I had a friend of a friend be forced to take (and pay for! Thanks America!) A pregnancy test when she had to go to the ER, despite her telling them she physically couldn't get pregnant because she is trans, I swear in some cases it's like they just don't listen to patients at all ðŸ˜
Sometimes this is a consequence of the chart being inclusive. If the patient is legally a female and is is coded as F in the EMR, even if they are labeled as trans somewhere else some order sets will automatically include pregnancy rule out. Yes this should be fixed
I think just "i dont have ovaries" rules it out (because if you have ovaries you could still get pregnant even without a uterus, which would be INCREDIBLY dangerous)
I think there are a lot of stupid patients, and a lot of ignorant medical professionals. And the competent ones on both sides are left trying to pick up the pieces.
If patients were always honest then I 110% agree. People lie all the time, and often don't even realize it.
Do you have any metal in your body? "No"
Okay, if you have literally any metal in your body this MRI may kill you, are you absolutely sure you have no metal in your body? "NO!, God you doctors are stupid..."
Okay, one last question. Have you ever been shot? "Yeah a couple years ago..."
Yeah, even as someone who has been forced to become very medically literate, I'm not infallible as a patient. I'm extremely careful with keeping records and preparing for appointments, but I still sometimes don't know things that are relevant. There are underpants that have metal in them. I happen not to own any, but years ago I almost bought some, and I realistically could've worn them to an mri without thinking about it. There are lots of little things like that that require a lot of general awareness and medical knowledge to catch, which makes them easy to miss if you don't know exactly what you're looking for (like, say, a list of questions to ask).
My mom had to ask for a different concoction (I'm sorry, I'm high, I can't think of the right word) to take before her colonoscopy after she got home because she discovered there was something she was allergic to in the ingredients list, and the receptionist or whoever got snippy with her because she didn't list that allergy on the form.
Of course she didn't. They asked for drug allergies. Splenda is not a drug, it is a food.
Yes, and you know that while some people will appreciate that info, others will get rude about you giving food allergies when they asked for drug allergies! Also in that vein, I'm allergic to adhesive, ESPECIALLY medical adhesive. On one hand, nurses generally hate me bringing it up because it's not what they're asking about, but on the other hand I almost always end up with some kind of non-necessary adhesive on me so obviously I want to tell them. Knowing when to share or withhold that information is hard and it's almost inevitable that someone will get mad but if you're allergic you don't have a choice!
I've also gotten odd looks for listing food allergies and it's like, yeah no I'm gonna be thorough as I can be, thanks. Especially with the overlap of banana and latex allergies, and dairy being used in absolutely fucking everything. And medical adhesive is absolutely a pain in the ass, discovering that one via being Internally itchy was Very Not Fun.
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u/mysocksareinsideout MakeshiftEmery Jul 31 '26
I had a friend of a friend be forced to take (and pay for! Thanks America!) A pregnancy test when she had to go to the ER, despite her telling them she physically couldn't get pregnant because she is trans, I swear in some cases it's like they just don't listen to patients at all ðŸ˜