Why didn't you say so?

[u/TheNectarineDiaries]

Best medical advice I ever got was to bring a man to your appointments

[u/b00w00gal]

Got called drug-seeking once for asking the doctor to please listen to my lungs and not just send me home, after six weeks with a cough that wouldn't go away. Ended up in the ER three days later with walking pneumonia, wheeeeeee. 😭😭😭

[u/MimicoSkunkFan2 → u/b00w00gal]

My favorite is when it's some kind of women's issue they always tell you just drink juice and try to reduce your stress, and have you considered maybe losing another 5 lbs?

Like never mind that I'm within the normal weight range and it turns out I actually need two surgeries to fix what's wrong. Wankers.

[u/Farranor → u/MimicoSkunkFan2]

That's happened to me too and I'm a man. I don't know if it would need surgery to fix because I just gave up on fixing it.

[u/MimicoSkunkFan2 → u/Farranor]

I'm sorry but I have to doubt that you needed an gynecological surgeon, sir.

Find the doctor who'll fix your shit though my dude, life is too short to mess with "Graduate of the Obscure Sixth-Rate College of Medicine" type of doctors like that.

[u/Farranor → u/MimicoSkunkFan2]

😄 My bad, I didn't mean the same medical issue, just the generic medical solutions even though there may be an underlying issue that might call for surgery. In my case, trouble sleeping. I got several prescriptions for Trazodone (didn't help) before they listened to me saying I think it's a breathing/sinus issue, at which point I got a sleep study. Their conclusion: I don't have sleep apnea, but if I do have trouble sleeping, it's because I'm fat.

Both my dad and my sister have needed septum correction surgery.

[u/MimicoSkunkFan2 → u/Farranor]

Fair enough!

It's good they did to sleep study but it sounds like a lung / oxygen test might have been a better than worrying about snoring, because it's pretty well known that mild asthma can cause poor sleep... but because you're a guy, they assumed snoring not asthma. Sorry you got stuck in a gendered assumption with your doctor too!

And I hope someone can figure out a fix for you, chronic insomnia is fucking brutual (esp when you hit 45+ ouch)

[u/wazzup-notemuch → u/Farranor]

Yup. If you're even mildly overweight, doctors will blame EVERYTHING on being fat. You could break your leg, have the bone visibly sticking out of your skin, and they would still tell you to lose weight.

[u/TrulyOutrageous42 → u/b00w00gal]

It's absurd that this isn't just a form of malpractice.

[u/PixelOrange → u/TrulyOutrageous42]

I mean, it can be, but that requires doing a lot of work and money to report and sue. 

[u/b00w00gal → u/TrulyOutrageous42]

I filled a complaint with Kaiser that went nowhere; that seems to be the extent of patient power in America, tbh.

[u/Aadarm → u/b00w00gal]

It's worst if they put that you have drug seeking behavior in your medical history, that will follow you around forever and make every doctor after look at you differently.

[u/b00w00gal → u/Aadarm]

Yeah, that's what happened. When I went to the ER, the doctor there asked me about my "history of drug use." I didn't have that history, the first doctor straight up made it up. Thankfully the second doctor still treated me, but it completely wrecked my medical history.

I've had to explain why that note is in my chart to every doctor since, and I know they don't believe me. I've never asked for pain medication, not even once, but I can't get a doctor to actually do their job because one person decided to lie about me a decade ago. It's super fucked.

[u/futuretimetraveller → u/b00w00gal]

I have a cousin who was homeless for a good portion of her life. She went to the hospital multiple times for things like sore throat, fever, and pain in her muscles. She was kicked out almost every time for being "drug seeking."

It took her mother (my aunt) going to the ER with her for someone to finally take her serious, but even then, it was a struggle. She ended up having a seizure in the waiting room and nurses were saying she was faking it and were calling security to try and get her thrown out again. My aunt kicked up such a fuss about the way they were treating her and threatened to sue, and it was only then that the nurses would admit her.

My cousin was finally seen by a doctor..... and diagnosed with tertiary syphilis. If it was caught earlier she could have completely recovered, but now the damage done to her brain and organs will never heal and it likely will kill her.