Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories

Medical professionals are some of the most trusted experts out there. However, nobody’s perfect. Even the most skilled, sharp, and knowledgeable experts make mistakes from time to time. It’s only human. However, some mistakes can have extremely far-reaching and terrifying consequences for your health.
Some of the members of the r/AskReddit community spilled the tea about the worst medical misdiagnoses they have either experienced or heard about. We’ve collected their most powerful stories for you to read. Check them out below. Meanwhile, it’s a good reminder to always get a second (and maybe even a third or fourth…) professional’s opinion!

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Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories My 17 year old son had bloody stools for a few weeks. The doctor ran some tests and told him he was fine, to go home and eat Raisin Bran.

Turns out he had cancer in his colon (lymphoma), and it was very aggressive. He had to have emergency surgery that night. After the biopsy, the hospital called and said Good news! It's benign!

Three hours later, the doctor called and said Oops, sorry, actually it is cancer, and we have to do a colon resection, followed by a very aggressive chemotherapy regimen.

Freakin' roller coaster.

Edit to add: That was 15 years ago, and he's doing great! Complete remission :).

garenisfeeding , Jonathan Borba Report

Final score:

183points

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Sue Denham 2 weeks ago

Very happy to read that last paragraph.

90points

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Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories I started gaining 20 pounds a month and multiple doctors told me I was eating too much. By the end I could barely walk to the kitchen to get food or even stand up. I was down to less than a thousand calories a day and still gaining weight. I was finally hospitalized and it was end stage liver disease.

The first night I was in the hospital they stuck a huge needle in my abdomen and sucked out 10 liters of fluid. Over the next six months I lost 150 pounds of fluid 14 liters at a time once a week. I eventually had a liver transplant. I was not a drinker and there never was a diagnosis for why my liver failed.

blippityblue72 , Andrea Piacquadio Report

Final score:

178points

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Sue Denham 2 weeks ago

I hope you are well now.

64points

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Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories My sister is epileptic. Since her seizures also look like someone high on d***s our primary care doctor *and 7 separate neurologists* told my mom to send my sister to a d**g rehab to clean up, this is despite my mom videotaping the seizures. Neurologist #8 went “yep that’s a seizure let’s get you some meds” after 30 seconds of footage.

gothiclg , RDNE Stock project Report

Final score:

153points

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Deta Rossiter 2 weeks ago

this is just so sad.

91points

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Medical misdiagnosis is exactly what it says on the tin. It’s when a medical professional incorrectly diagnoses a condition or illness. It’s also considered a misdiagnosis when a doctor says that you’re fine when, in fact, you’re ill. And it happens far more frequently than you might think.

Misdiagnoses lead to inaccurate treatment. In turn, this has massively negative effects. The patient’s proper treatment can get delayed, and their actual condition can worsen. Aside from the physical and financial repercussions, there’s the emotional and mental toll to account for when an individual’s life gets turned upside down by false information.

Imagine, just for a moment, if your doctor missed a cancerous tumor early on. Or if they told you that you have cancer when it was some other illness wreaking havoc on your body. Not only could this potentially mean that you might lose your life, but if you survive, it would be incredibly hard to trust medical professionals in the future.

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories My aunt was told she had dementia. Turns out she was on 4 different (prescribed by real doctors) opioids and just whacked out of her mind all day for years.

Weened off opioids, no pain, no memory issues.

It’s seriously f****d up.

filteredaccess , Kindel Media Report

Final score:

153points

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arthbach 2 weeks ago

This is why it's important to have a pharmacist review your prescriptions every so often. They understand the combined effect of the medications far better than any doctor - that's the pharmacist's area of expertise.

81points

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Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories Apparently my asthma was anxiety despite having been diagnosed asthmatic as a child. I "outgrew it" when we moved and I was "just out of shape and needed to try harder". Finally in my late 20s I told everyone (including the GP) to f**k off and saw an asthma specialist who humored me. She did an allergy skin test and a challenge to test for asthma. I'm allergic to 40-50 of the things they skin tested me for, 10+ of them really significantly and failed the breathing challenge.
Anxiety. Yah- I was anxious I couldn't catch my breath and no one would believe me lol.

321lynkainion123 , Annie Spratt Report

Final score:

145points

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RAM31280 2 weeks ago

bobs-burge...c91ef0.gif

17points

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Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories I had the starting symptoms of tonsillitis. I knew it was this and I knew I was about to get so sick, I wouldn't be able to stay awake longer than 20 mins, let alone see the dr, so I went and asked for antibiotics. It's important to note that when I get tonsillitis, my entire body shuts down, all my glands come up, and I just sleep.

So I go to the dr, and he does an examination. Says my throat is only a little red atm, and feels my abdomen and feels a lump and asks if it hurts when he pushes it. I say it hurts a little but more like it's sort of more uncomfortable. He sends me straight to the ER with a note.

I'm in there for hours. My temp skyrockets to 42 degrees Celsius, I'm delirious, they are doing all these tests and I tell them it's tonsillitis. They don't believe me. They eventually think since the test came back inconclusive that I have appendicitis. The surgeon tells me he's the specialist, not me and this can't possibly be tonsillitis. They take my appendix. The surgeon then yells at me for having to come in at 9:30pm on a Tuesday night to take out a perfectly fine appendix. They then discover I do have tonsillitis

TL;DR: my appendix was removed bc I had tonsillitis and no one listened to me.

MissMurder8666 , cottonbro studio Report

Final score:

140points

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meeeeeeeeeeee 2 weeks ago

They can't just give out antibiotics because you ask for them though, you need to be already sick to get them not just feel something coming on

33points

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The AARP reports that according to the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, there are over 12 million diagnostic errors every day in the United States. A whopping third of them cause serious patient harm. It’s estimated by StatNews.com that the potential cost to the American healthcare system due to medical misdiagnoses can be as high as $100 billion per year.

Meanwhile, a BMJ Quality and Safety study found something eerily similar about the frequency of these situations as well. “Extrapolating to all diseases (including non-‘Big Three’ dangerous disease categories), we estimated total serious harms annually in the USA to be 795,000 (plausible range 598,000–1,023,000). Sensitivity analyses using more conservative assumptions estimated 549,000 serious harms,” the report states.

In other words, because of medical misdiagnoses, around 795,000 Americans become disabled or die. Every. Single. Year.

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories I was diagnosed with BPD and severe anxiety, along with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (basically seizures caused by anxiety and stress). I was having multiple seizures every day and had one so bad I wound up in the hospital after I couldn’t stop seizing for 15 minutes. The doctors thought I was faking everything because of the BPD diagnosis until they did an EEG.

Turns out I just have chronic high blood pressure, so high that it was giving me seizures. It’s been two years I’ve been on beta blockers and I haven’t had any attacks, and my BPD diagnosis was removed.

threadbarefemur , RDNE Stock project Report

Final score:

127points

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LB 2 weeks ago

This one is WILD

38points

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Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories I stepped in a hole in my yard and felt a "pop" and sharp pain in my foot. It went away after about 20 minutes. 3 days later, the pain came back, and progressively got worse over the next week until I could barely stand to walk. I went to see my doctor, he did the standard xrays and didn't see anything. Then he proceeded to tell me about a patient he'd seen 2 months earlier who had a similar pain in her foot. Upon examination, he determined that she had stepped on a sewing needle, punctured her foot, and developed an infection. Then he looked at me and said, "I'm pretty sure the same thing happened to you. You probably stepped on a needle and didn't know it. Here's a script for Keflex," and walked out. Before I go any further, let me make something clear. About 20 years prior to this, I had an anaphylactic reaction to Keflex and nearly died. It's in my chart in big bold red letters that I am not to be prescribed Keflex. So, I had to track him down, get him to change the script. Fast forward 2 weeks, after the round of antibiotics for this mysterious needle that attacks people's feet with no warning, I am in far worse pain than ever. I go back to see the doc, he says, "Well, the antibiotic just wasn't strong enough. Let me write you a script for Keflex,", and I just about lost my s**t with him. So, after a very terse conversation, I was off to the pharmacy for another 10 days of antibiotics. Fast forward another 2 weeks, pain is excruciating. Call the doc, he schedules me for an MRI to find the infection, as well as a bone scan to rule out a tumor (?). Bone scan comes back positive for a fractured bone in my foot. When compared to the first xray, it is obvious in both. So I went through 3 months of hell (first injury through recovery, boot, crutches, whole 9 yards) just because he had another patient at some point in his medical career who stepped on a needle and got an infection. The kicker is that if he had listened to what I told him during the first visit, that I had stepped in a hole and felt a pop and instant pain, this could have all been avoided.

Sparky3200 , Henrik Pfitzenmaier Report

Final score:

125points

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Mrs Irish Mom 2 weeks ago

I know alot of doctors are amazing at what they do but there are lazy doctors and they need to be told NO YOU ARE WRONG and stand your ground, something simular happened to me but i didnt let him tell me what i knew it wasnt

63points

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Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories Flu symptoms for months on end after being a very healthy, very active child until this point.

Thank god the nurse at the urgent care took one look at me and said "hey, what if we did a blood sugar test on this anemic, fruit scented, child-corpse?"

My flu was actually type one diabetes and I was going into keto acidosis and was so far along my blood content now contained acetate. My blood was literally nail polish remover. I went into a 4 day mini coma, had my first NDE, and then woke up to a whole new universe where pixi Stix and grape juice were illegal.

sylverkeller , Polina Tankilevitch Report

Final score:

119points

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Nikki138 2 weeks ago

I'm not making light of this scenario but that last sentence made me lol, seriously.

82points

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According to Professor David Newman-Toker, the director of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the most common misdiagnosed issues are ‘vascular events’ (e.g., stroke and heart attacks), as well as infections and cancer. He stated that around 30% of women are more likely to be misdiagnosed when presenting with stroke symptoms. Moreover, most misdiagnoses happen at the patient’s bedside.

It can also be very dangerous if you’re prescribed the wrong medication or the wrong dose for your condition.

Have you or a loved one ever been misdiagnosed by your doctor? If you’re a medical professional, how do you ensure that misdiagnoses happen as rarely as possible? Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

#10

My best friend was misdiagnosed with IBS when she was 35. She had vague digestive symptoms that had started about a year before. She had a colonoscopy, an endoscopy, then another colonoscopy, all clear. Then she began to lose weight without trying, while her belly stayed bloated. She went to see an OBGYN, who said my friend was fine, just a little "fat" on her abdomen. The very next day her new GP sent her immediately to a gynocological oncologist. She had stage III ovarian cancer. It took about 18 months of GI complaints to get a correct diagnosis. By the grace of the gods and the flying spaghetti monster, she is a 20 + year cancer survivor. Turns out, she has Lynch Syndrome, a familial cancer disorder

weird_sister_cc Report

Final score:

116points

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RAM31280 2 weeks ago

Upvote for a fellow pastafarian.

46points

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#11

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories Was told I likely had leukemia by an OBGYN. In the gap between my hematology appointment, I went to an urgent care and had them redo my bloodwork. Turns out I was just dehydrated. 6 years later, still looking good.

This was the same OBGYN that told me the cure to premature menopause was to get pregnant "as quickly as possible" instead of getting hormone therapy. I was 23 and (am still) a lesbian who isn't super interested in having biological children.

RedHotCherryShrimp , Los Muertos Crew Report

Final score:

115points

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arthbach 2 weeks ago

My goodness. I hope this is not a doctor you will ever see again.

64points

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#12

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories Definitely not the craziest, but this happened to me. When I was 12, I would get horrible stomach aches every morning, and would spend a lot of time in between getting dropped off for school and first period hiding the bathroom or just sitting in a hallway waiting for it to subside. I was late to class so often that it was seen as behavioral, and my adhd/depression meds, both of which I was already on, just got upped. Those are both legit diagnosis for me, so I guess no one thought to look into it further.

Turns out I have celiac disease and my body was just fighting for its life daily after my morning toaster strudel.

z0mbie_boner , Polina Zimmerman Report

Final score:

111points

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Ariom Dahl 2 weeks ago

Commiserations re the coeliac. I also have that but a totally gluten free diet has made my life good again. Best wishes for your GF future. We are fortunate nowadays to be able to get plenty of GF foods.

42points

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#13

All through high school and college, I had constant nose problems. They were diagnosed as sinus infections and allergies, so I was on every common allergy prescription out there. None of them ever seemed to make much of a difference, but that’s what the family doctor said.

I moved to a new city and went to a new doctor for something unrelated. I mentioned the long history of allergies and he asked if I’d ever had a CT scan. First time that had ever been suggested to me. I had it done and it showed that I had a severely deviated septum. One side of my nose had basically closed in on itself, creating a great environment for infections and making it harder to breathe. From the way it had healed, the doctor thought it was likely due to a broken nose when I was a kid.

I’d never knowingly broken my nose, but I’d had a bike accident when I was eight where I went over the handlebars and somehow got a cut on my nose in the process. I never quite figured out exactly how it got there or what it impacted, but was the only thing I could remember that involved my nose. There was no pain afterward or change in the exterior at all.

One quick laparoscopic surgery and a couple days with a very sensitive nose and it was like night and day. Over a decade of sinus pain, headaches, struggling to breathe during school runs and getting heckled about being out of shape or just trying to get out of it, and turns out I was working with half a functioning nose the entire time.

Second opinions are your friend.

Sporkicide Report

Final score:

108points

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Hill Branda 2 weeks ago

I had a similar situation. At 15/16, I started getting horrible, blindly-painful sinus headaches. I was told to take Tylenol Sinus. Well, I had to take it nearly every day. I told doctor after doctor and they would just give me antibiotics for a sinus infection and send me home. This went on until I was in my 30s. My health insurance was c**p and wouldn't pay for a specialists. My mother told me she would send me to a specialist, as a gift, so I wouldn't have to worry about the cost (stupid American medical system). Turned out, I had broken my nose really badly when I was a toddler and somehow, no one noticed. One side was nearly totally blocked. I had to have surgery to correct it. For years, I had been told I was depressed, a hypochondriac, or an attention whore. Getting that fixed made a huge difference in my life.

49points

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#14

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories My GP said I was probably just tired and diagnosed me with fatigue, during the next two year I lost the ability to walk and started shaking before I got diagnosed with Parkinson's.
He thought it impossible to be my age and get it so it never crossed his mind.

Edit: I had symptoms at 29 but diagnosed with Parkinson's at 33.

Mateba6 , Klaus Nielsen Report

Final score:

99points

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Roxy222uk 2 weeks ago

This GP had never heard of Michael J Fox?

62points

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#15

Every single thing that I have ever complained to doctors about have been because I was fat or faking it.

Appropriate-Toe-1332 Report

Final score:

98points

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Momma Jess 2 weeks ago

That sounds familiar

45points

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#16

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories Back in 2008 my dad was just “not feeling right” and hadn’t been for a long time. After two weeks of tests they told us he had aggressive Lymphoma and needed chemo urgently…and he’d be lucky to have another year.

One of the doctors who had run some of these tests disagreed with his colleagues and refused to sign off on the chemo, this was on a Friday and they wanted my dad to start chemo the next Monday.

Well the doctor who wouldn’t sign off was right, he ran some more tests and proved my Dad was just coeliac.

16 years later he’s still with us living his best gluten free life!

Lizzy_Tinker , Tima Miroshnichenko Report

Final score:

98points

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arthbach 2 weeks ago

Living a gluten-free life is annoying, but utterly wonderful for Coeliacs. It's a glorious relief from near constant migraines, stomach/digestive problems, brain fog, suppressed immune system etc. Getting the diagnosis felt like bereavement, but seriously, it has given me my life back.

35points

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#17

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories My 96-year-old father fell down outside the house and ended up going to rehab center for physical therapy. My brother came down to stay with my mom. My father was assigned a social worker. Social worker said they would not release my 96-year-old father to my 82-year-old mother. They needed 24x7 live-in care or a nursing home because he was too weak to live on his own.

The social worker says that from what my brother decribed, she has SEVERE dementia. She needs a cognative test and may need to be institutionalized in a locked down facility so she doesn't try to escape. So, my brother schedules a cognative test with her doctor. And we're now assuming my parents will be separated, which will just lead to a massive cognative decline and depression for both of them. I'm thinking they'll be dead within 6 months of this happening.

I drive up to relieve my brother and he heads home. We both have a long conversation about how we're about to ruin our parents' lives over the next 3 weeks.

3 weeks go by and we get to the point where they're discharging my dad, and the social worker asks my Mom "Can you help him get his shoes on and help him with his pants when he uses the bathroom if he asks?" She looks at the social worker and says, "I've been doing that for the last couple of years." And the social worker says "I have no concerns discharging him to her care." I'm sitting there going WTF?! I haven't slept in 3 weeks thinking I was kicking my parents out of their house and throwing them in a nursing home against their will and permanently separating them.

My brother calls me up and starts flipping out about the social worker and how she gave both of us an ulcer for no good reason.

And my mom passed her cognative test.

Obviously, they can't continue to live long-term like this. And they know that. But now we have time to properly research solutions and go over it with them, rather than look for the first available situation.

Now there's a home health aid coming in 2 days a week to check in on them. My dad is getting home physical therapy. They're together in their house, which is what they want.

I am so f*****g mad at the social worker right now!

plazman30 , SHVETS production Report

Final score:

95points

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arthbach 2 weeks ago

What a terrible thing to have to go through, but I'm glad they are establishing plans for the future. It's always better then path forward can be chosen rather than being forced along routes you don't want to take.

26points

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#18

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories My friend's doctor kept telling him his headaches were just stress. I said try my doc and get a second opinion. worst case your out $30 co-pay.... my doc sends him for MRI or whatever and it turns out my friend had survived a brain aneurysm. apparently it was close to the "surface" of the brain and those are more survivable than those deeper down.

monogreenforthewin , Anna Shvets Report

Final score:

94points

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Huddo's sister 2 weeks ago

My mum had intense migraines for 3+ days and was told it was just a migraine and given paracetamol. She ended up going to the Emergency Department where, after 6+ hours of waiting, she got an MRI and they found she had had a TIA (minor stroke). She had had the same symptoms moths before but it didn't last as long. The neurologist said it was highly likely also a TIA.

32points

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#19

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories Not me, but a friend of mine had a seizure at age 16 and had been taking keppra for like 15 years. She stopped seeing neuro since she hadn’t had a seizure in years; her PCP was prescribing the keppra."

"She started having seizures again out of the blue with disorientation and speech so slurred her boss started accusing her of being high at work. She finally got in to see a neurologist, who did an EEG and said she was fine, but increased her meds just in case."

"I urged her to get a 2nd opinion, as I was sure that sounded like a tumor with the sudden onset and breakthrough seizures with the increase in meds. Turns out, it was a tumor behind her ear."

"Second neuro referred to a neurosurgeon and she had to have brain surgery. Since then, she’s had no seizures and hasn’t been on any seizure meds whatsoever.

Fickle_pickle_2241 , cottonbro studio Report

Final score:

89points

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Hey! 2 weeks ago

Scary stuff.

10points

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#20

Dr sat my mother and I in a room and told us that my adult mentally challenged brother "will not be leaving the hospital and we won't know what killed him until his brain is on the autopsy table" .

10 + years and he is still using said brain. I told Dr it was the new meds they were trying, he disagreed , I insisted they switch him back, they did, he got better.

Curlytomato Report

Final score:

88points

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Green Machine 2 weeks ago

I wish this one had more details.

32points

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#21

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories Had a cough that was keeping my bunk mates up at night (military) and one of them demanded I go to sick call. I did and the LT said I would stop coughing when I wanted to and it was all in my head. I went back and told her what they said. She said to wait until after hours sick call (civilians) and go again. I did. It was pneumonia.

Ready_Set_Go_123 , Gustavo Fring Report

Final score:

85points

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AtMostAFabulist 2 weeks ago

How is coughing all in your head?

29points

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#22

My left thumb was in constant pain, couldn't make a fist or grip a mug. Saw the nurse practitioner at our local place. She said it was just over-use, gave me a velcro wrist brace and told me to take ibruprofen.

A few months later, it got bad again, went to the urgent care at the same facility, saw another NP. She sent me for a hand XRay and said it was DeQuarvain's Tenosynovitis, basically inflammation of the tendons around the thumb joint, and told me to follow up with a hand specialist. She gave me a new wrist brace, with a thumb stabalizer, and that really seemed to help more.

Hand specialist, a week or so later, tells me there is literally nothing wrong, nothing he can see on the XRay to indicate DeQuarvain's. At worst, he said I have "maybe a little arthritis." He told me the brace should help if I want to keep wearing it, just don't over use it, take inbrofen. I wore the brace pretty regular when it got bad, tried to be mindful of it to avoid flare-ups, but it just sucked all the time lol.

Fast forward a year or more, I broke my left arm/wrist in 4 places, needed surgery to pin it all back together. The surgeon tells me, "I noticed from your XRay, it looks like you've got DeQuarvain's Tenosynovitis too. I can release that while I'm in there."

He did and my thumb has been fine ever since.

Not really a crazy story but so frustrating!

AmIonFire Report

Final score:

85points

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arthbach 2 weeks ago

It makes sense to take the surgical route 'while I'm in there'. DeQuarvain Tenosynovitis often responds well to physiotherapy. Let the flare up subside, use anti-inflammatory, heat/ice, let the area rest, and then gently begin the exercises. Slowly build up, and maintain the exercises. It really does help for most people. If it doesn't, then ask about surgery.

22points

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#23

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories My mom was misdiagnosed for 7 years with a chronic ear infection, 7 years, no tests on the fluid leaking out, 7 years, no ideas that maybe he was wrong, 7 years of him refusing to listen to my mom. It took a second opinion to find out it was a Cerebral spinal fluid leak behind her ear. She's lost all hearing on that side because it got so bad they had to use the bones in her ear to repair the leak

Edit: don't worry I've put gravel in his gas tank once a year for the last 4 years. If he doesn't leave town this year I'm going to just burn the damn thing.

namloocn , Karolina Kaboompics Report

Final score:

85points

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Huddo's sister 2 weeks ago

I had cerebral fluid leaking into my eye via an optic nerve pit (hole) on my retina. Thankfully it was picked up on the compulsory eye test when I started school. I had laser eye surgery to close it and that stopped meant my sight didn't get worse. If it wasn't picked up then, I probably would have gone blind.

30points

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#24

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories Being told that I'm too young to have the health issues that I legitimately have is so infuriating! I am 39 (40 tomorrow, Woop Woop!) and I just recently got my 'official' diagnosis for the arthritis that I've had since my early teens."

"I can't tell you how many doctors told me that I have all the symptoms of osteoarthritis, but that just couldn't be right because of my age. I finally got a referral to a rheumatologist who listened and now my insurance company is refusing to pay for the medication they prescribed."

"Last person I spoke with said I might have to get a second opinion due to my age. I swear, the more health issues you have, the harder it is to be taken seriously by medical professionals."

"The amount of times my very real symptoms to several different issues have been blamed on 'anxiety' should be illegal, I swear!

LalaThum , Thirdman Report

Final score:

84points

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Scotira 2 weeks ago (edited)

A friend of mine had excruciating abdominal pain for month couldn't keep food down up to the point where she dropped ~20kg and couldn't get her weight up bc the food didn't stay down. She had tons of examinations, went to several specialists, paid for an MRI (out of pocket bc the doc said there would nothing be found). No diagnose. The last doctor told her she had to see a psychiatrist for anxiety bc she was imagining the pain 🤬. In a last effort she insisted on a laparascopy. They operated on her for more than two hours. She has endomitriosis and her intestines were stuck together bc of the scar tissue from endo. Anxiety, sure, sure 🤬

52points

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#25

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories My dear friend was told for months it was long Covid. It was cancer, she died 6 months later.

evmeowmeow , Alex Green Report

Final score:

83points

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Scotira 2 weeks ago (edited)

This is THE ONE thing regarding the "handling" of the COVID pandemic that probably will get my blood to boil indefinitely. So many early stage cancer symptoms were (sometimes willfully) overlooked bc they were attributed to a COVID infection and the patients were not really looked at by doctors. "You don't have to come in, that's COVID. Just quarantine." We lost so many cancer patients because of that and it makes me so fracking mad 🤬🤬. So many could have been saved in the early stages of cancer that now are terminally ill. And oc none will take responsability for that and none will investigate how high those numbers are. 🤬 Edit: and no, not only in the US but everywhere (in my case Switzerland)! How do I know? Bc I treat cancer patients and that is what I deal with every day.

73points

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#26

My husband was diagnosed with ‘substance abuse disorder’ when his spinal cord in his neck was literally crushed and he was nearly paralyzed. He wasn’t even prescribed narcotics. He just asked for an MRI. He went on to need an 8 hour neurosurgery.

ScaredVacation33 Report

Final score:

81points

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Beth Wheeler 2 weeks ago

YIKES!!! That is super scary.

24points

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#27

“You’re a d**g seeker”

Nah, just ovarian torsion 🤷🏻‍♀️.

thisisallme Report

Final score:

75points

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Momma Jess 2 weeks ago

Years ago a nurse my sister worked with on a Med/Surg floor was having severe pain suddenly and could barely move, and they took her down to ER. She then overheard the on call doctor complaining about the patient being a d**g seeker, and she ripped him up one side and down the other so fast his head was spinning. She hurt her back helping patients, just to have a doctor not want to help a patient, and she let him have it.

58points

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#28

Deployed on an aircraft carrier and a guy in my squadron said his arm was feeling weaker than the other so he went to medical and they said he just needed more electrolytes and gave him a gatoraid. The next day in port it had gotten so bad he went to the hospital in England and they told him he had had a stroke.

PooleBoy_Q Report

Final score:

75points

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Chewie Baron 2 weeks ago

Thumbs up for the NHS.

30points

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#29

I went to a GI when I was having severe abdominal pain that made me feel like I was having a heart attack, couldn’t breathe, just absolutely miserable."

"He didn’t want to do an ultrasound because he thought it was acid reflux. Turns out I had a gallstones."

"You have to advocate for yourself. Some doctors don’t listen.

Just_Dont88 Report

Final score:

73points

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Amanda Young 2 weeks ago

Ugh gallstones are the worst

24points

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#30

Diagnosed with depression and anxiety for decades, and at one point, bipolar. Just another female 80s baby with adhd (diagnosed at 40🤦‍♀️).

Solid_Preparation_89 Report

Final score:

72points

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Ariel Andersen 2 weeks ago

Unfortunately, lots of women with ADHD were misdiagnosed with bipolar or BPD

26points

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#31

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories Sent home 3 times after Xrays with a cracked C5 vertebrae. Treated like a d**g seeker. 3 months of excruciating pain before a neurosurgeon found it on an MRI. C4-C5 Fusion.

CLE-Mosh , Anna Shvets Report

Final score:

71points

POST

Sue User 2 weeks ago

See my comment above. Ex had surgery C4-C5 , spinal stenosis. After surgery, he had complications and pain. Went to ER and he was treated as a d**g seeker despite having a fresh 5 inch scar on his neck.

27points

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#32

I was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, social phobia, borderline personality disorder, and OCD before finding out it's autism.

olioleander Report

Final score:

71points

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Huddo's sister 2 weeks ago

The problem here is that the symptoms of these overlap a lot, so it's not an easy diagnosis to make, especially if you are female because it presents differently.

30points

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#33

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories When I was in the Marines & in combat training at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina, shortly after basic training, I started noticing a pain in one of my feet. I was in a class at the time and it progressively got worse as that class dragged on, and I mentioned it to a guy sitting next to me after he noticed me squirming around like I was uncomfortable. He happened to glance down and said, "Oh my god, dude...look at your foot." It was starting to swell so much that you could actually see it through the jungle boots I was wearing.

I went to a Corpsman (medic) to get it checked out and it was so swollen by then that they had to cut the boot off, and I guess because my foot had swelled up so much the skin broke, but the wounds from where the skin broke looked like a snake bite. So the initial diagnosis made by the medic, was that I had been bitten by a venomous snake.

This is like 45 minutes to an hour after I first noticed pain, so the whole time the humvee was taking me back to a hospital (we were out in the field at the time), which felt like an eternity even though it was racing at high speed on these dirt roads, I was thinking I was definitely going to die.

Fortunately at the hospital it was diagnosed as cellulitis (a bacterial infection), which can be potentially serious too, but it felt like good news compared to a venomous snake bite. I probably got it from a blister from one of the many humps (forced marches) we were doing, later getting exposed to swamp water.

Pixelated_Penguin808 , Pixabay Report

Final score:

68points

POST

FoxEcoLimaIndiaCharlieIndiAlfa 2 weeks ago

Cellulitis is far too common in boot camp. I was fortunate enough to not get any seriously painful blisters, or Cellulitis. Though so many Marines during boot camp, then combat training and MOS school had something. Don't get me wrong, I def got blisters and whatnot but I always treated them properly, with mole skin, frequent sock changes, I tried to keep them dry and from getting any worse. Most aren't used to wearing boots constantly and marching in different environments/climates. It can take your body some time to adjust.

16points

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#34

Got bit by a tick the size of a pin head. Started blistering in a weird way. Pretty sure it was Lyme's.

Went to urgent care. "we'll do a test for Lyme's to calm you down, but it's shingles" (I was 31. Not impossible but highly unlikely)

Lyme's test came back negative the same day the area around the bite mark started to form a bullseye.

Drove myself to the smaller ER further away. Nurse walks in. Sees me. Sits down and goes "so we'll wait for the doctor for the official diagnosis. But you're going to be in for a world of sucky antibiotics"

So yes it was Lyme's. I saw the tick and got it off me before it was able to spread over my entire body, allegedly. Remember folks! If you find a small tick on you, save it so they can test it for diseases!

Ciniya Report

Final score:

68points

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Brian Hawley 2 weeks ago

It’s Lyme disease, not Lyme’s. It’s named after Lyme in Connecticut, not a guy called Lyme.

17points

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#35

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories My, thankfully slow growing, brain cancer was 'pre-diabetes' and 'kid needs glasses'.

RickyTheRaccoon , cottonbro studio Report

Final score:

68points

POST

Hey! 2 weeks ago

Wow, there's a whole lot of difference between the three.

14points

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#36

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories Not sure if this counts, but… No one caught the deep vein thrombosis in my right calf, despite a couple of Doppler scans, and having passed out at work. Doctor said it was cellulitis. Doctor even admitted me to the hospital and put me on heavy duty antibiotics the next day. While in the hospital, started having chest pains and my heart pounded just walking to the bathroom. They hooked me up and monitors my heart; nothing wrong. Hospitalist releases me the next morning, even though I know something is wrong. Get home, and I have to rest going up the flight of stairs at my house. Two days later, at my younger son’s soccer game, I pass out twice. Rushed to the ER — turns out I had two huge blood clots on my lungs (pulmonary emboli). Put me on mega clot-busting d***s and I stayed in the hospital for seven days. I have a genetic mutation that predisposes me to blood clots, and I was on birth control pills - perfect storm. Needless to say, I’m off birth control and on blood thinners forever.

piemom9397 , Towfiqu barbhuiya Report

Final score:

66points

POST

Elisabet Larsen 2 weeks ago

How can doctors keep overlooking L.E. in women on birth control? My doctor was convinced mine was cat allergy when I was 29. I had 3 clots in my lungs. Ended up a week in the hospital. I still have cats. And no issues 17 years later. No meds either.

35points

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#37

For years, doctors and teachers told me I was subconsciously faking sick because of was afraid of school. I had an immunodeficiency.

TheSilviShow Report

Final score:

65points

POST

agermanhome 2 weeks ago

...wheat? I said: I don't have celiac disease, it has been tested. She said I should try it anyway. I am 48 now, so this was 19 years ago . I have not had one Bronchitis during this time (okay, did have pneumonia once) and have 1-2 only colds per year, usually short and harmless.

6points

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#38

Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories I saw my doctor when I was 25 years old because my toes were numb.

Diagnosis: poorly fitting shoes.

Yeah, ok, I had super stinky feet so I always bought cheap shoes. Never heels. As I aged I sorted out the stinky feet (connected to psoriasis) and I started buying nice shoes but still, my toes never regained feeling. Ahh I guess I permanently damaged them.

Lost feeling my right hand a few years later. ER diagnosis was, and I quote what was said to me face after a physical exam and nothing else "well it's not a stroke *shrug* bodies are weird" I literally continued on with life with limited feeling/sensation in my toes and my dominant hand.

At 37, from my knees down would go numb when I was lying down to try to sleep. Weird. It got worse and spread up my legs so I went to my doc (different from years earlier).

Yeah, I had/have MS.

I guess no harm no foul for the original diagnoses since I'm not diabled, right?

dinosarahsaurus , Pavel Danilyuk Report

Final score:

64points

POST

Roxy222uk 2 weeks ago

Who are these f.u.c.k.i.n.g. awful doctors? Loss of feeling in a hand and the response is 'bodies are weird'???

42points

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#39

When I was younger from 7-10 I would get constant head aches. Ranging from usually pretty mild to excruciating pain. I was taken to the doctor multiple times and was told it was due to hitting the ball with my head too many times as I played soccer for 4 different teams and would have a practice or game at least every day sometimes 3 times a day. I remember one headache that felt like my brains was going to explode and my parents having trusted the doctors told me that I just had to suck it up. Around 5 years later I found out I had a kidney disease which caused me to have high blood pressure even if I ate what is normally recommended. And they explain that my headaches were caused to my untreated illness. That itself isn’t too scary, what’s scary is that about a year ago my brother who has the same disease goes to the hospital because of a headache which he described as “my brain is about to explode” and he was taken to the hospital where they found he had popped a blood vessel in his brain and needed immediate surgery or he would die. That could’ve been little 8 year old me.

Former_Hippo6799 Report

Final score:

63points

POST

Mere Cat 2 weeks ago

A child from 7-10 playing soccer for 4 teams, practice every day, sometimes 3?! Isn't that a bit too much for a little kid?

15points

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#40

My GP missed that I had a collapsed left lung and 2.3 litres of bloody fluid in that side of my chect cavity. No no, no Xray required. Fortunately the shoulder specialist got one done a few days later, and a flagon of that goop was drained out of me during the day. A week or two away from a heart attack in my sleep so they say.

Interesting-Ball-502 Report

Final score:

62points

POST

Bored - 2 weeks ago

How does a person trained specifically to diagnose people correctly miss a collapsed lung

16points

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#41

Back in 1998 A doctor wanted to wait 6 months for a breast biopsies . I insisted on one. Guess what? Stage 1 breast cancer.

ikesbutt Report

Final score:

62points

POST

Beth Wheeler 2 weeks ago

Never ever wait when they mention a biopsy or cyst aspiration. My 1st job in a hospital was in Mammo and when a 15 yo girl comes in that had already had a lumpectomy, if that doesn't scare the hell out of people and making women getting their mammogram done I don't know what will.

27points

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#42

Told at the ER it was a migraine. Was the first of three strokes. .

lowandslowinRR Report

Final score:

57points

POST

Steve Hall 2 weeks ago

I had a stroke, didn't feel anything. Went blind (temporarily), last all feeling in one side, but no pain at all.

12points

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#43

Oh hey, an ask I can actually contribute to!

I started to donate plasma as a teenager, and they generally do a screening test for various diseases to make sure your plasma is safe to use. Lo and behold, I got a positive result for something scary.

Or rather, 10-20 scary things. All at once. HIV, HPV, the entire hepatitis alphabet - their entire catalog of things they test for!! This as a girl who'd only ever kissed guys, and had never had blood transfusions.

I went straight to a doctor, got a ton of tests done, and I was obviously clean, but I can never donate plasma again because of that one, faulty test. Scary waiting for results anyways. Because like, what if?

LittleMissFirebright Report

Final score:

54points

POST

Huddo's sister 2 weeks ago

I hope there's not some poor guy whose test results they actually were and they went without diagnosis.

28points

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#44

My pediatrician told my mom I had flea bites. It was the chicken pox.

Good_Chair_8528 Report

Final score:

54points

POST

Roxy222uk 2 weeks ago

What???

12points

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#45

I was told for *years* that my breathlessness and palpitations were due to anxiety until I got refered to a specialist who diagnosed me with atrial fibrillation.

Mikon_Youji Report

Final score:

54points

POST

Jude Laskowski 1 week ago

I had the same symptoms and I kept thinking it was anxiety because of my boss who was making my life miserable. As I arrived at work one morning, our day nurse was already there. I almost passed out and she checked my vital signs and put me in a wheelchair and pushed me down the hall to the ER. It WAS Afib, and I spent 4 days in the hospital getting meds and was on a gurney going for a procedure when my doc noticed that I had spontaneously converted. I went home with meds and a follow up scheduled. I quit that job, and never had another problem.

5points

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#46

I was diagnosed with Bipolar II by a doc who spoke to me for maybe 5 minutes in an emergency room. I’d never had a manic or hypomanic episode in my life. They put me on lots and lots of d***s that really messed me up. It took almost a year to get correctly diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and CPTSD. And another year to wean off of all the meds and onto the new, correct ones.

la_metisse Report

Final score:

53points

POST

Xenia Harley 2 weeks ago

My cousin's husband ended up on a psych ward because he had terrible headaches and went to ER. Spent two days there, until finally diagnosed with meningitis! They could have killed him!

20points

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#47

My ex had a upper respiratory infection misdiagnosed as anxiety.

Bugaloon Report

Final score:

51points

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Beth Wheeler 2 weeks ago

How in the world did some idiot come up with anxiety for a URI?

16points

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#48

I had a GP claim the abdominal pain I had was because 4 months prior I had a few drinks at my friend's birthday. 2 years later diagnosed with Crohn's which has been incredibly difficult to manage.

zieaendaire Report

Final score:

50points

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Huddo's sister 2 weeks ago

Crohn's is a nightmare condition! I feel hard done by being Coeliac and on a Low FODMAP diet but Crohn's is way worse.

16points

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#49

I had a false positive on an AIDS test once. Two months in hell :D

I will never EVER test myself in a private lab ever again.

gerginborisov Report

Final score:

46points

POST

Roxy222uk 2 weeks ago (edited)

False positives are always a risk with clinical tests. Every test has a recognise rate of false positives.This can lead to unnecessary treatment (which always carries risks) and even thoughts of suicide. Having a clinical test therefore has a risk in itself, which is not often admitted to when we are being told we should have one, particularly the routine ones rather than those recommended because of symptoms. This isn't to say people shouldn't have routine clinical tests, but that they should have the information to make a informed choice.

16points

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#50

I had super dry itchy skin on my shins. My doctor said is was ringworm. It was in fact, just dry itchy skin.

loritree Report

Final score:

42points

POST

BookFanatic 2 weeks ago

Same. Except I was told the germs that made my legs itchy lived inside my nostrils. I'm still not sure how my parents listened to that with a straight face.

9points

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What do you think ?

Tabitha 2 weeks ago (edited)

I highly suspect the majority of those posting in this article are women. We get dismissed and ignored so much when we’re seeking relief from legitimate health issues, it is infuriating. I cannot tell you how many doctors I fired in my quest to find someone who would actually listen to me and try to help me. For years they told me the reason I had a hard time losing weight was because I ate too much and didn’t exercise enough, when I was actually practically starving myself and exercising til I nearly dropped. Turns out I have hypothyroidism, meaning I have an incredibly slow metabolism. I’m on the correct meds now, and have no problem maintaining a healthy weight while eating and exercising moderately and comfortably. I also have a sensitivity to gluten, which is why I had headaches and gastrointestinal issues for years, which I was told was just hormones. I got a correct diagnosis finally, went off gluten and now I feel so much better without painful headaches and stomach issues. I am sick and tired of women being ignored and written off as hormonal or lazy or hysterical or some other insult when we are actually needlessly suffering for years before a medical professional comes along who makes the effort to do their damned job, namely listen to their patients—-who better to tell you how they feel and where they hurt than the people in pain themselves?—-run the proper tests, and make their diagnoses after obtaining all the proper data?

59points

Sophia Athene 2 weeks ago

I know! I so f-ing know. Won't tell my story (too long) but yes I know and totally agree!

8points

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Charlotte A. 2 weeks ago

I had a gyn tell me PCOS doesn't give you cysts on your ovaries. So I wonder why it's short for poly-cystic ovary syndrome?

DaisyBee 2 weeks ago

I had one tell me that I couldn’t have PCOS because my periods were regular and I wasn’t hairy

Marno C. 2 weeks ago

Yeah! I got the "You're not hairy enough for PCOS." Dunno, maybe it is due to my massive estrogen load, partly from being fat? I have hypothyroidism too, which doesn't help. But it took yeeeeaaarrrs to get diagnosed (despite being sexually active, infertile, and having no period whatsoever). Was told that the infertility and no menstrual cycle was from being fat, and I should try not being fat. (PCOS makes you very, very resistant to weight loss). When I faithfully complied with every diet and reported my food intake, I was told that I must be a secret binge eater and perhaps I had been sexually abused at some point, didn't realize it, yet was sneakily overeating for psychological reasons. It was all pretty infuriating.

Elle Lian 2 weeks ago

What?! That’s crazy. That’s the one person that should absolutely know.

4points

In college, my best friend developed an open sore on her back, right in the scar she has from scoliosis surgery when she was fourteen. She went to the university health services and was told she probably hurt herself by falling down after drinking too much. One visit to a real doctor later and my poor bestie learns she has a massive infection surrounding the rods in her back and eating into her spine. Emergency surgery, and intravenous antibiotics for 6 weeks. Her dad's an attorney and he went after health services like a rabid shark.

Featherking 2 weeks ago

Good. Go get them, dad.

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Flu Or Fatal: People Are Sharing Their Wildest Misdiagnosis Stories

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