Doctor’s offices and hospitals are supposed to be spaces where patients feel safe enough to share their concerns and ask questions without fear of judgement…but that’s definitely not the experience these 15 people had on the worst day of their medical histories.
#15. It was all her fault.
“When I was about 4 I got diagnosed with child asthma, doctor told my mum it was her fault because she decided to have a child despite having asthma herself…”
#14. And underlined it.
“He asked me if I felt lonely
I said I don’t think of myself as lonely
He wrote down Lonely and underlined it.
Edit: Thank you kind strangers for gold and silver I’ll show it to my frien… oh.”
#13. Size isn’t everything.
“I went to get a lump on my groin checked out, and had to remove my underpants. The doctor started a whole speech about “size isn’t everything”, which isn’t what I went there for.”
#12. You should wipe better.
“Was having digestive issues I eventually learned were a result of my undiagnosed cancer.
Doctor suggested I should wipe better.”
#11. Move your toes!
“I woke up in the hospital and heard a nurse running out saying “he’s awake”. The Dr. comes into the room and tells me to move my toes. I ask them where I am and what’s going on, he just gets more insistent that I “move your toes”. I asked again where I was and that was going on , he almost yells at me “ move your toes”. I said I am moving my toes, and immediately he says “you will never walk again.” That’s how I found out I was a paraplegic at 21 years old. I had been in a single car wreck and was thrown 70-80 feet from the car and my vertebrae was dislocated and laying next to another one. I don’t remember the car wreck but that exchange with the Dr. Is burned into my brain, and that was 31 years ago.
Edit 1: Damn this blew up. Thank you to you all for your comments. I had a seatbelt on but went off a small hill next to the interstate after clipping an end of the guardrail. Flipped the car down the hill and seat and seatbelt gave way under the pressure and I went out the driver door window. My back collapsed around the door sill and dislocated one vertebra next to the one below it. I’m a big guy 6’4” and 235 at the time and the force was too much for the seat structure. I found out all these details over the next few weeks while I was in rehab.
Edit 2: Gold and silver thank you. Didn’t think this story would touch as many as it has.”
#10. Great birthing hips.
“My female doctor, now retired, once told me I had great birthing hips. I’m a male.”
#9. More like BADside manner.
“In the ER, about six months pregnant, with heavy spotting and no noticeable fetal movement. Idiot doctor is unable to find the baby’s heartbeat. Just looks up at me and says, “Yep, probably dead in there.” He couldn’t possibly have said it in a more casual, offhand manner.
Note: I delivered my son three months later, perfectly healthy.”
#8. I’m sure it’s not that bad.
“I’m sure it’s not that bad”
The intake nurse at the in patient psychiatric unit I was checking myself into after a suicide attempt following a sexual assault.
ETA: Thank you to folks who commented or PM’d me.
I am okay. I did a short stay at in patient and everyone else who worked there (and, honestly and maybe more significantly, everyone else who was also staying there) was kind, thoughtful, helpful, and seemed to be much better at their jobs.
This was about two years ago now. Things are better but not perfect. I think that sometimes, that is hard especially for people who are in my life: they seem to be waiting for a version of me that is “perfectly fine” and I am not sure she exists any more.
But it is better than it was, most of the time. Sometimes it is harder, or at least similar, but I am still here and sometimes, being “still here” is okay being the only success of the day. I have my work, I have my son, I have my circle of people who really stuck by me, and that’s a lot to hold onto.”
#7. You’re just fat.
“I had gained a lot of weight around my mid section a few years back, and my periods stopped. I was scared, young, and thought I was pregnant, but the tests came back negative. I went to a doctor to have myself checked out and she did some basic tests before telling me.
“There is nothing wrong with you, you’re just fat”
I already had some body confidence issues, but hearing it from my doctor, when I was trying really hard to get in shape, really hurt, I worked hard to lose weight, but my belly wouldn’t shrink, I was starting to feel really sick, and went back to the doctor, who again told me it was that I was just fat. I was crushed.
A year later I went to the hospital for something unrelated, and it was discovered that I had a giant Ovarian Cyst, about the size of a newborn. It was throwing off my hormones, making me gain weight, among many other issues. I have since lost weight and am feeling super confident now, but that doctor really messed me up for a long time.”
#6. We’ve gotta do something about your face.
“I went to get an earache checked and the first thing the doctor said was “Yeah so I’m gonna put you on some medicine for the ear but we’ve gotta do something about your face, your acne is absolutely terrible.”
Thanks doc.”
#5. That’s just what young women do.
“When I was in middle school until 10th grade, I would get violent nausea anytime I got hungry. It felt like my stomach was on fire, and I would miss a lot of school from feeling like shit (although I was a good student and wasn’t falling behind in any way). After a lot of fighting with my mother who accused me of exaggerating, she agrees to take me to a gastroenterologist to be checked out. Before agreeing to do an endoscopy, the gastro accused me of exaggerating because I was a teen girl and that’s just apparently what young women do, he suggested I was just making up these symptoms for attention, and then asked me point blank if I was lying about my pain level to skip school and suggested I had a mental health issue I was trying to cover for. I had fucking GERD and severe acid reflux, as confirmed by the endoscopy he reluctantly agreed to perform on me. Instead of letting it go, the gastro made a point of angrily telling me that I had “the stomach of a 80 year old man” and must have been intentionally eating in a way to fuck up my stomach.
I have a family history of stomach problems and GERD. I don’t understand why it was so implausible that my brother could have acid reflux at a young age, but I must be a hysterical liar when I claim to have the same symptoms in my teens.”
#4. They said we were acting hysterically.
“Wife took our 2 y/o daughter to the doctor because she was sick and her behaviour seemed to be changing. She couldn’t eat or drink. Our local doctor said that’s how kids are sometimes and just monitor her behaviour. As we were pretty sure there was something definitely wrong we kept seeing different doctors. Last one said we were acting hysterically and our behaviour were a problem. 5 days later our daughter seemed to had a seizure so we went to the hospital. Our daughter had a brain tumor and the doctor at the hospital said this should have been recognized sooner. He was astounded that we’ve seen 5 doctors all blaming us as parents to “just be acting up over nothing”.”
#3. They’re just sadists with newer magazines.
“Different kind of doctor, but a dentist (after poking that sharp piece of steel into my not dead yet gums)
“Oh come, on, it doesn’t hurt that much!” after I jumped and said “ow!”
I looked at him, got up and walked out.
I now have a very nice dentist”
#2. It’s all between your ears.
“It’s all between your ears” after missing at least one, but probably two crippling vitamin deficiencies by not ordering the right test. It took me two and a half years of thinking I was lazy and pathetic before I went to another doctor and got diagnosed.”
#1. You’re a dipsh*t.
“I just don’t know how you could be in so much pain being so young, I’m not going to be able to write you a prescription.” My response was, “You’re a dipshit; I came in because I was hurt at work, doing heavy construction.” I never asked for a prescription in the first place, I had assumed I was getting an xray to see if I had broken anything.”
Love yourself. And if anything like this ever happens to you, write a Google review and change doctors!
