#Shitty doctors

[antlerkitty]

My doctor:

“You have hypermobility and unstable joints causing chronic pain. You also have mild skin hyperextendabiliy. In the past I would’ve tested you for EDS but we’re just going to skip that and go to PT.”

“I know your heart rate rises way more than it should when you stand, walking up stairs is hard, and you have blood pooling, but we’re not going to test for POTS or orthostatic hypotension since it could just be dehydration. (Even though you say you drink a lot of water and need large amounts of salt to function)”

“I know you need a cane, and I fully support that, but I’m not going to try and figure out why you need it at such a young age.”

“This may all be because you’re female.”

“I think your chronic and very painful GI issues that make you feel like your intestines are on fire are actually just stress.”

[tiredoflyme]

My opthalmologist drove me up a fucking wall today. She kept wanting to reduce the magnification on my reading glasses because someone in their 30s shouldn't need something that strong. She kept saying that "shouldn't" and "age group" until I had to take a hard stance with her.

"I have osteoporosis, I've been through menopause, I've been sick with chronic illnesses since I was 15. My age group is irrelevant to my health."

She was annoyed with me I could tell. I'd seen another doctor in the practice last time as a fill in who was super thorough. For the followup, I requested that they switch that woman to my regular doctor instead. I don't deal with doctors who try to force me into the "normal" box and don't address my actual problems.

[disagigglebilities]

Pissed off the acute care doctor wrote I "had a history of somatic complaints". Like fuck off. Stop saying everything is in my head and actually look for the reason why and maybe then I wouldn't have a history of "somatic complaints"

[like-it-or-not-i-am-alive]

Tw: menstruation, vent post, parents.

Thinking about how when I was a teen, I had really painful menses. At times, it was so bad that my legs felt like they were tingling, and standing was difficult. I was sent home from school on a number of occasions due to vomiting during my menstruation.

Overall, a really shitty time.

Not only was I frequently told I was being over dramatic, that I just needed to "walk around," eventually restricted from going home or seeing the school nurse... But I was told because I'm trans, it shouldn't be an issue.

My mother told me on a multitude of occasions, "If you're a boy, then you shouldn't be having these issues, huh?"

"Boys don't have these problems."

I hold so much bitterness over the fact that no one ever took me to the doctor for my painful menstruation. My mother told me years later that she didn't believe cramps actually happened during menstruation because she had never had them before. She only began to believe people get cramps when she had some herself, years after I was now missing menses all together.

Sometimes, that bitterness of feeling pain that no one believed me for, out weighs being invalidated. Other times, like now, I see the whole picture and feel so much anger.

The same adults who told me my pain was a lie, told me I was just trying to get attention, or get out of school, are the same ones who told the doctors, "She has a really high pain tolerance, we just know something is wrong when she complains about the head aches!"

Why is it that no one took me to the doctor? Why is it no one believed me when I never complained about pain before? The years of perfect school attendance suddenly questioned when I couldn't stand up from the desk. Was it all for nothing?

Why is it that the people I was supposed to trust the most were the ones who never listened?

Maliciously never listened.

I was punished for having a body that I didn't ask for and feeling a way I couldn't control.

I'm allowed to struggle with my anatomy, trans or not. I'm allowed to feel pain.

To be told I wasn't allowed to express the physical pain I was dealing with because I am transgender is heinous. They laughed when they would say it. I don't care if they thought it was funny. It was a mockery, and they knew it.

I should have been given some support. I should have been given at the VERY LEAST a supportive pat on the back.

I could have dealt with the pain on my own if they had just given me the space to do it. Without the shame and mockery.

Just before my menses went away, they started to believe me. I guess because it had been years at that point.

Even though the only change was that they would let me go lay down rather than be forced to socialize or do their activities. It really made a difference. Sure, it was painful, I was sick and couldn't eat. But it was a million times better than being made to continue as usual and burden everyone with my inability to function.

It still irks me.

[pcos-and-endo-awareness]

What’s YOUR personal experience with these disorders? :-)

Hello anon! I know I’ve made this post before but it’s buried somewhere. So here it is! Buckle up folks!

I always struggled with bad periods. Heavy flow, horrific cramps, irregular timing. I just thought that’s what it is and everyone deals with it. I figured the pain I experienced trying to use tampons was all in my head, some psychological fear due to my religious upbringing.

It wasn’t until college that I realized maybe my experience wasn’t normal. Maybe people aren’t supposed to be in this much pain. Maybe something was wrong. My pain got to be so overwhelming that I went to the emergency room. After a rather traumatic experience, I was eventually told that I had ovarian cysts and one of them had ruptured, and just go to my OBGYN and take some Advil. (Great advice, wonderful care. /s)

PCOS was in my family history, and my aunts and sisters all struggled with it. My then OBGYN diagnosed me with it, but basically said the same thing as the ER nurses. Take some ibuprofen and birth control and get over it. A diagnosis doesn’t do anything.

I had another episode with cysts about two years later, after I was out of college. I knew what it was this time, and I knew they’d only tell me the same thing. Take Advil and stop crying. So I didn’t bother going to the ER, and I tried to deal with the pain on my own. My (much nicer) OBGYN monitored the two softball sized cysts on my right ovary, and said we’d just keep an eye on them until they went away. That worked for a while, but not for long. One night my mother insisted on taking me to the ER because I was practically screaming in pain. After another traumatic visit, I was, you guessed it, told to take Advil and go home. It was probably another rupture.

Except it wasn’t. The next day I visited my OBGYN for an ultrasound so she could see what was going on. I was called back later that night and told to come in for emergency surgery. The cysts were torsing my ovary and cutting off the blood supply. Very scary situation, I’d never had a big surgery before. I was rushed in for the laparoscopy. This procedure usually takes less than a half hour. For me, I was on the table over two and a half hours. The reason being, not only did I have two huge cysts, but I was discovered to also have endometriosis. The cysts and all my organs had lesions, and everything was fused together. My OBGYN had to scrape the extra tissue from all my organs, she said it was the worst case of endo she’s ever seen, and I must have the highest pain tolerance ever to not be screaming my head off all day long. It was during this surgery I lost my right ovary, dead from having no blood supply.

Recovering from that surgery took me six months. It was brutal and at times, humiliating. My insides were raw and my muscles felt like goo. The only good thing to come out of it was meeting my lovely physical therapist, whom I still talk to today.

Today, five years later, I still deal with PCOS and endo. I have it mostly under control with the depo shot and many other medications. But… I struggle to lose weight, I have high blood pressure, I have major chronic fatigue, I’m at risk for diabetes, I still have migraines and flare ups and GI problems. My health is always going to be a problem for me. I am always going to be battling my hormones. I am going to struggle getting pregnant, if I even can. I am always going to have the risk of losing my other ovary and going into early menopause. I can only pray that these two disorders don’t take away more from me.

[dopplerdora]

What is it with Mental Health people and ignoring everything you say?

Me: I have issues starting tasks that aren't related to motivation

Dr: I sounds like you have a motivation issue.

Me: It's not motivation. I stare at a blank screen for hours trying to make my body move. It's like a physical disconnect, where the signals wont send. I have motivation, it doesn't matter.

Dr: Medication wont do the motivation for you, you know.

Me: I don't care about medication I want to know what's wrong with me.

Dr: Well you sound like you don't have any motivation.

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THEM!?!?

[stardew-bajablast]

me: *literally peeing blood*

my doctor: have you tried being less stressed?

[synthsystemdid]

Cymbalta almost killed me and I tried to call to tell my doctor and the receptionist was just like okay we put it down in your chart as an allergy bye!

Like bruh??? Lemme talk to the doctor??? Get a replacement prescription of something else??? So I can oh idk still be getting treatment and not have to wait til my next appointment in November? Wtf?

[acefool]

Gotta love it when you reach out for help from multiple sources when you’re struggling and they just be like “Idk man take an online workshop”

[the-fiction-will-knit-the-real]

Yup, I had a psychiatrist literally diagnose me with ADHD, suggest Adderall as medication for it, and then immediately go into a 10 minute rant at me about how I "seem fine, but you better not be scamming me for drugs OR ELSE"

Dude, you're the one who suggested the meds, I've been seeing you for over a year for different meds and never once in that time did I ever mention anything about ADHD or stimulant meds. You're the one who diagnosed me with ADHD, you KNOW I'm not capable of that kind of long con

Immediately had to schedule an appointment with my therapist bc I was so distraught. The therapist was kind enough to go with me to my next appointment with the psychiatrist to try to work things out. The psychiatrist then gave another 10 minute rant to the both of us about how he wasn't sorry, anyone and everyone could be scamming him for drugs and he needed to make sure that didn't happen

Switched psychiatrists right then and there

The funny thing is that I ended up being the kind of ADHD person for whom stimulant meds didn't do a damn thing. Tried every dose of Adderall and then Ritalin increasing up until the new psychiatrist didn't think it was safe to have me on any higher dosage. And still I was falling asleep all day

And still have negative ability to executive function. But I've recently heard there are some non-stimulant ADHD meds so maybe I can try that and hope they work better

psa adhd gang, people recreationally using or abusing stimulants is not why they're hard to get, they're hard to get because doctors can be absolute motherfuckers with egos the size of saturn who like to play god with people's lives. if they didn't have the "drug seeking behavior" line to use as a tool to be a dick, they'd just say "tsk tsk you're obviously wrong about your own symptoms" a little more often than they already do. peace and love on planet amphetamines.

[freerangecatmilk-blog]

I get moments where my brain just makes who new ppl and scenarios out of thin air

"Dr. Fat-Penis is my father, call me Thicc"

Has been playing in my head for 2 weeks and I can't stop giggling

I'm 30

Ppl believe I know what I'm doing; I do not 💅

I have been imagining this person as a sorta Clark Kent with a lab coat and stethoscope, standing in a wildly too bright staged hospital room where he is taking off his glasses before he rails a twunk - also, this is just his stage name regardless of his work; his imbd is "Dr. Fat-Penis, Thicc"

[johnnyraine]

Rheumatologist Khalid Yasmeen MD

1260 E Almond Ave, Madera, CA 93637

This bitch and her staff are utterly disgusting. The complete disregard for her patients' well-being pisses me off so fucking much. Not only do her staff not do their job, but they are constantly losing paperwork. To make it worse, the fucking bitch doctor doesn't even reprimand her staff. She doesn't do shit about it. You can check her reviews, and the one-star ones literally mention her horrible staff!

She literally has been refusing to give my mother her medicine since May! Now, she decides to refuse to help her anymore!

There are so many shitty doctors in California, it's astonishing anyone manages to live.

[disagigglebilities]

Smfh my doctor still hasn't fucking finished my housing paperwork. I'm homeless you fucker. Just sign the damn thing. You literally prescribed me crunches because of my mobility issues, I obviously qualify.

[goth-maudra]

So this is still me, reading glasses, piggybacking on this from earlier this year. Different hair, same shit. Still getting refused treatment by Infectious Disease Specialists who never say why (it's good form to send a letter back saying why the patient was refused).

I honestly don't think my liver's got much more to cough up. Stage 4 non-alcoholic cirrhosis, it can't heal itself anymore. And the (finally!) Medication hasn't done a lot in 5 weeks.

I know to be patient. I'm furious that Dr. Cuntface spread all over my record(s) that I'm delusional, noncompliant, and require no followup. It's all in my head: direct quote. Had a complete psychotic breakdown after seeing her, thinking everything wasn't real. After 3 days I thought "now WAIT a goddamn minute" and I'm STILL in a state of Medical PTSD. My next appointment with the Aspergillus/Penecillium crap is in AUGUST, 1.5 hours away.

It'll be the 10th try. TEN. And don't get me started on my mental health service, me asking directly if they were holding my treatment hostage because of someone making a keyboard error last YEAR??? And they said YES.

There's so much more, and Christ. How do other disabled folx maintain their sanity with this crap?

So HEYYYY! WELCOME to U.S. Healthcare!

[nightndaydreaming]

In 2018 I went to the doctor for vomiting and stomach pain. I told her I had similar symptoms to my father who just had his gallbladder removed a couple years prior. The doctor kept telling me I was fat and needed to lose weight and it was probably just an ulcer. She prescribed 4 medications.

I didn’t get better and rapidly lost weight. I kept explaining it was probably my gallbladder. She didn’t listen and sent me to a gastroenterologist.

I told the gastroenterologist I thought my gallbladder was the problem. He told me I was fat and weed makes your stomach hurt and that was probably all it was but he would do an endoscopy.

Endoscopy came back normal, I was still sick. I brought up my gallbladder again and he finally scheduled a test.

My gallbladder wasn’t working and they had to remove it. I spent 6 months throwing up, ruining my tooth enamel, getting fired for missing work because the doctor wouldn’t sign any paperwork, and I was right the whole time.

To make it worse, I left a google review about the situation and the doctors office ARGUED with my review.

Long story short this is only a small fraction of why I don’t trust doctors

[stardew-bajablast]

people outside the medical field really think doctors are like these infallible savant geniuses. it’s actually kind of scary. doctors aren’t gods — they’re mostly just trust fund babies with poor social skills and at best, like, slightly above average intelligence.

i saw doctors refusing to mask during the pandemic. there were doctors that refused to get the COVID vaccine until it was made mandatory (and then complain about it being made mandatory afterwards).

i once saw a doctor accidentally smash a plastic suction tip into pieces inside a patient because he didn’t notice that it was wedged directly between the patient’s bone and the metal implant he was hammering into place. we had to spend an hour fishing out all the little pieces and reassembling them on the back table to make sure we retrieved all the pieces. in a different surgery, the same doctor broke off part of an instrument he was literally holding in his hand and didn’t notice until we took post-op ex rays, so the patient had to be wheeled back into the OR for a second surgery to retrieve the broken piece.

one doctor i worked with would constantly try to convince me to invest in crypto. then he suddenly stopped talking about it and would get annoyed if someone brought it up (guessing he fell for a pump & dump scheme and lost the money but I knew better than to ask him that myself)

was doing a surgery once using a set of implants that are sized 7-20 (i don’t know why the smallest size was a 7. would have to ask the people who designed the system). needed the size 9 instrument. the scrub tech hands it to him. says no, this is a 6. i say there is no 6, the size range starts at 7. he says this is a 6. i say he’s holding it upside down and if he turns it the other way, he will see that it’s a size 9. still doesn’t believe me. how dare i say he doesn’t know which way the number is meant to be read. i have the scrub tech hold it up next to the size 8 to show him that it’s bigger than the size 8 and therefore must be a size 9. he grumbles to himself a bit and then continues the surgery.

this is just a couple highlights. there were so many times working in the OR where i thought to myself “how the fuck is this guy legally allowed to practice medicine”. like pretty much on a daily basis

outside of working with doctors, i have also experienced this stupidity from a patient perspective too! i had a doctor who had prescribed me seroquel and when i later complained to that doctor that i had suddenly started wetting the bed out of nowhere, she had no fucking idea why that could be! I was the one who had to research it and literally on the fucking mayo clinic overview for seroquel it lists bed wetting as a known side effect. you can google “seroquel bed wetting” and find dozens of articles and papers about it. she was prescribing me medication that she herself did not even know basic info about

my point is you guys have no fucking idea how stupid doctors can be. educate yourself on your own health and advocate for yourself or find a new doctor if you need to. there are lots of great doctors out there but there are also a LOT of terrible ones. anyone who has worked with doctors or anyone who has a chronic illness will tell you this.