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[SQ the ΣΛ/IGMд]

I caught a severe cough from a friend and his room-mate that required me to go the doctor.  My friend was a premed student and thought it was whooping cough.  I told the doctor this and he said I had a severe case of bronchitis.  And since whooping cough is highly infections he could rule it out since there was not an outbreak on campus.  The next day my friend, who went to a different doctor and requested testing for whooping cough, came back positive for it.  Two days after my initial visit I scheduled a second visit to the same doctor I had initially visited.  This was the actual conversation.

Doctor "So is your cough getting worse?"
Me "No, but my friend I think I caught it from and who believed we have whooping cough requested testing and it came back positive."
Doctor "...oh shit..."

I then got tested (it sucks) but my states medical testing lab lost the results for two weeks.  When it finally came back it was too late for antibiotics to have any effect.  I had initial symptoms in October, and finally recovered in late May.  If you never had whooping cough, once you start coughing you can't stop until you throw up, or you run out of air.  I live in a very cold climate and walk to school (at the time about 2 miles) and during the peak of my illness the average high was probably around 20 degrees Fahrenheit.  When I left my house at 7 A.M. it was closer to 0 degrees.  When that cold air hit my lungs I would immediately start coughing and I would vomit up my breakfast. I soon stopped eating breakfast. Vaccinate your kids.
I should also add I was vaccinated for it, but the vaccine wears of in most people by their early 20's.  You can get a booster shot but by the time your an adult the vaccine is unlikely to kill you.  Although, it is highly contagious during the first few weeks.

FT font FY 
Subtly slipped in FTW!

[Karyn]

I've had some pretty good luck other than two incidences.  One of them was just a very young nurse that has serious issues sticking a needle in my vein to draw some blood.  It's the only time needles have made my physically ill.  I had to beg her to stop trying.  My veins roll and are very small, they apparently aren't all that easy to get into.

An other time, I was going in foe some exploratory stuffs, and they put one of those starter needles in so they could inject some stuff into me later.  I laid there for an hour and a half before they got me in to where they would actually inject me with something.  I informed the nurse that I though the needle may have come out of my vein.  I wasn't sure, but it sure felt wrong.  She told me to stop whining.  Anyone who knows me knows that physical pain does not cause me to whine.  Well she proceeded to shoot a pile of Demerol into my muscle, and it burned like crap.  I calmly said to her that I didn't think it went into my vein because it was burning rather bad.  She said to me "You are such a whiner!".  Well after 3 seconds of me not passing out, I informed them I was still extremely conscious, and please don't stick the camera up my ass just yet.  Then I rolled around and looked at the doctor and asked him to please try again.  He stuck me in the hand and got a good shot of Demerol in me  The last thing I said before I went under is "oh, yeah, now that feels real nice, just how its....."  Now I always ask for someone who has some experience to stick me in the vein, and warn them that I roll.

I think one of the issues is that the nurses get a lot of people in there that just like to complain, or don't have a high threshold for pain.  When you are actually feeling something serious, you need to make sure they know that you aren't just complaining., and ask them to do the tests you think they should do.  I haven't been in hospitals too much to know the general atmosphere, but when your every dy is wrought with aches, pains, and far more serious situations, I think you just get desensitized to the way people react to their pains.

[banyan]

I went in for a routine checkup about a year ago.  There was nothing wrong with me, it was just a checkup.  The doctor seemed annoyed that I had come in when there was nothing wrong with me.  He didn't talk to me or ask me any questions beyond yes or no type questions.  I had a few minor things I wanted to ask him about, but I felt like he was not receptive to anything like that.

My partner had a routine checkup the same day with a different doctor.  Her doctor was friendly and talked with her at length about her diet and exercise habits.  She didn't recommend any quack treatments or anything.  She had trained under Dr. Andrew Weil.

I realize it was an isolated incident and so on, but I can't help that it really reinforced the idea that traditional MD's don't really care about health and only see their job as treatment of illness.

[KarenX]

I think it reinforces the idea that male doctors are arrogant pricks and women are not!

[Karyn]

I went in for a routine checkup about a year ago.  There was nothing wrong with me, it was just a checkup.  The doctor seemed annoyed that I had come in when there was nothing wrong with me.  He didn't talk to me or ask me any questions beyond yes or no type questions.  I had a few minor things I wanted to ask him about, but I felt like he was not receptive to anything like that.

My partner had a routine checkup the same day with a different doctor.  Her doctor was friendly and talked with her at length about her diet and exercise habits.  She didn't recommend any quack treatments or anything.  She had trained under Dr. Andrew Weil.

I realize it was an isolated incident and so on, but I can't help that it really reinforced the idea that traditional MD's don't really care about health and only see their job as treatment of illness.

See, I've never had this problem, but I'm on several prescriptions that require me to show up every six months, mostly for no reason, IMHO.  I can understand why the rule is in place, but it seriously inconveniences me and other patients that actually need those time slots for real issues.

I think it reinforces the idea that male doctors are arrogant pricks and women are not!

HA HA HA HA!!  I only ever have female doctors.  Perhaps you are right :p

[Jim S]

Had one who asked me if I took multivitamins and then wanted to direct me to a website (NOT his website, he was quick to add!) where I could buy all sorts of vitamins and minerals.  Perhaps it wasn't his website, but it was clear he was profiting from it in some fashion.  He was more anxious to talk about it than whatever had brought me in to see him.  I forget what it was...sinus infection, maybe.  But I recall thinking that some people would take his approach to mean that multivitamins are the solution, not a round of antibiotics. 


I asked him how those vitamins there were any different than a One-A-Day Everything Except the Kitchen Sink Stresstab, or whatever it was I was taking at the time, and he couldn't even give me a good answer.

I never went back.  (And a few years later I stopped taking vitamins altogether once I learned that with a relatively healthy diet, vitamins were unnecessary for most people.)

[moj]

Every time I see this thread I think its about other people irrationally hating Maryland like I do.  Its a little disappointing.
  No good crazy doc story's yet. I was uninsured through most my injury's and had to just "walked off" broken ribs, nose, toes and hyper extended elbow. They where all at different times, if I had that all at once would need pain meds.

[Traveler]

I think it reinforces the idea that male doctors are arrogant pricks and women are not!

HA HA HA HA!!  I only ever have female doctors.  Perhaps you are right :p

Nope.  I had an appointment on Friday to go over the results of a blood test.  After 30 minutes I was the one who ended the conversation so I could get to my next appointment.  Every time I'm there he wants to go back over every complaint I've had in the last year to see if there have been any changes.

He suggested a treatment that sounded dubious to me.  But then he said the secret words, "randomized double blinded clinical study", and offered to look up the references for me.

[Karyn]

I think it reinforces the idea that male doctors are arrogant pricks and women are not!

HA HA HA HA!!  I only ever have female doctors.  Perhaps you are right :p

Nope.  I had an appointment on Friday to go over the results of a blood test.  After 30 minutes I was the one who ended the conversation so I could get to my next appointment.  Every time I'm there he wants to go back over every complaint I've had in the last year to see if there have been any changes.

He suggested a treatment that sounded dubious to me.  But then he said the secret words, "randomized double blinded clinical study", and offered to look up the references for me.

Now that's a good doctor.

[Traveler]

As long as we're going to rip on doctors, we should know what they are saying about us.  Check out Things I Learn From My Patients.

[Karyn]

As long as we're going to rip on doctors, we should know what they are saying about us.  Check out Things I Learn From My Patients.

#6 Never, ever leave flashlights, shampoo bottles, beer bottles or any long, circular object on the floor because someday you will fall on it and it will somehow, work its way up your rectum.

BWAAAHAHAHAHA... Classic!

edit:  these guys have way better stories than we do:

Well another professor of life came through last night and bestowed some wisdom on me which I'll share. No matter how annoyed you are at being incarcerated dont slash open your scrotum and shove razor blades up your urethra. Now I know, who among us hasn't thought wistfully of doing that but it turns out that it's not a good idea.

[Jim S]

That is one of the best threads ever, and I'm still on page 1.  I liked this observation:

The Law of Inverse Value: The less you contribute to society, the greater the trauma you can sustain with minimal to no physical sequelae, including falls from 3 stories, stabbings (chest, neck, head, slashings to the face), gunshot wounds (chest, neck, pelvis, leg, traumatic arrest (only to be killed 7 years later in a separate GSW incident)), and high speed MVC's, unrestrained, where multiple people in the other vehicle are killed.

[Karyn]

inoright??

I cant believe that many people stick that many crazy items in their rectum.  I'm' starting to feel out of place in thinking I'd like that to stay an exit only hole.

[Jim S]

Irony:

If you are a psych patient in need of hospitalization do not argue your point against staying by ripping the surgical lamp off the ceiling and threatening to electrocute yourself with the loose wires. We called the NYPD. The NYPD called the SWAT team. The SWAT team had to take down the guy using a tazer gun.

[Traveler]

That thread is the gift that keeps on giving.  It took me days to get through it a few years ago.  Now I'm trying to catch up with the last few years of posts.

Ex-spouse (SMOTE-Stupidest Man On The Earth) actually tasted the white powder in a can that washed up on the Jesrey shore in 1975. Landlord wnet beachcombing after a big storm and found a lrge, baked bean type can wothout labels, marks, or identification. Upon opening there was a clear plastic bag with white powedr in it. Stupid tasted it-3 times, mind you- and declared in his most authoritative voice that he did not know what it was. neither did I - but I had my suspicions (which proved to be very wrong)- and was not tasting the unknown white powder.
After pouring it all out on the table (which to this day I still do not understand the 'why' for that action) we all heard a metallic 'thunk'. Discovering the brass coin in the pile of we discovered the nature of the white powder.
The coin was from some north jersey crematorium.So- mystery solved. We knew what the powder was- just not who. Important lesson learned- do not taste anything- or anyone- if you don't know the origin.