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The human body is an extraordinary thing. Even the most experienced doctors are sometimes surprised by the things it can do. In the U.S., 30 million people (half of them children) have rare diseases, and doctors may not know how to treat them every time.
Then, there are urgent cases where the body undergoes a trauma so severe or distinct that some medical professionals may have never seen before.
One netizen was curious to know what doctors do in such situations, so they asked: "Medical professionals of Reddit, when did you have to tell a patient, 'I've seen it all before' to comfort them, but really you had never seen something so bad or of that nature?"
And healthcare workers delivered: from miracle success stories to cases with not-so-happy endings, some medical professionals have really seen a lot.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I was the patient actually. I was sideswiped by a car, then ran over by the truck behind while cycling to work. I was essentially impaled by my right femur, which shattered my pelvis and shoved bone fragments into my guts.
Last thing I remember before I got knocked out for surgery, was the surgeon telling me everything was going to be fine, and it was all routine.
I didn't wake up for a month. When I did, I was missing the entire left leg, and most of the muscle tissue in the right. I was too weak to move much, couldn't talk because I had a tube through my neck, and I was very uncertain about reality due to what I went through in my coma.
Parades of doctors came to tell me how I should be dead, and it's crazy that I lived. I was told over and over that my survival was very much against all odds.
My surgeon on the other hand, never said anything like that. He always maintained that he was going to get me through. His attitude honestly helped when I had to go back to his table a few more times before I was done.
For 4 years, I kind of blew off the people who made a big deal about my survival. I adopted my orthopedic doctors attitude. Then I met a woman who's in the medical field. I fell in love, and eventually trusted her enough to let her read my medical records. I had never read them, because it's a massive pile of paperwork.
She broke down crying and couldn't read anymore. She told me that the beginning of my time in the hospital was full of the type of write-ups you find in the morgue. She told me that when they opened me up, bits of my pelvis fell out. I asked her to stop there. She won't read anymore, and I don't want to know anymore.
I now know my doctor has one h**l of a pokerface.
Andrew Keir 6 months ago
Most doctors who see you in AA&E / ER will try to sound confident - when around you. "Oh my god, look at that" is not an acceptable diagnosis.
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Blue Bunny of Happiness 6 months ago
Reinforces the need to be aware of the language we use with patients.
Deborah B 6 months ago
I mean, I'd rather have a doctor be honest with me, about survival prospects, possible disability levels etc. If I was looking at months of hospital, repeated surgeries, and permanent severe disability with chronic pain, and only a small chance of survival, I'd want to ask for DNR/DNI. Not everyone wants extreme measures, and all patients need to be allowed to make an informed decision. I'm glad this guy recovered and was happy with the level of information he received, but that would not be what I wanted.
SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago (edited)
It can definitely depend upon the type of personality (for lack of a better word) that the patient has. I remember saying to the doctors and specialists regarding my spinal bruising at the beginning, "Just give it to me straight, no matter what it is. I'll deal with the emotional side later. Right now ain't time for tissues and issues. I want out of this bed and to eventually get home.". At that time they weren't sure if I was ever going to be able to stand upright again, never mind walk again, my chances were low. Some patients can deal with it, some can't and that's all perfectly okay. But one nurse at the physiotherapy hospital? She was funny! She said "If they gave awards for sheer bloody mindedness? You'd get a gold medal!" That was after one of my first times "walking" wearing these horrible, incredibly painful boots to straighten my legs, the gutter frame and I did swear a lot during those first 10 steps! But as in "Oh bloody hell buggery b*ll*cks!!! This is fun!!!" with pain tears streaming down my face and...
SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago (edited)
... for some reason I was giggling too! To others that'd seem shocking but you don't really know how you're going to react during going through an extreme trauma/traumatic event or the aftermath. I absolutely truly hope noone ever EVER finds out. I have read some of the notes from that time, I needed certain notes for the court case against my ex. They read so incredibly sad but the nurses and the physiotherapy staff never let me give up. Not in a bad way, I mean as in encouragement without giving false hope.
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murmelinpaiva 6 months ago
My dad had a collapsed lung back in 2010. I heard a hospital doctor tell him that he could get well enough at home that he could get off oxygen. Two months later he was dead.
Dorothy Smith 6 months ago
So sorry. It's hard to accept "good enough" from some doctors.
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KieLeaHar 3 months ago
I was in 2 comas over a month and in hospital for well over a year all together due to becoming a triple amputee and having to do rehab because if you DON’T do rehab, you DON’T get prosthetics.. I’ve read through SOME of my 10,000+ pages of medical files but there’s —-JUST. SO. MUCH,—- on the disc and it’s not in order I don’t know where to start. But I did come across a few pages from my first week or two in the first coma and after they did a full body MRI, some doctor wrote the ‘DELIGHTFUL description’ of my stomach/insides etc —and I quote, word for word because it lives in my head—: ‘patient’s stomach and linings are RIBBONING OFF LIKE TISSUES, turning into sludge in the intestines and working their way out very slowly’.. What?….🙀
RELATED:
#2
Years ago my then 11 year old shattered both femurs and her hip. At the time, her Orthopaedic specialist was so reassuring and confident that we had no doubts about her recovery.
A year later, we went back for a review and he asked me if I'd like to see her trauma x-rays. Not having any idea of the reality I said yes. What I saw looked like her leg bones had exploded.
After my freaked out reaction I commented on how cool and calm he was, and how certain that she'd be fine. He said he'd actually had to go for a short walk around the hospital to collect his thoughts since he had no idea how he would put this child back together. He also told me had used the films as a teaching aid. He's one of my heroes.
Karen Bryan 6 months ago
I shattered a wrist a few years ago. The x-ray looked like shattered china. Complete recovery, full range of motion. Amazing.
#3
A dog bit my little sister in the face, ripping through her mouth and cheek. It was at a soccer game, she crawled on top of a big dog called a borzoi, which startled it, it rolled over and bit her in the face. This was the late 80's, smaller town. There were no pediatric surgeons available, no plastic surgeons, she was in the ER with her face ripped open.
Anyways, our general pediatrician (who is now my kids pediatrician, 30 years later), who had only graduated maybe 10 years prior, sewed her face back together. It was 30 stitches on the inside of her mouth, and 30 or so on the outside. She had a massive scar down the whole side of her face.
Anway, fast forward 15 years. She grew normally, her face is fine, her smile is fine, no long term damage. Apparently, a face is full of nerves and muscles, and thats why only plastic surgeons work on faces. Particularly with children, having nerve and muscle damage can make their face grow crooked as they age, it is a highly specialized field. But in this case, there was nobody else, just a general pediatrician, and he managed to save her face, with no long term nerve or muscle damage, or even scarring now that shes an adult.
We found out 25 years later from our pediatrician's wife, that he spent an hour or so crunching his old med school books in the seat of his Plymouth Reliant in the hospital parking lot, studying facial anatomy, nerves and cheek structure, etc. He walked into the hospital and performed a multiple hour surgery, on her face, sewed it back together, perfectly. You would think a plastic surgeon did it.
His wife told us he came home that night, just flopped down on the couch, and sat that there, amazed that he'd done it. Proud, but cautious. A new general pediatrician, sews a toddlers face back together.
And it worked. Now, you would never know it happened.
...and he has never, ever, done another surgery like that again lol
edit: if the tenses seem odd, it is because he was MY pediatrician then, and now that I am old and have a child, he is our daughters' pediatrician again. And he still calls my by my full first name which still drives me nuts. We chose him for his excellent medicine skills, not his personality. Thank you all for the gold and stories, I will share this with my sister and probably not him next time we see him, though I can promise you he doesn't know or care what reddit is. He doesn't even have a computer except the one he is forced to have at his clinic, and he calls it "henry", to spite the man who made all the doctors in his pediatrics group carry tablet pcs.
Blue Bunny of Happiness 6 months ago
I laughed at the Henry part. My colleague named their misbehaving laptop, Boris (after our then PM)
Roni Stone 6 months ago
And Borzois are not even known for being aggressive. He was just telling her to get off and did that much damage. In my family it was my niece and a St. Bernard who thought she was a chew toy. The surgeon connected the nerve/muscles/ligaments, but she couldn't have plastic surgery until her face finished growing. Soooo glad both your sister and her doctor was that brave.
Laura Slade 6 months ago
Parents need to teach their children how to act safely around dogs! This was totally preventable
Kari Panda 6 months ago
Agreed, but also which parent takes their eyes off their toddler at an event like a soccer game? Even if it was a small town, that is not a situation in which I would leave my toddler out of my sight.
Load More Replies... KieLeaHar 3 months ago
That’s a man you trust with your child’s life for life if he saved your sister from disfigurement and managed to save her from not having permanent numbness OR permanent nerve pain. What an amazing doctor to sit and study that before just going in and doing a hack job on a child’s face like countless doctors would, could and have done.
Marlene Ricker 6 months ago
Wow, he basically performed a miracle although he probably wouldn't see it that way.
Tom Faehnle 6 months ago
The small town doctors (the good ones) were amazing! My father was a "Family Practioneer", a specialty degree he got by spending hours getting post doctorate degree, in the first graduating class in the country (US.)
Just a boring person 6 months ago
No offence, by why did the pediatrician crunched his old med book?
Joe Reaves 6 months ago
Cramming means last minute studying. I suspect the OP accidentally typed crunched instead.
Load More Replies... #4
Lots of stories, many already covered by others. I will share this particular story with my legs crossed.
Motorcyclist came in after some one left turned without checking. He had gone over the hood, slid and somehow somersaulted landing on his a*s sitting up. He slid across intersection mostly on his a*s, getting serious road rash. Luckily he was only a block from hospital and ambulance. They pack him and bring him to the ER.
We end up c*****g off his chaps and jeans and begin the cleanup of gravel and sand embedded in his thighs and a*s when all of a sudden, his testicles fall out of his s*****m. He had basically sandpapered a hole in his s*****m while skidding on his a*s.
The attending pauses, grabs the saline, irrigates s*****m and nuts, fondles them back into place while humming. I handed him some gauze to pack the wound and smiled at the patient who was under a local.
Then I went on break, went fetal and dry heaved.
Con O Cuinn 6 months ago (edited)
And that's why you should wear proper gear and not just an old pair of Levi's. For comparison, I slid 100m down the road in my leathers after being hit and only had bruises and a fractured wrist.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
Friend of mine in my teenage years had a dad who loved to ride his motorcycle. He always wore FULL motorcycle gear, apparently the good stuff. One time someone nicked him while on the freeway and he went into the guardrail and went down and skidded a good bit. He broke A LOT of bones and was in the hospital for over a month, but had very little "road rash" or skin damage. The gear held up. Also recently witnessed another motorcyclist's death last December right outside my family's small-business office - motorcyclist was coming down the street and an SUV turned left when it didn't have the right-of-way and plowed into the motorcyclist. Kìlled the motorcyclist instantly even though he had on a helmet and full safety gear/suit. It was just in how he got struck :( Absolutely a tragedy as he was young (28.)
Load More Replies... CatD 6 months ago
I've always been happy not to. Imagine all that stuff just dangling there!😣
Load More Replies... hungryghost 6 months ago
Hey BP, maybe don't censor medical terminology in a medical thread? ffs...
SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago
My first serious boyfriend, his mum used to be a nurse. She knew about the dangers of motorbike crashes, obviously, and wouldn't let me ever go on the back of his bike until I had all the protective gear. It's something like your bone wears down by 1cm for every foot you skid along the road for (don't take that as gospel, it's been 20yrs since) I've seen some pretty horrible things in my time but correct protective gear will definitely help to keep all your organs in the correct place and not have your nutsack somewhere up by your ears...
Gavin Johnson 6 months ago
I worked at a motorcycle store, we lost about one customer a month. We saw loads of riders who ‘nipped to the shops’, didn’t wear full protective gear and they got hit or fell. The time from impact to wearing through to bone at 30mph on elbows, knees, ankles, anywhere there’s no muscle to protect the bone is frighteningly fast. We sold every type of gear from the cheapest £30 helmet through to £700 helmets, I always told my customers ‘if you’ve got a £30 head, buy a £30 helmet’.
Silberwolf 6 months ago
Ok, so now there's even one more reason for me to never ride a motorcycle.
Crissy Newbury 5 months ago
Just imagine these kids that buzz around wearing shorts and a tee shirt.
Earonn - 6 months ago
Friend of mine had almost the same happening, just slid not on his b*m. Was wearing full gear, though. He stood up, wiped the dust off the (remains of ) his suit and was fine. Yeah, some bruises and that, but he could tell the story next day at work. While sitting. Guys, PLEASE wear proper protective gear. Yes, you're great drivers - but others might not be.
Joanne Hudson 5 months ago
Its like when a dentist tells you to only brush the teeth you want to keep. Just protect the body parts you want to keep whole.
Load More Replies... #5
Young man (18) apparently comes in about something else (trying to work up courage). Right before he should actually be leaving (this can be really annoying if there are people waiting), he says 'I need your advice. `i'm having s*x with my mother.' What do I say? 'Oh my god'? No, I didn't... I said, 'This isn't the first time someone has told me this.' This wasn't true. Turns out that he knew it was wrong, that mother had initiated it, he was trying to extricate himself, and he was desperate for help. But the thought that someone else had been in his position meant to him that he hadn't been judged, that he wasn't doomed or would go to h**l, and that there was hope. But he didn't know what to do because the person to whom he should've looked for advice was actually his a****r. But the lie helped defuse the situation.
Roni Stone 6 months ago
A lie is, once in a while, the biggest gift one can give. Thank you for making him believe he could be strong. I certainly hope his abuse ended.
Panda Cat 6 months ago
I know someone who had s*x with his mother-in-law. They continued after he divorced her daughter and she spent years trying to get him to break up with his new girlfriend. She was determined to ruin that relationship, and she did. In the meantime, his ex-wife kept trying to get him to live with her mother. Apparently, MIL was distraught that she had lost her gravy train since she’d moved in with her daughter and son-in-law and was fully supported by them.
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#6
I had to have my leg rebuilt after a car accident and was eventually sent to Duke university for my surgery. My surgeon was supposed to be like the best orthopedic surgeon in the country, I think he used to work for the Baltimore ravens. Anyway all the doctors from my hospital at home were very unsure if I would even have a functioning leg let alone walk normal again. The first appointment at Duke that dude told me it was really not a big deal and he would have me fixed almost good as new. I honestly thought he was just trying to be nice and optimistic but he was very serious. 5 months later I was walking and learning how to run again. He said I was one of the most complicated surgeries he has had to do and a group of surgeons flew in to observe him do it.
Joe Reaves 6 months ago
Having the medical students all come and look when they're not supposed to be there is a bad sign; having surgeons *fly* in to come and observe is next level bad.
sfgothgirl 6 months ago (edited)
Huh? What's bad? I'm not sure, no, I definitely don't understand your comment. If it's a teaching hospital (and the presence of med students is a pretty good sign it is) then said med students ARE supposed to be there . . . to learn. Same with the surgeons who flew in. It wasn't a test for the surgeon, at was a learning opportunity for the surgeons who flew in.
Load More Replies... Diane Dowdee 6 months ago
Sounds like the best of the best at Duke wanting to share knowledge with others. My shoulder MD is Surgeon-in-Chief @Duke
Robin Roper 6 months ago
I live 35 miles from Duke Hospital. This also puts me 40 miles from UNC-CH Hospital. I'm very grateful I'm so close to so many good doctors and medical care. I'm lucky.
#7
In 2011 I had a saddle pulmonary embolism two weeks before my scheduled wedding. My quite seasoned heart surgeon seemed pretty confident that I'd be okay, and he even said he'd get me to my wedding on time.
Long story short, I was in the hospital for about a month due to complications. Several weeks later, when I was visiting my heart surgeon for a follow-up, he told me he'd only ever seen two other people as sick as I was. Those two didn't survive.
Andrew Keir 6 months ago
for both doctor and patient. Placebo can be a word as well as a d**g.
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Ahnjunwan 6 months ago
Good man! There is no point telling a patient how serious it really is. If they do not make it and die on the table they are at least not feared and desperate before surgery. You have to inform them of course but keeping it vague and reassuring is the way to go imo. The hard truth does not help anybody
R Dennis 6 months ago
I ended up in the er with multiple emboli and an infarction of my right lung... no one was cool about it. They all said I was very lucky: the er doctors and nurses, the lab tech, the pulmonologists, cardiologist, icu nurses. None of them were chill. It took me six months to stop thinking I would drop dead at any second. I wish one person would have been chill.
#8
ER Tech here, a few months ago we had an elderly gentleman come in presenting with shortness of breath. As I was getting him into the gown and into hospital socks, I noticed very old, yellowing bandaging around his foot. I inquired to its purpose and he told me it was a large wound on the back of his heel that wasn't getting better.
I asked him if I could unwrap it to inspect it/possibly re-wrap it (basic wound care is one of my duties), and it was a literal hole in his heel about 4cm in diameter, skin necrotic around the edges, with a large flap of skin covering the middle. I wasn't terribly shocked...until I swore I saw the skin flap writhe a little bit. I got the patient's consent to look under the skin flap and sweet galactic Jesus, there were 3 sizeable maggots just chilling. I've read about it before but I have never seen it in person.
My brain went "what in the solar f*ck" and despite my attempt at a poker face, the gentleman read my reaction and asked, "Is it that bad?" I was straight up with him and told him that the wound had maggots and needed immediate treatment and the poor guy started apologizing for "bringing something disgusting." I told him, "I see this more often than you think. Maggots are actually great at cleaning out dead tissue and are used as treatment sometimes." He seemed relieved by that but it was definitely my first time ever seeing a m****t infected wound.
GenuineJen 6 months ago (edited)
I'm stealing "sweet galactic Jesus" and will attempt to use it at least once a day for the rest of my life. I will also be taking "what in the solar f*ck", but I promise to use it sparingly to insure that it's potency remains intact.
Blue Bunny of Happiness 6 months ago
Yep, had a patient admitted with maggots in their ulcerated foot before. They probably saved their life. I did a home visit to assess if their home was suitable for them to be discharged to or if they’d need equipment/stair practice etc. I had to clinell wipe my shoes several times before daring to get back into my car. We ended up getting environmental health to clean the property as it was so bad.
CD Mills 6 months ago
Your statement, "Maggots are actually great at cleaning out dead tissue and are used as treatment sometimes" couldn't ring more true. My Aunt got a burn on her thigh when she was a preteen, and it was pretty bad. Her family Doctor was as small-town and country as a small-town country Doctor could be and still have a medical license. Her wound was getting worse, so he packed and loosely wrapped up several dozen maggots in the wound to consume the proud flesh. She did have a scar, but she kept her leg and her life. BTW, this was in West Virginia back in the 1940s.
Krd 6 months ago
They are great because they are effectively sterile, and only eat dead tissue, leaving healthy tissue alone. Still disgusting, and not something I personally stomach. I f*ckin' hate maggots.
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Marilyn Holt 6 months ago
In the weirdest possible way he was probably lucky the maggots were there. I think they can clean up necrotic tissue and prevent gangrene.
Becky Samuel 6 months ago
The bugs in the photo aren't maggots, they're beetle larvae. Maggots don't have heads with jaws or jointed legs.
BeesEelsAndPups 6 months ago
Yep, those are mealworms. Fry those up in peanut oil and they're tasty good.
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#9
Not the doctor, but the patient. In 6th grade, i contracted so many different forms of dysentery that I was placed into CDC quarantine while they tried to figure out where I got it. I was barely conscious throughout the whole time but all I remember is my doctor in my room with me, having hooked up my Wii and playing Brawl as I recovered. I had no clue that my parents were being investigated for child abuse or that I was in quarantine until a few months later, or that I had passed out and had been covered in vomit and s**t for hours before my mom found me and took me to the hospital.
I ended up getting it from someone not washing their hands after handling a snake and then cooking dinner at my science camp. Wash your d**n hands people!
EDIT: I do work in the medical field, but I'm not a doctor so technically I am a medical professional. Also, I can't believe my top rated comment is about me being covered in various bodily fluids.
Midoribird Aoi 6 months ago
Sometimes, the proper professional thing to do is play video games with your patients 😁
Andrew Keir 6 months ago
Maybe not "Operation" though - in case you lose ...
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Huddo's sister 6 months ago
But not all medical professionals are doctors
Load More Replies... #10
As a new nurse, I worked on a nephrology unit, which meant that we dealt with mostly patients who had kidney failure and needed hemodialysis three times a week to clean their blood. A patient was admitted through the emergency room and told me that he hadn't been to dialysis in 4 weeks. He had HIV, kidney failure, had lost custody of his kids after a messy divorce, and had no will to live. He planned to just stay in his home until he died. He probably wasn't far from it, but a neighbor, who hadn't seen him for a few weeks, peeked in the window and saw him sitting, unresponsive on the couch. They called 911 and he was brought to my hospital.
Three weeks is an insanely long time to go without dialysis. Dialysis removes toxins and excess fluid from your blood. Missing a session can leave you feeling sick and swollen. Missing 12 sessions can k**l you. This guy was SO swollen. I've never seen a person who was so full of fluid. He looked like that girl from W***y Wonka that turned into a blueberry. His feet and ankles were particularly massive. I wasn't sure that he'd live. Miraculously, after several dialysis sessions, he'd fully deflated. However, he was left with lots of loose skin afterwards, which had the fragile texture of an old balloon.
One night, he called me to his room and said, "I think my foot is bleeding". He was right. He'd slid down towards the bottom of his bed and used his legs to push himself back up towards the top. In doing so, the fragile skin on the bottoms of his feet and been totally sheared away, leaving only tissue and bone and so much blood.
I had no idea what to do, so I just called a Code Blue. The patient wasn't dead or dying, but no part of nursing school or practice had prepared me for an HIV+ patient who had ripped the soles of his feet off and was currently laying in a 3ft wide, rapidlu expanding, puddle of blood. I just needed to get a whole bunch of people to the room as quickly as possible.
I threw on a waterproof gown and some gloves and held pressure on the bottoms of his feet with a towel until help arrived. They didn't know what to do either. We called in the general surgeon, who seemed to think we might be exaggerating the extent of the damage and blood loss. He told us he'd be there in an hour and just to hold pressure until it stopped bleeding. We soaked towel after towel until, finally, the surgeon shows up.
He breezes into the room, moves my towel away, and says, "hmph". Then he reaches towards the patients foot, and pulls off a a HUGE, softball sized, blood clot. In that moment, time stopped. He held out his hand, holding the huge clot, and I, without really thinking about what I was doing, held my hand out too. He plopped the clot right into my outstretched hand.
In the next moments, several things happened all at once. I realized I was holding a big, coagulated mass of blood. I started dry heaving. I dropped it on the floor. It splattered. The surgeon exclaims, "OH JESUS F**K", not in response to my gags or the fact that he was just splattered by the clot I dropped, but because the patient's foot is now profusely bleeding again. He darts off and tells us to get the patient down to the OR immediately. We get him down there and, on the way back, realize that he'd left a trail of blood down the hallways, into the elevator, and to the operating theater.
I saw the patient during my next shift and he jokes, "I thought you were going to pass out when the doctor handed you that mess!" to which I replied, "Sir, I was positive that you were about to bleed to death".
Delta Dawn 6 months ago
I’d hate to be at that hospital - nothing about this story gives me any confidence that people routinely make it out of there alive.
Ahnjunwan 6 months ago
I am surprised how casual they are with blood from a hiv patient. I mean, that is going to be expensive, a lot of cleaning, some equipment can not be used again let alone the risk of infection handling the situation like this.
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Andrew Keir 6 months ago
If a 9-year-old might snigger at it, it's banned. Self-censoring is like that.
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SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago
Couldn't read that... Not in full. Seen something similar on the Rez as a kid and... Yeah, can't.
#11
Not medical professionals, but we were the patients. My daughter, who was 3 at the time, had to have a cavity filled. As we were leaving, the dentist told me just to watch my daughter because sometimes kids chew their gums because it's numb and feels weird. So the drive home took 30 minutes and I had been talking to my daughter the entire time to keep her busy. I park my car in my drive way, opened the passenger seat to get my daughter out, and her entire lower lip on the left side is gone. She had chewed it off down to her chin. She ended up in emergency surgery, but the surgeon kept telling us it would be fine and he sees this stuff all the time. She ended up having multiple surgeries, and when she was finally healed, the surgeon told us that it was the worst injury like that he had ever seen. He wasn't sure how she would heal, but you can hardly tell it happened now.
Isabella K 6 months ago (edited)
I really don't want to be THAT person, but at age 3 there shouldn't be a need for cavity fillings. I once was at my dentists and the receptionist chewed out a mother who brought her 7 year old in for cavititys and told her that this was basically child neglect and she should look better after her kids teeth...
JB 6 months ago
Then don’t be “that person”! I highly doubt you have a dental medicine background. You certainly have zero clue what led to this cavity, jumping straight to “bad parenting”, as did the receptionist at your dentist (who should have been at least reprimanded for her unsolicited, ignorant remarks). Some people, including young kids, are prone to developing caries/cavities DESPITE maintaining proper mouth care. It can be something as simple as the natural level of acidity in their mouth, which has to be medically diagnosed and treated.
Load More Replies... #12
I had to see an orthopedist oncologist because I had two sarcomas. One in my left thigh in the sciatic nerve and one in my left pelvic.
My surgeon said he would get both out and the most I would get would be a drop foot (where you can’t lift up your foot on your own).
I went back two years later and my doctor told me he thought he would have to remove my leg because of how the sarcomas were enmeshed in my bones, muscle, and nerves. I honestly thought the whole time that it was an easy out. Though the two 10 hour surgeries may have been a clue that it wasn’t so simple.
These days I have a limp as I’m missing half my left pelvic bone and most of my glute and thigh muscle- but I got to keep the leg!
SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago (edited)
Yeays for them getting to keep their leg! 💜 (Sounds sarcastic but NOT meant that way!)
#13
As a medical student doing my first placement in the emergency department, I was waiting outside the triage room to ask the nurse something. I was the lowest ranking, most clueless person in the department. I knew a lot about the Kreb cycle, not a whole lot about, you know, medicine.
A young man came up to me and said he was sorry to disturb me, he just wanted to check, it was just, well, not to queue-jump or anything, but he wanted to check, can this definitely wait for triage..?
He then unwrapped a towel from his hand and showed me his thumb, which he had dropped a loaded barbell onto. It was shattered, just flattened, with splinters of bone coming out. I stared at it. He stared at it. I stared at it.
Then I told him oh yes, no problem at all, he'd better take a seat and I'd make sure someone was with him right away.
Rafael 6 months ago
Checked on Google, this is how mitochondria ("the powerhouse of the cell!") produces energy, if I understood it right. It has been a long time since I studied this!
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#14
I was the patient in this case. Had pain in the lower right part of my abdomen that grew more serious over a few days. Eventually got so bad I nearly passed out and was on my bathroom floor screaming on the third night. That morning I felt much better and went to work, but felt the pain coming on again that evening. Also decided to go into work the next morning while running a fever that was getting steadily worse. Finally decided to go to the doctor, where they immediately referred me for a CT scan. My appendix had been ruptured for a day and a half at that point, and I had sepsis/gangrene/massive infection. I was in surgery within a few hours, but prior to that the nurse that was with me said, "Yeah, this will be no problem. You'll be fine." Surgery was ok, but was followed up with a bunch of time in the hospital on intravenous antibiotics. My primary care doctor called me while I was recovering and told me the CT scan was one of the worst they had seen. The doctors I saw post recovery all had a *holy s**t* look when they saw scans and read the surgeon's report. Kudos to that nurse who kept me calm before surgery. Don't screw around with lower abdominal pain.
Rafael 6 months ago (edited)
Tell me you are not in the US without having to tell me you are not in the US... to be clear, I'm not in or from the US (and don't know if that's your case as well), but sweet galactic Jesus, that country has a really fúcked up health industry, one that forces people to choose between staying home and dying, or going bankrupt and starving to death. Also, the so called "hustle culture" with employment at will makes it so calling in sick at work could also mean bankruptcy with a side order of starvation... I sincerely hope this cráp don't metastasize to other countries, but this is a true risk considering that far right regimes are popping up all around the world with help of the orange troll.
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Dzessa Golden 6 months ago
Writhing in pain on the bathroom floor would definitely be a 911 moment for me!
Dawn Marie 6 months ago
I thought, one time last summer, I was just a bit dehydrated. I pushed the fluids for a few days. On the fourth day of not feeling all that great, I passed out and fell down the stairs. My roomie called 911 and took me to the ER. I had a massive UTI that went sepsis. It took some of the muscle tone in my legs. It also aggravated my BP/HR, sink/sky rocket. The sepsis also attacked my heart and lungs and invaded the language part of my brain. Also my balance has been compromised. I was sent from the hospital to a nursing care rehab for 5 weeks then insurance kicked me out. I was still not walking very well. Once I got home, things just got worse. In four months I had fallen nine times. The last down a flight of 15 stairs. I am now in an assisted living center. I say all this to tell you, DO NOT WAIT, GET CHECKED OUT. Also, YOU and GOOGLE are not doctor's. DO NOT diagnosis yourself!!
CatD 6 months ago
These days they sell test strips to check for UTI. Get some for emergency use, and use them. I did just a few months ago, and called my doctor and they prescribed antibiotics. Way cheaper than having to go to the hospital.
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Gail Rodgers 6 months ago
Yikes. Similar story but my appendix ruptured 5 days post childbirth, they assumed I had a uterine infection so put me in antibiotics, next day things aren't adding up, finally send me for MRI. Oops, your appendix ruptured! Me: but don't ppl die from thaat. Dr: yes usually. But your intestines somehow encapsulated it so the infection didn't spread throughout your body. Lucky you. Oh okay thanks?
Pink kitty 6 months ago
Some people have poor health literacy too and ust don't understand the severity of the situation
Sue User 6 months ago
Or they are chronically sick and had enough of condescending ER doctors. Gems i have dealt with: no the numbness in my legs is not caused by diabetis; i came into the ER because the doctor i saw less than 24 hours ago said if my fever went above 103, go to ER, so stop acting like tgere is nothing wrong with me ; no that is not a UTI - my kidneys were bleeding; hey, if you can get a pulse in my fingers from machine, might want to look into that, not just say " thats weird". I have been in so much pain i was barfing and still will not go. Seventy percent of the time they treat you like a bother, wont do anything, or misdiagnose you.
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G'ma B 5 months ago
For days I thought I had bad gas & tried to push it out. Finally I went to the ER and they said my appendix had ruptured. They operated immediately! After 8 days on an IV, and no food ... I was ready to go home. At my post checkup with my Dr. he said that I was very lucky to be alive! . The only reason I was, he said, was because one of my ovaries was pushed up against my ruptured appendix sealing it shut and that is what saved my life! Don't screw around with lower abdominal pain!
Deep One 6 months ago
Something similar happened to my brother. Now he is your stereotypical "tough biker" and he hates hospitals but he was in so much pain he finally went in. The doctors kept insisting it was just constipation and he had to keep trying to go to the bathroom. He was in so much pain he was crawling on the floor to the toilet. His appendix had ruptured and them making push had completely filled his abdominal cavity with fecal matter. They had to open him up to clean it all out. Then he was on massive antibiotics and had drains for the pus installed. eventually he recovered. He said feeling them pull the drains out of his body was one of the weirdest sensations he ever had.
#15
Probably too late to the party, but I had a lady come in to the ER listed as “Multiple Medical Problems”. This usually means diabetes and the issues stemming from it or maybe bleeding issues from another disease or maybe odd blood tests results at a clinic. I hadn’t seen the patient yet, but the Dr. came to the nurse’s station asking who had room 15. I jumped up and followed him into the room.
I walked in and saw what I thought was a corpse. Then the patient’s eye swiveled over to look at me. She truly looked like one of the people they found in a concentration camp. I could see every bone and her body was twisted in a decorticate position with her jaw locked open. Then the smell hit me: rotting flesh, death, and body fluids. I struggled to keep a neutral face and not gag.
I tried to place a blood pressure cuff on her arm and her skin just started flaking off in my hands. I gagged. The dr. started removing her clothes to examine her. Her feet were black to the ankles. Her hip bones were poking through her skin and were black. The skin around her ribs was worn away to oozing muscle fibers. Her calves were incredibly swollen and the skin was splitting like ripped pants. I removed her Depends, and there was feces coating her entire genital area. Then the dr. went to remove a large bandage on her lower back. Her entire sacrum was exposed and the bones were BLACK! The skin around it was a black liquified mass. It smelled like nothing I’ve ever smelled. I can’t even describe it. The dr. Told her family I would clean up her ulcers and wounds in preparation for surgery (liar, no surgeon would operate on her).
I had no idea how to clean dead bone tissue and liquified skin (they don’t cover that in nursing school). When I went to clean her sacral area, all the liquified skin separated and oozed all over the bed. I really struggled to keep my s**t together.
Afterwards, I needed a moment in the supply closet to cry it out for a second. I had no idea the human body could breakdown so much without dying. I still think about that woman sometimes and what led to her living like that. It still breaks my heart.
Deborah B 6 months ago
Reading this makes me think there should be a euthanasia option for ER doctors. If two senior doctors agree the patient's condition is unsalvageable and attempting treatment will only prolong their suffering, they should have the option to immediately euthanise them. Inform the family, load the patient up with mophine, and give them a lethal dose. We would do as much for a stray dog, why the f**k can't we be more humane to dying humans? Why put the patient through further suffering just to give the family false hope?
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
I completely agree. Merciful medical euthanasia should be legal. Here in America there are a few states that have "Death with Dignity" laws. Thankfully my state is one of them. My father benefitted from this. He went through 21 years of absolute hell after his accident, but at least his death itself was relatively swift and completely painless.
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Debby Keir 6 months ago
The question that didn't seem to be asked was "how did she get into that state?" Bedsores and dirty/solid diapers don't just happen in 5 minutes.
Marnie 6 months ago
Info: "Decorticate posture a sign of severe damage to the brain is an abnormal posturing in which a person is stiff with bent arms, clenched fists." Anyway, this has to be neglect or abuse. I hope the hospital called in someone to investigate. And finally, if we as a species were better than we are, within minutes of observing her condition, someone should have put that woman out of her misery. To do anything else was unbelievably cruel, not even just to this poor, poor woman, but for everyone involved.
Leg less In Minneapolis 6 months ago
I remember seeing this before, the family was charged with abuse. They kept her and ignored her for her retirement checks
SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago (edited)
In this case... I take it that she died? But just HOW the absolute F*CK did... Was she allowed to even get into that state??? That takes months, if not years, to get that bad. Where the bloody hell f*ck were her "family"??? Using the term/word 'family' incredibly loosely there... Zero f*cks given by them it seems... It's... Nah can't.
Huddo's sister 6 months ago
Reading the second paragraph I thought "that could almost be describing Janet" (my stepdad's ex-wife) but what followed thankfully isn't her. She could probably end up that way eventually, she's skin and bone and can't keep a lot of food down because of chronic conditions, though she tries to avoid doctors, and if something went wrong I'm not sure how long it would be before someone noticed. Her daughter and her late son's best mate are probably the only ones she reaches out to and could go a few months without contact, especially with the grief after her son's death.
Jane Hower 6 months ago
Sounds like major elder abuse by her family or the care home she should have been in. Hope the law got involved.
#16
Not a medicalprofessional, but I have impressed a couple.
It's not super weird but just uncommon I guess. I was overweight but active when I was younger and broke my lowest rib while snowboarding, long story short, I did not know it was broken (honestly) so I never got it checked by a doctor. The rib traveled up over the next 2 ribs and has since fused to them. I now have a permanent tilt on my spine where this rib attaches to it and now that I have lost some weight a bump you can see/feel on my chest.
It is kinda weird when you tell a doctor about something on your body and their face lights up like a kid on Christmas and they ask for permission to feel it.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
It's in no way as dramatic as OP's story, but when my dog Stilgar went in for his neuter, the vet was also going to fix Stilly's umbilical hernia. After the surgery, he called and told us that Stilly's hernia was the biggest he had ever seen on a dog in all his years of vet practice. He said it was so amazing that he called the other vets who were working that day (it's a multi-vet practice) to "suit up" and come take a look at it before he stitched it up. Apparently a few of the other vets stuck their hands in there in amazement at how large my dog's umbilical hernia was XD (It had NOT looked that large from the outside!) Stilly's sutured incision was huge and gnarly, but my vet was awesome and Stilly healed perfectly. Here's a photo of him enjoying a special treat of a corn dog after coming home from surgery! step2-6832...995d4f.jpg 
Dawn Marie 6 months ago
When I(61F) tell my GP's that I have a non-ossifying fibroma (a benign (non-cancerous), non-aggressive tumor that consists mainly of fibrous tissue.) in my left femur, they want to argue with me. Supposedly only children and adolescence have these. I have had it all my life. Mine never closed up. It takes an ex-ray for them to believe me.
SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago (edited)
I broke, or re-broke, a rib in hospital. I did have two broken ribs but not diagnosed at that time due to the severity of my other injuries. I pulled myself up onto the upright cart thing they used to transfer me from the bed to the chair then onto the transport trolley and I felt something "boing" in my upper back area. Remember that this was during the Pandemic and they were trying their best. It was later that night when I was having difficulty breathing without pain that they sent me to have emergency x-rays and yup, I had a broken rib. No lumps or bumps from it now though and thankfully no tilt such as this person, who I definitely feel for because broken ribs hurt like a Mo Fo!!!
Nikole 6 months ago
OMG broken ribs are awful! I broke two a few years ago and was in pain for months. And there’s nothing you can do besides take painkillers and change the way you move…
Load More Replies... #17
A little late to the party—
Not the worst, but I had a patient once with a stomach bleed and a small bowel obstruction. We had to put in an NG tube (tube that goes in your nose and down to your stomach) to drain/decompress his stomach, which was pretty distended and hard.
I’m inserting the tube and has soon as it hits this guy’s gag reflex he projectile vomits and SPRAYS very dark, half digested blood all over himself, the bed, the wall, and the floor. It’s basically a scene from the exorcist. I had to dive out of the way and somehow was unscathed. He couldn’t stop for almost ten minutes as we’re trying to get this thing down to where it needs to go. Finally finish placement and it immediately suctions out ~3 liters of this black sludge that is old, digested blood. Pt was mortified and we had to play it off like “oh no no it’s fine, it’s really common to vomit during the procedure. We’ll just go get some towels and clean you up!”
My coworker and I left the room and just stared at each other in silent shock.
Deb M.F. 6 months ago
I had an obstructed small bowel last year, and they put that NG tube down my nose. It's not a small NG that people are used to seeing. It's the same size as your nostril and hurts going down. Every time you move, it hurts. Had that thing in for over 12 hours, and the obstruction passed. It's not fun as the tube is removing everything in your stomach and bowel contents. Being in the ICU for over three days was horrible
Roni Stone 6 months ago
My MIL had an obstruction due to codeine she was taking (too much of) for her cough. Hospital decided to keep her on a 23 hour watch. They did not, however, mark her chart NPO. She was given something to eat and started almost immediately vomiting it back up. But the vomiting didn't stop there - next was the bile. After that came what the doctor daintily called "fecaloid matter", which she aspirated and started choking. Her heart stopped and, much as they tried, she passed under horrific circumstances. Yes, she literally died from aspirating feces because the hospital gave food to a woman with a bowel blockage. Yes, there was a lawsuit.
CatD 6 months ago
Had something similar happen when I was a student nurse. Bringing a guy back from surgery on his nose after he was hit in the face with a basketball. He apparently didn't stay NPO before the surgery, sat up on the gurney and spewed beef stew and blood all over the corridor. I got an attagirl for being the only student who stayed to help the nurse clean it up.
#18
Posted this before:
4th year med student here. On my ER rotation a couple months back, I walked in to the ED and was immediately asked to help a nurse and resident put a catheter in a patient. Now a catheter placement is usually a one person job so I was pretty confused as to why they needed my help.
I walk into the patient room, and I’m immediately greeted by a disgusting rotting flesh smell. Worst thing I’ve smelled in my life. The patient has to be pushing 400 lbs and has the worst edema (soft tissue swelling) from congestive heart failure I’ve ever seen. His s*****m and p***s f******n are about the size if a small watermelon, and the f******n had swollen completely over the tip of his p***s.
The nurse had a speculum (t**l OBGYNs use to look inside vaginas) inserted into the man’s f******n while the resident took the catheter in a hemostat (pliers type thing) and jammed it into the man’s pee hole for 20 minutes. They finally got the catheter in and took the speculum out. It was covered in a thick brown discharge that looked like fermented p**s-s**t. I still don’t know how he let his s*****m and p***s swell that much.
Edit: We comforted the patient the whole time and kept telling him we had done it like this before. Total lie. No one in the ED had ever done or seen anything like it.
Mommy Panda 6 months ago
So, you CAN post all these medical horror stories but god forbid you actually write out the word p.e.n.i.s. because we'll surely be traumatized by that...
Chicken Mitten 6 months ago (edited)
Same goes for Me. W***y Wonka. Or William Wonka, if you will.
Load More Replies... Rafael 6 months ago
All right, let's do this: - s*****m: scrótum - p***s: pénis - f******n: fóreskin - p**s-s**t. píss-shít - v****a: vágina (not censored yet but just being prepared)
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago (edited)
"I still don’t know how he let his scrótüm and penís swell that much." - I have a number of morbidly obese family members. I can say, with sad confidence, that some of them are so obese - and have been obese for so many years - that they often have NO idea what is going on between their legs, because they cannot see or even easily check it (hard to reach around/down past the fat sometimes.) A lot of time they have other comorbidities (diabetes, kidney failure) and a lot of pain in general so they can't even "tell" when their genítals are hurting/swelling specifically, because they are just in so much pain/suffering overall.
Forrest Grump 6 months ago
I d**'t u********d a******g y*u w***e in y**r p**t. W**t is g***g on h**e w**h a*l t*e c********p?
Andrew Keir 6 months ago
You are being trained to read naughty meanings into random letters of the alphabet. If you can see the first and last letters of a word, many people can guess the word first time. "I P****e A********e t* t** F**g *f t** U****d S****s" and all that.
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Debby Keir 6 months ago (edited)
I remember a patient dying of Congestive heart failure (1970) and there was really nothing much we could do as medications were not working at all. The disease causes massive oedema everywhere, and makes it difficult to breathe. We got him out of bed into a comfotable chair and sitting upright Then the doctors placed Southey's tubes into his legs (explanation below) but they had to piece his skin each time to get around 100 tubes in each leg. He drained several litres of fluid onto the incontinent pads we'd placed on the floor. Unfortunately (but as expected, he died, but was still so heavy from the excess fluid that we had to get 6 people and mechanical hoists just to lay him out flat. *Southey's tubes are small cannulas used to drain fluid from edema, primarily in the legs, and were popularized by the physician Reginald Southey in the 1870s. They are a historical method for relieving swelling, and while still occasionally used, they are not the primary treatment for edema today. * edit - pierce his skin
Andrew Keir 6 months ago
It's the s**n t**t b**s a*e b**n w**h *n t***r w*****s. Censoring is often a CYA move to prevent attack by the "Moral Mouthpieces".
Load More Replies... Gracie Mae 5 months ago
is it just me or are they going a bit overboard on censoring? T.O.O.L., realy???
#19
Ooh, me, I have a story.
I've been an RN for 12 years now, seen a lot of s**t. I was particularly lucky in nursing school and got to watch open heart surgery, joint replacement, kidney removal, all kinds of neat stuff right over the surgeon's shoulder.
The only one that ever gave me a problem was this kid about 10 years old getting his tonsils removed. The doc had this hooked knife, he's reach into the kids mouth, hook the tonsil, and yank it back to cut it out. Blood flying out of the unconscious kid's mouth. So I'm standing there, I look up and all of a sudden everything's getting sparkly. I just said "I need to leave. Right now."
Surgeon takes his tools out of the kid's mouth and says "OK. Someone please walk him out, thanks."
So I learned that for some reason, I get queasy when it's kids being hurt. Which is funny, because I was a pediatrics nurse for quite a while after school.
Anyway, the actual story. I wasn't even at work, but maybe four years ago, was living with my girlfriend at the time and her three young boys. That day, the youngest (about 7), had been climbing up a big lilac bush in the yard that I'd trimmed the day before. He slipped and fell out. A sharp, cut branch caught him in the face on his way down. I was in the kitchen, and heard this blood-curdling scream and ran outside.
I brought him in, sat him on the kitchen table and took a look. It seemed like he was pretty lucky, there was just a deep cut on the bottom of his nose. Well, it was bleeding pretty decently so his mother and I took him to the emergency room.
We get there, there's only a physician's assistant on duty. He takes a look and thinks maybe it could use a couple of stitches. Or, he says, he could call the on-call ENT surgeon for another opinion. We told him that, all due respect, we would like to have a surgeon take a look, just in case.
Good thing we did.
The boy had nearly taken his entire nose off his face. The stick cut up under the nose, and traveled along under the flesh up to the bridge. The entire nose was hanging by a half inch of skin at the top. We just hadn't moved it much.
As soon as the surgeon came in and pulled this little boy's nose off his face, while he's laying on the exam table screaming absolute bloody murder, suddenly I got really hot, things start getting hazy, I realize I'm about to pass out. So I quickly exited the room and sat down, at the exact same time as my girlfriend, who was also a nurse. Neither of us could take it.
Upstaged75 6 months ago
That's horrifying. Especially if it's someone you know. It's scary when kids get hurt.
Rafael 6 months ago
Another parental nightmare unlocked, second one already in this article alone!
My O My 6 months ago
I've got another parental nightmare for you. My son choked on a bite of potato when he was a year old. No screaming to be heard anymore. Saved his life with the heimlich maneuvre
Load More Replies... Mere Cat 6 months ago
I have seen plenty of gnarly stuff and as a physician, even perfomed small-scale operations etc, without feeling sick or anything. But seeing endoscopic video footage of my cat's ear operation made me almost faint, even though there was barely any blood or anything. It was just seeing my innocent little honeybunch there being operated on :( (He's ok now!)
Debby Keir 6 months ago
The only thing that made me faint (nurse for 47 years) was manky toenails and once seeing a toe amputation - and it was under local aneasthetic/nerve block, so I have no idea why.
#20
Lady came in with possible stroke symptoms (numbness, weakness, difficulty speaking, gail abnormalities). CT Brain unremarkable. Lab work was really odd. We were thinking cancer so we decided to CT her chest and abdomen as well. Turns out she had a dissection the entire length of her abdominal aorta and going into her right femoral artery. Left femoral had an aneurysm and was beginning to dissect as well. She had formed a massive clot throughout her abdomen that was miraculously keeping her alive. Basically all of her organs were ischemic (dead).
About 5 different teams showed up in the ER to see her. After HOURS of discussion, the consensus was that there wasn't a d**n thing anyone could do. We sent her to hospice.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
OP said in another comment (as an "explain like I'm 5" reply: "ELI5: There is a large artery that sends almost all your blood from the heart down. It's located in the abdomen (middle of the body). It's a high pressure vessel as are all arteries. This artery burst open from top to bottom, spilling blood into the belly. One of the major branches of this artery is the femoral artery which carries the blood supply for your leg. Again, big vessel with lots of pressure. An aneurysm is when the vessel balloons out in one area and weakens the wall, think of an inflating balloon...it can easily pop. When a vessel dissects (bursts open) it can't carry blood where it needs to go anymore. Being that these are such large vessels that burst, that is a LOT of blood supply that is lost which causes a LOT of organs to die. ELI2: Big hose exploded and blood got everywhere and all the organs died."
Jane Jayne Jain Jeign Jein 6 months ago (edited)
Thanks. That makes much more sense than what I was imagining when I read the original.
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TruthoftheHeart 6 months ago
That poor woman was at deaths door, a walking dead who doesn't realize it yet. Probably didn't make it 3 days
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
If her organs were already ischemic that badly, it is unlikely she made it another 3 hours :(
Load More Replies... #21
Years ago (2000) I was playing soccer and noticed a little skin irritation underneath my arm. I thought it would go away but it developed into a weird thing. It was about 2 in in diameter and grew to be a collection of essentially looked like hundreds of skin tags grew together in a little circle. I went to the doctor who didnt have a clue and he sent me to a specialist. While there it seemed like he didnt know either. This was further evidenced when 4 other doctors came in to take a look and were really interested. They took a ton of photos and told me they hadnt seen this before and couldnt really offer any medication and said they would monitor it. About a week later the 'skin tags' developed little circles on the top that turned into scabs within a couple days. Then, the thing just kinda dried up and fell off me. It was f*****g weird and to this day I have no idea what it was.
I was not comforted.
Forrest Grump 6 months ago (edited)
You were a carrier of alien eggs. The invasion will begin after they grow into adulthood.
GenuineJen 6 months ago
With the way things are going, it seems as though they've reached adulthood and are now showing up in the news.
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Debby Keir 6 months ago
Sounds like pedicle warts. They can cover quite large areas and just 'go' at some point, leaving no trace. * Pedicle warts, also known as fibroma pendulans or soft fibromas, are benign, non-contagious skin growths that appear as small, fleshy tags. Unlike true warts caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), these are not caused by a virus. They often look like filiform warts, with a stalk or pedicle. Here's a more detailed look at pedicle warts: Appearance: They appear as small, soft, fleshy tags that may be skin-colored, pink, or brown. They can have a stalk, giving them a pedicled or "hanging" appearance. They are usually smooth and can be found anywhere on the body, but are common on the neck, underarms, and eyelids. *
Panda Cat 6 months ago
Here you go: https://dermnetnz.org/topics/viral-wart plus a funny aside. IMG_4876-6...nsored.jpg 
Huddo's sister 6 months ago
It would pain me not knowing. I would probably have tried taking the dried up bit back to the doctor to see if it could be tested.
Bee Mari 6 months ago
Lmao i had this when i was about... 8? 9? Lasted two years and were on my left underarm/forearm, left side of my abdomen and left upper thigh... I didn't wear short sleeves or shorts for AGES, even after. I still got tiny scars! (There's also a cluster in the shape of a smiley face when I tested how contagious they were on myself)
#22
Nurse in corrections here. Had an inmate/patient come in with complaints about severe lower abdominal pain. He told me that he had something stuck in his "prison pocket." Before i could ask him what he stuck up his a**s, he bends over and shows me a cord sticking out. I told him, "Don't trip, I'm sure the doctor can help you out with that. You'll be alright." Come to find out, the prong of the phone charger got caught up into something and it was stuck.
As i was trying to comfort him, I started to hear this vibrating sound. So i asked him if he heard it do. He said, "It's the phone inside me that stuck with the charger." It wasn't just a regular flip phone, it was one of those samsung smart phones.
Midoribird Aoi 6 months ago
To answer this question, press the right testicle for one, the left for two, and squeeze the s*****m to speak to a live representative.
Load More Replies... Huddo's sister 6 months ago
If medical shows get anything right, there is a chance he vibration when the phone rings will cause more damage/perforation and cause the phone to move further inside, meaning it has to be removed by surgery.
SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago
Well... That's one way to take a call... At least you can legitimately say that you were "talking outta your ar*e" the whole entire time...
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
My ex was into ánal séx. You have to literally practice stretching your pootyhole. It takes a while, but you can definitely learn to relax those muscles/stretch them out after a bit of work. Also, lube helps. As an aside, I hated ánal, it always hurt, and there were enough times when I got minor injuries down there to that "area" that I cannot fathom sticking something like a phone up there XD Then again, I've also never gone to prison, so I don't know how desperate the guy in this story was :x
Load More Replies... Beth Wheeler 6 months ago
People would be amazed at what inmates will stick up their butts or their groin areas so they can leave the unit for a while.
#23
I worked as a tech in the ER for a while and had a woman in her 40's present with "burning and pain down below, discharge and a bad smell." I got the cart set up for a vaginal exam, got her vitals, blood and urine (she couldnt pee because of the pain she said), all the basic jazz you do when someone comes into the ER. I process my samples and let the nurse know everything is done and she goes to talk to the woman and it essentially goes as this: no, she hasn't had any trauma, no no a*****t, no she doesn't know what's going on, but it started about 3 weeks prior. Long story short, we get the Dr as the woman refused to let the nurse take a look, and we are all in the room when the Dr turns the light on under the drape and immediately asks if she's been using any medication vaginally, there's clearly a lot of irritation and swelling as well as a VERY strong odor and she hadn't even inserted the spec yet. The woman says no, nothing. At this point the nurse goes to get some saline and I'm left to hand off tools and handle any swabs. The first swab handed to me was literally tinged a pale green, clearly infection. I'm capping it and the woman smells the odor slowly filling the room finally and starts apologizing. I had to say while trying not to gag "no no need to apologize, I've seen much crazier things, just relax and we will get you all fixed up." Well, the nurse comes back with saline and the Dr starts essentially flushing this woman's v****a trying to clear out all this discharge and infection so she can see what's going on, and all of the sudden she stops and asks if she's SURE she hasn't been putting anything in her v****a to treat any medical condition, even something not given by a Dr. And that's when we found out for about a month, this woman had been douching with a bleach and water mix to try and cure a yeast infection, because she read that "in hospitals we wash down with diluted bleach to k**l germs and thought it would work." She was riddled with chemical burns and infection and was immediately transported to a bigger hospital. So yeah, that happened.
JB 6 months ago (edited)
I’ve written this before and will keep writing it. The vāgina is naturally self cleaning; *anything* you put in there (literally anything: water, pēnis, toys, lube, dōuche, scented crāp…) can upset the natural environment resulting in inflammation or yeast infection. PLEASE go to the dr if you can, if not, talk to a pharmacist; last time I checked, that’s still free in the US? Pharmacists aren’t medical doctors but they can offer a huge amount of information and help.
Jane Hower 6 months ago
I often rinse out with just warm water after sexual intercourse. Never had a problem.
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LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
Possibly ignorance and a lack of being taught basic hygiene, not necessarily "stupid".
Load More Replies... Beth Wheeler 6 months ago
OMG how could anybody be that stupid? It makes me hurt just thinking about it
Mi So 6 months ago
Since Lysol was originally marketed for use in feminine hygiene (yes, I’m cringing & crossing my legs at THAT thought), it’s possible her mother didn’t know any better herself. There is so much misinformation about feminine hygiene, it’s scary. Even the specialty “feminine washes” that we have today are actually terrible. According to my gyn, she sees so many women (myself included) with dermatitis, inflammation, swelling, & pain, all caused by feminine washes.
Load More Replies... #24
Had a patient who needed a lower gi study to find/fix a bowel bleed. To get a study done you need to poop clear mucus. Three days we bowel prepped with heavy laxatives and enemas. He barely pooped anything. He puts on the call light at 6:45, 15 minutes before my shift ends. He calmly says, "I kinda want to try and poop." He said it so casually I figured he was going to toot out another gas bubble and walk back.
He stood from the bed, took one step, and the floodgates burst. 3+ days of the most rancid liquid stool I had ever encountered. It just wouldn't stop. He left a river of stool from the bed to the bathroom, coated the walls as he bend to park his butt on the toilet, and continued to dump out 7 people worth of poop.
In my 9 years I have never seen that much come out of a person. He was not a large man.
He was so embarrassed but I just kept my face as solid as possible, grabbed half the linen closet and 3 packages of cavi wipes, and sopped it up. Told him this happens all the time.
Maggie Fulton 6 months ago
Is there a class in med school that teaches medical professionals to practice keeping a poker face and say they’ve seen X before? This seems to be a common theme, and I have the utmost respect for those people.
Ejteh 6 months ago (edited)
Back in school to become a nurse. It is not a separate class, but the importance of keeping your cool is emphasised since day one. It comes back in lessons regularly. Most people can't control their bodies in these situations. The last thing we want is make you feel embarrassed and horrible about something you can't help. Most medical staff actually care about how people feel. Pokerfaces are key in this.
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XenoMurph 6 months ago
I think the people in reception, in the waiting room and outside in the car park also got a sample that time
Load More Replies... #25
I'm a nurse and I work in a pediatric ER. A young woman brought her baby in to be seen for vomiting. I ask her to put the baby on the scale. While on the scale I notice a strong odor of bug spray so I asked about it.
Mom: "A roach crawled into her mouth so I sprayed a little Raid in there." She said it matter of factually like it was no big deal.
Que up calls to the police, CPS and a 1:1 sitter for the child and the mom.
When all was said and done the baby was fine and turned over to her grandmother so no worries there. I have no idea what happened to the mother.
I don't believe she was intending to hurt the child. I think she was just butt-a*s ignorant.
Moon Puppy 6 months ago
Some people shouldn't 'people'. Knew this person who, instead of using those whole-house flea sprays to k**l the fleas in the house, sprayed them on herself to keep the fleas off of her. SMDH
Load More Replies... Marilyn Holt 6 months ago
But didn't some president somewhere suggest drinking or injecting bleach to cure covid? Some people should just not be presidents.
David 6 months ago
Nope. Snopes rated it false https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-bleach-covid-19/ and you can read the actual transcripts where it shows he never said that https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing-31/ this was a fake claim
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Andrew Keir 6 months ago
“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so. “ – Mark Twain
#26
Paramedic here. Had a homeless guy call saying he stepped on a nail "about a year ago". I could smell it from the door so I expected it to be bad, but when I went to pick up the leg by his heel there was just...nothing there. His foot just evaporated into pus and maggots and his metatarsals clinked through my fingers. While I'm standing there trying to comprehend what happened he just sighed and asked me to pick up his foot (what foot buddy?), put it back on. He said "it falls off a lot these days, but it still hurts so that's good right?" I had no clue what to tell him. The nurses thought it was hilarious that "the baby medic(that's me btw)" got grossed out.
GenuineJen 6 months ago
Yep, better call Him in because that guy needed a miracle.
Load More Replies... SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago
I'm starting to be very thankful for the NHS in the UK. It's not perfect, no but thank gosh it's free. You can go into A&E, you will have to wait, it can take hours to get seen, but you will be seen, with follow ups if necessary. D***s /antibiotics etc administered and a prescription for them... We need to do better to help the homeless, especially with necessary medical treatments.
CatD 6 months ago
It took over 12 hours one time to be seen at the ER in the states. And I had to pay for it.
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Sara Frazer 6 months ago
I should stop reading these and go to bed but at this point I'll just have nightmares
Andrew Keir 6 months ago
Not necessarily denial, when you're homeless there are fewer options for cleanliness and health generally.
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#27
When I was a med student on the trauma service, there was a gentleman who decided to attempt s*****e using a shotgun aimed at his heart. Unfortunately, the first thing that comes out of a shotgun when it is fired is a gust of air... which changed where the gun barrel was pointed when the shot came out. The shot pellets ended up hitting everything but his heart - lungs, ribs, spleen, stomach, liver, pancreas, and large and small intestines.
In the OR, the attending surgeon told me to put my hand on his beating heart because that will likely be the only time in my medical career that I would touch a beating heart. I did. It was cool.
He survived. Though, he was on the trauma service for the entire month I was there, and was in the hospital for a long time further.
Andrew Keir 6 months ago
I feel sorry for everyone involved in this - especially the patient. Life must have been pretty grim for him to choose this future - or, lack of it.
Earonn - 6 months ago
Reading all these horror stories about people who try to commit s*****e just makes clear that we need an euthanasia program. It's similar to abortions: banning abortions doesn't end abortions, it just ends safe abortions. Banning euthanasia doesn't end s*****e, it just leads to all this suffering.
#28
Not my story but my SO was in training as a Nurse's Aide.
On her first internship, she was assigned to the ER at a trauma center.
The first person, on her first shift, of her first internship (of 3), was an older homeless man, complaining of his foot hurting.
After the medical staff took a quick look at the foot, they didn't initially see anything wrong, so they tried to remove his pants to examine the leg.
The pants didn't move. They were fused to his skin from the middle of the hip all the way down to his calf.
They had to surgically remove his jeans by basically cutting the skin around the point where it was fused, and the moment the scalpel made the first incision, she described it as "As if Slimer from Ghostbusters barfed out of his leg."
Apparently, there was enough gushing, green fluid, filled with maggots, that it covered the floor in the (small) examination room, and the nurse ran out of the room gagging.
After getting over the initial shock, they managed to peel a good amount of the skin off with the pant leg, and revealed that his lower leg had basically rotted all the way to the bone, and was full of maggots.
Apparently that's the moment when she knew she was meant for the job. Even the surgeon was having a pretty hard time keeping his composure, but she was fine. More fascinated than anything, and apparently not affected by bad smells as most people are.
They had to tell him his leg was going to be OK - he was severely mentally ill and might have freaked the hell out - despite knowing he could die from the infection.
Apparently he survived and they managed to save the leg, which is beyond incredible.
Marilyn Holt 6 months ago
Honestly I don't know how nurses do the things they do. I have so much respect and gratitude for these men and women.
KieLeaHar 3 months ago
Most; not all 😉. Trust me on that Marilyn! Over a year in hospital you learn the GREAT nurses from the shítty, lazy ones!
Load More Replies... Billo66 6 months ago (edited)
I've read a couple of instances where a morbidly obese person couldn't stand anymore so they just sat, on the sofa, and never got up. Not to bathe, not to urinate or defecate. In both cases the fabric of the couch and their skin had fused so they had to cut them off the couch before transport. They both died of sepsis. Makes me wonder who kept feeding them and why, medical intervention was obviously needed way way sooner.
Debby Keir 6 months ago
Those who feed in these circumstances are called 'enablers' in medical parlance. If you put the food out of their reach (or only serve salads), they'd find a way to get up somehow or other.
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Dread Pirate Roberts 6 months ago
Idk how medical professionals do it 🤢 I wouldn't be able to eat for a week after seeing/smelling a horror show like that!
SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago (edited)
I'm grateful that they saved his leg ... I've known 'stories', stories as in ' because I wasnt there firsthand', a few yes I was there firsthand but not all, very similar to this during my time in the homeless shelters I was in. ... Again, the homeless deserve to be seen and treated free. Forget politics etc. F*ck all that. I knew one guy and found a working phone box, phoned for an ambulance, went in the ambulance with him. They had to cut his jeans off him. They were stuck to him, not as drastically as this case mentioned but bad enough. They cut off as much as they could. He was okay after but my gosh... As I've said? There needs to be more medical help for homeless people. Having to cut off or use warm compresses, whatever to get clothing off people that are stuck on should never EVER have to happen.
Sue User 6 months ago
And yet the misconseption that homeless go to ER for every little thing persists.
Load More Replies... #29
I'm a medical secretary for a podiatrist. I obviously didn't treat the patient myself, but I discussed his case with his doctor.
The patient had severe anxiety and therefore hadn't been to a doctor of any kind in approximately twenty years. He ended up in our office because his wife had called the day before and expressed that he needed to be seen due to a foot infection.
When he arrived, he approached the window and told the receptionist that he was sorry because his socks were dirty as he hadn't made it to the laundromat recently, which was a bit weird in and of itself, but we work for a podiatrist--we've seen it all before, as it were. He then sat in the waiting room, and it was mere moments before the smell seeped into the administration office.
The receptionist put him in an exam room as quickly as possible, and upon her return, she informed me that the infection was literally oozing out of his sneaker. All we could do was open the widows and apologize to other patients as they arrived. It was foul, and when I entered the room after his appointment to clean it (the medical assistant was out that day), I immediately began gagging and had to forcefully push my manager out of the way as to avoid vomiting on her on my way to the restroom.
As it turned out, the dude had had the infection for approximately three months, and had been showering with his sock on since he'd discovered it. He literally hadn't removed his sock from his infected foot in three months, and his wife had somehow been living with the overwhelming smell.
The doctor said it was the worst infection he'd ever seen, but the patient was so incredibly anxious that he got the standard, "I've seen it all before," throughout his appointment.
Andrew Keir 6 months ago
If any medic tells me they've "seen it all before", I now know enough to be scared. Very scared.
Sue User 6 months ago
Twice i have heard -" someone should do a paper on you".
Load More Replies... #30
Happened to me, not a medical professional. Friend of mine bought a house and I moved in with him to help fix it up, polish it and then maybe sell it. So we are in the backyard pulling weeds and c*****g down vines and I see this 4 inch diameter vine with fuzzy roots attached to the brick, climbed all the way up the wall. I'm not a particularly country boy, more urban, but my friend had warned me of p****n ivy in back of the house. I called him over and he said "oh don't worry, it doesn't grow that big".
He was wrong.
Less than a week later I'm covered, up and down both arms bad enough I look like a 3rd degree burn victim. It has gotten into my bloodstream and appeared on my legs, back, chest and even my feet (which all had been covered of course). I remember my GP looked at me with my shirt off and said in the most nonchalant voice "oh, that's not quite the WORST I've ever seen" with serious emphasis on the one word. It took me two weeks of steroids to even return to work and another two weeks to lose the last of the boils. I spent that time researching p****n ivy and I have to brag, I'm an expert on how to track down and m****r that f*****g plant. I hate p****n ivy.
Edit - People are asking me for tips on k*****g the stuff. Go to your local hardware store and they will sell a container of p****n ivy k****r. The stuff is good but if you use it as directed I can guarantee the stuff will return time and again to haunt you. The vine originates underground, not very deeply though. Dig around (while covered in protective clothing etc) and find the main trunk of the vine. Drill holes through the vine about half the diameter of the stalk and space them about 3-5 feet (1-2 meters) apart. Pour the p****n ivy k****r directly into the hole. Do not dilute it. Just pour it right in. Soak the vine well, maybe 50-100ml or 1/4 - 1/2 cup, depending on the size of the vine. This should do the trick. Of course it will need to be dug up and out but it ought to be pretty dead within a week. If that doesn't do it, repeat the process a second time. Also, do this when there is no rain forecasted. Good luck and k**l it dead!
Edit 2 - Also, it seems everyone either has a story about getting it all over and hating it (I'm so sorry for you!) or telling how they are immune to it. Fun fact about that, allergies change. You can be immune all your life and then one morning wake up allergic to just about anything. Funny story to illustrate this, I told someone about my p****n ivy situation once and she told me about her little brother who was apparently not allergic. He would play pranks by grabbing it and rubbing it all over himself to try to convince other people that it wasn't p****n ivy. He pulled the prank one day and had a wedding to attend two days later. He suddenly developed the allergy under the suit. Moral of the story, k**l the plant when you find it. Evil evil little b*****d...
Edit 3 - Last tip I just remembered. If you go out in the woods and suspect you are going to encounter p****n ivy etc at all, bring a can of spray deodorant with you. The aluminum chloride (I think that's the chemical) in it will neutralize the oil and prevent allergic attack. Otherwise scrub with soap and water within ten - fifteen minutes after exposure.
GenuineJen 6 months ago
DO NOT EVER BURN IT!! It can get into your lungs through smoke inhalation. I ended up with systemic poison ivy so bad that I had to go to the ER and get multiple steroid shots/ pills to try and get it under control. My arms, legs, and abdomen were basically just layers of oozing tissue where my skin had been. Poison ivy is diabolical.
Billo66 6 months ago
My dad and I were repairing fence around the farm when I was 15. Cleared the path we wanted and burned the brush pile. Yep, poison ivy in every conceivable place. Under my eyelids, in my lungs, everywhere. It didn't k**l me but it sure was uncomfortable. The only good thing is that very hot, high pressure water in the shower blasting at it. That is the most satisfying feeling in the world. I know it could spread the oils, just sayin it feels so good.
Load More Replies... Baghag 6 months ago
The first time I got it, it was fall and he poison ivy was brown and we thought dead. Wrong, you can have a reaction even when you think it’s dead.
Lorraine R 6 months ago
If you see something like a brown hairy snake growing on the bark of a tree, that's poison ivy too. No touchy.
Load More Replies... Huddo's sister 6 months ago
I'm so glad that poison ivy isn't native to Australia, and hasn't been found in my state (though some states have it, yet another thing brought to Australia by 'well meaning' settlers). I'm allergic to so many things, I'm sure I would be allergic to poison ivy as well.
GenuineJen 6 months ago
It's nice that Australia got a break from dangerous things in that regard.
Load More Replies... Upstaged75 6 months ago
I used to get poison ivy rashes all the time without ever touching it myself. Because the oil can get on the coat of animals - it doesn't affect them but can transfer to a human. In my case it was my horse who kept walking through a patch of it and then it would get on me. The only thing that helped is a product called Zanfel. If you ever get poison ivy/oak I highly recommend that stuff - it's a miracle.
Billo66 6 months ago
"Tecnu" is a very good poison plant healer/reliever. I worked for the Dept. of Conservation when I learned of it. 51f5YyL3Tk...3d2975.jpg 
GenuineJen 6 months ago
Filing this info away for, hopefully not, the future.
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Marguerite Barnett 6 months ago
Had a patient who used it as toilet paper while camping. i almost had to do a colostomy!
Heather Menard 6 months ago
I got it really bad one summer when I was nine or ten. Went swimming in a public pool chlorine cleared it right up
Maggie Fulton 6 months ago
I had a minor allergic reaction to poison ivy that started spreading ( not even remotely as bad as the poster). I was maybe 10 years old and a neighbor had kids cutting the vines down without saying what they were ( if he even knew). I was in shorts and fell onto a vine—the vine was pretty thick— and sap got all over the back of my knee. I sure hope that guy didn’t know what it was. Had to get some shots—steroids, maybe, I dunno.
Kate Johnson 5 months ago
Yeah, I was immune, too, up until a couple years ago when I got it on my left hand. My ring finger swelled up so much that I asked my husband to cut my engagement rings and wedding ring off so that the swelling wouldn't cause any harm to the finger. I saw no point in going to the ER just to have to pay for them to be cut off by people who would never be as careful with me as my husband would. After a few days it was down and much better. I'm so glad he knew exactly what to do, and he was so gentle that I didn't feel anything when he cut them. And we didn't have to pay anyone to do it! But that poison ivy was terrible and I never got it all my life... until I was 48!
#31
I used to do psychiatric evaluations in an emergency room setting. One time, I'm evaluating this 60 year old woman who is lying in the hospital bed. I'm asking her questions, and she stops me and says, "Excuse me, but I need to pass some gas." I let her know that this is a medical setting and that is a completely normal body function and not to be embarrassed. People pass gas all the time.
I was not prepared for what came next. She let it rip, and out came the loudest, wettest, and longest sounding fart I have ever heard. It was bubbly and juicy, hitting all the deep notes while ending on a squeaker. I don't think Satan could have made a noise like that with his a**s. It sounded so relieving, but then the smell hit me. It was bad enough that I started to gag and had to excuse myself from the room. When I came back I politely asked if she needed a nurse for anything in case she needed to be cleaned up after that, but she declined.
Obviously I've witnessed people farting before, but I've never heard or smelled anything like that before. That was something else.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
Could also be a result of extremely poor/weird/unstable diet. I moved back home last October after escaping a 24-year relationship and ate pretty poorly for a while (literally.. I had little money so I was basically subsisting on ramen, Rice-a-Roni, basically the cheapest stuff I could buy.) I have had some of the nastiest gas I've smelled in my life during this time period, and I used to have to help care for my mother during her IBS (diarrhea form) attacks, and also change my bedridden, brain-damaged dad's diapers XD (and he was on enteral nutrition - liquid only, poured into his feeding tube.)
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Blue Bunny of Happiness 6 months ago
The number of (usually older) people that fart/p*o/wet themselves when trying to stand up or start walking for the first time after surgery is huge. You just ignore farts unless the person mentions it and help clean them up with the other.
SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago (edited)
The hospital doctors put me on laxatives because I was "getting bunged up" (my term for it, it's not a medical term!) It was the night of 8 bedpans. Something was causing me to not poop as you would. But whoa... When I went? I went! Farted like a Mo Fo! One of the male nurses was married and I said to him, "Well, even if you weren't married? This has definitely killed any possibility of romance!" Thankfully he laughed! Then I said, "So long as my farts don't set off my heart monitor pads? We're all good I guess?"... As the nurse said that night? "Once you enter hospital, you've to leave your dignity at the door but we've seen it all before so don't worry about it"... Yes, you can definitely HUGELY fart and there ain't no shame in it 👍🙂
Pink kitty 6 months ago
I wonder if it was cabbage, cauliflower or broccoli (something like that) that she had previously eaten. They sure stink!! There is something in them that some people can't digest and it leads to bloating and gas
#32
I’m an RN who specializes in wound care. We see a lot of crazy things in my clinic. A common occurrence is a pilonidal cyst, which is an abnormal growth in you gluteal cleft (aka butt crack) that contains hair. It usually happens with younger ppl (say 13-20s) and is obviously very embarrassing to the patient. When we get them, they’ve already had the surgery to open and extract the cyst, so there’s a few holes left that we have to heal. One poor soul that came in had the worst post surgical “hole” I’ve ever seen. It was so big, it extended from the top of her crack to the top of her a**s, then our on either side about 12 centimeters. It was like the surgeon carved out most of her butt :( The patient was devastated, and I tried to comfort her by telling her she’s not the worst I’ve ever seen. Poor girl.
Mommy Panda 6 months ago (edited)
I've had this in my mid 20's. Went to my gp multiple times and he couldn't figure out what it was. After 1,5 years of excruciating pain every time I sat down I started doing medical research myself and figured out what it was. Went to ER and the doctor took one look and confirmed my suspicion. Was operated on 3 times in one year before it was finally gone. Every time the wound was big enough to put in a fist. Fortunately they did cut it exactly in the crack of my butt, so unless you'd spread my cheeks, there's nothing to see...
Rafael 6 months ago
Haha, to reuse what I said below regarding my brother, if someone reached that level of intimacy, I don't think the scar wouldn't bother them :-)
Load More Replies... Rafael 6 months ago
My brother had this, and I helped him care for it. It is very weird, looks like sliced ham where your butt should be. He made a full recovery, and unless someone spreads his cheeks, no one can tell. And, if someone reached a level of intimacy to be spreading his cheeks for any reason, I don't think the scar wouldn't bother them :-)
Brandi VanSteenwyk 6 months ago
Working in a ColoRectal Surgeon practice -- and they are the specialists on this diagnosis which will ultimately bring the best result of treatment -- I can say that unfortunately, Pilonidal Cysts are NOT an uncommon thing. When I learned of their existence, I immediately advised my teenagers (girls and boys) to speak up if they ever got a twingy discomfort at the top of their bu*t cracks. The sooner they are diagnosed and treated, before the bacterial sinus tracts can expand and multiply, the better chances of resolving without too much cutting.
Rafael 6 months ago (edited)
I think it is when you suspect that it might be, specially if it is indeed the case for the medical team. On the other hand, I was a dumb teenager once, and "not the worse I've ever seen" could be as well a challenge instead of reassurance :-)
Load More Replies... #33
I showed up to a house for a possible o******e. Three firefighters and a police officer were on top of a man who was prone and naked from the waist down. They immediately told my partner and I to restrain the patient to the gurney because the patient was combative. It turns out he took something thinking it was weed but turned out to be laced with something else (possibly PCP?). During his trip he attempted to cut his p***s off, but wasn’t successful. As fate would have it, I knew the patient personally and tried to comfort him on the way to the hospital. During the ride he became somewhat cognizant and was ashamed of himself. I tried to comfort him as I held his p***s in place. I would be lying if I said I had seen a severed p***s before.
#34
Not a medical profesional...
My husband was born with a pretty insane heart defect that all the doctors were in agreement shouldn't have worked and he certainly shouldn't have lived as long as he did. One called it a ticking time bomb. His heart had 2 chambers instead of the normal 4. He didn't have the big arteries that led from the heart to the lungs but a series of smaller ones.
I will never forget the first time I saw him take his shirt off and you could literally see his heart beating in his skinny chest. Literally, every beat.
At the age of 25, 3 years after we were married, the time bomb blew. 7 years later I very vividly remember his chest moving as his f****d up heart beat.
#35
I was working as a CNA in a nursing home. There was a lady who had been neglected before she came in so she had stage 4 bed sores (all the way to the bone) and the treatment nurse wanted me because I am calming and really good with the residents that needed a little support. She has me roll her on her side and then carefully peels back the bandage. I'm staring done in half horror/ half fascination as I can clearly see the bone, ligaments, muscle, layers of skin...
I'm gawking hard and the nurse is showing me some neat procedure when I hear a small, frail voice, "Is it getting better?" I turn on my biggest, friendliest smile and reply, "It does! It looks SO much better. Does it feel better?" She smiles and nods; I change the subject to grand kids (she had a picture of them).
I haven't seen anything like it before or since. But she was such a lovely lady and I started looking forward to helping because she was such a nice lady to talk to.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
Cripes. My heart hurts for patients like this lady. My dad was disabled and bedridden for 21 years after his accident (catastrophic brain damage) but we took care of him at home - never got a bed sore. It was incredibly draining (mentally, emotionally, and physically) to be a caregiver, so I'm not saying it's easy-peasy and a lot of people don't have family/family is unwilling to help/they can't afford quality care. It just sucks. My dad had to be put in a skilled nursing facility a few times (severe pneumonia bouts) and my mom had my sister or I still stay at his bedside 24/7. Sometimes when he was asleep I'd wander the hall around his room and talk with some of the other patients, most of whom were just parked out in the hall in their wheelchairs and left there, and never had any visitors :(
Auntriarch 6 months ago
I don't know how you did it. I've been looking after my dad for less than three days while my mother is in hospital, and he can do pretty much every thing he needs to in terms of personal care, I'm only "dad-sitting" really, but I'm feeling the strain. Hats off to you. And a big hug.
Load More Replies... SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago
I don't remember how long I was in my home alone for before being dramatically extracted by the specialist ambulance team, fire brigade, police etc but yes... My right butt cheek... I had bedsores. Not quite to the bone but a nurse described it as a "2p sized piece of flesh that's gone and it's deep". So I had to lay on my left side for weeks, bandages etc. Even when I was finally home I still had the district nurses come over to dress my various wounds. It wasn't just my posterior, but they showed me how to dress my own wounds on my ankles, legs and face with medical plasters and dressings. But my butt cheek still itches now, as I've replied before in this post....... I guess I'm just happy that I've still got a butt to scratch!
Roni Stone 6 months ago
For some reason this reminded me of a very lovely lady I met yesterday. She lives in the same building as me and we compared walkers ( as we used to compare shoes or hair styles : sigh ) She is three week from 92, the age at which her mother died. She clapped her hands and said, "Only three weeks and I can go!" She was so tired, but she was excited! Twenty years older than me, and I think of myself as old. And she was beautiful. Lovely. Few wrinkles, few "age spots". Her blue eyes alert and laughing. Her jacket sparkled in the sun from metallic thread the same color as her slacks, and she literally shone! She was waiting on the corner for her daughter to pick her up, and I was getting out of a Lyft after a trip to the pharmacy. We never exchanged names as neither one of us would remember. Our memories don't work like that any more. I hope she gets to go at 92. Yanno? She is too lovely to end up existing in misery and she's ready for the next adventure. --
Earonn - 6 months ago
I wonder if neglect that severe is due to mental illness on the carers' side, or if they feel too ashamed to ask for help because our society pretends that if you care for someone (be it your parent or your child) and you can't do it / feel overwhelmed, you must be a bad person.
#36
I am a surgical tech. I got called in on a Saturday for a lady who had an infection from a component separation. Basically they put a giant piece of mesh in you for hernias. I wasn’t prepared. When we lifted up her gown.... the smell wafted and I have never almost puked before until that moment. About 20 cm circle around her umbillicus was black and necrotic. It was absolutely awful. We basically removed the entirety of the necrotic tissue all the way down to the peritoneum. Just gray and black slimy mass of fat and skin. The worst part is that I had to measure the necrotic tissue and it requires me to lean in a little close to it. The surgeon was laughing because I was green when I got back to the surgical field. Then during that surgery another person who had the same procedure had come to the ER with an infection. AND THEN A THIRD! We stopped using the mesh because that’s what was getting infected.
Upstaged75 6 months ago
There are numerous lawsuits against the makers of that surgical mesh because it really messed people up!
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
My aunt had one of those kind of meshes put in for a hernia. She is morbidly obese, so the incision quite literally did not heal for FOUR YEARS. She was a former ER nurse herself so she was really on the ball with her own wound care and never got to the point of this patient in the story, but it was terrifying to see her (she worked for us at the time) and know that she was basically not healing, for four years straight, and any time her condition/health improved enough for them to attempt another suturing, the fat layers were so thick that they just.. wouldn't heal :(
#37
Worked in a heart procedure lab that helped try to get rid of bad heart rhythms. A prisoner came in for a last ditch effort to help his failing heart and had developed a condition called Ventricular Tachycardia. Setting the patient up and looking at his rhythm / heart, it looked pretty bad.
Before we got started he grabbed me on the arm and said "I'm scared. Is it going to be okay?"
"We have very talented physicians here sir, and they do this all the time."
The Ventricular Tachycardia was set off during the procedure and deteriorated into Ventricular Fibrillation. We were able to resuscitate him, but he never woke back up.
Comfort your patients folks.
setsuriseikou 6 months ago
Do comfort us, please! Even if I die, I'd rather die full of hope than despair
Lil be lil 6 months ago
This post makes me really think.....Self care, that's something we can and should do for ourselves. And comfort others too that's everything.
Load More Replies... Jane Hower 6 months ago
D**n, that means he was a ward of the state for care until he died - what a waste of money.
#38
I'm the patient here and the nurses didn't even try to say they had seen it before but it still fits. When I was getting treated for cancer I got a really bad case of pneumonia and had to be intubated and put into like a semi-coma type deal (I don't remember anything that happened in those six days but I was apparently made sober enough to open my eyes for visitors every day so I don't know if that counts as a coma). It was some pretty serious pneumonia because it was like less than two days between my first cough and them making the call that I would need to be intubated to stop me from drowning in my own fluids, so they didn't mess around and gave me a ton of antibiotics. You know how some hospital beds have a track along the ceiling that they can hang IV bags from? I had enough antibiotics hanging from mine that it broke and fell to the floor (again, no memory of this).
But the thing that was truly unprecedented occurred when they were changing out my butt-bag (I don't fully understand what it was but they had something on or under my butt that collected all my bowel movements, they put it on after I was heavily sedated, and removed it before I was totally awake so I don't really remember it). For anyone who doesn't know, antibiotics can cause a lot of diarrhea. Apparently when they rolled me on my side that day I let loose a fire-hose of liquid s**t that arched through the air across the room and splattered all over the door and window which were about twelve feet away from my bed. I think it's super cool and funny so they didn't have to pretend like it was normal to comfort me.
Norm Gilmore 6 months ago
After reading these stories Nurses are not paid anywhere near enough...
Chicken Mitten 6 months ago (edited)
Yet there are plenty of caregivers of elderly parents who do this on a daily basis without pay or assistance. God bless them all.
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#39
Crowbar stuck in a patient's head sideways (curved end in brain and bar across his face). Elderly man who was attacked in his home during a robbery. He was "alive" on arrival in ER but died several days later despite an heroic effort by neurosurgery to remove the bar. Too much brain damage. Never encountered any relatives as my only contact was in ER. One of the most vivid and disturbing episodes in my career. This was about 25 yrs ago but the image is burned in my memory.
The assaulter was caught and charged with second degree murder (Canada). Pretty straight forward conviction. F*cker.
Rafael 6 months ago
Fúcker. Yes, I know it is pretty obvious because they self-censored on the original post, I just wanted to reinforce the sentiment, and add "rot in héll" as well for good measure.
Delicate Fcuking Flower 6 months ago
I would like to contribute "rat bàstard" in to the sentiments, if I may be so bold
Load More Replies... #40
Medical student here. Had a first-time mother who was having difficulty nursing because her nipples were chafing pretty bad from the baby teething/constant moisture to the area. Before showing me and her Ob/Gyn the problem, she apologized that I had to see it probably because I'm male but I told her I've seen plenty before, especially in the ER.
While not the worst thing I've seen (gunshot to the head takes the cake), I don't think I've seen skin so badly chafed before and it looked like she might have had the beginnings of mastitis on one of her breasts since it was red, warm, and very tender. The nipples themselves just looked raw and extremely painful.
Rafael 6 months ago
Every man needs be educated on things like this in high school, so we can learn to value what women go through.
Andrew Keir 6 months ago
No man will ever quite understand , but we can try to reduce the ignorance a bit.
Load More Replies... Rafael 6 months ago
Nípple shields got us through four months of breastfeeding. Not as much as we hoped for, but way more than we expected after the struggle of the first week.
Load More Replies... Roni Stone 6 months ago
So so many things men (and even a lot of women) don't know about pregnancy, childbirth, and post-natal issues.
Lou Cam 6 months ago
I had this with my first kid because she couldn't latch properly. It was so bad my daughter was peeing red because all she was getting out of me was blood. I stopped after 2 weeks of trying. Took months to repair the damage to my nips. Also got bullied by a maternity nurse for "giving up". OK then.
Jane Hower 6 months ago
My babies first attempt, with no teeth mind you, he bit the hell out of my nip causing it to bleed. So a nurse sprayed my tit area with a sticky borwn substance that was to stop pain and toughen or protect the skin. THEN she put on a glass thing with a n****e so the baby could suck on it and pull milk from my tit. Worked - but then the glass thing couldn't come off as it had adhered to my areola due to the sticky brown spray stuff. OMG. OMG OMG
#41
We had a patient in the ER who was sick of her visual hallucinations so she scooped her eyeballs out. She looked like something out of Hellraiser and unfortunately did not fix her hallucinations.
Another patient came in with a colostomy and ran out of his equipment so he duct taped a trash bag to it. It had several pounds of feces in it.
SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago (edited)
Oh fricken hell... I've never talked about this before except with my best friend but when I was first in hospital on the emergency ward? I... There was this woman in the bed next to me and she did scoop her own eyeball out and threw it at me as the emergency team were taking her out somewhere else... It splatted against my chest and fell onto my lap. I said in a quick rush of words, "Sorry excuse me but would you like your eyeball back?"... I was on some pretty d**n strong painkillers at the time but yes, it did happen. A few nurses confirmed it after. We've all been reading some pretty gosh darn disturbing life stories but having a ripped out eyeball flung at you? I definitely did not have that on my 2020 bingo card...
#42
I’m a surgeon.
A couple of years ago they send us this guy (52 yes old) that had shown up in the ER because he allegedly hadn’t pooped in a week or so.
To make a long story short X-ray showed he had SOMETHING lodged in his r****m (and sigma, and descending colon... so way up there) that was a little over a foot long.
He denied having put anything up there. Yeah, right.
We try to go from the bottom up and nothing. We see something but we can’t clamp onto it.
So. What now.
Operating room.
Ended up opening him up, and inside the colon we see a hand. I just about s**t myself, ended up being a mannequin’s arm. Like store mannequin. It was stuck up there up to the elbow.
That was an odd one.
Rafael 6 months ago
You know what? Even if it is a freak accident of some sort, I think it is best just to say "kinký stuff gone wrong" and be done with it. Everyone will think this, even if it was a one in a billion freak accident, so why not cut to the chase?
GenuineJen 6 months ago
Actually, that's not the case. *I* wouldn't have thought that. But NOW I will! Lol.
Load More Replies... Beth Wheeler 6 months ago
I'm a medical scheduler and used to work in a hospital Urology clinic. I had to read the notes on this d*****s man to see which Resident had seen him for a catheter to come have it removed. Idiot decided to try some d***s and put a zucchini up his butt. The ER couldn't get it out so they call Labor & Delivery to bring the suction they have to use sometimes, didn't work. They had to cut him stem to stern to get it out. I was laughing so hard I was crying. If I was his wife I would have kicked him out and divorced his stupid a*s.
SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago
After reading loads of these types of reports/stories over the years?.... It's never a case of "I slipped and fell onto it!!" Just be honest! If you're honest about it? The quicker they can get whatever object out 👍🙂
#43
My aunt started her nursing career in a county hospital, which means you get all the homeless folks. A guy came in with the whole of the back of his leg and butt utterly and very deeply infested with maggots. He just "hadn't gotten around to" coming in earlier, he said.
The depressing thing is that while it was a first for my aunt, it was by no means the last. Apparently it's more common than you'd think.
Debby Keir 6 months ago
I trained at the 'old' Charing Cross hospital in the Strand in London. We got the 'down and outs' from the Thames embankment, right alongside all the actors and theatregoers from the West End. Nightingale wards (ie 20+ beds side by side) so Lord X was next to Stinky Steve (well he didn't stink once we'd bathed him) As an aside, you could see Nelson's column in Trafalgar square from our theatre suites.
Marlene Ricker 6 months ago
These stories about the homeless coming in with maggot infested wounds just point out the fact that we have to do more to take care of the homeless!
Panda Cat 6 months ago
Oh hey! You know about the felon’s Big, Beautiful Bill that’s supposed to push anyone in the US- except the felon and his colleagues in grift- into that economic state, right? It’s fun that the Uber Christian Speaker of the House Mike Johnson eagerly embraces it. (I’m having a very difficult time reading the news lately.)
Load More Replies... #44
Obligatory not a medical professional, but a first aider. I was doing a duty at the finish line of the London marathon as I have done for many years. I've seen enough chafing, dehydration and blisters galore. Someone always has the worst of the day but it happens so fast that you can hardly mentally tally who's nipples were the most raw....
Until I had a runner come in covered in blood complaining that her nipples had completely gone. She had chafed so bad that her nipples and areolas were rubbed to nothing... And the worst part was that she had her nipples pierced and the piercings had EMBEDDED THEMSELVES IN HER EXPOSED BREAST TISSUE.
I had to talk her through sterilising the wounds while trying to assure her that 'it happens to everyone'. The image of a n****e bar peeking out of red, raw breast tissue will haunt me.
Svenne O'Lotta 6 months ago
Why is it not standard to put on some pasties or at least some tape on the nip nops?
Huddo's sister 6 months ago
What was she wearing that could cause that much chafing in one marathon? Presumably not a bra that held the breasts well.
Debby Keir 6 months ago
N****e rub is a real thing for any long distance runner.
Load More Replies... #45
Not a professional but I do medical research so closely related. One of my patients (alcohol detox clinic) had stored a mickey of whiskey up his a*s. It broke off inside his a*s and cut him deep. Blood absolutely everywhere. Had to tell him it wasn't the first time it has happened. It definitely was the first time it happened.
SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago
Erm... Flippant reply but? Exactly how big are some peoples posterior openings? I have a hard enough time with things going out, I've never wanted anything going in!!! But in seriousness, yes, I've heard of this before in the various support places I've worked . Taking alcohol into your system via up your posterior, same with certain narcotics. It's incredibly dangerous and can k**l you.
Panda Cat 6 months ago
I don’t think they were dosing themselves via their lower GI tract but were using it as storage. It would have been a lot safer if they used a plastic bottle, although still not a good idea. A while ago, I read an memoir of a physician who became a Colorado prisón doc, and he mentioned that, because of the size and ability to carry a large number of items, the lower GI tract of gay men was called a “vault.” The ability to insert and carry items isn’t the exclusive purview of gay men but they were likely to be experienced in anál play, more so than the general prison population. WRT narcotics, people have swallowed or inserted bags, a dåmned dangerous practice.
Load More Replies... #46
Had a guy that shot himself under the chin with a shotgun. He had actually done it like 16 hours prior to family finding him. He was still alive, conscious and alert to what was going on.
His jaw looked like predator.
I had family freaking out of course. Had to tell them we see worse often. Which may be true, but they are usually dead.
He lived for almost a day after shooting himself, then died in the back of my ambulance.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
Gods. I've done two serious attempts but they were OD-type. It's possible to purchase a gun in my state (California, it's legal but we're not exactly a YEEHAW GUNS state) but the stories I've heard about failed gun suìcides are terrifying. Plus I'm a coward and I don't want to leave a huge mess for other people to clean up :(
Nicola Mawson 6 months ago
I hear you. Hang in there. If you're still considerate enough to not use a gun, you still love people. Please think about that
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Roni Stone 6 months ago
My former coworker's stepson tried an under the chin. He lived, but it blew his features off. He still has sight in one eye, but she said in the months after his attempt, that he wished he'd lost both eyes. He was 23 at the time and it still makes me cry three decades later.
#47
Yep. Had a patient who was 62 and he had never seen a dentist before (I am a dentist). Had literally everything going on orally (especially the smell OMG, the smell). Me and the assistant were like: don’t worry we see this kind of stuff all the time!” ... not a lie. Just never all at once.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
I have always been grateful that my parents were able to afford dental care for me when I was a child and also that I had a fantastic pediatric dentist. I have no fear/anxiety about going to the dentist. My mom and my ex both do - my ex literally needs to take Valium sometimes before an appt because he has so much anxiety. I can only imagine how much it must suck for people who have anxiety about going to a dentist :(
Sylvia Baker 6 months ago
Ah yes, the dentist... when I was 15 we left the city for a small town. The whole family went to the dentist for checkups etc and unfortunately I had a cavity. He did not freeze you... instead he would hypnotize you. I apparently cannot be hypnotized and he became angry at me when he screamed from the drill. Good times.
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#48
In dental school, I had an emergency patient come in, complaining of sore gums. Upon examination, I found a massive calculus bridge (google it for pictures) behind her lower front teeth. She only had about 3 remaining lower teeth, but they were all connected with a whitish brown mineral deposit that was about the size of a golf ball. She had never had her teeth cleaned and she was probably 55 or so.
I basically performed an emergency cleaning. She could speak so much better afterwords. Of course I had to play it off like it was normal, but in my years of practice I still haven’t seen a case that bad again. Get your teeth cleaned people. Even if you can’t afford every 6 months, once a year, or every other year is a hell of a lot better than never.
Upstaged75 6 months ago
Wow. She must not have brushed or flossed either. I've gone years without dental visits (thanks US healthcare system!) and my teeth were still perfect. Of course I had extremely good care as a kid because my parents were obsessive about it. My dad grew up without regular access and couldn't afford braces until he was in law school. His teeth were totally jacked up by then.
TheElderNom 6 months ago
People also have different teeth and mouths. Even if they do everything right they might still have issues another person wouldn't get with minimal dental care. Not saying it's what happened here but it is a thing to keep in mind.
Load More Replies... Holly Herr 6 months ago
In case you’re wondering. https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyeyelife.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F06%2Fcalculus-removal-before-and-after.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=84ad5245b310270ba0642b36fba530cb42dca50462d5596321dfc3728c6a97bd
Sue User 6 months ago
Look for dental school. Free ckeaning but takes couple hours. They do exam, stop and discuss with teacher. On the plus side, they are being graded so ever do nice and gentle too.
Load More Replies... #49
Not a medical professional, but a story about my father.
After years of a blood disease, his spleen had to be removed as it had swollen to a size that made breathing difficult. Apparently the surgeon had a photo taken, post extraction, where he is cradling my dad's ~22.0 lb spleen.
To top it off, one day into recovery, when doing on of those "gentle push on the abdomen" type exams on him, my dad's sutures catastrophically failed and he let loose a spray that coated the doctor, his nurse, and a good portion of the ceiling. Luckily for dad, the hospital staff was on point that day and kept him alive despite his body's best effort.
I heard all of this from the doctor while he was removing the line of staples (that went from c****h to sternum) some weeks later.
Dad didn't like to share, apparently.
Claire Collymore 6 months ago
Thank you again. Letting me know the censored word makes reading these so much easier.
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#50
Not even close to a medical professional but my Aunt is a nurse and told me about a guy who came in coughing up blood and maggots and it turned out to be some worms he got from eating something that ate through his stomach lining into his esophogaus and were in his throat.
Debby Keir 6 months ago
I think he would have been dead once they 'ate through his stomach' even before they migrated to his oesophagus and ate through that to his throat.
Ahnjunwan 6 months ago
I think so,too. I have trouble understanding this post, though but the way i picture it, it would have caused a quite massive GI bleeding apart from the fact that i can not really imagine how that would be even possible that worms are in the stomach and still alive. Weird story
Load More Replies... #51
ER RN here. So, so many:
1) vaginal discharge the color and consistency of guacamole stuck on a speculum post-pelvic exam. The patient’s husband had recently been released from a period of federal incarceration.
2) The first time you smell a really funky, long-term GI bleed (bleeding into the intestines, usually the colon). P*o + blood = murder most foul. And the patient is sometimes a sweet, incredibly sick little granny watching us gag as we clean her up, apologizing for the smell, and we have to just say, from behind the peppermint oil-soaked mask, “oh sweetie, it’s okay, we do this all the time...”
3) Dead, sloughed intestinal lining. Another smell that will haunt your daymares.
But the winner winner chicken dinner in the “No, no... it’s not that bad... I’ve seen worse...” category was the homeless dude who came in complaining of blood in his urine. He wasn’t able to pee more than a few drops at a time, so we used a little ultrasound machine to see how much urine was in his bladder. More than 1000ml... you just bought a catheter sir. I tasked one of our male patient care techs with the job and had barely gotten back to the desk when he came running out yelling, “I need some HELP! Grab gloves!”
I lifted the gown covering this guy’s junk and grab the p***s to help...
MAGGOTS. IN. THE URETHRA.
And he was pissed off that we removed them because, “...in the Corps in ‘Nam, they teach ya to eat yer maggots! That’s free protein, dammit!”.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
I wish my dad were still alive, I'd ask him if they made you "eat your maggots" in the Air Force while he was serving in Vietnam.. :x
Just off the Goat 5 months ago
Umm Not really! I did 2 tours in Nam as a Sergeant in the Marines. Young Marines hear a lot of hyper-boil and and some young Marines would fall for these expressions. It's part of the making the Corps seem invincible. Some Marine recruits believed these stories like, "we are trained to eat our maggots!" Haha! Absolutely false from my experience.
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#52
A patient with rectal cancer with an exposed colon and r****m. I could see her tailbone and and the head of the femur. And whenever she would poop, it could collect inside this open cavity and had to be flushed out.
Sara Frazer 6 months ago
Personally speaking if I ever got to this point I'd rather just die. Holy heck.
#53
Orthopedic Xray tech here. And literally almost every day. People coming in with gangrene on their feet because they’re diabetic and can’t take care of themselves, so the doctors want to see how deep the tissue damage goes. Or people who have been shot and still have the bullets inside them.
Just off the Goat 5 months ago
Some of these gun shot wounded folks are afraid to go to any hospital b/c they are "wanted by the police," and cops monitor emergency rooms hoping to nab some of these folks.
Load More Replies... #54
I was an intern (final year of med school in Germany) at the department of Urology at a huge hospital.
An older man (65 years) came into the ER, I was the intern in charge that day. So basically you could just have a look at him and tell that something was very, very wrong.
He stuttered that his wife was absent so he took some time to watch ''some videos of a certain s**y type online that inspired him''. Internally I started screaming, but on the outside I just nodded and acted like it was something I heard routinely. He proceeded to explain to me he had seen a video of someone putting a metal rod up his urethra and tried the same. But he used too much lube and it slipped inside. I remember stopping breathing for a second. He was just so embarrassed that I told him that this happens sometimes and we had seen it before. Well, no. Stuff up the butt, yeah, we see that. But this was a first. I pulled up the ultrasound machine hoping this was just a training situation by my attending to prank me, but nope, there was a glorious 10 cm long pen inside this man's bladder.
So he had hoped to have it extracted magically at the ER and then to go home. Well, he had to have surgery and stay overnight, his wife eventually found out. I kept the picture of the ultrasound as a souvenir and this memory as a great story to tell friends when they ask how my ''routine life'' is going as a (now) doctor.
Debby Keir 6 months ago
It's called Urethral Sounding, and not that uncommon - however, always advise that they ensure there's some kind of handle or pull ring at the end.
#55
A patient had an abscess on his arm about the size of a softball that had burst and was rotting and necrotic, he had also been sitting in a pool of his own s**t p**s and vomit for 3 weeks. The smell was so bad it fogged up my glasses but I told him I'd smelled worse things so he didn't feel uncomfortable, and agreed to go to the hospital with us.
#56
Not me, but my dad had serious health issues last year. Alot of pain and so on.
He had back problem 20 years ago and also two surgery back then. So we all and his doc thought it was his back.
His sister then took him to the hospital, where they diagnosed cancer in his blader since around 10 years.
This cancer took all his blood, they said they never seen anybody with that less blood.
It was only 26% blood in him, normal people fall in coma at around 40%...
Its a wonder he is still alive... And a lot better!
Go check yourself regularly!
CF 6 months ago
Normal people do not fall in a coma at 40%.. I'd venture to guess that wouldn't happen even at 10 or 12%, as long as it wasn't abrupt loss. I routinely see geriatric end stage kidney failure cats still cruising along at 17%- not feeling like a kitten, but nowhere near a coma. I'm sure OP has no science or medical background and just misunderstood.
Andrew Keir 6 months ago
Get a medic to do those checks - well-meaning friends / Dr Google just don't hack it ...
#57
Doc here, currently working with accident victims.
I had a patient once hobble in (walking in is key later) a week after being hit by a car. He'd been to the ER, they discharged him and said just the usual bumps and bruises.
I did my round of X rays, and his femoral heads were broken on both sides. Think of the leg bone as a capital L, with the bottom of the L hooking into the hip- his were cleanly broken through the bottom sections on both sides.
Turns out he'd had occult fractures on both sides the X rays didn't initially see, and walking on them collapsed them. Never seen that before.
Another was a patient with shoulder injury, both sides. Got an MRI, and both shoulders were basically destroyed. Complete failure of the rotator cuff on both sides, with the humerus being drawn up and back on each side. Instant surgery.
#58
Whenever I do something for the first few times in my career (only ethical stuff I feel confident with), I will self-deprecate and “jokingly” and playfully say things like “once I finish this procedure, they’ll let me pass med school finally... it’s only been 20 years!” Or I’ll ask them how they are feeling and if I have good rapport I’ll say things like “thank God! Cause I’m freaking out, you’re my first patient!” The laugh usually breaks the ice and keeps me on task. It’s served me well thus far.
I examined a woman’s knee last week and after about 5mins, I said, “Well... you definitely should talk to a doctor about this!” I am aware I will get sued one day...
Uncle Schmickle 6 months ago
Great sense of humour that the patients should appreciate. I sure would.
Andrew Keir 6 months ago
I suspect that GSoH is a necessary condition for success as a medic. You have my respect, people !
Load More Replies... #59
Had a patient who had a melanoma the size of a cauliflower head on the back of her ankle. Melanoma doesn’t generally grow like that, maybe it was the “ozone injections” she’d gone to another country for?
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
OP said that the melanoma had massively metastasized and unfortunately she did not survive :( The "ozone treatments" likely did not CAUSE the melanoma, but she had made it worse/grow weirdly/cause herself more pain by pursuing that "treatment" instead of having the melanoma looked at/treated with actual medical care.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
It's complete BS pseudoscience: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_therapy
Load More Replies... Ahnjunwan 6 months ago
Never heard of ozone treatment, is that some american snake oil thing? In general, if something on your skin is growing and does not disapear in a reasonable time, have it checked. Most likely it is nothing but sometimes it is and you better have it treated early, melanomas do not have a very good prognosis
Lady Eowyn 6 months ago
It's an anyplace snake oil thing, not just American.
Load More Replies... #60
Not a medical professional but had a nurse tell me she had "never seen anything like that before" when my baby's cannula came out during an overnight stay due to chickenpox and we woke up in a rather large puddle of his blood. Somehow the thing came unscrewed but the tube stayed put keeping his vein open. Nurse was visibly freaked out by it. Pretty unpleasant memory.
Andrew Keir 6 months ago
Nurse mis-spoke - "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all"
#61
I was the patient. In middle school I somehow coughed so hard it tore a small hole in my lung. Everyone assured me it was more common then you would think, and that it's actually not to hard to fix.
I believed them until they asked if the med students could observe. Well of course!
About 30 of them filed in, lined up, and took turns squeezing my neck (where the escaped air ended up settling), and going "hmmm" "well would you look at that" and "oh my".
After they left I told my doctor "You know, for how common this apparently is, all those students seemed pretty interested in it." He replied with a half guilty grin and a nod, like yeah bud I caught you but can't really blame you for trying to calm me down.
Andrew Keir 6 months ago
Patients should have a code for "got you that time" - maybe just a smiling "Nice try!"
#62
Saw a surgeon one time seriously screw up what I can only assume was intended to be a hernia surgery using abdominal mesh. By the time the guy came to clinic his stomach looked like a shuttlecock (not on the inside... he was just walking around like that).
#63
Honestly? It was usually when an alert, oriented person pooped themselves.
Could have filled the bed and be running onto the floor, you still maintain that "No, no, don't worry, we do this every day, now let's just get you clean, all right? :)" facade.
Andrew Keir 6 months ago
It does help. Since the age of around 2, we've been surrounded with "P**p and p*ss are bad, you're bad for letting them become public" but it takes a while to realise that hospital (and medical treatment areas generally) may become exceptions.
#64
I have a story that is, like, the opposite of this. I used to get really bad ear wax buildup, so occasionally it would get enough that I'd go and get them cleaned out at my local clinic. The poor guy who was stuck doing it for me, really young-looking so probably still a student, at one point says under his breath, "God, this is so gross."
Edit: Less related, but I remembered another story involving this guy. I went in once and they needed to do a strep test. I have a really strong gag reflex, so I warned him about it before he did the test. Dude looks me dead in the eyes and says, "You're not going to gag.".
Andrew Keir 6 months ago
If you heard the comment, did you really need the ear-wax-ectpmy ? ;-)
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Forrest Grump 6 months ago (edited)
I was working as a nurse in a hospital. One time I had a diabetic patient with a very serious infected wound in his foot. The patient really needed surgery but was stubbornly refusing it. So he was getting IV antibiotics. The patient actually said "I'll get surgery when my toes start falling off." One night I went into his room to do a scheduled dressing change. As I was peeling the dressing material off his foot, one of his toes came off with it. He went to surgery the next morning and ended up with a BKA (below-knee amputation).
KieLeaHar 3 months ago
When both of my feet and my legs partially went gangrene, my mum was changing my dressings and my pinky toe snapped off one day.. my mum SCREAMED AND SCREAMED and my father just walked in and casually goes ‘it’s just a toe, throw it in the bin’… so, so calmly.. 🤷♀️.
Load More Replies... Forrest Grump 6 months ago
I started my healthcare career as an EMT with a city ambulance service. One of the first calls I went on while training was for a motorcyclist who had somehow gone off the road and hit a metal fence. We parked the ambulance about 30 feet from the patient, which was as close as we could get it to him. I stepped out of the ambulance and immediately tripped over the patient's leg.
Panda Bear 6 months ago
I was one of those holy shït moments for doctors. I had cancer as a young child and managed to get chickenpox from an unvaccinated kid. Having both cancer and chickenpox at the same time caused my potassium to drop to nearly zero. When I got to the hospital the doctors said I should either be dead or in a coma. I was neither. I had to spend a decent amount of time in the PICU but I was fine in the end.
CatD 6 months ago
I ended up back in the hospital several times after a lithotripsy because my kidney just started shedding potassium, and I had to get treated for it. I just drink apple juice all the time now, and take vitamins.
Load More Replies...
Bored Potato 6 months ago
In hindsight, eating yogurt and scrolling through these at the same time wasn't the best of ideas...
TheElderNom 6 months ago (edited)
Not even nearly as traumatic as the stuff here but the second time I broke my ankle it was very broken. I later found out both bones were broken and had jumped off their positions. Not poking out of the skin though. I didn't call 112 myself but talked to them on the phone and no ambulance was available. A kind woman drove me to the ER and got a wheelchair for me. I would have to wait a while but that was OK, it didn't hurt much and I got help to put it in an elevated position. After an hour I asked a passing nurse to help me get my boot off as the swelling did hurt a bit. He looked at my ankle after getting the boot off and told me to sit tight and he'd go for help. Then I got xrayed and my bones put back in place very quickly. Though I was told I'd need surgery. I also needed a second bones put back in place session since they slid out of place again. I'm guessing my tolerance for broken bones pain is fairly high since it honestly didn't hurt much as long as I didn't put weight on it. The first time I broke a bone I thought it was just a bad sprain.
SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago
This post is why EMTs, first responders, all nurses, doctors etc deserve more than medals, loads more. During my time in hospital I saw some pretty horrific things. I've shared a few but witnessing someone die in the opposite hospital bed from me... I still remember her name... The time and date she died... These types of things can stay with you. How they manage to do it? Day after day? They're True Heroes. Brave, Resilient Absolute Heroes... And I will NOT hear another word otherwise. They are NOT "exaggerating". If you claim they are? Be thankful that you've never witnessed anything such as these in this post firsthand.
Forrest Grump 6 months ago (edited)
I was working as a nurse in a hospital. One time I had a diabetic patient with a very serious infected wound in his foot. The patient really needed surgery but was stubbornly refusing it. So he was getting IV antibiotics. The patient actually said "I'll get surgery when my toes start falling off." One night I went into his room to do a scheduled dressing change. As I was peeling the dressing material off his foot, one of his toes came off with it. He went to surgery the next morning and ended up with a BKA (below-knee amputation).
KieLeaHar 3 months ago
When both of my feet and my legs partially went gangrene, my mum was changing my dressings and my pinky toe snapped off one day.. my mum SCREAMED AND SCREAMED and my father just walked in and casually goes ‘it’s just a toe, throw it in the bin’… so, so calmly.. 🤷♀️.
Load More Replies... Forrest Grump 6 months ago
I started my healthcare career as an EMT with a city ambulance service. One of the first calls I went on while training was for a motorcyclist who had somehow gone off the road and hit a metal fence. We parked the ambulance about 30 feet from the patient, which was as close as we could get it to him. I stepped out of the ambulance and immediately tripped over the patient's leg.
Panda Bear 6 months ago
I was one of those holy shït moments for doctors. I had cancer as a young child and managed to get chickenpox from an unvaccinated kid. Having both cancer and chickenpox at the same time caused my potassium to drop to nearly zero. When I got to the hospital the doctors said I should either be dead or in a coma. I was neither. I had to spend a decent amount of time in the PICU but I was fine in the end.
CatD 6 months ago
I ended up back in the hospital several times after a lithotripsy because my kidney just started shedding potassium, and I had to get treated for it. I just drink apple juice all the time now, and take vitamins.
Load More Replies... Bored Potato 6 months ago
In hindsight, eating yogurt and scrolling through these at the same time wasn't the best of ideas...
TheElderNom 6 months ago (edited)
Not even nearly as traumatic as the stuff here but the second time I broke my ankle it was very broken. I later found out both bones were broken and had jumped off their positions. Not poking out of the skin though. I didn't call 112 myself but talked to them on the phone and no ambulance was available. A kind woman drove me to the ER and got a wheelchair for me. I would have to wait a while but that was OK, it didn't hurt much and I got help to put it in an elevated position. After an hour I asked a passing nurse to help me get my boot off as the swelling did hurt a bit. He looked at my ankle after getting the boot off and told me to sit tight and he'd go for help. Then I got xrayed and my bones put back in place very quickly. Though I was told I'd need surgery. I also needed a second bones put back in place session since they slid out of place again. I'm guessing my tolerance for broken bones pain is fairly high since it honestly didn't hurt much as long as I didn't put weight on it. The first time I broke a bone I thought it was just a bad sprain.
SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago
This post is why EMTs, first responders, all nurses, doctors etc deserve more than medals, loads more. During my time in hospital I saw some pretty horrific things. I've shared a few but witnessing someone die in the opposite hospital bed from me... I still remember her name... The time and date she died... These types of things can stay with you. How they manage to do it? Day after day? They're True Heroes. Brave, Resilient Absolute Heroes... And I will NOT hear another word otherwise. They are NOT "exaggerating". If you claim they are? Be thankful that you've never witnessed anything such as these in this post firsthand.
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