful and easier to clean. No sense being stuck with the way the body has to grow teeth. More flossing just means more stuff sticks quicker in your teeth!
Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 1 year ago
The description reminds me of the "Hee Haw" cartoon donkey they show at the beginning.
#49
Not a doctor, medical assistant at an osteo/ortho joint practice. In Deep South. We got lots of stories. My favorite is the Salt Ladies. One thought you were supposed to soak in *smelling* salts to relieve inflammation and pain, so she'd crack one open in a bucket and soak her ankle. The other didn't realize you had to *dissolve* Epsom salt in water to use them and just rubbed them on her skin like she was cleansing her chakras.
Con O Cuinn 1 year ago (edited)
I remember my aunt telling my mum to have Epsom salt baths to lose weight. Had to explain that she was only losing water weight temporarily, that dehydration doesn't equal weight loss
ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago
Epson salt in oil with some essential oils can make a decent salt scrub, but does not help with joint pain.
#50
This was back when I was a med student but I had a man come to the ED for acute abdominal pain of unknown etiology. It came on very suddenly only a few hours ago. No new meds, no significant pmh. While reviewing general history I asked about diet. He said he’s had good appetite lately and that earlier in the day he caught and ate a squirrel. Mystery solved.
Bewitched One 1 year ago
So, from the original post, lots of people are wondering the same thing, and the only thing I could find that might provide some sort of explanation was that it was a joke. The comment wasn’t from the OP but said “squirrels are cute, that's why they cause a cute abdominal pain” 🤷🏼♀️
ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago
Idk either. Was the squirrel sick? Or uncooked? Maybe they had a nut sensitivity?
Load More Replies... LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago (edited)
Emergency department :p You know what OP meant XD
Load More Replies... #51
Not a doctor but a as a nurse for 5 yrs now, I remember I had a patient come in complaining of a rash, and it turned out they'd been applying a topical steroid cream meant for their dog. When I asked why, they said they figured it was all the same. It was definitely a facepalm moment.
CF 1 year ago
Uhm. It is all the same. Obviously there are a bunch of different kinds of topical corticosteroids (betamethasone, dexanethasone, etc etc). But hydrocortisone marketed for people is still hydrocortisone when it is prescribed for a dog..
JB 1 year ago
Agreed to a point. My vets have written prescriptions for some medications and advised me to get them filled at a pharmacy rather than paying 3-4x the cost for a “pet specific” version I can buy from them. It really grinds my gears that some companies know that there’s no difference between their product and what I can get from a pharmacy, they just massively inflate the price based on the packaging. This said, I rely on my vet to tell me when there’s no difference.
Load More Replies... Stephanie Did It 1 year ago
My now-deceased FIL always went to the feed store for his medicine, including antibiotics. Except for a prostate issue for which he did go to the veteran's hospital. That sweet old curmudgeon lived to 94 somehow.
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What do you think ?
PattyK 1 year ago
I once worked in an emergency room in a clerical capacity. I was astonished at the number of women who didn’t see the relationship between sex and pregnancy.
ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago
I'm glad puss and poo are not a part of my normal day. Bless all you healthcare workers who deal with us day in and day out.
Tempest 1 year ago (edited)
A case of “how were they alive by themselves” I saw during med school was surprisingly from the dermatology ward. She was in for a severe genital rash (scabies if I remember correctly - she wasn’t under the doctor I was shadowing so I’m not sure of all the details). Problem was she probably would have fit in better in the psychiatric ward because throughout her stay she was wailing loudly writhing on the floor by her bed screaming at the doctors to cure her one minute and then praising them the next minute. One time she walked into the doctor’s room and started the whole rolling on the floor and crying process. Some doctors tried to calm her down to no avail so she was left alone to finish her tantrum. Her rash was severe cause she kept scratching it. During her entire stay she didn’t have a single visitor or a caregiver by her side which she desperately needed so it was such a wonder how she was staying alive by herself.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
I feel that - I have often wondered how my mother and older sister survived to adulthood. They've never had scabies, but my sister had blood in her stool for months and months and decided she was JUST FINE and didn't need to see a doctor. (She was fine, thankfully. Just needed to eat a better diet.) My mother is lactose intolerant but will eat cheese, ice cream, etc. and then be like "WHYYYY DO I HAVE DIARRHEA AND CRAMPING AND PAIIIIIIN?" She also had a REALLY bad stomach ulcer at one point, and when the doc gave her a printout with a list of things to stop eating (or at least eat little of) she looked at the top two things (coffee and alcohol) and was like "OH WELL I don't drink coffee OR alcohol!" and tossed the paper out. The paper also listed acidic things like tomatoes, watermelon, and lemons, and she loves those and eats massive amounts of them. But because she doesn't drink coffee, that's all that matters. I seriously do not know how she made it to the age of 79.
Load More Replies... Ariom Dahl 1 year ago
I have a sore nose ... all the face palming I've done while reading this! Some people just can not see the link between cause and effect. And as ElfVibratorGlitter says, bless all the healthcare workers!
Justin Tyme 1 year ago
I was a nurse (retired now). I was working in a hospital and had a patient with a badly infected leg and positive blood culture labs (the infection was spreading). His girlfriend came to visit with a printed copy of a Facebook post. It said something about using exercise to treat infection. She convinced him to go home to try it. He returned to the hospital by ambulance a few days later and died in the emergency department.
Justin Tyme 1 year ago
I was a nurse (retired now). I was working in a hospital and had a patient being treated for. . . I don't remember what. But he was also diabetic. Every evening his blood glucose level would go above 500 even though he was using diabetes medication and was on the hospital's "Carb Control Diet". We couldn't figure out what was going on until one evening we caught his friend sneaking a large chocolate milkshake in to his room.
Justin Tyme 1 year ago
I was a nurse (retired now). I was working in an emergency department when a couple (teen boy and girl) came in. The story was that they didn't have a condom available, so they decided to use aluminum foil. They each had about a dozen very painful lacerations.
Firefly 1 year ago
The poll at the end of this article made me think about how different my life is now because I qualify for insurance that pays for everything. For instance, I've had kidney stones a few times. One time I was in the parking lot of the hospital crying in so much pain but decided not to go in because I couldn't afford the deductible. Later, with this insurance, I was able to go in and get tests and medications that I needed. It was a wonderful change. I'm sometimes still in disbelief that I can make an appointment to go in and get things attended to without worrying if I'll be able to make my rent that month.
Breadcrumb. 1 year ago (edited)
I met a flat earther in the wild today..who tried to convince me the carnivore diet was healthy. It was entertaining but difficult listening..
Justin Tyme 1 year ago (edited)
How about a stupid doctor story? I was working as a nurse in a hospital that had resident doctors (three years of guided experience after medical school). I had a patient who suddenly developed nausea and then started vomiting. I called the on-call phone number and talked to a 2nd or 3rd year resident (don't remember which year). I explained what was happening - with the sound of my patient vomiting very loudly right behind me. The resident ordered Zofran. That was expected, but the resident ordered the oral form of the drüg rather than the usual intramuscular injection. So I asked for it to be changed to injection. The resident asked me why I wanted it changed, and I responded “Well, I just told you my patient is actively vomiting.”
PattyK 1 year ago
I once worked in an emergency room in a clerical capacity. I was astonished at the number of women who didn’t see the relationship between sex and pregnancy.
ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago
I'm glad puss and poo are not a part of my normal day. Bless all you healthcare workers who deal with us day in and day out.
Tempest 1 year ago (edited)
A case of “how were they alive by themselves” I saw during med school was surprisingly from the dermatology ward. She was in for a severe genital rash (scabies if I remember correctly - she wasn’t under the doctor I was shadowing so I’m not sure of all the details). Problem was she probably would have fit in better in the psychiatric ward because throughout her stay she was wailing loudly writhing on the floor by her bed screaming at the doctors to cure her one minute and then praising them the next minute. One time she walked into the doctor’s room and started the whole rolling on the floor and crying process. Some doctors tried to calm her down to no avail so she was left alone to finish her tantrum. Her rash was severe cause she kept scratching it. During her entire stay she didn’t have a single visitor or a caregiver by her side which she desperately needed so it was such a wonder how she was staying alive by herself.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
I feel that - I have often wondered how my mother and older sister survived to adulthood. They've never had scabies, but my sister had blood in her stool for months and months and decided she was JUST FINE and didn't need to see a doctor. (She was fine, thankfully. Just needed to eat a better diet.) My mother is lactose intolerant but will eat cheese, ice cream, etc. and then be like "WHYYYY DO I HAVE DIARRHEA AND CRAMPING AND PAIIIIIIN?" She also had a REALLY bad stomach ulcer at one point, and when the doc gave her a printout with a list of things to stop eating (or at least eat little of) she looked at the top two things (coffee and alcohol) and was like "OH WELL I don't drink coffee OR alcohol!" and tossed the paper out. The paper also listed acidic things like tomatoes, watermelon, and lemons, and she loves those and eats massive amounts of them. But because she doesn't drink coffee, that's all that matters. I seriously do not know how she made it to the age of 79.
Load More Replies... Ariom Dahl 1 year ago
I have a sore nose ... all the face palming I've done while reading this! Some people just can not see the link between cause and effect. And as ElfVibratorGlitter says, bless all the healthcare workers!
Justin Tyme 1 year ago
I was a nurse (retired now). I was working in a hospital and had a patient with a badly infected leg and positive blood culture labs (the infection was spreading). His girlfriend came to visit with a printed copy of a Facebook post. It said something about using exercise to treat infection. She convinced him to go home to try it. He returned to the hospital by ambulance a few days later and died in the emergency department.
Justin Tyme 1 year ago
I was a nurse (retired now). I was working in a hospital and had a patient being treated for. . . I don't remember what. But he was also diabetic. Every evening his blood glucose level would go above 500 even though he was using diabetes medication and was on the hospital's "Carb Control Diet". We couldn't figure out what was going on until one evening we caught his friend sneaking a large chocolate milkshake in to his room.
Justin Tyme 1 year ago
I was a nurse (retired now). I was working in an emergency department when a couple (teen boy and girl) came in. The story was that they didn't have a condom available, so they decided to use aluminum foil. They each had about a dozen very painful lacerations.
Firefly 1 year ago
The poll at the end of this article made me think about how different my life is now because I qualify for insurance that pays for everything. For instance, I've had kidney stones a few times. One time I was in the parking lot of the hospital crying in so much pain but decided not to go in because I couldn't afford the deductible. Later, with this insurance, I was able to go in and get tests and medications that I needed. It was a wonderful change. I'm sometimes still in disbelief that I can make an appointment to go in and get things attended to without worrying if I'll be able to make my rent that month.
Breadcrumb. 1 year ago (edited)
I met a flat earther in the wild today..who tried to convince me the carnivore diet was healthy. It was entertaining but difficult listening..
Justin Tyme 1 year ago (edited)
How about a stupid doctor story? I was working as a nurse in a hospital that had resident doctors (three years of guided experience after medical school). I had a patient who suddenly developed nausea and then started vomiting. I called the on-call phone number and talked to a 2nd or 3rd year resident (don't remember which year). I explained what was happening - with the sound of my patient vomiting very loudly right behind me. The resident ordered Zofran. That was expected, but the resident ordered the oral form of the drüg rather than the usual intramuscular injection. So I asked for it to be changed to injection. The resident asked me why I wanted it changed, and I responded “Well, I just told you my patient is actively vomiting.”
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