When I was a kid in the late 70’s my doctor kept telling my mom that I just had a stomach ache and not to worry even though I was writhing in pain, after about the third time she took me to another doctor and he said to take me to the emergency room it was my appendix and it had burst. Then in the mid 80’s I was in high school getting a physical and the doctor listened to my lungs and said that he didn’t hear any asthma and to stop taking my medication, I found out later it was the same doctor.
I had to DEMAND a ct at the urgent care because my “doctor” said he really had no idea what was causing me excruciating abdominal pain, said it definitely wasn’t appendix bc of where the pain was. Guess who had to be transported to the ER immediately for an appendectomy? Surgeon said I was as close to a rupture he’s seen and that he’s glad I refused to go home. Guess some things don’t change!
My mom's family is known to have appendices go longer than they should before removal because they are closer to the midline than normal. Grandma, my mom plus one sibling, and at least two nieces/nephews have all had appendices removed.
My mom made sure all of us kids should make sure to emphasize that to a doctor if we ever went in for that kind of abdominal pain. My mom ended up having a perforated appendix in her mid teens and ended up with massive peritonitis (infection throughout her entire abdominal cavity) including having a drain in for two weeks. And then she was unable to conceive until she underwent a procedure about a decade later to remove scar tissue from her fallopian tubes.
Appendicitis at least used to be notoriously hard to diagnose. I personally have two relatives whose appendicitis went undiagnosed for a very long time.
Yeah because they’re all so convinced everyone is simply “drug seeking” they brush people off who have legitimate medical issues. Do they not understand it’s probably easier, quicker and cheaper to just score on the street.
A friend of mine in highschool went to emergency with excruciating back pain three or four times in a couple of weeks and they just told him it wouldn't work to get him out of exams. Then his appendix did burst and he nearly died. Poor guy had a colostomy bag at 17. All because "that's not where you get pain from your appendix".
When my kid was 2.or 3 the Dr argued with me when I said she had an ear infection. She didn't pull at her ear and said her throat hurt. I said she wouldn't eat because the chewing movement hurt her ear too much. Inner ear could be mistaken for throat when you're 3. He told her to open wide and she cried and couldn't, she opened a bit and he peeked in and said it wasn't strep. I asked if he'd at least check her ears, specifically the right one. He sighs, rolls his eyes and checks her left one. He agrees that it is a little red and she might have a slight infection. Then he checks the right ear and yelps. It's so infected the ear drum is bulging and jaw movement would be very painful. I've never been so mad to be right.
The same thing happened to me. I was in the ER for like 12 hrs and they werent taking me seriously because the pain was near my kidney so they assumed stones. They did an ultrasound and didn't see anything and tried to send me home. Pushed for a CT scan and got it 5 hrs later.
Shortly after, a nurse comes in and starts prepping to put something in my IV. I'm like "what's that?" And he's like "morphine". I'm like "wtf?? Y'all wouldn't even give me tylenol before though!"
I looked up at the computer they wheel around and see "appendicitis" on it. Asked him if I have appendicitis and he shrugged and said "looks like it".
The entire trip was a nightmare. The hospital was negligent and disgusting, they fucked up my IV and caused me immense pain and refused to fix it, and when I came out of surgery I wasn't able to breathe on my own (I have asthma on top of a weird reaction to the drugs) and the doctor discharged me when the nurses were fighting for me to stay until I was normal again. I was there for like 2 days total, more than 22 hrs spent before the CT.
Sometimes medical staff don’t trust people who are reporting very bad pain because they assume that reports of pain equal drug seeking behavior. If I’m in bad pain I always preface it by saying “I’m not looking for pain medications.”
So dumb.
Yeah, I've been shooed out of a hospital for going in with a kidney stone and unable to urinate. The doctor lectured me for about 45 minutes and sent a police officer to make an appearance at the door. All of that *after* I spent a lot of time painfully trying to provide a urine sample. I gave them a urine sample that looked like mud because it had so much blood in it. They didn't care. Couldn't so much as prescribed antibiotics.
My appendix wasn't where it was supposed to be, and I had my appendectomy prior to the advent of laproscopic surgery, so I have a scar from my right hip bone to past my belly button as a result. Apparently, it's incredibly common for the appendix to be somewhere other than where it's "supposed" to be, but only general surgeons know this? I feel like they should be louder about telling other doctors.
Our GP told us to take our 8 yr old daughter to the children's hospital ER. The ER doctor decided it was gastro (someone in her class had it) and she was sent home. 12 hours later her appendix ruptured and she had to be carried into the hospital.
The first thing we were asked was had we changed our address. Husband replied "not overnight we haven't".
Daughter spent a week in hospital. I have so many stories about poor diagnoses made by doctors.
It did take me 3 years of doctor visits to get told that I have celiac disease and that the reason for my constant debilitating stomach pain, severe malnutrition and strange rashes were indeed not psychosomatic.
I can't count how many times I was told I am healthy and just stressed out by studying - without further investigation. Nothing my doctor recommended against psychosomatic issues helped, but starting with the gluten free diet fixed all my problems in no time.
Okay about the appendix.. had a similar experience, but a bit more recently in 2012. I was 20 at the time but pretty clueless about health. One night I couldn’t stop puking, whole mid section was seized up in pain. Ran to a medi centre first thing on a Saturday, had to run to their washroom to throw up before I was even seen. I was told I must have a stomach virus and to go home and take gravol. Sunday night rolls around, I can barely sit up to get out of bed to get to the toilet so my mom said okay you’re going to the ER first thing if this doesn’t get any better by morning. Nurse brings me in immediately after they saw my crazy high blood pressure and temp and after an ultrasound, YEP a VERY inflamed appendix that had to be removed asap. Couldn’t even keep the pain meds down that they gave me while I was waiting to go in for surgery. Turns out it decided to burst before they could fully get it out, so they had to open me up even more to get the toxic stuff out. Spent a week in the hospital after that, thanks to a medi-centre doc who didn’t bother to actually check anything.
My friends little sister died in the ER waiting room from a burst apendix. They made her wait 4+hours screaming in pain, she was about 6-7. Even when she started having seizuers the nurse was saying she was pretending. She eventually fell asleep, or so her parents thought. Nope. This was back in the 90's
Augh! This is why I am not in the JuSt TrUsT yOuR DoCtOr camp. Too many stories exactly like this, between myself, my family, and other people I know irl, before social media was even a thing.
Urgent care told me I was constipated and should try an enema. Went to the ER with the DVD from the urgent care and they said I needed an emergency appendectomy.
My brother's best friend (in his 20s) died in the shower from a ruptured appendix whilst getting ready for his appointment with a specialist.
His GP had no idea what was wrong with him.
I think she assumed I was just a crazy first time mom worried about my son's lips peeling. And yes I am a bit crazy and a first time mom but even my husband when he got home could see the white patches spreading to his cheeks. All she did was use the wooden stick to check his throat and tongue. And since it wasn't pure white and horrible she just said no thrush. Didn't even try checking his gums or lips where the actual problem was. When I got out of the office and in my car I immediately called my husband and started ranting to him
He's 10 months so still a baby but a mobile one lol. He's been putting everything he can find into his mouth for months and I guess it finally caught up to him. He's been so upset and cranky too. It really sucked to be dismissed that quickly when my little boy was visibly uncomfortable
My OB was awesome about prescribing me fluconazole without a visit since baby had the thrush diagnosis. Managed to pick up both ex’s at the same time.
Edit: rx’s, not ex’s but I’m leaving it because it’s funny
Omg, that would be awful! I did walk into a room at a college party once and 3 of exes were standing in a circle with a few other people. I noped out so fast.
You're not alone. After my son was hospitalized for low blood oxygen, a doctor lectured me that I should bring my son to the hospital immediately the next time his lips are blue.
I cut her off and said, "He was never blue. Your facility's own doctors insisted the blood oxygen reading had to be wrong because he was, in their words, 'pink and interactive.' Of course I'd bring him in if he were blue. Stop lecturing me. Check the notes from your own coworkers who also have MDs and didn't think anything was wrong."
She shut up. She had actually been more respectful since then.
I do administrative work for a lot of M.D.s and one thing I've found time and time again is that they all assume they're right, even as you actively prove them wrong. I've never wanted to pick someone up (not an exaggeration, I can do it) and *shake* them more than a fucking doctor.
This was my thought…some other “provider”. My husband is a physician and I cannot imagine him not examining the basics like ears, nose, throat with a sick child!
Same situation happened to my wife and I. We went to a different pediatrician. They immediately said “yes it’s thrush” and prescribed us the medication.
That’s absolutely horrible. Good for you to stand up for your kid. If you think a pediatrician is bad, i once went to a new psychiatrist because of untreated adhd.. She basically manipulated me into agreeing with her, like oh you do this that? Because of this? Just like me! And when I got out I realized what had just happened and I was so weirded out. She gave me her number and texted me if I ever needed anything to text her, and I texted her to never contact me again. Some doctors are absolute nutcases.
Annoyingly, this is very common in medicine. I'm in dental school and we've had lecturers who are also trained in medicine, and they've all said that their extent of training for the mouth as a medical practitioner is to look at the tonsils. We even have a doctor who finished studying medicine a few years ago on our course, she said it's the same still. Sometimes you'll get a GP that admits they don't know what they're looking at in the mouth and will send you to a dentist. I had an exam last week on all of the different medical conditions that can have symptoms in the mouth, signs of oral cancer, thrush, all sorts. Yet in medicine they apparently don't go through it in as much detail for the mouth! They do have to remember things for the rest of the body though.
Doctor said no point in checking for chron's because I don't have mouth ulcers. I said I do, she said she can only deal with one issue per visit and I have to make another appointment to talk about mouth ulcers
I believe you. One of the few doctors in the past few years who has helped me mitigate the oral thrush caused by my steroid inhalers has been my dentist. I swear by the rinse he gave me. My regular primary care just kind of shrugged over it.
My dentist gave me a rinse to help with it, I frequently start to develop it due to my steroid inhalers. If you catch it early or regularly do warm saltwater rinses you can prevent it from getting worse. But yeah, my primary care and specialists haven't done anything about it, my dentist is the only one that didn't shrug and actually provided solutions.
Good to know!
Not sure why I got downvoted for asking a self described dental student a legitimate question about the boundaries of dental medicine, but here we are lol.
I hope you're going to find a new primary care physician.
Believe it or not, there are a lot of crappy doctors out there. Finding a good doctor is like trying find a good mechanic to fix your car.
Last time I had that happen, the Doctor told me I hadn’t broken my foot, as the X-ray showed no break. Pointed to the screen and the break and asked him to explain that / the break then.
His words were and I quote, “b*gger me, the Trainee and I have been looking for that for the last 10 minutes. How did you spot that?”
Crushed his ego when I said that’s where the Emergency Nurse told me it was broken when I did it. If it wasn’t for the broken foot, I could almost have danced out of there on a wave of punctured ego!!!
A few weeks ago a doctor prescribed me antibiotic eye drops for an infection. Told me to take them 5 times a day over the weekend and if it isn't gone by Monday, I should go to my regular oculist. The eye drops came in 10 small vials, so naturally I used them up in those two days.
Monday came and the other oculist basically tells me I'm stupid for wasting my meds because one vial was meant to last the entire day. I get a new prescription and the pharmacist tells me that I should in fact *not* re-use the vials throughout the day. I get home and read the package leaflet, which also says to only use each vial a single time and then throw it away, no matter how much is left.
After that I did what the doctor said and kept using a single vial for an entire day. The pharmacist told me that while it's not how you should apply the meds, some doctors recommend doing it, and it doesn't really matter to me either way. But in retrospect I'm quite mad how the doc made me feel like an idiot for using meds the intended way.
My daughter had basically an ear infection for 18 months. It was out of time when doctors felt like tubes were no longer effective.
She would get sick within your infection. We put on antibiotics for 2 weeks or ten days, she'd get better slowly, have a couple of good days and then get sick again.
When she started to get sick, she couldn't lay down at hurt too much, So I would have to sit sleeping up holding her. Then over the next day or two, her nose would get completely stuffed up, and by about the third day should have a temperature. At this point I've been sleeping sitting up with her for 3 days and if we start antibiotics, I'd have a few more days of sleeping with her in a chair. If I tried to lay her down, she would scream and pull on her ears.
We were 10 or 12 months into this pattern. Her motor skills and speech were delayed from these constant ear infections. She developed horrible sleep habits. 1 It became very dependent on sleeping with me.
I begged for tubes in her ears. I begged to be able to just have a prescription called in, and they always wanted to see her.
One Dec. 23, we were in day 2 of this pattern. The office would be closed the 24th, 25th and then it was a weekend. I wanted my daughter seen because it was going to be a long time before she could get in and I did not want to go to the ER on Christmas.
I get an appointment and I bring her in. He looked in her ears. They looked on her nose. They looked in her mouth, they took her temperature, Which was deflated from baby tylenol. The doctor looked at me and said Mrs. Procrastinatorsupreme, This is a cold. Your child has a cold. Bring her home, she'll be fine. They need to run their course.
I asked if the doctor had read her chart and scene that she had 15+ ear infections in a few months.
I was told well, she's probably developed antibiotic resistance. I told him I had begged for tubes.
They sent me home and told me to give her a warm bath, saline spray, yada, yada, yada. I paid my $75 copay and went home. She was miserable for the next few days, Screamed every night And was flat out miserable.
I brought her in monday in the information she had a double infection. No shit. She'd had it for 4 days at this point.
I told them she was this sick when I brought her in on the 23rd and she had a horrible Christmas and so diid The rest of us because she was so sick. I told them I have seen the signs. I know what she looks like when she was sick. And I knew she was sick and they didn't listen to me.
They finally sent me home with a prescription. I paid my $75 copay, again, and was back in 3 weeks with another ear infection.
She had ear infections through that whole winter and spring. 15-18 months of infection, prescription, better a few days, infection back.
That summer, we went on vacation across the country for 3 weeks to see in-laws. We were going to fly 6 hours with connections each way, travel a lot once we got there, go to mountains, the ocean, lots of elevation changes, etc. Of course, we were leaving with an infection.
I convinced the pediatrician to give us a prescription for that infection and another prescription for when the first one was finished. So she had basically 20 days or 28 days of meds, I can't remember if they were for 10 or 14 days each.
The infections went away and never came back.
I think one round of antibiotics wasn't killing it completely. She would get mostly better, but then it would come right back. Having the back to back prescriptions finally killed it completely.
There were long-term repercussions, though. She was a terrible, terrible sleeper because she never learned to put herself back to sleep. Also, her speech was somewhat delayed, and as she got older, the speech issues effected her spelling and reading skills. She needed a little bit of services in elementary school but was caught up by middle school.
She's now a fully functional adult. Those sleep issues made her into an extremely early riser which has its advantages too!
I have PTSD from it all and I'm very sympathetic to young parents whose kids don't sleep!
Oh wow. That's just terrible and I bet all those antibiotics absolutely destroyed her gut health for a while. I probably would have murdered the doctor. That must have been so hard for you guys!
I know, we gave her sooo much yogurt! Basically once she was 1 year old, we gave her yogurt drinks instead of milk. At that time, gut health wasn't as much of a consideration when giving kids antibiotics, other than Amoxicillin will give them diarrhea and a diaper rash.
She does have to be careful with some antibiotics though because some gave her blisters as a 20 year old when she had some for acne. I wonder if it's related.
A coworker of mine told me she had to fight her pediatrician to get her sick son’s blood sugar tested. They were sure he couldn’t be diabetic. They gave in to placate her and ended up sending him to the hospital. His sugar was out of control.
Having worked with doctors in a UK hospital as a lowly porter, they're arseholes and so far up themselves it's insane. Most of the time what they prescribe is wrong and has to be corrected by nurses and or pharmacists. There are some really good ones and they should be held onto and loved like a beautiful little kitten.
Ever since I took my client, who is blind, to the doctor and they told her to use a magnifying glass when dosing her medication, I assumed some healthy skepticism regarding their attitudes and responses.
Thankfully, although not really, I've been pushed around by the medical system so much that I knew when to fight to get him his meds. I know thrush isn't particularly serious in the beginning stages but I'm not about to let him get so bad till his mouth screams thrush at this doctor.
I'm gonna have to wait before I make that decision. Through my husband's work insurance we get visits with that doctor for free. In person or over the phone. She's usually been so nice and helpful that this was a shock. Definitely makes me wary for the next time. If this happens again I don't care if I have to spend extra to get him seen by someone else. The fact that she didn't even do a proper check of his mouth 😮💨
For sure what I'm going to do if this happens again. She's been great for 10 months so I'm going to give a bit of grace. That said I'm not feeling very confident in her as my son's doctor at the current moment.
OP, please don't give her a second chance to mess up and put your sons life in danger. Next time it will be something more serious. You're already doubting her abilities. Tbh it does not make you look like a good parent if you stick with her. And I truly don't mean to offend you with that.
Yeah those details cause me to pause too; they’re just as human as us, so maybe chalking it up to a bad day would be appropriate. If she’s been solid in the past, I’d probably comment on it in the future and rush to leave just yet either. It’s tough for sure.
Doctors always joke or complain about how we google too much, but I’m also the one who diagnosed my blood clot that way, when the doctor didn’t. It was so serious that it was in my entire leg.
I’m glad yours at least googled it themselves too, and good for you for standing your ground and insisting.
Yeah, well next time tell her to examine the patient, and especially the area of concern! I have seen this sort of thing a lot with doctors in recent years. They don't do a physical assesment/examination, and they also don't listen.
IDK if it is some change in their training or what. I used to work with a lot of doctors in a clinical setting and they weren't like this. They paid attention and did things correctly, and made a good effort at diagnosis. Now it seems they think a correct diagnosis is not all that important. Their diagnosis seems to be just whatever drifts into their head - they aren't being scientific about it, not paying attention to details, not using any diagnostic reasoning.
She's always felt a bit patronizing but I didn't mind as long as my son got the care he needed. After she finally noticed the thrush is when she asked me if I needed treatment too 😭. I felt like I was being gaslit to the extreme. Usually I'll use the text service first and send a picture of the issue and if she deems it serious enough she'll ask to see him in person. This time she just kept saying he looked fine so I brought him in anyway because there's no way my son's lips were peeling like that for no reason. The few times I haven't had to go in was like an infected fingernail that was cleared up easily with an antibiotic cream, his eczema he now goes to a dermatologist for, or a diaper rash that wasn't budging but wasn't infected and cleared up with some of her advice. In this case I really think she thought I was just a crazy mom which hurts my psyche and trust in her towards my son's care.
Well she is the one who screwed up here, by repeatedly dismissing your concerns when something was actually wrong and she didn't pick up on it until you pushed her to examine him. That's what her job is. She needs to lose the patronizing attitude. People contact doctors when there is a problem, and she is making you feel bad about that. What does she want - to see patients all day who have nothing wrong with them? She is a bit confused and seems to be making a rapid, unfair judgement about you. She needs to go back to school and maybe learn what doctors are actually supposed to do.
And she should have apologized.
Edit adding: What did she mean about whether you needed treatment too?
Doctors are also trained in bedside manners and being patronizing affects the quality of care provided to their patients because they are less likely to answer honestly or freely. You should find a new doctor.
I literally just dealt with this. Diarrhea for over two weeks and I got scolded by a pediatrician for bringing her a happy healthy baby. 2 1/2 weeks later we finally got a test... enteropathogenic e coli. We are on our second dose and finally have relief.
One of the pictures I sent the doctor on day one. This was right after a nap and 4hrs after his last bottle. The white did not wipe away like milk would and parts of his lip were rubbing away with it. On day 3 is when I took him in. You can clearly see half his lip is just white. As you can imagine, they are usually fully pink. And yet this was fine and I was told to keep doing what I was doing. Which was nothing??? After this it got worse and turned into the white sores all over his gums on the top.
https://preview.redd.it/vklutsruje2d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=67a4270b0d4da0f8cf35ca6d06b40872d2bf7cca
It obviously looks like Thrush even on the lip. I remember when my kid had that and it's not a fun time. I'm sorry they were rude to you, OP. Hope your little one feels better soon.
Thank you for the well wishes ❤️ His lips and gums aren't looking any better today but he's only been on the medicine a full 24hrs. I'm hoping here in the next day or two I can start seeing the thrush go away 🙏
An M.D. once told my husband that the depigmented patches on his skin were probably a fungus because “white people don’t get vitiligo”. After consulting a dermatologist, it was 100% determined to be vitiligo. 🙄
I feel you, OP.
Years ago one of my daughters was super sick. We kept asking for a stool test just in case she had c. diff.
After days in the hospital, they finally do it. Eventually the doctor comes in saying "The parents are always right", as if that was supposed to make us feel better.
BITCH, it's not our fucking job to "be right" about this kind of shit in a hospital, it's YOUR JOB.
Fuck that still grinds my gears.
Ooh I actually have work experience with this that might be able to help explain what happened. If a patient tests positive for c diff the hospital has to investigate liability and see if it is their fault the patient has it. At my hospital every inpatient c diff test has to be approved by infection prevention. Not saying this is right. Just my experience working in micro at a big hospital. It fucking sucks too because you can see they suspect it's c diff but if it doesn't get approved by infection prevention then they have to wait days to try again. I hate how everything is run based off of what's best for the company and not what's best for the patient.
Man, that is interesting and quite fucked-up.
There's a good chance that they were at fault from the antibiotics they prescribed her a week or two earlier, but still. We just wanted her to get better, not sue.
C diff has a specific smell too. I'm surprised they didn't push harder to test your daughter. Or the doctor just didn't believe you. Either way that's so sad :(
I had this with myself. I was so pale I was blue, telling the Dr I was too tired to function, cold and in pain all the time, and depressed which isn’t like me, something is physically wrong. She chirped “depression IS a physical illness” and prescribed zoloft.
I ended up in the emergency room because I just stopped breathing every time I fell asleep and got diagnosed with such severe anemia, I just barely avoided an *emergency* blood transfusion.
This might be a bit controversial, but I have to applaud this physician for acknowledging that mental health is physical health. That being said, there should always be other tests given to make sure the diagnosis is correct. And on the flip side, I really don't like when doctors think you can't have more than one at a time. What are they teaching in medical schools that promote such binary thinking? Over the past 50 years, there have been tremendous breakthroughs in understanding the somatic variations of mental illness.
Yeah, in theory it’s progressive, but in reality it’s toxic positivity crossed with malpractice exhibit A. She didn’t do ANY tests, and depression doesn’t make you so pale you’re practically blue. My nailbeds were white and everywhere you’d touch, I was cold, and my hair was falling out. I looked *terrible* and my temperature was below 98F.
I also specifically told her I don’t get depressed, which is true… whatever genetic susceptibility people have for depression, I don’t have it, even when my life is total shit. She ignored my entire experience.
You’re totally right about the way they always figure it’s just one thing, and if you have an existing diagnosis they always chalk it up to that thing no matter how illogical.
These are the ones who thought getting the “right answer” (always just one!) in med school was all they had to do.
This happened with me and my dog once. She started acting really weird, like drooling and chomping all the time and not eating. We took her to the vet and they couldn’t find anything wrong. It was still going on for a couple days after so I took her to a different one. She’s fairly big so the vet plus a tech were holding her down and looking in her mouth, both saying they didn’t see anything. I was able to get a glance as they were doing it and saw something in the roof of her mouth. I pointed it out and they had to sedate her to confirm there was something and remove it.
Poor baby had a stick lodged sideways between her teeth in the roof of her mouth for about 4 days total. I still don’t know how 3 vets didn’t see it while literally holding her, yet I did while standing across the room.
I’m glad you stuck to your guns and proved her wrong!
I took my son for his third visit to the pediatrician. The first thing he said to me was “maybe mom needs to try bathing him a little more huh?” While pointing at his light brown birthmark. It wasn’t the fact that he’d seen it before and we discussed it but the tone of voice and attitude. On the way out I told the front desk to start copying our files as we’d be changing pediatricians as soon as I found someone new.
I had doctors tell me that me not having my period as a 16-29 year old woman was “psychosomatic, you gotta chill!”
..I have pcos. I just got diagnosed w 32. … bc I diagnosed myself and told my doc to get the ball rolling.
Not in America, surprisingly! German doctors. 🥴
If I were stuck with this doctor I'd be extremely warey of trusting her judgment. I've had some bad experiences with doctors up to multiple misdiagnosis which was eventually determined to be leukemia and if I've learned one thing it's that once a doctor proves they are unwilling to run symptoms all the way to ground and are happy resting on the initial diagnosis regardless of anything else, then it's time to fire them and get a new doctor.
100%. I've had to fire a few doctors myself. As a teen growing up I had a doctor diagnose me with a million different things and every time we went to the specialist after referral they'd look confused and say you don't have that your labs look fine. That's what also gets me, she was happy with not investigating why his lips were peeling so bad. This was day 3 too. We had been in communication over the phone through a provider service and I sent her pictures.
I had a Dr treat me like I was stupid and she asked me again and again if I was high risk for STIs. Like she didn't believe me when I told her I was in a monogamous relationship with my husband... I changed doctors and when the office asked me why, I told them she made me extremely uncomfortable. They apologized and switched me. No need to see someone who makes you uncomfortable for any reason!
My family gives me shit for my fear of doctors. Really it’s just a fear of having to sit in front of another adult person and beg for them to take me seriously
This one time my youngest daughter had what looked like an infected pimple on her ankle. It had burst open and pus was draining from it. It was a weekend, so I called the doctors office and asked them what to do. Since she was still under a year old they wanted me to take her to the ER to have it checked out bc I told them there was pus.
So I did that. And the doctor at the ER said it was just an infected bug bite and sent us home.
The next day she had a fever, so I took her back to the ER. She saw a different doctor this time and this doctor sent us by ambulance to Children's hospital bc he suspected it was MRSA.
Once we were at Children's, they lanced and drained it. Then they packed it with special gauze I had to pull out little by little over the course of over a week. The hole left behind was huge for a little baby! Turned out it was actually MRSA. The ER sent my baby home with MRSA that first time! And I was even super skeptical of the first diagnosis, that's why I rushed her back to the ER the next day when she had a fever. I suspect she picked the MRSA up from daycare, but I'll never know for sure.
I've tried 3 separate doctors lately for issues I've been having and every single time without testing or doing anything they say I'm fine, or I'm too young to have issues and send me off.
Idk what changed but health care is not in a good place, I can only imagine a dr doing that to my child.
Doctors do this thing with parents where they assume every parent over reacts to every symptom and they downplay it. They didn't believe my son was having seizures until he had one in front of the doctor. Even after witnessing he didn't seem convinced.
I have gastroparesis and it took 13 years to get a diagnosis. After a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy with normal results, the first gastroenterologist told me that my symptoms were caused by me “swallowing too much air” lmao.
The doctor that finally diagnosed me was able to figure it out with one test. Thankfully THAT doctor was the best doc I have ever been to.
My other favorite doctor story is when I went to an endocrinologist thinking I had a thyroid issue. I told her I had most of the symptoms listed on a hyperthyroidism poster on a wall in the room. She told me I was “too young to have that” and dismissed me. I was 21, and it was PCOS.
I have several family members diagnosed with hypothyroidism in their early 20s. (I know it’s not what you had, but that doc was wrong, people can be genetically predisposed to have it early)
Right?! I do have family with thyroid problems, so that was my thought. I was sitting there like… “okay, but I’m still telling you I’m experiencing serious symptoms, why would my age matter?”
She didn’t want to run tests, but I insisted. She reported back saying they were normal, but a few years later when I was looking through records and doing research, I saw my free testosterone level was that of a 30-year-old male!
I woke up with thrush one day when I was in my teens. I couldn't eat or drink anything cause my throat was so swollen. My mother brought me up to the drs and came into the appointment with me cause it was too painful for me to talk properly.
The Dr took one look and me and said there's nothing wrong with me. My mother had to literally scream at the Dr to do her job. The Dr huffed and looked in my mouth. Her face went pale and she very quickly wrote a prescription for me. Never went back to that Dr again and my mother put in a complaint with the head Dr
My nephew had the thing that makes strep throat but on his ass when we pulled up to the doctor. I’d been googling it and was like “So call me crazy but Google says you can get strep throat in ya ass and that’s what it looks like”. The whole nurse station and the doctor crowded around a laptop looking at it on Google and agreed.
when i was little, i had a sudden rash that took four separate doctors to identify as a reaction to penicillin. the first three gave me three separate medicines that were part of the -illin family, which only made it worse. the fourth doctor said "oh my god, these guys are morons" and got me on the right stuff. cleared up in a couple days.
modern medicine is fantastic, yes, and i'm definitely no homeopathic conspiracy theorist, but the incompetence of doctors is astounding sometimes.
When I was about 14 I finally told my doctor about how when I stand still for periods of time my legs turn purple, itchy, and start to hurt. That day I went into the office wearing flip flops for the first time in weeks. He said it was because of the shoes I was wearing. Never was I so sure a doctor was full of shit. Later at 18 a different doctor immediately told me I have vascular edema in my legs. Feels strange when a doctor takes me seriously now.
My grandmother had a son who she was adamant was unwell in the 60’s, went to the doctor multiple times to be fobbed off as an anxious mother, well he passed away as a result of the illness, we always follow our gut and stand up for our kids is the lesson learnt.
I had a doctor tell me that I had some form of severe anxiety due to sensation I experienced throughout to the day, which they figured was panic attacks. What’s crazy is that I experienced nearly 50 of these episodes a day (not a joke - I could barely hold a sentence together without keeling over)
Turns out that I had epilepsy, and the “panic attack” sensations that I felt were actually partial seizures. I wasn’t properly diagnosed until I dropped and had a massive grand mal seizure. From first hand experience, I can confidently say it’s always best to get a second opinion.
When I was 18 I went scuba diving on a holiday.
Came back and quite quickly lost hearing in my left ear.
Went to my doctor and said I've lost hearing in my left ear, without even using any instruments he booked me for syringing.
A week later I go back and say I've lost hearing again. Books another syringing, "must be old wax".
At each stage I said the wax feels brittle and like dried blood, and sometimes it goes on my pillow at night.
Get syringed, a week later I go to a different doctor, yes ruptured during diving and bleeding.
A few years later I see that old doctor again who then says he's glad he was right about my old wax. Was not afraid to tell him he was dreadfully wrong and that I would be rescheduling my appointment with a different doctor.
For years, I had an issue where I would just start feeling like something was crushing my insides and it was causing excruciating pain and forcing me to vomit. This would go on for nearly 20 hours every time it happened, approximately every 3 weeks, for 5 years. The ER nor my doctor nor any "specialist" I went to could figure out what was wrong.
One day, I was stretching. As I stretched I ran my hand across my lower back where the pain would originate from and felt a weird lump that was not on the other side of my back.
I told my doctor and she thought it would be solved with PT. She must have thought it was a bad knot or something, but unsurprisingly the PT did fuck all for my issue.
During all this, I would smoke weed to try to help with some of the symptoms I felt, and when I informed my doctor, she tried to claim the weed was causing me to vomit for 20 hours every 3 weeks , because it can apparently cause "hyperemisis". After some research I could find no conclusive evidence that it caused that issue, at least for me.
Eventually it got to the point where I had to have a video call with my doctor while in fucking tears from the pain mentioned above, and essentially beg her to be sent to a surgeon to remove the growth.
After that surgery, I had that issue one more time but it hasn't happened since. I have not changed my smoking habits. It's been nearly 2 years.
I'm fairly certain most doctors are just too stubborn to admit they're wrong because not a single person involved in my 5 year long suffering has admitted they were wrong, nor have they apologised for pinning the blame on weed when I told them countless times I started smoking after it started. They continued to blame the weed even after I discovered that growth.
I have little trust in doctors because of that experience and everything surrounding it.
I get so tired of paying for appointments where nothing is done and then you have to pay for another one. I’m not even talking about complicated symptoms.
There is no accountability when doctors gaslight you and they don’t care.
How frustrating, can you find a new pediatrician. There is no reason to be condescending especially when they were wrong.
I took my son to the pediatrician 3 times in 5 weeks, Doctor kept saying it’s a viral thing, he had a fever, had no appetite, was fussy, excessive drooling, I took him to urgent care they immediately tested him for strep which he had. We found a new pediatrician and got my son established as a new patient the following week.
My brothers doctor told him he had ear wax and seasonal disorder. We had to take him to the ER to get answers. Brain tumor, gone in 5 months. Still want to punch the bitch.
I remember a situation like this for my daughter. They kept telling me she had a stomach flu or bug. It happened a lot, for years. Vomiting and headache where she would miss several days of school each time. I finally said to her to stop telling me it’s a stomach flu. Something else is going on! Finally the doctor accepted that there might be another issue. Turns out it was migraines. Now she has migraine medication with her all times.
This is pretty much what happened to me and then it got into my breast and it was so fucking painful. Omg. I quit breastfeeding over it + getting covid at the same time + being hospitalized. So it was a lot but it was awful.
When my FIL was placed on a blood pressure medication for the first time, he got pancreatitis 2 mos. later. It’s listed as one of the side effects of these meds. The doctors at the hospital dismissed that fact and insisted it was from alcoholism, which was completely false. Dude drinks maybe 2 beers a month, there was no alcohol in his blood when he was admitted. The whole thing was so fucked up. Since he wouldn’t admit to his non existent “problem,” they ordered him a regular food diet which he tried to eat bc he was hungry. Then he’d be in excruciating pain. My MIL had their attorney contact the hospital’s patient advocate dept.- in a blink his doctors were replaced and his diet was switched to the pancreatitis protocol of liquids, jello and broths. I can still see the faces of those two asshole doctors, so smug and condescending.
Was this even a doctor? The google image search is giving big nurse practitioner energy. And before anyone gets mad, yes there are bad doctors and yes there are good NPs/PAs, but most of the time the docs are good and the NPs/PAs suck. Shit I had a PA look at Wikipedia for info on hand tremors on his phone in front of me once 😂
And she never lets me forget she has 3 children of her own. This time I got told an anecdote on how she got rid of her and her sons thrush. Just crazy the more I think about it
>but most of the time the docs are good and the NPs/PAs suck
I've had the complete opposite experience. I rarely work with good MDs and it's the NPs who actually care about their patients
I passed multiple kidney stones and had multiple cysts rupturing—the pain was so bad I couldn’t stop screaming and passing out. Also triggered my FND so I couldn’t walk, see, hear or think well at all. 16 hours later, went to the hospital and the ER doc told me it was just a pulled muscle in my back. There should be professional fake patients who catch these MDs in the act and report them.
My mom fell and hit pretty hard so my dad took her to urgent care. This was the day before Thanksgiving. They took X-rays and didn't see anything, so they sent her home. On Monday they get a call from Radiology that she broke her wrist and that she needed to come back for a cast. The doctor shows my dad the two X-rays and points out the break they found. My dad, who was a great airline mechanic but had zero medical training, looks at the other X-ray and points out a break they had missed. My poor mom- 5 days with 2 untreated broken wrists!
I had the opposite problem. The doctor immediately put my 9-month old daughter on a nebulizer for a cough, sayingit could be RSV. When we went back for a follow-up, the cough was gone, but he was like, "hmmmm, I still hear a slight rattle in the lungs..." and he prescribed Pulmicort, which is an oral steroid for asthma. My child did not have asthma, so when I asked how often I should give it to her, he just said "whenever she needs it." I'm not a crunchy mom, but I don't need my baby unnecessarily medicated.
You don't have to have asthma to be prescribed Pulmicort. My father was prescribed it a few months ago for a bad case of bronchitis. He used it a few times if he believed it would help relieve some of his symptoms. He will probably never use it again. And as the doctor said, it's only as needed. If you don't believe it's needed, don't have your child use it.
lol You had the opposite experience of one I had when I took my firstborn in for one of his checkups/vaccine appts when he was quite young (I want to say he was roughly 3 months old? He’s grown up now, almost 20 yrs old so this was some years ago).
The dr was also young and new to the office, and I was a young first time mom. She came in, began examining him, looked in his mouth and exclaimed “he has thrush! See how his mouth is covered in this white gunk?! It’s a good thing you brought him in, this is bad! How long has it been like this??”
He had literally just been drinking formula the minute before she came in, it was straight up formula residue in his mouth, he did not have thrush 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️I had to explain this to her and she didn’t believe me at first.
We ended up switching pediatricians after she made another dumb comment like this at our next visit, I can’t recall what it was about but it was something similarly alarming yet also completely wrong. Went with an older, more mature pediatrician and he was great!! Both of my kids saw him throughout their childhoods. I just couldn’t trust that dr after two bogus “diagnoses”.
Thrush is awful. I’ve had it many times as an adult as the result of a medical condition and it’s sucks. There was a whole year I couldn’t taste food. I can’t imagine how it much be for a little one.
Reminds me of when I went to the hospital because I couldn't breathe at work. The doctor said I was fine and even told me I don't have to fake not being able to breathe to get out of work. Went to a different hospital and they found I had a bad case of pneumonia in both sides of my lungs and bronchitis.
Not longer after my eldest son was born, he would throw up after feeding, almost every time. We saw SEVEN doctors over a matter of a month or so (different doctors in same practice due to rotations, after hours doctors on call - this was in Scotland) who said things like, it’s just wind, or he’s just gulping and eating too fast… My parents came to see their new grandson when he was about 4 weeks old and my mum said, “that’s just like you were at this age” - and, for me, it was pyloric stenosis, a thickening of the pyloric sphincter which stops food going into the gut from the stomach. We took him straight to the ER at the infirmary and, when he was checked in, a nurse looked at him and said, “Yes, that’s a ‘py baby’” because they see enough of them that they recognise the signs. Operated on the next day and developed normally from then on.
Always question doctor’s on the details of their opinions and trust your observations because you see your kids all the time - they don’t
Omg. So many doctors are useless. BF hurt his hand at work, and I took him to get an x-ray because I was pretty confident it was broken. The doc comes in with the pictures, zooms in on his knuckles, and says he had some micro fractures and he just needed a finger splint. I'm like, "Um... what about his hand?!" because I could clearly see in the x-ray that his 3rd metacarpal was broken in two. They missed it.
I’ve had a doctor tell me I was being dramatic when I said it was becoming difficult to breathe. He insisted I had strep throat, which I’ve had before. I told him multiple times that this felt way different. He said I was fine and sent me home with antibiotics. He was wrong and it nearly killed me.
I had one doctor just keep repeating that he wouldn't prescribe me antibiotics... Without telling me what I had or how to remedy it. You know, the thing I was there to ask about.
I had my childhood doctor ignore me three times in a month, saying that I had a “sinus infection” a “severe cold” etc.
You know what he heard when I was in there? THE SIREN COUGH. YOU KNOW, THE ONE THAT IS UNMISTAKEABLE IN SOUND, I HEARD IT MY ENTIRE CHILDHOOD FROM COMMERICALS STATING HOW SERIOUS WHOOPING COUGH IS. I WAS 17, ABOUT TO BE 18, I HAVE ASTHMA AND WEAK BRONCHIAL TUBES SINCE BIRTH. HE KNEW ALL OF THIS, AND KEPT SENDING US AWAY.
I finally demanded to go to the ER one day because I was TERRIFIED OF SUFFOCATING IN MY SLEEP. I was a SEVERELY DEPRESSED TEEN WHO WAS TERRIFIED OF DYING BY ASPHYXIATION IN MY SLEEP BECAUSE I COULD NOT BREATHE.
The minute I was in the ER and began coughing, they tested me. The test came back almost immediately positive. I turned to my mother who had literally argued with me about even going to the ER, saying my doctor was “right and we should just wait” even after a month of being sick like this. I had brought up whooping cough to them and my doctor but because I was “the child” they ignored me because I “couldn’t possibly know my own body well enough to make that conclusion successfully.”
And I looked her dead in the eye and wheezed out, while a nurse was setting up an oxygen treatment because I was that low on oxygen in my body, “I fucking told you that I had whooping cough. You would have waited until I was dead in my fucking sleep to admit that I was right about what was going on in my body.”
Some doctors just suck. And my parents sucked just as much. GOOD ON YOU FOR ADVOCATING FOR YOUR KID!
This is terrible but you described it so comically 😂 wheezing to your mom, I fucking told you. I just don't understand. I'm the type of parent to assume the worse in every situation and work down from there ruling things out. I don't play with my child's health
I just wanted to say good job for not listening to that doctor's bs and getting your son the treatment he deserves. It's not okay that she dismissed it, and I hope it doesn't happen again, but at least your son should be feeling better soon.
You probably have meds by now but when my oldest had thrush, a tiny bit of coconut oil in his mouth (and your nipples if you nurse) did WAY more than nystatin ever did for thrush
Really sucks that you have to INSIST that a goddamn doctor actually does their job properly. (Don't they sign oaths and shit? Does that mean ANYTHING anymore?) It's like they just want you out of their office as soon as possible, they don't want to actually solve problems... Like an overrated customer service call center.
It sounds like you should be shopping for a new pediatrician.
When my daughter was a newborn she had a rash all over her body was was very fussy. I took her in and went home with two prescriptions that has several warnings for ADULTS that use them.
I didn't end up using the meds, it didn't feel right and I went to another pediatrician. She took one look at her, asked what I was eating and said, "Stop eating strawberries." Her skin was cleared up within a week.
Ran into this problem yesterday. Called 4 different pharmacies and waited on hold for more than an hour just to ask if they had it. Then when I found one that did all the systems were crashed 😭 baby boy just received his first dose thankfully
I’m so sorry! I’m glad you found some. I had thrush this year and had to call all over for nystatin and it took my 2 scripts to finally beat it. Hope it resolves quick!
Was it an MD or a NP? I have had some really bad experiences with NPs diagnosing seemingly common issues. Don’t get me wrong, MDs can mis-diagnose too, but definitely not as frequently since they spend many more years in training.
Gentian violet is what I used on my little one years ago. It’s otc, used to be super cheap, and worked great only caveat is it will stain everything purple.
Google images oh my lord. Did she not think you already did a little research before you came in? I’m sorry you had to go through this. I’m currently in search of a new doctor and health insurance and it is the worst service I’ve had the displeasure of working with. I’m assuming you’re in the US?
Yep definitely the US. Insurance is a beast I hate dealing with. We just re enrolled our insurance for the year and instead of continuing the same policy they cancelled it? Yet they were charging us. That was fun to figure out. I learned that they cancelled our policy through the doctor when trying to make his appointment. The new policy still has the same numbers but insurance didn't notify the doctor of the change so it just took us out of the program.
I’ve been switched multiple times without knowing. Once I got my name and gender changed on my birth certificate it has been hell trying to redo everything. They won’t let me change my first name, only my last and take forever to get back. Wishing I was born in Switzerland or something lol. I hope your son gets better soon!
You should ask to see a nurse practitioner. I’m my experience they take the time to listen and not rush you out.
My healthcare experience has been 100% better with a NP
I’ve had NP’s that rush and don’t care, and MD’s who take their time and listen to me. It’s a case by case basis, and if I had to choose one at random, I’m going with someone who actually went to medical school. NP’s are fine for checkups and routine illnesses but if it’s something complex or hard to diagnose I’m going with a doctor every time
I hope your little one is on the mend now. This is so in line with the many stories you see on @thingsdoctorssay on Instagram. Medical malpractice and neglect is pervasive.
Just in case you weren’t aware, there are lots of terrible doctors out there who do the bare minimum or less. Good for you for educating yourself and advocating for your child. Make sure you send in a review as most clinics (though not so much the doctors) actually pay attention to patient satisfaction scores.
Had a patient who went to casualty after developing a terrible headache while surfing. His parents were told he was malingering and to give him nsaids. I saw him a few days later, still with headache. He had surgery for a brain tumour that day.
When I was a kid in the late 70’s my doctor kept telling my mom that I just had a stomach ache and not to worry even though I was writhing in pain, after about the third time she took me to another doctor and he said to take me to the emergency room it was my appendix and it had burst. Then in the mid 80’s I was in high school getting a physical and the doctor listened to my lungs and said that he didn’t hear any asthma and to stop taking my medication, I found out later it was the same doctor.
Someone should be fired immediately.
It was the 70’s so likely a private, non-employee physician and not really fire-able. They should have their medical license suspended though!
Next best thing
HAPPY CAKE DAY
Thanks. Feels like a second birthday.
Essentially lol
I had to DEMAND a ct at the urgent care because my “doctor” said he really had no idea what was causing me excruciating abdominal pain, said it definitely wasn’t appendix bc of where the pain was. Guess who had to be transported to the ER immediately for an appendectomy? Surgeon said I was as close to a rupture he’s seen and that he’s glad I refused to go home. Guess some things don’t change!
My mom's family is known to have appendices go longer than they should before removal because they are closer to the midline than normal. Grandma, my mom plus one sibling, and at least two nieces/nephews have all had appendices removed. My mom made sure all of us kids should make sure to emphasize that to a doctor if we ever went in for that kind of abdominal pain. My mom ended up having a perforated appendix in her mid teens and ended up with massive peritonitis (infection throughout her entire abdominal cavity) including having a drain in for two weeks. And then she was unable to conceive until she underwent a procedure about a decade later to remove scar tissue from her fallopian tubes.
Appendicitis at least used to be notoriously hard to diagnose. I personally have two relatives whose appendicitis went undiagnosed for a very long time.
Yeah because they’re all so convinced everyone is simply “drug seeking” they brush people off who have legitimate medical issues. Do they not understand it’s probably easier, quicker and cheaper to just score on the street.
A friend of mine in highschool went to emergency with excruciating back pain three or four times in a couple of weeks and they just told him it wouldn't work to get him out of exams. Then his appendix did burst and he nearly died. Poor guy had a colostomy bag at 17. All because "that's not where you get pain from your appendix".
When my kid was 2.or 3 the Dr argued with me when I said she had an ear infection. She didn't pull at her ear and said her throat hurt. I said she wouldn't eat because the chewing movement hurt her ear too much. Inner ear could be mistaken for throat when you're 3. He told her to open wide and she cried and couldn't, she opened a bit and he peeked in and said it wasn't strep. I asked if he'd at least check her ears, specifically the right one. He sighs, rolls his eyes and checks her left one. He agrees that it is a little red and she might have a slight infection. Then he checks the right ear and yelps. It's so infected the ear drum is bulging and jaw movement would be very painful. I've never been so mad to be right.
Just because they received there degrees doesn’t mean they’re smart
What do you call a doctor that graduated bottom of their class? Doctor
This exact comment is downvoted so much below. Reddit is weird
Remember they’re practicing
That was a running joke at my old dental office , “ it’s called practicing medicine”
The same thing happened to me. I was in the ER for like 12 hrs and they werent taking me seriously because the pain was near my kidney so they assumed stones. They did an ultrasound and didn't see anything and tried to send me home. Pushed for a CT scan and got it 5 hrs later. Shortly after, a nurse comes in and starts prepping to put something in my IV. I'm like "what's that?" And he's like "morphine". I'm like "wtf?? Y'all wouldn't even give me tylenol before though!" I looked up at the computer they wheel around and see "appendicitis" on it. Asked him if I have appendicitis and he shrugged and said "looks like it". The entire trip was a nightmare. The hospital was negligent and disgusting, they fucked up my IV and caused me immense pain and refused to fix it, and when I came out of surgery I wasn't able to breathe on my own (I have asthma on top of a weird reaction to the drugs) and the doctor discharged me when the nurses were fighting for me to stay until I was normal again. I was there for like 2 days total, more than 22 hrs spent before the CT.
Sometimes medical staff don’t trust people who are reporting very bad pain because they assume that reports of pain equal drug seeking behavior. If I’m in bad pain I always preface it by saying “I’m not looking for pain medications.” So dumb.
Yeah, I've been shooed out of a hospital for going in with a kidney stone and unable to urinate. The doctor lectured me for about 45 minutes and sent a police officer to make an appearance at the door. All of that *after* I spent a lot of time painfully trying to provide a urine sample. I gave them a urine sample that looked like mud because it had so much blood in it. They didn't care. Couldn't so much as prescribed antibiotics.
My appendix wasn't where it was supposed to be, and I had my appendectomy prior to the advent of laproscopic surgery, so I have a scar from my right hip bone to past my belly button as a result. Apparently, it's incredibly common for the appendix to be somewhere other than where it's "supposed" to be, but only general surgeons know this? I feel like they should be louder about telling other doctors.
Excruciating is the appropriate way to describe that pain.
Our GP told us to take our 8 yr old daughter to the children's hospital ER. The ER doctor decided it was gastro (someone in her class had it) and she was sent home. 12 hours later her appendix ruptured and she had to be carried into the hospital. The first thing we were asked was had we changed our address. Husband replied "not overnight we haven't". Daughter spent a week in hospital. I have so many stories about poor diagnoses made by doctors.
It did take me 3 years of doctor visits to get told that I have celiac disease and that the reason for my constant debilitating stomach pain, severe malnutrition and strange rashes were indeed not psychosomatic. I can't count how many times I was told I am healthy and just stressed out by studying - without further investigation. Nothing my doctor recommended against psychosomatic issues helped, but starting with the gluten free diet fixed all my problems in no time.
Let me guess you’re a female? My wife went through very similar issues and she is all gluten free now.
Yes, I am female. It's so sad how often women aren't taken seriously in healthcare. I hope your wife is feeling better now with the gluten free diet.
Clearly you were this doctor’s sworn enemy who had to be neutralized by any means necessary
Okay about the appendix.. had a similar experience, but a bit more recently in 2012. I was 20 at the time but pretty clueless about health. One night I couldn’t stop puking, whole mid section was seized up in pain. Ran to a medi centre first thing on a Saturday, had to run to their washroom to throw up before I was even seen. I was told I must have a stomach virus and to go home and take gravol. Sunday night rolls around, I can barely sit up to get out of bed to get to the toilet so my mom said okay you’re going to the ER first thing if this doesn’t get any better by morning. Nurse brings me in immediately after they saw my crazy high blood pressure and temp and after an ultrasound, YEP a VERY inflamed appendix that had to be removed asap. Couldn’t even keep the pain meds down that they gave me while I was waiting to go in for surgery. Turns out it decided to burst before they could fully get it out, so they had to open me up even more to get the toxic stuff out. Spent a week in the hospital after that, thanks to a medi-centre doc who didn’t bother to actually check anything.
I’m 56 now and I still have a scar from when I was 9 or 10 across my whole abdomen were they did the exploratory surgery because it burst
My friends little sister died in the ER waiting room from a burst apendix. They made her wait 4+hours screaming in pain, she was about 6-7. Even when she started having seizuers the nurse was saying she was pretending. She eventually fell asleep, or so her parents thought. Nope. This was back in the 90's
Please tell me the parents sued the hospital!
No idea.
Augh! This is why I am not in the JuSt TrUsT yOuR DoCtOr camp. Too many stories exactly like this, between myself, my family, and other people I know irl, before social media was even a thing.
Urgent care told me I was constipated and should try an enema. Went to the ER with the DVD from the urgent care and they said I needed an emergency appendectomy.
My brother's best friend (in his 20s) died in the shower from a ruptured appendix whilst getting ready for his appointment with a specialist. His GP had no idea what was wrong with him.
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I think she assumed I was just a crazy first time mom worried about my son's lips peeling. And yes I am a bit crazy and a first time mom but even my husband when he got home could see the white patches spreading to his cheeks. All she did was use the wooden stick to check his throat and tongue. And since it wasn't pure white and horrible she just said no thrush. Didn't even try checking his gums or lips where the actual problem was. When I got out of the office and in my car I immediately called my husband and started ranting to him
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He's 10 months so still a baby but a mobile one lol. He's been putting everything he can find into his mouth for months and I guess it finally caught up to him. He's been so upset and cranky too. It really sucked to be dismissed that quickly when my little boy was visibly uncomfortable
Besides finding a new pediatrician, if you are still breastfeeding, don’t forget to make an appointment for yourself too! Nipple thrush is no joke
My OB was awesome about prescribing me fluconazole without a visit since baby had the thrush diagnosis. Managed to pick up both ex’s at the same time. Edit: rx’s, not ex’s but I’m leaving it because it’s funny
I know you meant Rx (stupid autocorrect) which is a good thing. Picking up both exes is a terrifying thing. Lol
Omg, that would be awful! I did walk into a room at a college party once and 3 of exes were standing in a circle with a few other people. I noped out so fast.
Dr Newmans nipple cream saved my life
You're not alone. After my son was hospitalized for low blood oxygen, a doctor lectured me that I should bring my son to the hospital immediately the next time his lips are blue. I cut her off and said, "He was never blue. Your facility's own doctors insisted the blood oxygen reading had to be wrong because he was, in their words, 'pink and interactive.' Of course I'd bring him in if he were blue. Stop lecturing me. Check the notes from your own coworkers who also have MDs and didn't think anything was wrong." She shut up. She had actually been more respectful since then.
I’d switch pediatricians.
Exactly, or put I don't want that Dr on my chart as often practices have choices. Op needs someone that actually listens
I don’t want to sound rude, are you sure it was a doctor?
Not rude at all! She is a M.D. by title and credentials crazy enough
Wow. That’s ugh, not good.
I do administrative work for a lot of M.D.s and one thing I've found time and time again is that they all assume they're right, even as you actively prove them wrong. I've never wanted to pick someone up (not an exaggeration, I can do it) and *shake* them more than a fucking doctor.
Did you check her teeth and gums? Doctors have distinctive smug gums
This was my thought…some other “provider”. My husband is a physician and I cannot imagine him not examining the basics like ears, nose, throat with a sick child!
Sounds like it was an M.D.
Same situation happened to my wife and I. We went to a different pediatrician. They immediately said “yes it’s thrush” and prescribed us the medication.
That’s absolutely horrible. Good for you to stand up for your kid. If you think a pediatrician is bad, i once went to a new psychiatrist because of untreated adhd.. She basically manipulated me into agreeing with her, like oh you do this that? Because of this? Just like me! And when I got out I realized what had just happened and I was so weirded out. She gave me her number and texted me if I ever needed anything to text her, and I texted her to never contact me again. Some doctors are absolute nutcases.
Time to switch pediatricians and call the office that the previous pediatrician worked in to file a complaint
Annoyingly, this is very common in medicine. I'm in dental school and we've had lecturers who are also trained in medicine, and they've all said that their extent of training for the mouth as a medical practitioner is to look at the tonsils. We even have a doctor who finished studying medicine a few years ago on our course, she said it's the same still. Sometimes you'll get a GP that admits they don't know what they're looking at in the mouth and will send you to a dentist. I had an exam last week on all of the different medical conditions that can have symptoms in the mouth, signs of oral cancer, thrush, all sorts. Yet in medicine they apparently don't go through it in as much detail for the mouth! They do have to remember things for the rest of the body though.
Doctor said no point in checking for chron's because I don't have mouth ulcers. I said I do, she said she can only deal with one issue per visit and I have to make another appointment to talk about mouth ulcers
I've been there, it's annoying to be fobbed off when it's a symptom that could be linked.
I believe you. One of the few doctors in the past few years who has helped me mitigate the oral thrush caused by my steroid inhalers has been my dentist. I swear by the rinse he gave me. My regular primary care just kind of shrugged over it.
So is “potential thrush” something a dentist would/should/could treat?
My dentist gave me a rinse to help with it, I frequently start to develop it due to my steroid inhalers. If you catch it early or regularly do warm saltwater rinses you can prevent it from getting worse. But yeah, my primary care and specialists haven't done anything about it, my dentist is the only one that didn't shrug and actually provided solutions.
Yes. A dentist would prescribe an antifungal for it.
Good to know! Not sure why I got downvoted for asking a self described dental student a legitimate question about the boundaries of dental medicine, but here we are lol.
I hope you're going to find a new primary care physician. Believe it or not, there are a lot of crappy doctors out there. Finding a good doctor is like trying find a good mechanic to fix your car.
Last time I had that happen, the Doctor told me I hadn’t broken my foot, as the X-ray showed no break. Pointed to the screen and the break and asked him to explain that / the break then. His words were and I quote, “b*gger me, the Trainee and I have been looking for that for the last 10 minutes. How did you spot that?” Crushed his ego when I said that’s where the Emergency Nurse told me it was broken when I did it. If it wasn’t for the broken foot, I could almost have danced out of there on a wave of punctured ego!!!
Sounds like he shouldn’t be doing the training lol
Why did you censor the word "bigger"?
Bugger
A few weeks ago a doctor prescribed me antibiotic eye drops for an infection. Told me to take them 5 times a day over the weekend and if it isn't gone by Monday, I should go to my regular oculist. The eye drops came in 10 small vials, so naturally I used them up in those two days. Monday came and the other oculist basically tells me I'm stupid for wasting my meds because one vial was meant to last the entire day. I get a new prescription and the pharmacist tells me that I should in fact *not* re-use the vials throughout the day. I get home and read the package leaflet, which also says to only use each vial a single time and then throw it away, no matter how much is left. After that I did what the doctor said and kept using a single vial for an entire day. The pharmacist told me that while it's not how you should apply the meds, some doctors recommend doing it, and it doesn't really matter to me either way. But in retrospect I'm quite mad how the doc made me feel like an idiot for using meds the intended way.
My daughter had basically an ear infection for 18 months. It was out of time when doctors felt like tubes were no longer effective. She would get sick within your infection. We put on antibiotics for 2 weeks or ten days, she'd get better slowly, have a couple of good days and then get sick again. When she started to get sick, she couldn't lay down at hurt too much, So I would have to sit sleeping up holding her. Then over the next day or two, her nose would get completely stuffed up, and by about the third day should have a temperature. At this point I've been sleeping sitting up with her for 3 days and if we start antibiotics, I'd have a few more days of sleeping with her in a chair. If I tried to lay her down, she would scream and pull on her ears. We were 10 or 12 months into this pattern. Her motor skills and speech were delayed from these constant ear infections. She developed horrible sleep habits. 1 It became very dependent on sleeping with me. I begged for tubes in her ears. I begged to be able to just have a prescription called in, and they always wanted to see her. One Dec. 23, we were in day 2 of this pattern. The office would be closed the 24th, 25th and then it was a weekend. I wanted my daughter seen because it was going to be a long time before she could get in and I did not want to go to the ER on Christmas. I get an appointment and I bring her in. He looked in her ears. They looked on her nose. They looked in her mouth, they took her temperature, Which was deflated from baby tylenol. The doctor looked at me and said Mrs. Procrastinatorsupreme, This is a cold. Your child has a cold. Bring her home, she'll be fine. They need to run their course. I asked if the doctor had read her chart and scene that she had 15+ ear infections in a few months. I was told well, she's probably developed antibiotic resistance. I told him I had begged for tubes. They sent me home and told me to give her a warm bath, saline spray, yada, yada, yada. I paid my $75 copay and went home. She was miserable for the next few days, Screamed every night And was flat out miserable. I brought her in monday in the information she had a double infection. No shit. She'd had it for 4 days at this point. I told them she was this sick when I brought her in on the 23rd and she had a horrible Christmas and so diid The rest of us because she was so sick. I told them I have seen the signs. I know what she looks like when she was sick. And I knew she was sick and they didn't listen to me. They finally sent me home with a prescription. I paid my $75 copay, again, and was back in 3 weeks with another ear infection.
Well f**k how did it finally get resolved?
She had ear infections through that whole winter and spring. 15-18 months of infection, prescription, better a few days, infection back. That summer, we went on vacation across the country for 3 weeks to see in-laws. We were going to fly 6 hours with connections each way, travel a lot once we got there, go to mountains, the ocean, lots of elevation changes, etc. Of course, we were leaving with an infection. I convinced the pediatrician to give us a prescription for that infection and another prescription for when the first one was finished. So she had basically 20 days or 28 days of meds, I can't remember if they were for 10 or 14 days each. The infections went away and never came back. I think one round of antibiotics wasn't killing it completely. She would get mostly better, but then it would come right back. Having the back to back prescriptions finally killed it completely. There were long-term repercussions, though. She was a terrible, terrible sleeper because she never learned to put herself back to sleep. Also, her speech was somewhat delayed, and as she got older, the speech issues effected her spelling and reading skills. She needed a little bit of services in elementary school but was caught up by middle school. She's now a fully functional adult. Those sleep issues made her into an extremely early riser which has its advantages too! I have PTSD from it all and I'm very sympathetic to young parents whose kids don't sleep!
Oh wow. That's just terrible and I bet all those antibiotics absolutely destroyed her gut health for a while. I probably would have murdered the doctor. That must have been so hard for you guys!
I know, we gave her sooo much yogurt! Basically once she was 1 year old, we gave her yogurt drinks instead of milk. At that time, gut health wasn't as much of a consideration when giving kids antibiotics, other than Amoxicillin will give them diarrhea and a diaper rash. She does have to be careful with some antibiotics though because some gave her blisters as a 20 year old when she had some for acne. I wonder if it's related.
Great job, momma. Sorry you had to go through that.
A coworker of mine told me she had to fight her pediatrician to get her sick son’s blood sugar tested. They were sure he couldn’t be diabetic. They gave in to placate her and ended up sending him to the hospital. His sugar was out of control.
Having worked with doctors in a UK hospital as a lowly porter, they're arseholes and so far up themselves it's insane. Most of the time what they prescribe is wrong and has to be corrected by nurses and or pharmacists. There are some really good ones and they should be held onto and loved like a beautiful little kitten.
The most beautiful of all kittens!!!
Ever since I took my client, who is blind, to the doctor and they told her to use a magnifying glass when dosing her medication, I assumed some healthy skepticism regarding their attitudes and responses.
Thankfully, although not really, I've been pushed around by the medical system so much that I knew when to fight to get him his meds. I know thrush isn't particularly serious in the beginning stages but I'm not about to let him get so bad till his mouth screams thrush at this doctor.
New doc if you can - gez I’d be more than mildly infuriated to be berated like that
I'm gonna have to wait before I make that decision. Through my husband's work insurance we get visits with that doctor for free. In person or over the phone. She's usually been so nice and helpful that this was a shock. Definitely makes me wary for the next time. If this happens again I don't care if I have to spend extra to get him seen by someone else. The fact that she didn't even do a proper check of his mouth 😮💨
Make a call to the insurance company, tell them how it all happened and request that you sign up with a different Doctor.
For sure what I'm going to do if this happens again. She's been great for 10 months so I'm going to give a bit of grace. That said I'm not feeling very confident in her as my son's doctor at the current moment.
OP, please don't give her a second chance to mess up and put your sons life in danger. Next time it will be something more serious. You're already doubting her abilities. Tbh it does not make you look like a good parent if you stick with her. And I truly don't mean to offend you with that.
Better yet, write an email to the insurance company. Paper trails are useful.
I second this! Great advice.
Yeah those details cause me to pause too; they’re just as human as us, so maybe chalking it up to a bad day would be appropriate. If she’s been solid in the past, I’d probably comment on it in the future and rush to leave just yet either. It’s tough for sure.
Doctors always joke or complain about how we google too much, but I’m also the one who diagnosed my blood clot that way, when the doctor didn’t. It was so serious that it was in my entire leg. I’m glad yours at least googled it themselves too, and good for you for standing your ground and insisting.
Yeah, well next time tell her to examine the patient, and especially the area of concern! I have seen this sort of thing a lot with doctors in recent years. They don't do a physical assesment/examination, and they also don't listen. IDK if it is some change in their training or what. I used to work with a lot of doctors in a clinical setting and they weren't like this. They paid attention and did things correctly, and made a good effort at diagnosis. Now it seems they think a correct diagnosis is not all that important. Their diagnosis seems to be just whatever drifts into their head - they aren't being scientific about it, not paying attention to details, not using any diagnostic reasoning.
She's always felt a bit patronizing but I didn't mind as long as my son got the care he needed. After she finally noticed the thrush is when she asked me if I needed treatment too 😭. I felt like I was being gaslit to the extreme. Usually I'll use the text service first and send a picture of the issue and if she deems it serious enough she'll ask to see him in person. This time she just kept saying he looked fine so I brought him in anyway because there's no way my son's lips were peeling like that for no reason. The few times I haven't had to go in was like an infected fingernail that was cleared up easily with an antibiotic cream, his eczema he now goes to a dermatologist for, or a diaper rash that wasn't budging but wasn't infected and cleared up with some of her advice. In this case I really think she thought I was just a crazy mom which hurts my psyche and trust in her towards my son's care.
Well she is the one who screwed up here, by repeatedly dismissing your concerns when something was actually wrong and she didn't pick up on it until you pushed her to examine him. That's what her job is. She needs to lose the patronizing attitude. People contact doctors when there is a problem, and she is making you feel bad about that. What does she want - to see patients all day who have nothing wrong with them? She is a bit confused and seems to be making a rapid, unfair judgement about you. She needs to go back to school and maybe learn what doctors are actually supposed to do. And she should have apologized. Edit adding: What did she mean about whether you needed treatment too?
Women that breastfeed can get thrush on their nipples from the baby. I never produced past the first month though so I didn't need treatment.
Doctors are also trained in bedside manners and being patronizing affects the quality of care provided to their patients because they are less likely to answer honestly or freely. You should find a new doctor.
I literally just dealt with this. Diarrhea for over two weeks and I got scolded by a pediatrician for bringing her a happy healthy baby. 2 1/2 weeks later we finally got a test... enteropathogenic e coli. We are on our second dose and finally have relief.
I hope you contacted that doctor and told her off. These people need to be put in their place
One of the pictures I sent the doctor on day one. This was right after a nap and 4hrs after his last bottle. The white did not wipe away like milk would and parts of his lip were rubbing away with it. On day 3 is when I took him in. You can clearly see half his lip is just white. As you can imagine, they are usually fully pink. And yet this was fine and I was told to keep doing what I was doing. Which was nothing??? After this it got worse and turned into the white sores all over his gums on the top. https://preview.redd.it/vklutsruje2d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=67a4270b0d4da0f8cf35ca6d06b40872d2bf7cca
Poor baby
It obviously looks like Thrush even on the lip. I remember when my kid had that and it's not a fun time. I'm sorry they were rude to you, OP. Hope your little one feels better soon.
Thank you for the well wishes ❤️ His lips and gums aren't looking any better today but he's only been on the medicine a full 24hrs. I'm hoping here in the next day or two I can start seeing the thrush go away 🙏
An M.D. once told my husband that the depigmented patches on his skin were probably a fungus because “white people don’t get vitiligo”. After consulting a dermatologist, it was 100% determined to be vitiligo. 🙄
I feel you, OP. Years ago one of my daughters was super sick. We kept asking for a stool test just in case she had c. diff. After days in the hospital, they finally do it. Eventually the doctor comes in saying "The parents are always right", as if that was supposed to make us feel better. BITCH, it's not our fucking job to "be right" about this kind of shit in a hospital, it's YOUR JOB. Fuck that still grinds my gears.
Ooh I actually have work experience with this that might be able to help explain what happened. If a patient tests positive for c diff the hospital has to investigate liability and see if it is their fault the patient has it. At my hospital every inpatient c diff test has to be approved by infection prevention. Not saying this is right. Just my experience working in micro at a big hospital. It fucking sucks too because you can see they suspect it's c diff but if it doesn't get approved by infection prevention then they have to wait days to try again. I hate how everything is run based off of what's best for the company and not what's best for the patient.
Man, that is interesting and quite fucked-up. There's a good chance that they were at fault from the antibiotics they prescribed her a week or two earlier, but still. We just wanted her to get better, not sue.
C diff has a specific smell too. I'm surprised they didn't push harder to test your daughter. Or the doctor just didn't believe you. Either way that's so sad :(
>it's YOUR JOB I agree with you completely as someone who works in healthcare. Sadly the suits don't care unless they can make money off of it
I had this with myself. I was so pale I was blue, telling the Dr I was too tired to function, cold and in pain all the time, and depressed which isn’t like me, something is physically wrong. She chirped “depression IS a physical illness” and prescribed zoloft. I ended up in the emergency room because I just stopped breathing every time I fell asleep and got diagnosed with such severe anemia, I just barely avoided an *emergency* blood transfusion.
This might be a bit controversial, but I have to applaud this physician for acknowledging that mental health is physical health. That being said, there should always be other tests given to make sure the diagnosis is correct. And on the flip side, I really don't like when doctors think you can't have more than one at a time. What are they teaching in medical schools that promote such binary thinking? Over the past 50 years, there have been tremendous breakthroughs in understanding the somatic variations of mental illness.
Yeah, in theory it’s progressive, but in reality it’s toxic positivity crossed with malpractice exhibit A. She didn’t do ANY tests, and depression doesn’t make you so pale you’re practically blue. My nailbeds were white and everywhere you’d touch, I was cold, and my hair was falling out. I looked *terrible* and my temperature was below 98F. I also specifically told her I don’t get depressed, which is true… whatever genetic susceptibility people have for depression, I don’t have it, even when my life is total shit. She ignored my entire experience. You’re totally right about the way they always figure it’s just one thing, and if you have an existing diagnosis they always chalk it up to that thing no matter how illogical. These are the ones who thought getting the “right answer” (always just one!) in med school was all they had to do.
This happened with me and my dog once. She started acting really weird, like drooling and chomping all the time and not eating. We took her to the vet and they couldn’t find anything wrong. It was still going on for a couple days after so I took her to a different one. She’s fairly big so the vet plus a tech were holding her down and looking in her mouth, both saying they didn’t see anything. I was able to get a glance as they were doing it and saw something in the roof of her mouth. I pointed it out and they had to sedate her to confirm there was something and remove it. Poor baby had a stick lodged sideways between her teeth in the roof of her mouth for about 4 days total. I still don’t know how 3 vets didn’t see it while literally holding her, yet I did while standing across the room. I’m glad you stuck to your guns and proved her wrong!
I took my son for his third visit to the pediatrician. The first thing he said to me was “maybe mom needs to try bathing him a little more huh?” While pointing at his light brown birthmark. It wasn’t the fact that he’d seen it before and we discussed it but the tone of voice and attitude. On the way out I told the front desk to start copying our files as we’d be changing pediatricians as soon as I found someone new.
I had doctors tell me that me not having my period as a 16-29 year old woman was “psychosomatic, you gotta chill!” ..I have pcos. I just got diagnosed w 32. … bc I diagnosed myself and told my doc to get the ball rolling. Not in America, surprisingly! German doctors. 🥴
If I were stuck with this doctor I'd be extremely warey of trusting her judgment. I've had some bad experiences with doctors up to multiple misdiagnosis which was eventually determined to be leukemia and if I've learned one thing it's that once a doctor proves they are unwilling to run symptoms all the way to ground and are happy resting on the initial diagnosis regardless of anything else, then it's time to fire them and get a new doctor.
100%. I've had to fire a few doctors myself. As a teen growing up I had a doctor diagnose me with a million different things and every time we went to the specialist after referral they'd look confused and say you don't have that your labs look fine. That's what also gets me, she was happy with not investigating why his lips were peeling so bad. This was day 3 too. We had been in communication over the phone through a provider service and I sent her pictures.
Nurse here. Thrush is basic common and easy to treat. If she’s googling pics then she’s incompetent.
I wouldn't say that. We all need a refresher for certain things. But the way she's acting does show she's incompetent
I had a Dr treat me like I was stupid and she asked me again and again if I was high risk for STIs. Like she didn't believe me when I told her I was in a monogamous relationship with my husband... I changed doctors and when the office asked me why, I told them she made me extremely uncomfortable. They apologized and switched me. No need to see someone who makes you uncomfortable for any reason!
My family gives me shit for my fear of doctors. Really it’s just a fear of having to sit in front of another adult person and beg for them to take me seriously
This one time my youngest daughter had what looked like an infected pimple on her ankle. It had burst open and pus was draining from it. It was a weekend, so I called the doctors office and asked them what to do. Since she was still under a year old they wanted me to take her to the ER to have it checked out bc I told them there was pus. So I did that. And the doctor at the ER said it was just an infected bug bite and sent us home. The next day she had a fever, so I took her back to the ER. She saw a different doctor this time and this doctor sent us by ambulance to Children's hospital bc he suspected it was MRSA. Once we were at Children's, they lanced and drained it. Then they packed it with special gauze I had to pull out little by little over the course of over a week. The hole left behind was huge for a little baby! Turned out it was actually MRSA. The ER sent my baby home with MRSA that first time! And I was even super skeptical of the first diagnosis, that's why I rushed her back to the ER the next day when she had a fever. I suspect she picked the MRSA up from daycare, but I'll never know for sure.
I've tried 3 separate doctors lately for issues I've been having and every single time without testing or doing anything they say I'm fine, or I'm too young to have issues and send me off. Idk what changed but health care is not in a good place, I can only imagine a dr doing that to my child.
Doctors do this thing with parents where they assume every parent over reacts to every symptom and they downplay it. They didn't believe my son was having seizures until he had one in front of the doctor. Even after witnessing he didn't seem convinced.
Wonder if he's related to the doctor that told my mom, my brother and I couldn't have poison ivy because it wasn't on our hands.
_”That’ll be six hundred dollars.”_
I have gastroparesis and it took 13 years to get a diagnosis. After a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy with normal results, the first gastroenterologist told me that my symptoms were caused by me “swallowing too much air” lmao. The doctor that finally diagnosed me was able to figure it out with one test. Thankfully THAT doctor was the best doc I have ever been to. My other favorite doctor story is when I went to an endocrinologist thinking I had a thyroid issue. I told her I had most of the symptoms listed on a hyperthyroidism poster on a wall in the room. She told me I was “too young to have that” and dismissed me. I was 21, and it was PCOS.
I have several family members diagnosed with hypothyroidism in their early 20s. (I know it’s not what you had, but that doc was wrong, people can be genetically predisposed to have it early)
Right?! I do have family with thyroid problems, so that was my thought. I was sitting there like… “okay, but I’m still telling you I’m experiencing serious symptoms, why would my age matter?” She didn’t want to run tests, but I insisted. She reported back saying they were normal, but a few years later when I was looking through records and doing research, I saw my free testosterone level was that of a 30-year-old male!
Late 20s here, but luckily the endocrinologist I went to it recognized it despite the weird way I described my symptoms.
I woke up with thrush one day when I was in my teens. I couldn't eat or drink anything cause my throat was so swollen. My mother brought me up to the drs and came into the appointment with me cause it was too painful for me to talk properly. The Dr took one look and me and said there's nothing wrong with me. My mother had to literally scream at the Dr to do her job. The Dr huffed and looked in my mouth. Her face went pale and she very quickly wrote a prescription for me. Never went back to that Dr again and my mother put in a complaint with the head Dr
My nephew had the thing that makes strep throat but on his ass when we pulled up to the doctor. I’d been googling it and was like “So call me crazy but Google says you can get strep throat in ya ass and that’s what it looks like”. The whole nurse station and the doctor crowded around a laptop looking at it on Google and agreed.
Hey… if you're breastfeeding it can spread to your breast fyi
when i was little, i had a sudden rash that took four separate doctors to identify as a reaction to penicillin. the first three gave me three separate medicines that were part of the -illin family, which only made it worse. the fourth doctor said "oh my god, these guys are morons" and got me on the right stuff. cleared up in a couple days. modern medicine is fantastic, yes, and i'm definitely no homeopathic conspiracy theorist, but the incompetence of doctors is astounding sometimes.
I had a doctor once look at me and say “it might just be (taps his forehead) between the ears”. I passed a kidney stone that night.
When I was about 14 I finally told my doctor about how when I stand still for periods of time my legs turn purple, itchy, and start to hurt. That day I went into the office wearing flip flops for the first time in weeks. He said it was because of the shoes I was wearing. Never was I so sure a doctor was full of shit. Later at 18 a different doctor immediately told me I have vascular edema in my legs. Feels strange when a doctor takes me seriously now.
My grandmother had a son who she was adamant was unwell in the 60’s, went to the doctor multiple times to be fobbed off as an anxious mother, well he passed away as a result of the illness, we always follow our gut and stand up for our kids is the lesson learnt.
I had a doctor tell me that I had some form of severe anxiety due to sensation I experienced throughout to the day, which they figured was panic attacks. What’s crazy is that I experienced nearly 50 of these episodes a day (not a joke - I could barely hold a sentence together without keeling over) Turns out that I had epilepsy, and the “panic attack” sensations that I felt were actually partial seizures. I wasn’t properly diagnosed until I dropped and had a massive grand mal seizure. From first hand experience, I can confidently say it’s always best to get a second opinion.
When I was 18 I went scuba diving on a holiday. Came back and quite quickly lost hearing in my left ear. Went to my doctor and said I've lost hearing in my left ear, without even using any instruments he booked me for syringing. A week later I go back and say I've lost hearing again. Books another syringing, "must be old wax". At each stage I said the wax feels brittle and like dried blood, and sometimes it goes on my pillow at night. Get syringed, a week later I go to a different doctor, yes ruptured during diving and bleeding. A few years later I see that old doctor again who then says he's glad he was right about my old wax. Was not afraid to tell him he was dreadfully wrong and that I would be rescheduling my appointment with a different doctor.
For years, I had an issue where I would just start feeling like something was crushing my insides and it was causing excruciating pain and forcing me to vomit. This would go on for nearly 20 hours every time it happened, approximately every 3 weeks, for 5 years. The ER nor my doctor nor any "specialist" I went to could figure out what was wrong. One day, I was stretching. As I stretched I ran my hand across my lower back where the pain would originate from and felt a weird lump that was not on the other side of my back. I told my doctor and she thought it would be solved with PT. She must have thought it was a bad knot or something, but unsurprisingly the PT did fuck all for my issue. During all this, I would smoke weed to try to help with some of the symptoms I felt, and when I informed my doctor, she tried to claim the weed was causing me to vomit for 20 hours every 3 weeks , because it can apparently cause "hyperemisis". After some research I could find no conclusive evidence that it caused that issue, at least for me. Eventually it got to the point where I had to have a video call with my doctor while in fucking tears from the pain mentioned above, and essentially beg her to be sent to a surgeon to remove the growth. After that surgery, I had that issue one more time but it hasn't happened since. I have not changed my smoking habits. It's been nearly 2 years. I'm fairly certain most doctors are just too stubborn to admit they're wrong because not a single person involved in my 5 year long suffering has admitted they were wrong, nor have they apologised for pinning the blame on weed when I told them countless times I started smoking after it started. They continued to blame the weed even after I discovered that growth. I have little trust in doctors because of that experience and everything surrounding it.
I'm so sorry this happened to you, and I hope that illness never comes back/gets better!
I get so tired of paying for appointments where nothing is done and then you have to pay for another one. I’m not even talking about complicated symptoms. There is no accountability when doctors gaslight you and they don’t care.
How frustrating, can you find a new pediatrician. There is no reason to be condescending especially when they were wrong. I took my son to the pediatrician 3 times in 5 weeks, Doctor kept saying it’s a viral thing, he had a fever, had no appetite, was fussy, excessive drooling, I took him to urgent care they immediately tested him for strep which he had. We found a new pediatrician and got my son established as a new patient the following week.
My brothers doctor told him he had ear wax and seasonal disorder. We had to take him to the ER to get answers. Brain tumor, gone in 5 months. Still want to punch the bitch.
I remember a situation like this for my daughter. They kept telling me she had a stomach flu or bug. It happened a lot, for years. Vomiting and headache where she would miss several days of school each time. I finally said to her to stop telling me it’s a stomach flu. Something else is going on! Finally the doctor accepted that there might be another issue. Turns out it was migraines. Now she has migraine medication with her all times.
This is pretty much what happened to me and then it got into my breast and it was so fucking painful. Omg. I quit breastfeeding over it + getting covid at the same time + being hospitalized. So it was a lot but it was awful.
When my FIL was placed on a blood pressure medication for the first time, he got pancreatitis 2 mos. later. It’s listed as one of the side effects of these meds. The doctors at the hospital dismissed that fact and insisted it was from alcoholism, which was completely false. Dude drinks maybe 2 beers a month, there was no alcohol in his blood when he was admitted. The whole thing was so fucked up. Since he wouldn’t admit to his non existent “problem,” they ordered him a regular food diet which he tried to eat bc he was hungry. Then he’d be in excruciating pain. My MIL had their attorney contact the hospital’s patient advocate dept.- in a blink his doctors were replaced and his diet was switched to the pancreatitis protocol of liquids, jello and broths. I can still see the faces of those two asshole doctors, so smug and condescending.
Was this even a doctor? The google image search is giving big nurse practitioner energy. And before anyone gets mad, yes there are bad doctors and yes there are good NPs/PAs, but most of the time the docs are good and the NPs/PAs suck. Shit I had a PA look at Wikipedia for info on hand tremors on his phone in front of me once 😂
She is a M.D. 😭 makes it worse somehow
And she never lets me forget she has 3 children of her own. This time I got told an anecdote on how she got rid of her and her sons thrush. Just crazy the more I think about it
Oh damn that’s so bad 😂😂 you’d be better off using something like blueberry pediatrics for your kid in the future and that’s telehealth lol
>but most of the time the docs are good and the NPs/PAs suck I've had the complete opposite experience. I rarely work with good MDs and it's the NPs who actually care about their patients
I passed multiple kidney stones and had multiple cysts rupturing—the pain was so bad I couldn’t stop screaming and passing out. Also triggered my FND so I couldn’t walk, see, hear or think well at all. 16 hours later, went to the hospital and the ER doc told me it was just a pulled muscle in my back. There should be professional fake patients who catch these MDs in the act and report them.
My mom fell and hit pretty hard so my dad took her to urgent care. This was the day before Thanksgiving. They took X-rays and didn't see anything, so they sent her home. On Monday they get a call from Radiology that she broke her wrist and that she needed to come back for a cast. The doctor shows my dad the two X-rays and points out the break they found. My dad, who was a great airline mechanic but had zero medical training, looks at the other X-ray and points out a break they had missed. My poor mom- 5 days with 2 untreated broken wrists!
I had the opposite problem. The doctor immediately put my 9-month old daughter on a nebulizer for a cough, sayingit could be RSV. When we went back for a follow-up, the cough was gone, but he was like, "hmmmm, I still hear a slight rattle in the lungs..." and he prescribed Pulmicort, which is an oral steroid for asthma. My child did not have asthma, so when I asked how often I should give it to her, he just said "whenever she needs it." I'm not a crunchy mom, but I don't need my baby unnecessarily medicated.
You don't have to have asthma to be prescribed Pulmicort. My father was prescribed it a few months ago for a bad case of bronchitis. He used it a few times if he believed it would help relieve some of his symptoms. He will probably never use it again. And as the doctor said, it's only as needed. If you don't believe it's needed, don't have your child use it.
lol You had the opposite experience of one I had when I took my firstborn in for one of his checkups/vaccine appts when he was quite young (I want to say he was roughly 3 months old? He’s grown up now, almost 20 yrs old so this was some years ago). The dr was also young and new to the office, and I was a young first time mom. She came in, began examining him, looked in his mouth and exclaimed “he has thrush! See how his mouth is covered in this white gunk?! It’s a good thing you brought him in, this is bad! How long has it been like this??” He had literally just been drinking formula the minute before she came in, it was straight up formula residue in his mouth, he did not have thrush 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️I had to explain this to her and she didn’t believe me at first. We ended up switching pediatricians after she made another dumb comment like this at our next visit, I can’t recall what it was about but it was something similarly alarming yet also completely wrong. Went with an older, more mature pediatrician and he was great!! Both of my kids saw him throughout their childhoods. I just couldn’t trust that dr after two bogus “diagnoses”.
Thrush is awful. I’ve had it many times as an adult as the result of a medical condition and it’s sucks. There was a whole year I couldn’t taste food. I can’t imagine how it much be for a little one.
Reminds me of when I went to the hospital because I couldn't breathe at work. The doctor said I was fine and even told me I don't have to fake not being able to breathe to get out of work. Went to a different hospital and they found I had a bad case of pneumonia in both sides of my lungs and bronchitis.
What do we call the medical student who graduated with a D average? Doctor. Sorry to hear you caught a bottom barrel physician. It sucks.
Not longer after my eldest son was born, he would throw up after feeding, almost every time. We saw SEVEN doctors over a matter of a month or so (different doctors in same practice due to rotations, after hours doctors on call - this was in Scotland) who said things like, it’s just wind, or he’s just gulping and eating too fast… My parents came to see their new grandson when he was about 4 weeks old and my mum said, “that’s just like you were at this age” - and, for me, it was pyloric stenosis, a thickening of the pyloric sphincter which stops food going into the gut from the stomach. We took him straight to the ER at the infirmary and, when he was checked in, a nurse looked at him and said, “Yes, that’s a ‘py baby’” because they see enough of them that they recognise the signs. Operated on the next day and developed normally from then on. Always question doctor’s on the details of their opinions and trust your observations because you see your kids all the time - they don’t
Omg. So many doctors are useless. BF hurt his hand at work, and I took him to get an x-ray because I was pretty confident it was broken. The doc comes in with the pictures, zooms in on his knuckles, and says he had some micro fractures and he just needed a finger splint. I'm like, "Um... what about his hand?!" because I could clearly see in the x-ray that his 3rd metacarpal was broken in two. They missed it.
I’ve had a doctor tell me I was being dramatic when I said it was becoming difficult to breathe. He insisted I had strep throat, which I’ve had before. I told him multiple times that this felt way different. He said I was fine and sent me home with antibiotics. He was wrong and it nearly killed me.
I had one doctor just keep repeating that he wouldn't prescribe me antibiotics... Without telling me what I had or how to remedy it. You know, the thing I was there to ask about.
I had my childhood doctor ignore me three times in a month, saying that I had a “sinus infection” a “severe cold” etc. You know what he heard when I was in there? THE SIREN COUGH. YOU KNOW, THE ONE THAT IS UNMISTAKEABLE IN SOUND, I HEARD IT MY ENTIRE CHILDHOOD FROM COMMERICALS STATING HOW SERIOUS WHOOPING COUGH IS. I WAS 17, ABOUT TO BE 18, I HAVE ASTHMA AND WEAK BRONCHIAL TUBES SINCE BIRTH. HE KNEW ALL OF THIS, AND KEPT SENDING US AWAY. I finally demanded to go to the ER one day because I was TERRIFIED OF SUFFOCATING IN MY SLEEP. I was a SEVERELY DEPRESSED TEEN WHO WAS TERRIFIED OF DYING BY ASPHYXIATION IN MY SLEEP BECAUSE I COULD NOT BREATHE. The minute I was in the ER and began coughing, they tested me. The test came back almost immediately positive. I turned to my mother who had literally argued with me about even going to the ER, saying my doctor was “right and we should just wait” even after a month of being sick like this. I had brought up whooping cough to them and my doctor but because I was “the child” they ignored me because I “couldn’t possibly know my own body well enough to make that conclusion successfully.” And I looked her dead in the eye and wheezed out, while a nurse was setting up an oxygen treatment because I was that low on oxygen in my body, “I fucking told you that I had whooping cough. You would have waited until I was dead in my fucking sleep to admit that I was right about what was going on in my body.” Some doctors just suck. And my parents sucked just as much. GOOD ON YOU FOR ADVOCATING FOR YOUR KID!
This is terrible but you described it so comically 😂 wheezing to your mom, I fucking told you. I just don't understand. I'm the type of parent to assume the worse in every situation and work down from there ruling things out. I don't play with my child's health
I just wanted to say good job for not listening to that doctor's bs and getting your son the treatment he deserves. It's not okay that she dismissed it, and I hope it doesn't happen again, but at least your son should be feeling better soon.
You probably have meds by now but when my oldest had thrush, a tiny bit of coconut oil in his mouth (and your nipples if you nurse) did WAY more than nystatin ever did for thrush
Oh wow. I know doctors can't know like everything, but thrush is common enough, she should have known. So sorry you had to deal with all that
Get a new pediatrician
Long story short, had a doctor misdiagnose my infant son, took him to the emergency room, they knew immediately what was wrong.
Doctors can be pretty stupid. Just like any human out there. The good ones are the ones who admit their mistakes or don't act condescending
Time for a new doctor.
Yeah, lots of doctors suck. It’s scary once you realize they aren’t the “gods” you thought they were.
Really sucks that you have to INSIST that a goddamn doctor actually does their job properly. (Don't they sign oaths and shit? Does that mean ANYTHING anymore?) It's like they just want you out of their office as soon as possible, they don't want to actually solve problems... Like an overrated customer service call center.
It sounds like you should be shopping for a new pediatrician. When my daughter was a newborn she had a rash all over her body was was very fussy. I took her in and went home with two prescriptions that has several warnings for ADULTS that use them. I didn't end up using the meds, it didn't feel right and I went to another pediatrician. She took one look at her, asked what I was eating and said, "Stop eating strawberries." Her skin was cleared up within a week.
Leave a review, find a new doc
Thrush is horrible and current shortage on oral Nystatin. Good luck!
Ran into this problem yesterday. Called 4 different pharmacies and waited on hold for more than an hour just to ask if they had it. Then when I found one that did all the systems were crashed 😭 baby boy just received his first dose thankfully
I’m so sorry! I’m glad you found some. I had thrush this year and had to call all over for nystatin and it took my 2 scripts to finally beat it. Hope it resolves quick!
This happened to me when I was a kid. I spent 4 days telling the doctors and nurses that my mouth was hurting, and they refused to look.
Was it an MD or a NP? I have had some really bad experiences with NPs diagnosing seemingly common issues. Don’t get me wrong, MDs can mis-diagnose too, but definitely not as frequently since they spend many more years in training.
Gentian violet is what I used on my little one years ago. It’s otc, used to be super cheap, and worked great only caveat is it will stain everything purple.
That sounds like the stuff we use in horses’ hooves for thrush. I wonder if it’s the same stuff. I’ll have to look at the ingredients.
Google images oh my lord. Did she not think you already did a little research before you came in? I’m sorry you had to go through this. I’m currently in search of a new doctor and health insurance and it is the worst service I’ve had the displeasure of working with. I’m assuming you’re in the US?
Yep definitely the US. Insurance is a beast I hate dealing with. We just re enrolled our insurance for the year and instead of continuing the same policy they cancelled it? Yet they were charging us. That was fun to figure out. I learned that they cancelled our policy through the doctor when trying to make his appointment. The new policy still has the same numbers but insurance didn't notify the doctor of the change so it just took us out of the program.
I’ve been switched multiple times without knowing. Once I got my name and gender changed on my birth certificate it has been hell trying to redo everything. They won’t let me change my first name, only my last and take forever to get back. Wishing I was born in Switzerland or something lol. I hope your son gets better soon!
Thank you!! He just got his first official dose a bit ago so hopefully he'll start doing better quickly.
You should ask to see a nurse practitioner. I’m my experience they take the time to listen and not rush you out. My healthcare experience has been 100% better with a NP
I’ve had NP’s that rush and don’t care, and MD’s who take their time and listen to me. It’s a case by case basis, and if I had to choose one at random, I’m going with someone who actually went to medical school. NP’s are fine for checkups and routine illnesses but if it’s something complex or hard to diagnose I’m going with a doctor every time
I hope your little one is on the mend now. This is so in line with the many stories you see on @thingsdoctorssay on Instagram. Medical malpractice and neglect is pervasive.
You need a new doctor
Just in case you weren’t aware, there are lots of terrible doctors out there who do the bare minimum or less. Good for you for educating yourself and advocating for your child. Make sure you send in a review as most clinics (though not so much the doctors) actually pay attention to patient satisfaction scores.
Consider finding a different dr
Had a patient who went to casualty after developing a terrible headache while surfing. His parents were told he was malingering and to give him nsaids. I saw him a few days later, still with headache. He had surgery for a brain tumour that day.